Custom subcontractor contract app for construction
Appfront builds apps with which main contractors record and manage their subcontractors: the contract, payment terms, additional and reduced work, and the documents you must be able to show under the Dutch Wet ketenaansprakelijkheid (chain liability act). In the office and on site, on the same file.
What is a subcontractor contract app?
A subcontractor contract app keeps track of which party does which work, under which terms, at what price and with which payment agreements. It also stores the documents you need from every subcontractor: the Chamber of Commerce extract, the VCA certificate, the insurance and the details relating to the G-rekening (the Dutch construction payment account).
The trigger is almost always the same. The contracts sit in a folder on a network drive, an expired certificate is only noticed during an inspection, and the additional work agreed on site lives in a group chat. When a question about chain liability then comes up, the searching begins.
We build bespoke because contract structure differs from company to company. Do you work with UAV 2012 or UAV-GC 2005, do you pay in fixed instalments or on completion, and who may approve additional work and up to what amount? Those are your agreements, and the app should follow them, not the other way round.
Contract and terms
For each subcontractor, the work, pricing structure and applicable terms are recorded, with the signed contract in the same file.
Documents with validity periods
VCA, insurance, certificates and bank account details for the G-rekening, with expiry dates and an alert before they lapse.
Additional work and payment milestones
What is agreed on site is recorded in the file, with an approval step and a visible effect on the outstanding milestones.
How we build your subcontract contracts app
We start with the contracts you use now and the questions you need to be able to answer during an inspection. That shows what the app needs to record and what it can leave out.
Which terms you use, which pricing models occur and how the payment schedules run. We also look at contracts where things went wrong in the past, as they show what the app must enforce.
We record which documents you need per subcontractor and when they expire. That includes who receives an alert and what happens if a certificate has lapsed while the party is working on site.
Timesheets and attendance are recorded on site, often without a good connection. We build that part so it works offline and syncs later.
The file is of little value if the invoices sit somewhere else. We integrate with your financial and project administration and then take over management.
What a subcontract contracts app actually does
Which components you need depends on your size and on how many different parties are working on your projects at the same time.
Contract file
For each subcontractor: the contract, the attachments, the price agreement and the terms, linked to the project they belong to.
Document monitoring
Certificates and insurance with expiry dates, and an alert well before a document expires rather than after.
Man-day register
Who was on the construction site on which day, recorded on site, even without a connection.
Additional and reduced work
Recording a change from the site with a photo and explanation, with an approval step before it counts towards the final account.
Payment milestones
Which milestone has been reported as complete, which has been approved and which has been paid, including the part that runs through the G-rekening.
Overview per project
Which parties are on this project, what is still open and where there is a risk in the chain.
Who we build a subcontract contracts app for
The app is intended for companies that outsource most of their work and therefore depend on what their partners deliver.
Main contractors
You outsource most of the work and are liable for what happens in your chain. The file therefore needs to be complete without anyone chasing it every day.
Installation and finishing companies
You work as a subcontractor yourself and at the same time outsource parts of the work. The app has to handle both sides: what you deliver and what you require.
Property developers
You are the client and want insight into who is working in the chain, without taking over the contractor's administration yourself.
Companies with many changing partners
When the mix of parties changes per project, keeping valid documents on file is the biggest task. The monitoring is built around that.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
The app runs on phones and tablets and works on the construction site even without a connection. For contract management outside construction, we have a separate page on contract management software, and for the wider business operations of a contractor, see our contractor app. You can read more about our approach at custom software development.
For the office, covering contract management, payment statements and chain liability, there is our software for subcontract contracts.
Why Appfront for your subcontract contracts app?
Subcontractor administration rarely fails on the technology. It fails when the app asks more of someone on site than they are willing to fill in.
Built for the building site
Input fields that can be operated while wearing work gloves, and a screen that doesn't freeze when the connection drops.
Your terms, not a package's
Your contract types and approval limits are rebuilt as they are. You don't change your agreements just because the system prefers it another way.
Provable rather than probable
In an inspection, you can show who was on site and when, and which documents were valid at the time, without a reconstruction after the fact.
Security and privacy for a subcontractor contracts app
These files contain personal data of employees of other companies: names, attendance and, for the manpower register, sometimes identity details. We build with data minimisation: only what is needed for the legal obligation, with a retention period that matches, and access based on role and project.
Contracts and rates are commercially sensitive. Access is arranged per project, so a site manager on one project cannot view the contracts of another. Every change to a contract or deadline is logged, including who made it and when, so the history of a file can be traced.
Frequently asked questions about a subcontractor contracts app
Questions main contractors ask before getting started.
It keeps track, per subcontractor, of what work has been agreed, at what price and under which conditions, and stores the signed contract in the same file. It also monitors the documents you need from that party and records which payment milestones have been reported complete, approved and paid.
It does, because your paperwork is in order and you can show who worked on your site and when. The app stores the registration extract, VCA certificate, insurance and G-account details with an expiry date, and maintains the manpower register. We build the registration; assessing whether you meet your obligations remains with you and your adviser.
Yes. Attendance and additional work are stored locally on the device and sent on as soon as a connection is restored. This isn't a nice-to-have but a requirement: many construction sites have poor coverage, and an app that freezes there will stop being used within a week.
Yes, with photos and a description, linked to the contract they belong to. As standard, we build in an approval step with a threshold you set yourself: below a certain amount the site manager can give approval, and above it the item goes to the head office. That way, additional work doesn't end up in a group chat.
Yes. We record which conditions apply to each contract, including the consequences for deadlines, handover and liability as you agree them with your partners. We build what you use contractually; the legal choice of a set of conditions remains yours.
Yes. An approved instalment or an approved item of additional work should end up in your financial administration without anyone retyping it. We integrate with the package you use, based on what that package supports.
Yes, and that is common. The same structure works both ways: what you request from your partners and what you must supply to your client. That saves a second system and ensures your own certificates are monitored just as closely as those of others.
Getting your subcontractor files in order?
Tell us how you currently handle contracts and certificates and where it gets tense during an inspection. We'll help you look at it and show what an app would mean in your situation.