Subs

Subs answers one question: what do I still owe the people working for me? You tag the line items someone else is doing, say what you agreed to pay them, record payments as they go out, and Jobkore keeps the running balance.

#Tagging Work to a Sub

You do not build a subcontract anywhere. You tag line items on the estimates and invoices you were already writing.

On any line item in the editor, alongside Add notes and Add image, there is Sub this out. Pick an existing sub or create one on the spot — a name is all it needs — then confirm what you are paying them. The line's own price is offered as the starting figure, which is usually close and occasionally exactly right.

Tag as many lines as you like. However many you tag, a sub carries one balance per project rather than a scatter of separate commitments.

That one-balance-per-project rule is why tagging a sub needs a project: one balance covers the estimate, its change orders and every invoice on that work, and there is nowhere to keep it until the project exists. Most documents are not part of a project, so the first time you tag a sub on one, the sheet asks you to name the job. Type a name, tap Done, and it is created with the document on it — you never leave the sheet, and everything you tag afterwards just works.

#Committed vs Provisional

Work on a sub's page is split in two:

• Committed — the document carrying that line has been sent or accepted. This is real money you owe.
• Provisional — the document is still a draft. You have tagged the work, but nothing has gone to the client yet.

The split exists so a folder of half-written estimates does not quietly inflate what you think you are on the hook for.

#Committed, Paid, Owed

Every sub carries three figures: Committed (what you agreed to pay), Paid (what has gone out), and Owed (the difference). A tagged line on a document shows the same three in a small badge, along with the sub's phone number, so you can call the person from the line item they are responsible for.

Owed is signed. Pay a sub more than you committed and it does not clamp at zero — it shows as Overpaid.

#The Subs List

Three tabs: Owed, Active, and Archived. Owed is the one you will live in — it filters to every sub with a non-zero balance, in either direction, and the count beside it is the real total rather than whatever fitted on the current page.

#The Sub Record

Creating a sub needs a name and nothing else. Everything below lives on their page and is optional — leave what you do not track blank and it will not show up.

• Trade — what they do. This is what tells two electricians apart when you are tagging a line.
• Contact, Phone, Email — the person you actually call, tap-to-call and tap-to-email from their page.
• Payment Terms — what you normally pay them on. Net 15, net 30, on completion.
• License # — their license number, if you keep it on file.
• Insurance Expires — when their certificate lapses. Jobkore warns you as the date approaches and again once it has passed. It is a flag, not a block: nothing stops you tagging work to a sub with lapsed paperwork, it just stops being a thing you find out afterwards.
• Notes — anything worth remembering. Only you see this.

#Payments and Files

Record a payment from the sub's page with an amount, date, method, and reference. Payments can be deleted — that is for a figure entered by mistake, and deleting one does not undo anything at your bank.

You can also attach files to a sub: their quote, their invoice, a photo of a receipt.

#Changing and Removing Work

The agreed cost can be corrected wherever it is shown — if you shook hands on a different number, change it.

Removing a tagged line clears what you committed for it and leaves any payments already recorded alone. If payments exist against that work, Jobkore asks you to delete those first, so a tidy-up cannot erase the record of money that actually moved.

If the line item a commitment came from is deleted from its document, the entry does not vanish. It is marked Source line removed and the commitment stands — adjust it to what you actually owe, or clear it yourself.

#Archiving and Deleting

A sub with no work and no payments on record is deleted outright — there is nothing to lose, and a sub added by a typo needs a way out. That works from the Archived tab too.

Any sub with history is archived instead. They drop out of your list and out of the picker; their record and payment history stay.

Archiving is blocked while the balance is non-zero — in either direction. You cannot file away someone you still owe, and you cannot file away someone who owes you a credit either. Settle it or correct the figure first.

#Your Subs Are Private

None of this reaches your client. The sub's name, trade, agreed amount, license number, insurance date and your notes are contractor-private by construction — the tag is stripped from the data that builds an estimate, an invoice, a PDF or a share link. It is not a setting you can get wrong; the field is simply never sent.

Your client sees the line item and its price. Who is doing the work, and what you are paying them, is yours.

#Hank, Import and Export

Hank can create a sub and tag work to one mid-conversation, and can read your sub list back to you. Tell him who is doing the electrical while he is building the estimate and he will write the line with a trade label and attach the sub privately.

Subs import and export as CSV, with columns for name, contact name, trade, email, phone, payment terms, license #, insurance expiry and notes. The importer is the same one clients and catalog items use, so you get the column-mapping step and duplicate skipping.

And at tax time, Sub Payment Totals in Reports gives you one row per sub with the total you paid them across whatever range you select.