Subcontractor paperwork: agreements sent for signature, certificates read and filed
Six Make scenarios handle a builder's subcontractor paperwork: a master service agreement generated and sent for signature when a vendor signs up, the signed copy filed and linked, an expired agreement re-issued, and insurance certificates and W-9 forms taken from email or a form, filed in cloud storage and linked on the vendor's record.
Where this applies
Builders, general contractors and facilities firms that need every subcontractor's agreement, insurance certificate and tax form on file before work starts.
- scenarios across the paperwork
- 6
- document types: agreement, certificate, W-9
- 3
- agreement templates, chosen by a router
- 2
The problem
A builder cannot put a subcontractor on site without a signed agreement, a current certificate of insurance and a tax form. The documents arrive by email, by form and by e-signature, in different shapes, and a certificate left in an inbox is one nobody checks when it expires.
Filing alone is not enough. The useful version puts the facts (insurer, policy, expiry) on the vendor's record, so the record, not the inbox, says whether a vendor is covered.
What we built
An agreement on sign-up
When a vendor submits the onboarding form, the scenario reads the response and the vendor's record, and a router picks one of two agreement templates. It creates the document in the e-signature tool, waits for it to finish processing, because a document cannot be sent before then, sends it and records the status on the vendor.
The signed copy filed and linked
A second scenario watches for completed documents, finds the vendor, downloads the executed PDF, uploads it to cloud storage, creates a share link and writes the link and the signed status onto the vendor's record. A third re-issues the agreement when a vendor's agreement is flagged expired, with the same create, wait and send steps.
Certificates read by a model
A scheduled scenario watches the inbox for certificates of insurance. Each attachment is uploaded to OpenAI with a vector store, and an assistant extracts the insurer, policy and expiry. The vendor is matched in Airtable, the certificate is filed and linked, the compliance fields are updated and the email is moved out of the inbox, so the inbox works as a queue rather than an archive.
A second way in, and the W-9s
A webhook scenario takes certificates uploaded through a form, fetches the file and files it against the vendor. W-9 forms that arrive by email are matched to the vendor, filed, linked on the record and moved out of the inbox in the same way.
Stamping never undoes a send
The record updates that follow a send or an upload carry ignore handlers, so failing to stamp the record does not stop a document that has already gone out or been filed.
The outcome
Built in the first half of 2025. The agreement-on-sign-up scenario is switched on; the other five are switched off.
None of the six has a run in the period Make's history still holds, so this page describes the design rather than a volume.
Where it stops
Only the first step is switched on, so signed agreements are not filed back by this flow at present, and certificates and W-9s are not being read. The certificate reader uses an OpenAI assistant module that Make marks as deprecated, so it needs moving to a current module before it is switched back on. The expiry is stored, but nothing in these scenarios warns before a certificate lapses. The waits before sending are fixed pauses rather than checks.
Built with
- Make.com
- Airtable
- PandaDoc
- Dropbox
- Gmail
- OpenAI
Patterns used
- Wait for the document
- File, link, stamp
- AI extraction onto a record
- Inbox as a queue
Page copy drafted with AI assistance. Skofi is accountable for it. Editorial policy
Have something shaped like this?
If any part of the above resembles a problem you are living with, a short call is the fastest way to find out whether it is the same problem underneath.
What happens on the call
- 15 minutes, no deck
- We map the process on the call
- A written scope, or an honest no