What you'll learn:
How to create and invite a contractor to Uptick
How to resend a welcome email if the invitation expires
How to enable the Contractor App addon
How to edit contractor details and add contacts
How to manage subcontracted tasks
How to reply to contractor chats from the inbox
How to choose who is emailed about reschedules and chat messages
What you'll need
You will need the following permissions in your security group:
Can create and update Contractors
Can create, update and delete user accounts
Can create, update and delete portal accounts
Can see all tasks
Can update tasks
Learn more about permissions and security groups.
How to create and invite a contractor
Go to People > Contractors and click New Contractor.
Provide Company Name, Email, select Supplier and click Save Contractor.
On the contractor's profile, click Send Invitation.
The contractor will receive an email to set up their account, which is required to use the contractor portal.
Available fields on a contractor
Required (Company Name)
Company Name: The contractor's registered business name.
Recommended (Email, Supplier)
Email: Used for sending correspondence and notifications.
Supplier: Links the contractor to a supplier record, required for subcontracted purchase orders.
Optional (Active, Starred, Login Account, Category, Tags, Skill, Service Areas, Zones, Notes, Primary Contact, Contact Mobile, Contact BH, Contact AH, Address, E-mail CC)
How to resend a welcome email if the invitation has expired
If a contractor's welcome email invitation has expired, you can resend it by following these steps:
Go to People > Contractors and find the contractor.
Click the contractor's name to open their contractor profile.
Locate the Contractor Portal section on the profile.
Click on Authorized User.
Select Send Welcome Email.
This will send the contractor a new welcome email with a fresh link, allowing them to reset their password and access the Contractor Portal.
Note: Welcome email invitations expire after 3 days. If the contractor does not set up their account within this timeframe, you will need to resend the invitation using the steps above.
How to enable Contractor App Addon
Please review FAQs - Contractor App and Additional License Addons to learn about pricing and functionality differences between the Contractor Portal and Contractor App.
Once the primary contact is invited to the Contractor Portal and adds technicians to their team, those will appear on People > Users page when filtering for Contractor License.
Edit the user, tick Contractor App, then Save Account.
How to edit a contractor
Go to People > Contractors, find a contractor and click the contractor's name.
Click Update and change any details. Remember to press Save Contractor after updates.
To move the Contractor Portal login to a new primary contact, updating the Primary Contact name or email alone isn't enough — the existing Login Account stays linked to the old contact. Click the × next to the Login Account field, then click Save Contractor. The Contractor Portal section will then show as not invited, so you can click Send Invitation to invite the new primary contact.
How to add contacts to a contractor
Go to People > Contractors, find a contractor and click the contractor's name.
When a contractor adds a team member in the Contractor Portal, they will automatically appear in the Contacts tab on the Contractor:
Go to Contacts tab, click Create new item, provide the details and click Save Changes.
How to manage subcontracted tasks
Navigate to the Tasks page, add the Subcontracted filter and set it to Yes, or use the Subcontractor filter and select a contractor from the list. Then click View on the task.
In the Assignment section on the Task tab, click:
Change to assign a different contractor or unassign the current contractor.
Chat to send messages back and forth with the contractor. The contractor receives an email for each message sent.
Portal to open the task in the Contractor Portal.
Remind to send a reminder email to the contractor.
The task status indicates its progression:
Ready – The task has not been accepted by the contractor.
Rejected – Contractor has rejected this task and has added a reason why in the task timeline.
Scheduled – The contractor has accepted the task.
In Progress – Work is currently being carried out in the field.
Revisit – The task requires a revisit.
Contractor Review – Field work is completed and awaiting final review by the contractor's office, including attaching documents and reports.
Office Review – The contractor's office has finalised the task and returned it to your team for completion.
Review the Contractor Note, the Work tab of the task, then dispatch the task with reports, invoices and defect quotes.
How to reply to contractor chats from the inbox
Desk users can read and reply to subcontractor chats from the inbox, without opening each task.
In the inbox navigation, click Contractor chat. A badge beside it counts the chats awaiting a reply.
The list shows chats with a message in the last 7 days, newest first, with the contractor, the task and the last message. A dot marks a chat where the contractor sent the last message. If more than 2,000 chats match, only the most recent are listed. Open the task to read older chats.
Narrow the list with the Awaiting reply only checkbox (ticked when the window opens), the Assigned to dropdown (Assigned to me, Assigned to anyone or Assigned to no-one, based on the task's office assignee) or the search box for contractor, task or property.
Click a chat to read it, oldest message first, then type your reply. The contractor receives an email for each reply, the same as a reply sent from the task.
The header of an open chat shows when the task was created and when it is due. Click the task ref to open the task in a new tab.
A chat is read-only when the task now belongs to another contractor, or when the contractor has no email address or account.
How to choose who is emailed about reschedules and chat messages
Go to Control Panel > Tasks, open the Subcontracted tasks tab, make your changes and click Save.
Rescheduled task email: The address notified when a subcontractor changes the date of a task they have already accepted. Leave it blank to send no notification.
Chat message notifications: Who is emailed when a subcontractor sends a chat message on a task. Choose Email task office assignee, Chat notifications email or No emails. With Email task office assignee, the chat notifications email is used when the task has no office assignee.
Chat notifications email: The shared inbox for subcontractor chat messages. If it is blank, the general notifications email is used.
When a contractor moves the date of an accepted task, the portal asks for an optional reason. If the date changes, the reason is added to the task timeline as a Reschedule Note, and the Rescheduled task email receives the previous date, the new date and the reason. Confirming the same date, or changing only the technician, sends nothing.
Next steps
Now that you've set up and invited contractors, you can:
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