Signing subcontractor agreements online, without the back-and-forth
If you run projects with subcontractors, you know the drill. The work is agreed, the crew is keen to start, and the one thing standing between you and a clean paper trail is a signature you cannot seem to get. You send the agreement. Nothing. You send it again. Still nothing. The job starts anyway, unsigned, because the alternative is holding everything up.
That gap — work happening without a signed agreement in place — is where disputes over payment and scope are born. Signing a subcontractor agreement online closes it, if you do it in a way that actually fits how subbies work.
Why the back-and-forth happens
Subcontractors are not sitting at a desk. They are on site, in a van, on a ladder. Ask them to print an agreement, sign it, scan it and email it back and you have asked for four things that are genuinely awkward on a building site. So it slips.
Even most "e-signing" makes it worse. Create an account, verify an email, download an app, set a password — every extra step is another reason to deal with it later. And later, on a busy job, rarely comes.
The reason subbies do not sign is almost never the agreement. It is the friction around signing it.
How no-login mobile signing fixes it
The fix is to remove every step that is not signing. With Signet, you send a secure link. The subcontractor taps it, reads the agreement on their phone, and signs. No login, no app, no password.
That difference is not cosmetic. It is the difference between an agreement signed at the end of a phone call and one that drifts for a fortnight. A few things make it work on site:
- It opens on a phone — no laptop, no printer, no scanner.
- There is nothing to set up — no account to create before they can sign.
- It takes a minute — read, sign, done, while it is still in front of them.
When signing takes a minute instead of an afternoon, subbies actually do it — before the work starts, which is the only time it really protects you.
Protecting yourself with a provable record
Getting the signature is half the point. The other half is being able to prove it later, when a subcontractor disputes what was agreed or an invoice is questioned.
Every subcontractor agreement signed with Signet comes with a tamper-evident audit trail and a certificate of completion. That record shows the agreement was sent, opened, read and signed, each step time-stamped. If a dispute over payment or scope ever lands on your desk, you are not relying on memory or a chain of texts. You have a record anyone can independently verify.
This matters most in exactly the situations subcontracting throws up: a variation that was agreed verbally and later denied, a payment held back over work that was clearly in scope, a subbie who says they never saw the terms. A provable signing record settles those quickly.
Built for how construction actually works
Subcontractor agreements are one flavour of a wider need. If you are dealing with trades, site paperwork and service arrangements, it helps to use a tool that understands that world rather than a generic form.
We have put together guidance for exactly these cases. See how Signet works for construction, and how it handles service agreements more broadly — both built around getting the right people signed quickly, with a record that holds up.
The goal is simple. Stop chasing signatures, stop starting work unprotected, and stop losing arguments you should be winning. Get the subbie signed on their phone before the first tool comes out of the van.
Signet is in private beta, request early access and send your first sealed agreement free.