A subcontractor brief is ready to price when a competent firm that has never seen the property can return a firm price from it without ringing you once. That is the whole test. Format, length and software are detail. Most briefs fail for the same handful of reasons: the boundary of the work is vague, access is assumed rather than stated, quantities have no basis, or the programme exists only in your head. What follows is the job brief checklist to run before work goes out, written for operators - the contractor business that holds the client relationship and manages delivery through subcontractors and in-house operatives.
The three questions to ask before you press send
Read your own brief as if you were the firm pricing it, and answer three questions honestly.
- What am I responsible for, and where does it stop? If making good, waste removal or final decoration could plausibly belong to someone else, the boundary is not set.
- What do I bring, and when can I get in? Materials, plant, access equipment, welfare, keys, working hours.
- What is the risk I cannot see from here? Occupied property, unknown services, condition behind a finish, a date that cannot move.
If any answer is "I would have to ask you", the brief is not ready. A subcontractor who has to ask does one of two things: prices the uncertainty, which you pay for now, or guesses, which you pay for later as a variation and an argument about whether it was included.
The job brief checklist
Scope and boundary
Write the scope in the order the work actually happens, then write the exclusions underneath. Exclusions are what make a brief priceable, because they tell the reader where their price stops.
- The work itself, step by step, in trade language rather than the client's words.
- Explicit exclusions: making good, redecoration, flooring reinstatement, asbestos removal, scaffolding, temporary works.
- Who supplies materials, and whether "or equal approved" is acceptable or the specified product is fixed.
- Who takes the waste away, whether a skip is already on site, and who holds the permit.
- The trades either side of them, so they can see where their work is picked up.
Access and site conditions
Access is the single most common cause of an inflated price or an aborted visit.
- Full address with postcode, floor level, and lift or stairs.
- Occupied, tenanted, void or trading. Each one changes the working day.
- Who releases keys or meets them, and how much notice is needed.
- Permitted working hours, including any restriction on noisy work.
- Parking, permit zones, loading restrictions and the realistic distance from van to work face.
- Power, water and isolation points, and whether the supply is live.
- Welfare arrangements, and whether they are expected to provide their own.
Quantities, drawings and evidence
- Measured quantities where you have them - square metres, linear metres, unit counts - with the basis stated: taken off a drawing, measured on site, or estimated from photographs.
- Label estimates as estimates. A quantity with no basis is worse than no quantity, because it becomes the thing the argument is about.
- Photographs of every area, including the awkward corners people avoid photographing. Doorway shots hide the problem, not the cost.
- Known defects and existing condition, including anything you expect them to work around.
- The asbestos position for older building stock: survey available, survey being arranged, or not applicable under current rules. Do not leave this to be discovered on day one.
Programme and sequence
- Earliest start date and required completion date. A completion date with no start date is not a programme.
- Fixed dates that genuinely cannot move, such as a tenant move-in or a handover, separated from dates that are preferences.
- What must finish before them, and what follows on.
- Lead times you expect them to allow for on specified items.
- How and when you expect to be told about slippage.
Commercial, compliance and paperwork
- Pricing basis: fixed price, schedule of rates, or day rate with a cap. Say which.
- What the price must include: labour, materials, plant, access, waste, welfare.
- Payment terms, application or valuation dates, and any retention.
- CIS status and the VAT treatment that applies, including whether the domestic reverse charge for construction services is relevant to the engagement.
- The insurance cover you require, and that you will ask for the certificate.
- RAMS before work starts, and any permits such as hot works.
- Certification you need at the end, for example gas or electrical certificates under the relevant current scheme, and waste transfer documentation.
- The evidence pack you expect: photographs before, during and after, plus anything the client will be shown.
- One named contact, and a deadline for the quote.
Where briefs quietly fail
"Same as the last one at number 14" is not scope; the next property is never the same. A client email pasted straight into a brief describes symptoms, not work, and turning it into scope is your job rather than the subcontractor's. Quantities lifted from an old job, a completion date with no start, and a scope that changes after the quotes land all produce the same result: prices that are not comparable, and a delivery conversation that starts on the back foot.
Write the brief as stages, not one block
One long paragraph covering a whole refurbishment is hard to price and harder to manage. In Plan@Job you split a job into internal stages, each with its own scope, dates, status and costs, and each stage can be delivered by a subcontractor or by your own operatives on the same plan. Your client sees the overall agreed scope and price and the evidence you choose to share; internal stage costs and subcontractor identity stay internal to you. See how the project plan is structured.
Staging is a judgement, not an automatic calculation. The system holds the stages, dates and costs you set; deciding what must finish before what, and where the float is, remains yours.
Illustrative example, not a customer result. A void flat refurbishment is split into strip-out, first fix, plastering, second fix, decoration and final clean. Strip-out and plastering go to two different subcontractors, second fix stays in-house, and the decoration stage carries the fixed date because the tenancy starts the following Monday. Each subcontractor receives the stage that concerns them, with its own access notes and its own completion date, rather than a six-week programme they have to interpret.
What still needs a person
Software can hold a brief together and chase the gaps. It should not be making these calls for you:
- Deciding where the scope boundary sits and what you are willing to carry.
- Setting the price you will accept, and awarding the work. There is no automatic award.
- Judging whether a particular firm is right for a particular job.
- Handling the client conversation when a variation is needed.
On vetting, be deliberate rather than dogmatic. In supported workflows a subcontractor can price before checks are complete, so decide at which stage your checks and approval must be satisfied and say so in the brief. That is a policy you set, not a rule the tool imposes. Operators comparing how they run contractor management can also find peer discussion at Contractor Club, a community for UK contractors run by the same team.
Have the gaps found before the brief goes out
The practical difficulty is not knowing what belongs in a brief. It is catching the one missing item on a Thursday afternoon when six jobs are moving at once. Sophie Bennett, the AI Enquiries Coordinator, reviews existing job briefs for missing information and asks for the clarification, with a two-attempt handoff to a person if no answer comes back, so a brief does not sit half-finished. Daniel Reed, the AI Operations Manager, supports eligible sharing with your existing vetted network, follows up on outstanding quotes and proposed dates, and gives you a morning brief on what is waiting. Neither prices work, awards work, nor promises an outcome on your behalf.
If briefs going out incomplete is costing you re-quotes and awkward variation conversations, the next step is to see what Sophie checks and when she hands back to you, then set up your own job brief template around it. Operators new to Plan@Job can start at the UK contractors page.
FAQ
How long should a subcontractor brief be?
As long as it takes to answer the three questions above, and no longer. A single-visit repair might be six lines plus four photographs. A flat refurbishment stage might be a page. Length is not the measure; the measure is whether the reader can price it without contacting you.
Should I include my budget or target price in the brief?
It depends what you are buying. If you need a genuine market price for comparable quotes, leave it out. If the constraint is real and non-negotiable, say so plainly as a constraint rather than a hint, so firms can tell you early whether the work is deliverable at that level instead of pricing something narrower without telling you.
Do subcontractors have to be fully vetted before they can quote?
Not necessarily. Supported workflows allow a subcontractor to submit a price before every check is complete, which keeps pricing moving. What matters is that you decide the stage at which your checks, documents and approval must be satisfied, state that in the brief, and hold to it before anyone starts on site.