Uptick gives you the ability to assign contractors to any type of work, allowing them to add and resolve remarks, upload documents, perform assets, and more. This process will update your data simultaneously and track tasks throughout the process, which not only gives you better insights as to how your subcontracted work is going but also reduces double handling and cuts down your processing time and costs

Read this article to find out how to create or update a contractor with a login account to get them started.

For contractors to start using the contractor portal, you should consider giving them the following permissions in their selected security group:

'Can create asset' - so they can add assets to the property if required.

'Upload document' - so they can provide photos and visual proof of defects.

'Can add additional contractor contacts' - so they can add and assign their own technicians to the portal, given those technicians access to perform their assigned tasks. Read more below in the 'Contractors assigning their own technicians' section of this article.

All other functionality comes with the portal, so no need to add any more permissions other than the above.

You also have the option to turn on some controls which will force all your contractors to fill out all required forms, input their signature and/or fill out completion notes before completing the task. Simply go to Control Panel > Contractor Portal to switch any of these on.

If you are on Routines:

Step 1: Go to the Routines tab of the property you want to assign your contractors to and click manage routine services.

Step 2: Next to the routine, click actions > edit and add your contractor into the subcontractor field, then click save.

Option 1: On your Task list, you have a bulk edit function that allows you to bulk assign contractors to tasks. This will send the contractor one email per task assignment - this email is completely customisable, just ask the support staff.

Option 2: Individually View each task on your task list and clicking Assign Contractor. The popup that results from clicking this button allows you to do in-depth filtering of contractors to help find the right contractor for the job. This will also send the contractor one email per task assignment - this email is completely customisable, just ask the support staff.

Your task list is where all your subcontracted and non-subcontracted work will sit. For subcontracted tasks you have two filters on this page that can help you keep track of these tasks:
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Filter 1: Subcontracted - This filter allows you to choose Yes or No, if you want to see all your subcontracted tasks, you will apply Subcontracted = Yes.
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Filter 2: Subcontractor - When applied, this filter will allow you to choose a contractor, once you select a contractor, all that contractor's tasks will appear.
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A subcontracted task looks the same as every other task, except for the contractor's name and some extra buttons appearing near the access notes.

REMIND will send a reminder to the contractor, PORTAL will take you to contractor's restricted view of this task, CHANGE will allow you to change the contractor assigned to this task and CHAT will allow you to send messages back and forth with your contractor. The contractor will receive an email every time you send a message and either you will receive the email if you are assigned as the Office Assignee of this task or your company notifications email will if the contractor sends one back.

Notifications email is set up by your company and will generally be your company's service email.

What information contractors can see on a task:

Task ID, Name, Description, Scope of Works, Due date, Approval Limit, Contractor Notes and Property Address, Reference, Access Details, Service Requirements, Safety Requirements and Property contacts that are ticked as public.

Uploading documents for your contractors: If you would like to upload documents to tasks for your contractors to see, simply go to the Documents tab of each task, create a folder called subcontractor and upload any documents you'd like them to see here.

Contractors can also see any dynamic, digital forms that are attached to the task, as well as any action checklists you have set up to be checked off. They will need to complete these if they are ticked as being required. To read more about digital forms and checklist, visit here.

Contractors can also see the purchase order number and subtotal of any purchase orders that may be sent to that contractor on that task.

A task will remain in a READY status until the contractor has logged onto their portal and started processing the task. The task can move into the following statuses while your contractor processes the task:

Scheduled: Contractor has accepted the task and may have optionally added a scheduled for date. The scheduled date will appear in the Scheduled At column of your task list.

Rejected: Contractor has rejected this task and has added a reason why in the task timeline.

In Progress: Task is being worked on currently.

Revisit: Task has to be revisited. Optional notes have possibly been added to task timeline.

Contractor Review: Task has been completed by their technicians, final uploads just need to be completed by their office.

Office Review: Task has been finalised and completed by contractor and is ready to be completed by you.

Once in Office Review, at a minimum, your contractors will have left reports, invoices, signatures and other documents in the task's Documents tab. Staff will generally now manually update assets, create a service report and dispatch task from here.

If you've made an agreement for your contractors to update all assets on the task, then the Work tab of the task should also be filled with data i.e all service tasks should have a performed date, compliance result and remarks should be created, verified or resolved with photos attached if applicable. This updated data will now make it really easy to create quotes, service reports and invoices from this task which will cut out lots of office time.

Any notes or messages they have left will be in Contractor Notes on the task details page or in the Chat messages.

Check out our FAQ on setting a contractor authorisation limit.