How to Subcontract on Public Projects: Find GCs, Quote Well and Get Paid

A subcontractor has two deadlines on a public job: the agency’s bid closing and the GC’s earlier cutoff for trade quotes. Miss the second one and your price may never reach the bid, even if the public portal still says the project is open.

I would find the estimator and ask for that cutoff before spending an afternoon on a takeoff. Then ask whether the GC still needs your trade, accepts your qualifications and will share its subcontract terms. Those answers decide whether the estimate deserves your time.

Bid Control by PorchRocket helps you trace public projects to likely bidders and past winners. From there, the work is personal: get on the right invitation list, send a scope the estimator can price around, and check how your company will collect payment. A large award alone tells you very little about the package available to your crew.

Your contract is with the prime

A public-project subcontractor contracts with a prime contractor for a defined package of work, while the prime remains responsible for its agreement with the public owner.

The SBA’s prime and subcontracting guidance describes this distinction. Your commercial relationship is with the company hiring you, even though the building or road belongs to a public agency.

That can make the first step manageable. A roofer can price and deliver the roof. An electrical contractor can focus on its system. The GC coordinates the full project, but the sub still needs to understand the requirements passed into its agreement.

Those requirements reach into the field. Wage rates and reporting may change your labor cost; material restrictions or limited site access may change how you schedule the work. Ask for the subcontract form and incorporated documents early. A two-page quote can become a much larger obligation when the subcontract incorporates the prime agreement, including conditions about work hours or reporting that never appeared on the drawing sheet you used for the takeoff. Read those pages.

Choose a package whose risk you understand. A familiar trade at an unfamiliar scale can still be too much work. Check the crew calendar first. Then name the supervisor and calculate the largest cash gap before chasing the opportunity.

The first government contract guide compares this entry point with small direct quotes and service contracts. Subcontracting can build profitable experience without requiring your company to coordinate every trade on the site.

Follow the records from plan holders to award

Start with the agency’s plan-holder list, but call the listed firms before counting them as prospects: downloading drawings does not mean a company will bid.

Each source answers a different question. Put the information into one project list rather than treating every company name as a confirmed buyer.

Public record	What you learn	Best next action
Plan-holder list	Who obtained or registered for documents	Identify the estimator and confirm bidding intent
Pre-bid sign-in sheet	Who attended the meeting or site visit	Ask which trade packages the firm needs
Bid tabulation	Who submitted prices and the reported amounts	Track the award decision and contact the relevant estimator
Award notice or board minutes	Who was selected and the reported value	Ask about open packages and future invitations
Prior awards for similar work	Which primes repeatedly win that buyer or scope	Make a targeted introduction with matching project evidence

TxDOT’s contract letting page shows this sequence. Start with its bidder lists. Then follow the bid tabulations through to the awarded or rejected projects. The same sequence exists in many local purchasing records, although the labels and availability vary.

For federal work, SBA points to SUBNet and directories of primes with subcontracting plans. Use those to identify a relevant company and its small-business contact, then confirm that a package fits your trade and geography.

Bid Control connects public projects with award history. Available bidder information helps you decide whom to call. Bid notices are reviewed before listing, so you have project documents and dates to start the conversation. Contact the estimator to confirm the package and quote deadline. Bring those instructions when asking the team for bid-preparation help.

Save the source and date beside each company. Check its status again before calling. A delay or rejection can make yesterday’s prospect list misleading. Give each firm a status. Keep likely bidders separate from confirmed bidders, then update the record after opening and award.

Which general contractors deserve my estimating time?

Give estimating time to GCs that buy your trade and offer terms you can carry; confirm they accept your qualifications before investing in a takeoff.

Choose the invitations most likely to become profitable work. Ask a few direct questions before doing the takeoff:

• Are you bidding this project as prime?
• Are you still accepting quotes for our trade?
• What is your internal quote deadline?
• Is prequalification required before our price can be used?
• Which scope gaps or alternates need attention?
• Can we review the subcontract and payment terms now?

Look for repeat activity with buyers you want to serve. PorchRocket’s Bid Control data (October 2026) records a median general construction award of $186,120 across 187 awards. Those are prime awards, not subcontract values. Use the history to identify active customers, then request the quantities and requirements for your trade package. A GC’s total award cannot tell you what it has allowed for your scope.

Ask other business contacts about their direct experience with the GC, and check the records available for the company. Ask which project the contact worked on. If there was a problem, find out how it was resolved before weighing that account against the contract in front of you.

Keep a simple GC scorecard based on your own interactions. Record the estimating history separately from delivery and collection, so a steady stream of invitations does not hide a poor payment record. Over time, that shows which relationships produce profitable work.

Respect commitments when quoting multiple primes. Review any exclusivity or teaming terms before sending the same scope elsewhere. Keep competitor prices and confidential discussions private. A reputation for reliable estimating is part of the service you sell.

Compare the trades inside the primes’ work too. Our records put the median electrical award at $120,018 across 136 awards and the roofing median at $168,591 across a smaller sample of 48. These figures describe separate public awards, not the trade budgets inside a GC’s contract. Use them to identify familiar kinds of work. Then read the subcontract documents to establish what you will sell, including the interfaces with other crews.

Get qualified before the takeoff

An established GC needs evidence that your crew can carry the package, including comparable projects and enough financial capacity to get through the billing cycle.

Ask for the qualification process before a live bid becomes urgent. Who reviews subcontractors? Ask that person for the document list and update schedule. Put the approval status beside the estimator’s contact in your GC list.

Prepare a concise company package:

• The scopes your crew performs and any work you regularly exclude.
• Service area, crew availability and normal project size.
• Relevant project sheets with your own scope and value.
• Current licensing and insurance information for review.
• Surety contact and bond discussion status where required.
• Named office and field contacts who can respond during estimating and delivery.

Use the GC’s secure submission process for financial documents or sensitive business information. A general capability email should help an estimator recognize your fit; the detailed qualification review belongs with the person authorized to handle it.

Describe capacity in crew numbers and dates. “We can staff one additional two-person service crew during this period” tells the estimator more than “We can handle any job.” Describe what is true today and the conditions needed for a larger commitment.

If the GC says your references do not cover a package of this size, ask whether a smaller scope would qualify or whether it needs evidence of the same kind of work under similar site restrictions. Get a named requirement. You might need a more comparable reference, revised insurance or a smaller initial package. Use the response to supply the missing qualification or choose a smaller package that starts the relationship.

Save the approval date with the accepted trade categories. Record any limits discussed. Before quoting a larger package, confirm whether another review is needed.

Bid Control’s award history helps you choose where this effort belongs. A GC that repeatedly wins nearby projects containing your trade is a strong target for qualification. Do the paperwork once with the right firms, then keep the relationship active through accurate quotes and dependable delivery.

A trade quote an estimator can carry

An estimator should be able to carry your number into the prime bid without guessing who owns an exclusion or whether you saw addendum 2.

Identify the project and agency by name, with the solicitation number beside them. Name your trade package and estimator contact. List the specifications you priced, then identify the drawing dates and every addendum included. That prevents two people from comparing prices based on different versions of the job.

Use this quote structure:

1. Base scope and price: Exactly what labor, material and equipment you included.
2. Quantities and boundaries: Areas, units, lengths, visits or systems covered.
3. Alternates and unit prices: Separately stated where the bid requests them.
4. Exclusions and interfaces: Items by others, such as blocking, power, patching or permits, where appropriate to the documents.
5. Schedule: Lead times, duration, working hours and mobilizations allowed in the price.
6. Commercial terms: Price validity, bond allowance and assumptions requiring agreement.
7. Qualifications: Relevant license, insurance and current certification information.

Make exclusions easy to find and resolve scope interfaces early so the GC can assemble a price covering the whole project. If your quote includes an allowed alternate, state exactly how it changes the base scope and total.

Here is an illustrative paving package: 1,200 square yards at $42 per square yard gives a $50,400 base price. A separate $3,600 striping alternate makes the package $54,000 if selected. Spell out the removal and base repair allowed in the price. Specify pavement thickness. Assign responsibility for traffic control and site preparation instead of leaving the GC to infer it. The arithmetic needs a defined scope behind it.

In our sample of 947 Texas general construction bids, the median posting-to-deadline window was 28 days; a quarter allowed 21 days or less. Your GC needs time inside that window to review trade numbers and resolve gaps. Ask for its cutoff instead of subtracting an arbitrary day from the public deadline. Put supplier quote expirations beside it so you know whether your price will hold through selection.

Send a short transmittal identifying the package and addenda. Confirm receipt. If the estimator asks whether your paving number includes repairing a soft base discovered after removal, answer against the allowance written in your quote and identify what would require a separate unit price before the GC carries your number. Remain available for clarification. If the number changes, issue a dated revision stating which earlier quote it replaces.

Use the government bid pricing guide to check cost coverage. A GC should be able to understand your number without guessing what you meant to include.

The obligations behind your two-page quote

The proposed subcontract may incorporate pages you have not seen, including prime-contract conditions that change labor costs or require recurring reports from your office.

Request the scope sections and general conditions. Get the project-specific requirements too. Read them with the proposed subcontract. Mark every requirement that costs labor or office time. Flag schedule restrictions separately.

Check the following where the project requires them:

• Wage determinations, worker classifications and certified payroll.
• Site orientation, background checks and access hours.
• Product approvals, domestic sourcing and substitution procedures.
• Insurance endorsements and any separate subcontract bond.
• Schedule milestones, coordination duties and delay provisions.
• Reporting, testing, inspections, warranties and closeout documents.

Assign a person to each recurring task before work starts. A small office can manage a reporting requirement more easily when it knows the format and deadline. Discovering it after several weeks of work creates unnecessary cleanup.

Read change-order procedures closely. Determine who can authorize additional work, how notice must be given and when pricing is due. When a superintendent requests added work while your crew is already on site, follow the notice procedure in the subcontract and get the direction to the person authorized to approve it before the office loses track of which labor belongs outside the base scope.

Resolve important commercial terms before signing, with contract-specific professional review for disputed legal language. Price the accepted obligations against the staff and cash available to perform them. Do that before signing.

Do DBE goals help subcontractors win public packages?

Yes, where the project recognizes your current certification and the work you will perform counts toward its participation requirements; certification alone does not secure a package.

DBE means Disadvantaged Business Enterprise in the U.S. Department of Transportation program. It is distinct from a city’s MBE program or an SBA small-business category. A credential only helps if the buyer recognizes that credential for the work being offered.

DOT’s final rule took effect September 25, 2026, following the removal of race- and sex-based presumptions in 2025. Individualized social and economic disadvantage determinations are central to the revised program.

The September 2026 FAQs tie contract goals and participation counting to completion of the Unified Certification Program’s required reevaluation. Resuming contract goals also requires the applicable new overall-goal process. Use the current solicitation and addenda to identify the participation requirements for the package you are quoting.

The October 7, 2026 snapshot of the DOT status directory listed California’s reevaluation complete, while North Carolina and Texas were listed incomplete. Even in a completed jurisdiction, verify the specific solicitation and current addenda.

Send the GC your current directory listing with the certified work categories marked. Describe the scope your company will perform. Ask which participation forms are required and their deadline, then make those documents part of the quote submission.

The GC still needs a trade contractor it can rely on. The certification does not resolve a scope gap or make an unprofitable quote worth accepting. Our small business certification guide compares the programs and shows how to match a relevant credential to buyers that recognize it.

When does a GC have to pay a public-project subcontractor?

Public-project subcontractor payment deadlines depend on the applicable law and contract, and many payment clocks begin when the prime receives money for your work.

These examples describe covered construction work and amounts properly due, with the laws’ withholding and dispute provisions still relevant.

Project type	Example payment rule	What to track
North Carolina public construction covered by G.S. 143-134.1	Prime pays the sub within seven days after receiving each periodic or final payment, based on completed work	Prime receipt date, approved scope and any written withholding issue
Florida local-government construction under section 218.735	Prime pays hired subs and suppliers within 10 days of receipt; a sub pays its lower tier within seven days of receipt	Which tier hired you and when it received the related funds
Federal construction using FAR 52.232-27	Required subcontract clause provides payment for satisfactory performance within seven days after prime receipt	Applicable flowdown clause, payment receipt and any required withholding notice

North Carolina’s statute excludes specified DOT contracts, and Florida’s provision covers local governmental entities. Identify the public owner and project type before choosing the rule for your payment calendar.

The federal clause also addresses interest and withholding notices. It requires payment terms to flow down to lower tiers. For a payment issue, begin with the contractor that owes your company and use the subcontract’s process, supported by your invoices and performance records.

Get the billing cutoff before mobilization. Ask the approval contact which backup documents must accompany each application. Submit the pay application with every required attachment on time and confirm it reached the correct person. Record submission and approval as separate dates. Do the same for the prime’s receipt of funds and your receipt.

If payment stalls, ask which step is holding it up. “The owner has not paid” and “your paperwork is incomplete” require different actions. Keep the invoices beside the records supporting them. Delivery tickets or written acceptance may answer a quantity dispute; correspondence may show that the office sent the requested correction days ago.

How much retainage should a subcontractor expect?

Retainage is money held from progress payments, and a subcontractor should price the cash impact using the applicable statute and the signed subcontract terms.

Record both amounts separately: what the public owner retains from the prime and what the GC retains from your company under the applicable law and subcontract.

Under the covered North Carolina statute, projects below $150,000 in total project cost cannot have retainage. For larger covered projects, the owner’s periodic-payment cap is 5%, with additional rules governing subcontract retainage and release. The total project cost matters, not just your package value.

For Florida local construction, subsection 8 generally caps owner retainage at 5%, with exceptions for contracts totaling $200,000 or less and conflicting federal requirements. It also requires timely pass-through of retainage attributable to subs when released. Check your subcontract’s retainage and release provisions alongside that owner-level rule.

Consider a hypothetical $100,000 subcontract with agreed 5% retainage where permitted. A $20,000 approved progress billing produces $19,000 before other adjustments, leaving $1,000 held. Over the full subcontract, $5,000 can remain unpaid until the release conditions are met.

If planned gross profit is $20,000, that held $5,000 equals a quarter of the planned gross profit. It is still earned contract money, but it is unavailable for payroll while held.

Carry that same illustrative job through five equal progress billings. At $20,000 of work billed each time and $16,000 in corresponding direct costs, the final cash picture looks like this:

Item	Per billing	Across five billings
Work billed	$20,000	$100,000
Retainage held at 5%	$1,000	$5,000
Cash received before other adjustments	$19,000	$95,000
Direct delivery costs	$16,000	$80,000
Cash contribution before retainage release	$3,000	$15,000

The job’s planned gross profit is $20,000, with $15,000 collected through the progress payments and $5,000 tied to retainage release. Put that release on the cash forecast so the next project’s material order uses money that will be available.

Ask the GC for its closeout list while the crew is still working. File inspection evidence as it arrives. Gather warranties and releases while the people who must supply them are still working on the project. If your trade can qualify for an earlier release under the governing terms, prepare the request as soon as the conditions are met, with the acceptance evidence attached and a record of when the GC received it. Calendar the follow-up. Getting the final $5,000 collected is part of earning the full return from the package.

Ask what acceptance your trade needs for retainage release. Does it depend on overall completion? Get the answer before forecasting that money as available cash. Put the documents and follow-up date on your closeout checklist. Finishing field work without finishing the payment paperwork leaves part of the job in someone else’s bank.

Do I need a bond, and what protects me if the GC does not pay?

A subcontractor may need its own bond if required by the GC, while the prime’s payment bond can provide a separate payment protection subject to its governing rules.

A performance bond and a payment bond have different purposes. The SBA’s bond guidance explains performance protection for completion and payment protection for suppliers and subcontractors. SBA also backs qualifying contract bonds through participating sureties.

Ask whether the GC requires a bond with the quote or after award. Send the proposed subcontract to your surety agent before committing. Include the scope and schedule for review. Include the bond cost in the correct part of the price.

Obtain a copy of the prime’s payment bond where one applies. Check the named principal and surety, then put the bond number in your job record. Keep it with the subcontract rather than trying to find it after a payment dispute begins.

The project and governing law determine whether your tier is covered. They also control the notice requirements and claim deadlines. Have the applicable claim process identified at the start. Put required notices and claim deadlines on the calendar and act within them while pursuing collection.

Track changes with the same care as base work. Save written directions beside the approved pricing. Daily records should show when the crew performed the work and support the quantity later billed. Organized evidence supports both routine collection and any payment claim.

Our bid, performance and payment bond guide explains the separate roles. For business planning, carry enough cash to perform the job without assuming that a disputed bond claim will quickly fund operations.

Save evidence of your own package

Your next buyer needs proof of what your company delivered, with a reference who can confirm it; the prime’s total award is not your project value.

At closeout, request a short project statement from the GC’s project manager. It should identify the public project, your scope, subcontract amount, performance dates and contact information. Save acceptance documents with inspection results. Include approved changes.

Be precise about role and value. A $70,000 electrical subcontract on a $4 million building gives you $70,000 of documented contract history, plus experience coordinating inside a larger public project. Name the systems installed and explain your responsibilities. State what the prime accepted.

CPARS guidance places federal assessments at the prime-contract level. Build your subcontract evidence with your own accepted work records and a reference from the prime who managed the package. Those documents give your company a project history it can use in future bids.

Use that evidence to pursue a slightly larger or more responsible package, then a direct opportunity you can support. Read the next solicitation’s rules about subcontract experience before estimating.

Reconcile the costs too. Compare quoted hours with field hours, expected billing with cash received and planned profit with the final result. A good reference from a package that consistently loses money should prompt a pricing change before you repeat it.

The government contract references guide provides a reusable project sheet. Pair it with a retained-profit goal so the company gains both credibility and the money to carry its next contract.

From bid opening to a signed subcontract

An apparent low GC has not yet hired your crew: wait for package selection and agreed terms before treating a public bid result as booked work.

Track the public result first. A bid tabulation tells you who submitted and the reported prices; the agency’s award process determines which prime receives the contract. Keep those stages separate in your opportunity list.

Ask the GC whether your scope remains under consideration and what decisions are outstanding. It may need clarification, supplier confirmation, alternates or an updated schedule. Respond with a dated written revision when something in your offer changes.

Compare the proposed subcontract with your quote line by line. Confirm drawings and addenda, included quantities, exclusions, unit rates, accepted alternates, mobilizations and completion requirements. Resolve a scope gap before it becomes a field argument.

Consider the illustrative $54,000 paving package described earlier. If the subcontract adds another mobilization requiring $2,000 of direct cost, the effect belongs in the scope and price discussion. Accepting the same total without accounting for that cost reduces the job’s planned contribution by $2,000.

Check the commercial details at the same time: billing cutoff, payment process, retainage, insurance, bond requirements and change authorization. Agree who receives notices and which documents must accompany payment requests.

Have the person responsible for field delivery review the final schedule and confirm the crew and equipment for the required window. Give the foreman dates that allow the production rates used in the estimate.

Once the agreement is ready, keep the signed scope and required start instruction with the job file. Give the foreman the accepted scope with the name of the person authorized to approve changes. Explain which field records the office needs for billing.

I would stop the handoff if the foreman and estimator disagree about the number of mobilizations. Settle that cost before the crew loads equipment, and record the accepted schedule in the job file.

Keep added work on the billing record

A foreman’s signed ticket can disappear between the truck and the office unless someone owns the weekly handoff into your change log and pay application.

Create a weekly routine with the foreman and office. Review completed quantities, labor hours, material deliveries, pending changes and the next pay-application cutoff. A short regular review catches work that has been performed but has not entered the billing record.

Use a change log with the date, instruction, scope, cost, authorization status and billing status. Keep signed tickets and written directions beside it. Follow the subcontract’s notice requirements rather than waiting until the final month to present a pile of extras.

For illustration, suppose three small approved changes add $1,200, $850 and $1,450 to a package. Together they are $3,500 of revenue. If the office overlooks them, the crew has still spent the associated labor and materials. Carry each amount forward from approval to invoice. Close the entry only when payment reaches your company.

Track payment in stages. “Billed” means the request was submitted. “Approved” means the required review cleared. “Paid by owner” and “received by your company” are separate events where that payment path applies. Recording the dates helps identify the reason for a delay.

Ask precise questions when an invoice stalls. Which document is missing? Which quantity is disputed? Who needs to approve the completed work? Resolve that issue with the person responsible. A repeated request for payment will not supply a missing inspection report.

Keep retainage in a separate column. When your scope is finished, submit the required closeout items and request release through the applicable process. Finish the administrative work while the project team still remembers your package.

Use collected payments to review future GC relationships. A firm that communicates clearly and pays according to the agreement can become a valuable repeat customer. Combine that record with job margin when deciding whose next invitation deserves your estimating time.

How many GCs should I build relationships with?

Build enough GC relationships to create a steady flow of suitable packages while keeping estimating and delivery commitments within the capacity of your office and crews.

Start with a small set of firms that repeatedly pursue your trade and area. Finish their qualification processes and learn how their estimators prefer quotes. Add firms when the work pattern justifies the effort.

Measure results by relationship. Track qualified invitations, quotes sent, packages awarded, final gross profit and payment experience. Use the record to decide which invitations merit another takeoff and which firms need a different scope or price from you.

Here is an estimating-budget example, with no assumed awards. One GC sends ten invitations requiring six estimating hours each. Another sends four suitable packages requiring five hours each. Before chasing all fourteen, compare the scopes and find out whether either firm has accepted your qualifications. An invitation is not a buying commitment, and more emails can mean more unpaid work.

Put an internal value on those hours to sharpen the decision. At an illustrative $75 per estimating hour, the first set of invitations consumes $4,500 of effort; the second consumes $1,500. Both amounts must be carried even if no package is awarded. The first bids are the slow ones while you learn each GC’s forms and build your company file. Record those hours separately from repeat estimates, then budget from your own results rather than assuming a win rate from public prime-bid counts.

Check delivery conflicts before sending multiple offers with the same proposed start, especially if one crew or a single piece of equipment is carrying the production assumption in every quote and another accepted job would make those promises impossible to meet. Maintain a live capacity sheet and update estimators when a commitment changes your availability. Reliability begins in the estimating office.

Use open Texas general-contracting bids and Texas paving bids to identify projects that may contain your package. Bid Control’s early signals and award records help you see the next relationship to develop before a bid deadline forces a rushed introduction.

Should I quote the same public project to several GCs?

Quote several qualified bidding GCs when the project rules and your agreements permit it, using a consistent scope and a separate record of each firm’s requirements.

Confirm the commercial arrangement first. Read any exclusivity or teaming agreement. Check confidentiality commitments too. Confirm the firm is bidding as prime and needs your package. Ask whether your qualifications have cleared review. Direct the estimate toward confirmed buyers for your work.

The main gain is making good estimating work serve more than one offer. Reuse the quantity takeoff and supplier quotes from the same drawing set. Adapt the submission to each GC’s requirements, especially where its schedule or commercial terms change your cost.

Consider an illustrative estimate that takes eight hours for the first GC, including the takeoff and quote. At an internal estimating value of $75 an hour, that is $600. If adapting the same package for each additional GC takes one hour, the effort looks like this:

GCs receiving suitable quotes	Total estimating hours	Internal effort at $75 per hour
One	8	$600
Two	9	$675
Three	10	$750

For the $54,000 paving package used earlier, assumed direct delivery costs of $43,200 leave $10,800 of gross profit. After the $750 estimating allowance, $10,050 remains toward other overhead and earnings. One takeoff has supported three qualified conversations for that package.

Keep the common scope clear: drawings, addenda, included quantities, materials, alternates and exclusions. Document any genuine differences between the offers. An extra mobilization costs money. So can a tighter work window or different insurance requirement. Price each changed obligation in the offer it affects.

Use a simple quote register with the GC, estimator, submission time, revision, validity date and stated start window. When an addendum changes your number, update every affected offer and confirm receipt. Protect each firm’s confidential information throughout the process.

After the public result, follow the selected prime and ask about the next step for your package. Keep the other estimators on the right future-invitation list. A professional response on a lost project can earn another invitation. Tell the estimator which future scopes fit your crew and when you will have capacity.

Bid Control helps identify previous winners alongside current public projects. Available bidder information gives you another starting point for introductions. Use the early signs to qualify with the right firms while there is time, then bring a ready trade package when their estimating window opens.

Bid Control for the next GC invitation

Bid Board helps you identify public projects and likely prime customers; Bid Builder adds form preparation, while Bid Team handles agreed bid paperwork with you.

Start with the part of the work that is costing your office time. If the problem is finding GCs pursuing your trade nearby, you need a better prospect list. If invitations already arrive but the forms sit untouched until the night before the quote cutoff, you need help preparing the response. The plans address different parts of that workload.

• Bid Board: find projects that contain your trade. Follow public work in your service area, with bid papers and addenda beside the due dates. General contracting bids can point to larger jobs with trade packages; paving opportunities narrow the search for pavement and site crews. Confirm the package with the estimator before starting the takeoff.
• Bid Board: qualify future GC customers. Use award history to identify firms working for nearby public buyers. Early signs from meeting minutes, budgets and capital plans give you reasons to make contact before an invitation arrives. The service watches 100,000+ public agencies and reviews bids before listing them. Available bidder information starts your research; your call establishes who is bidding and still needs your scope.
• Bid Builder: stop retyping the company file. Your Bid Passport holds your W-9 and insurance certificate alongside licenses, references and other company documents. Bid Builder uses that file to fill required forms and walks you through what the buyer requests. Keep GC-specific qualification requirements beside those documents so you can spot a missing attachment before sending the response.
• Bid Builder: get help when a requirement is unclear. Text a bid expert with the form or instruction that has stopped you. The plan also includes opening your first two bid-site accounts and access to past winning prices. Compare those prices only after checking scope: a prime award total does not reveal what another subcontractor charged for your package.
• Bid Team: agree who owns the paperwork. Rafael’s team helps pick the bids worth pursuing and prepares forms, addenda acknowledgments and other required paperwork on agreed dates, one bid at a time. You make the final call on your number, sign and send. For a trade quote, bring the GC’s internal cutoff and requested scope to the planning conversation, along with the agency’s deadline.

The first packet takes longer because the company file and registrations still need attention. On later bids, current documents and saved references remove some of that repeat work. Keep your own quote register alongside the public project record: estimator, accepted scope, revision date and next follow-up. Once you win work, invoice reminders help you follow collection through to payment.

Bring one project and the GC’s instructions to a 15-minute conversation with Rafael. Start with the unanswered question that could stop the quote: whether the package fits your crew, which forms are due, or how much time remains before the estimator closes the number.