Contractors: your subbies, in one list

Most companies keep their subbies in a phone contact list, a spreadsheet, or their head. The Contractors page is that list, in the Hub: who they are, what trade they do, and whether you want them getting quote requests. Once someone's on the list and marked eligible, adding them to a request for quotes is one click instead of retyping their email every time.

Contractors is included on the Company plan. On Solo and Crew the page doesn't appear. An owner can upgrade any time under Settings → Billing.

Building the list

Open Contractors from the sidebar (under Clients) and fill in the row at the top:

• Business name: what you call them ("Jo's Plumbing").
• Contact name, email, phone: the email is the one that matters; it's where quote requests and their sign-in link go.
• Category: free text, your words. Type "Plumbers", "Sparkies", "Roofing", whatever you actually say. As you build the list, the categories you've already used come up as suggestions so you don't end up with "Plumbers" and "Plumbing" side by side.
• Eligible for quote requests: the switch that decides whether they show up when you're building a request for quotes. Being on the list isn't the same as being on the quote list; a supplier you keep for reference can sit there un-ticked.

The list groups itself by category, with anyone uncategorised at the bottom.

Changing and removing

Tick or untick eligible straight from the row; it saves as you click. Edit opens the whole record underneath the row (business name, contact name, email, phone, category and notes), so you can correct a phone number, move someone to a different category, or jot down "prefers texts" long after you added them. Clearing a field empties it.

Changing someone's email changes where future invitations go. It does not transfer previous requests or rename their supplier account. With the unified workspace enabled, the old account keeps its own history; the new address sees requests issued to it. For a staff handover within one supplier business, its owner should manage Supplier team membership. For an address correction, re-send open work to the corrected address.

Archive takes them off the list without touching history: any quote request you've already sent them stays exactly as it was, still comparable, still accepted-or-not. Archiving is the right button for "we don't use them any more"; there's no hard delete, on purpose.

Sending them a quote request

On a deal's Requests For Quotes tab, create a request from the estimate items you want priced, then open Contractors & send. The directory shows every eligible contractor with their trade and email. Search by name, email or trade, filter to a trade and select one or several people. Add contractor (or Add N contractors) adds the selection to your shortlist using their saved contact details. People already on the request are marked, even if you previously typed their email by hand.

The Contractor directory link opens the directory separately. Add or update your contacts there, then return and Refresh directory. Empty lists and loading errors include guidance or a retry button. Adding recipients never sends an email; review your shortlist and due window, then choose Send.

Typing an email in by hand still works exactly as before, for a one-off you don't want in the list.

One sign-in for staff and suppliers

Where the Supplier workspace is enabled, everyone uses the normal Sign in page. There is no separate contractor login. Use the email the company invited to quote. First-time users choose Create an account on that same portal. On the signup page, accept the terms and privacy policy, open the emailed link and press Continue. Invited suppliers can sign up even when new-company registrations are paused, without a paid subscription or company seat. Returning users sign in without a terms checkbox. Existing password and two-factor authentication settings still apply.

An issued quote invitation unlocks Supplier workspace in the sidebar and mobile navigation. Being added to a Contractors directory alone does not unlock it. Suppliers do not need a paid subscription, an internal company role or a paid staff seat.

If you also work inside a paying company, your normal company navigation stays available. Supplier workspace is another destination in the same signed-in account.

Old contractor bookmarks take you to this same sign-in flow. They no longer sign you in by themselves. An expired or already-used sign-in link offers a return to Sign in; request another link there or change the email you entered.

Pricing a request

Open Supplier workspace → To price. Requests are labelled with the requesting Company, job and package, with the nearest deadlines first. Search or filter by company; on a phone, expand Filter requests. Reset clears the filters.

The summary shows matching requests and requesting companies, with To price, History and All requests together above the list. Pricing uses two clear steps, Price scope and Review & send, with the quote total beside the prices on a wide screen and below them on a phone. Resizing does not clear your edits.

1. Choose Price request. Review the scope and any attached plans.
2. Enter unit prices, excluding tax, in the currency shown. Quantity × unit price gives each line total. A blank price means “not quoted”; zero means a free item.
3. Choose Save draft to continue later on any device. Drafts are shared with your supplier team. Leaving with unsaved prices asks first (Stay here or Leave page; reloading or closing the tab uses your browser's warning); a newer draft saved by another teammate is not silently overwritten.
4. Choose Review quote, check the line totals, quote total and notes, then Confirm and send quote. Sending is final. Supporting PDFs do not replace the per-item prices.
5. Back to requests returns to the same company/search filters.

If you cannot quote, Decline request asks for confirmation. For a closed request, contact the requesting company if you need a new invitation.

Quote history

History keeps your submitted, declined, expired, won, partially won and lost quotes. Open View quote to read the original scope, your prices and notes, submission date and the outcome for each item. “Awaiting decision” is not the same as “lost”.

For an inbox with many older invitations, history loads in small batches so sign-in stays responsive. If Bringing in your older requests appears, choose Load more history to continue. The counts include only requests loaded so far; a temporarily empty filtered list does not mean your older requests were deleted.

Your supplier-owned quote history remains if the requesting company archives the relationship, loses its RFQ subscription, closes or deletes its account. Those requests become read-only; other companies' requests are unaffected. Live attachments may no longer be available after their source company or request is deleted.

You never see a requesting company's internal estimate costs or another supplier's prices. Company staff cannot see your other customers or supplier workspace.

Your supplier team

The first invited inbox owns the supplier company. Open Supplier team to add each teammate's individual email. Tell them to use the normal Summit Hub sign-in page; there is no special login address to remember. Teammates share the company's requests and saved drafts, and submissions record which account sent them.

Owners can remove a teammate's supplier access without removing their other supplier or paying-company memberships. Teammates cannot manage membership themselves.

Ask requesting companies to send RFQs to your supplier company's original invitation email. Adding a teammate does not automatically merge requests separately addressed to that person's own inbox, or merge two different supplier businesses.

How directory changes affect suppliers

• Eligible for quote requests only controls new invitations. Unticking it does not hide existing requests or sign someone out.
• Archive ends write access to your requests, while leaving their quote history and other customers alone.
• Change email affects future invitations; it does not rename or merge a supplier company or transfer previously issued requests to someone else.
• Lose RFQ entitlement or close the company makes its requests read-only. Supplier sign-in and history remain available. Crew can issue RFQs even though the Contractors directory itself requires Company.

If the Supplier workspace has not been enabled yet, the older emailed per-request and quote-hub links continue to work. The unified workspace replaces that legacy experience when enabled.

Letting them upload their own estimate

Plenty of subbies quote out of their own software and don't want to retype it into a table. On the quote-request page there's now Your own estimate (optional): they upload the PDF (or whatever their system exports, up to 20 MB) and it comes back to you attached to their row on the Requests For Quotes tab, next to their status. Click the filename to open it.

They can do both: fill in the per-item prices *and* attach the PDF. The per-item prices are still what feeds the comparison table and the Accept prices writeback. The upload is the supporting document, not a replacement for the numbers. If they upload a revised version, it replaces the first one, and if they submit prices and *then* remember the PDF, the upload box is still on the page afterwards.

The upload box only appears where Contractors is included in your plan. Without it the box disappears from the quote-request page, along with the download link on your side.