Business Credit Report for Subcontractors Checking a General Contractor

The bid is accepted, the GC wants you mobilized next Monday, and the subcontract has pay-when-paid language and 10 percent retainage. You are about to order copper, schedule a crew and carry payroll for six weeks before the first check shows up. That is the moment to spend a few dollars finding out who you are really working for.

This guide is for electrical, HVAC, plumbing, drywall, roofing and other specialty trade subcontractors who want to pay for a credit or background check on a general contractor, and need to know which report actually answers the question.

Why a subcontract is a credit decision

A subcontractor finances the job. You buy materials on your own supplier account, pay your crew weekly and submit a pay application at the end of the month. The GC then waits on the owner, approves your pay app and pays you 30, 60 or sometimes 90 days later. Retainage can stay with the GC until the whole project closes out.

Add those together and a $180,000 subcontract can easily mean $60,000 or more of your money sitting in someone else's project at the worst point. A lender would never extend that kind of credit without a file. Most subs do it with a phone call and a handshake, then find out about a GC's payment habits when the second pay app goes quiet.

How do I check a general contractor's credit?

Check a general contractor's credit by pulling a business report on the exact legal entity named in the subcontract, then confirming its state registry standing, looking for public payment disputes and liens, and asking other subs about pay times. Bureau reports add trade payment data when the GC has a file. A domain based client check adds public records and member reports.

Start with the name on the contract, not the name on the truck. GCs often run separate LLCs per project or per region, and the entity that signs your subcontract may be newer and smaller than the brand you know. A clean report on the parent tells you little about a two-month-old project LLC.

Can a subcontractor run a credit check on a general contractor?

Yes. A subcontractor can buy a business credit report on a general contractor without asking permission, because commercial business reports are not consumer reports and do not need the company's consent. The GC is not notified. Avoid pulling a personal credit report on the GC's owner, which requires a permissible purpose under the FCRA.

The same applies to a company credit check on the GC through ClientVetter. It reads public records and member reports about the business, does not affect the GC's credit and is not an FCRA consumer report. Read our FCRA notice for what the report can and cannot be used for.

Which business credit report should a subcontractor buy?

The right report depends on what you need to learn. If the GC is a large regional firm with years of supplier history, a bureau report shows how it pays its suppliers. If it is a small or mid-size GC, the bureau file is often thin, and public records plus reports from other service providers carry more weight.

Prices for Dun and Bradstreet and Experian were taken from their US sites. Check the current list price and any renewal terms before you buy. If you are weighing the bureau route for every bid, our Dun and Bradstreet alternative comparison sets the products side by side.

How much does a business credit report cost?

A business credit report costs $59.95 to $69.95 from Experian and $139.99 to $189.99 from Dun and Bradstreet for one company. Equifax quotes reports on other companies through sales. A sub that bids with ten GCs a month would spend $600 to $1,900 on bureau reports, against $49 for a 25-check client screening plan.

That math changes how often you check. When each report costs as much as a crew lunch for the week, most subs only check the GC that already worries them. At under $2 a check, you can screen every GC you bid with, including the friendly one who has always paid, because owners change, project LLCs change and cash flow changes. The full breakdown is in our business credit report cost guide.

What if the general contractor has no business credit report?

If the general contractor has no business credit report, rely on public records and direct questions instead. Confirm the entity is active with the state, check for public lawsuits and recorded liens, ask who owns and funds the project, and ask two other subs about pay times. A missing file is a gap to fill, not a reason to say no.

Many small and mid-size GCs never build a bureau file because their suppliers do not report to the bureaus. A ClientVetter check still returns registry standing, domain age, website and mail records, public disputes, OFAC SDN and other sanctions screening, and any member non-payment reports with the evidence and the GC's reply. The business credit report page explains how that report differs from a bureau file.

What to ask the GC before you sign

A report tells you about the company. The subcontract and a few direct questions tell you about this job. Ask for these before you commit crews or materials.

• The prime contract payment terms, and how many days the GC has to pay you after the owner pays it.
• Who the owner is and how the project is funded, especially on private commercial work.
• Retainage percentage and when it is released, at substantial completion or at final close-out.
• Whether the subcontract uses pay-when-paid or pay-if-paid language, and what that means under your state's law.
• Payment bond details on public jobs, so you know where to make a claim if a pay app is missed.
• The GC's certificate of insurance and your additional insured status. If you are juggling dozens of these across jobs, software for tracking certificates of insurance keeps expirations from slipping.

Write the answers down next to the report. If the GC's story does not match what the public record shows, settle that before mobilization, when you still have leverage.

How do subcontractors protect themselves from non-payment?

Subcontractors protect themselves from non-payment by checking the GC before signing, negotiating a mobilization payment or tighter billing cycle when the evidence is weak, tracking preliminary notice and mechanics' lien deadlines from day one, and stopping work promptly when a pay app goes unpaid past terms. The check sets the terms. The deadlines protect the balance.

Lien and notice rights vary by state, and the deadlines are strict, so confirm them with your state's rules or your attorney at the start of each job rather than after a missed payment. Use the ClientVetter result to decide how much exposure you accept. A strong result may justify standard terms. A weak or unclear one is a reason to ask for a mobilization payment, bill every two weeks, or cap stored materials until the first pay app clears. The client payment risk page shows how the score maps to suggested payment terms.

Keep checking after the contract starts. GCs change hands, lose a big owner or start paying slower when cash tightens. Monitoring alerts tell you when something new shows up on a GC you are carrying a balance for, so you can adjust before the next pay app rather than after the last one. See how other trades set this up on the client checks for contractors page.

A five-minute check before each subcontract

• Enter the GC's website and confirm the legal entity matches the subcontract.
• Read the score, the band and the sourced reasons, not just the number.
• Open any member non-payment report and read the GC's reply.
• Buy a bureau report as well when the subcontract is large and the GC has a long supplier history.
• Set retainage, billing cycle and a mobilization payment to fit what you found.

Save the PDF with the bid file. If a payment dispute ever comes up, you have a record of what you knew when you signed and why you accepted the terms.