Four people in hard hats and high-vis walking towards a building under construction

Why prequalify contractors?

Every contractor you engage becomes an extension of your business. If they turn up uninsured, unlicensed or without the right safety procedures, the legal, safety and reputational risk lands on you.

Prequalification is how you manage that risk up front. By assessing a contractor company’s business details, insurances, licences, safety systems and experience before engagement, you make sure only suitable, compliant contractors are approved to work on your sites.

New to prequalification? Read our essential guide to contractor prequalification.

Why manual prequalification breaks down

Chasing paperwork

Questionnaires go out by email, documents come back in pieces, and your team spends days following up on what’s missing.

Inconsistent assessments

Different people check different things. Without a standard process, a contractor can be approved at one site and rejected at another.

Scattered records

Insurances and licences end up in inboxes, shared drives and filing cabinets, making them hard to find during an audit or incident.

Delays to the start date

When approval drags on, work is held up, or contractors start before they’ve been properly assessed.

A tablet showing prequalification flows being configured in Altora's Contractor Management System
Prequalification flowElectrical contractors

1. Set your requirements once

Build prequalification flows in Altora’s Contractor Management System using configurable questionnaires and tailored compliance checklists. Ask for the business information, insurances, licences, certifications and WHS documents that matter to you, such as SWMS, JSAs and risk assessments.

Create different flows for different types of work, sites or clients, so every contractor is assessed against the same standard for the job they’ll actually do.

2. Invite contractors to apply online

Invite contractor companies by email. They get a secure link to their prequalification form, where they answer your questionnaire and upload supporting documents from any device.

There’s nothing to print, scan or post, and no spreadsheet to keep up to date. Every submission lands in one central system.

A tablet showing a contractor's online prequalification form in Altora
Prequalification submittedAdmins are notified straight away
A tablet showing an administrator verifying a contractor's prequalification documents in Altora
Insurance certificateResubmission requestedView

3. Review, verify and approve

You’re notified as soon as a contractor submits. Review their answers and documents, verify compliance against your criteria, and request resubmission of anything that’s missing, incorrect or out of date.

Once approved, the contractor company is added to your approved contractor register, with a full record of what they submitted kept on file for audits.

4. Onboard their workers

Prequalification is the first step, not the last. Approved companies are invited to the Company Access Portal, where they manage their own profile, invite workers and subcontractors, and complete the tasks you assign.

Pair it with Online Induction so workers complete the site and safety inductions for their role before they arrive, and with the Check-in System to confirm workers meet site requirements when they sign in.

A tablet showing a contractor company's dashboard in the Altora Company Access Portal, with outstanding compliance tasks and worker compliance status
Prequalification approvedInvite your workers

Keep contractors compliant after approval

A contractor that was compliant on day one won't stay that way by itself. Altora keeps prequalification records current for the life of the engagement.

Prequalification in practice

Built for industries that rely on contractors

Contractor prequalification is essential wherever high-risk work is carried out by third parties. Altora is used to prequalify contractors in construction, mining, manufacturing, renewable energy, transport and logistics and agriculture.

Need help deciding what to ask? Our guide to developing a contractor prequalification questionnaire covers the questions most organisations include.

Explore the Contractor Management System

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Frequently Asked Questions

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