Title: Subcontractor capacity: match crews to starts | Cercha
Description: Check subcontractor capacity against actual house starts. Confirm assigned crews, overlapping work, return visits, and release windows.
Canonical: https://cercha.pages.dev/guides/subcontractor-capacity/
# How to tell if a sub can handle your volume
Finding subcontractors
You need a sub to cover planned starts without stretching the assigned crew beyond its commitments. Review capacity by package, crew, and time window, then test the arrangement before adding volume.
## Show the sub the starts you need covered
Ask whether the sub can assign crews and support staff to your work during the agreed period. Include estimating, supervision, installation, required returns, and closeout. Judge capacity against your schedule, not the company's size.
Start with a schedule of the packages you expect to award. Identify locations, proposed release conditions, rough-in and finish phases, and any overlap. Distinguish confirmed starts from forecasts.
Ask the sub to review that schedule before discussing total volume. Give it the plan types and known variations. If dates are uncertain, show the possible windows and the event that will resolve them.
Do not promise the sub every house on your forecast. Label tentative work clearly. Ask which part the company is prepared to evaluate and which part it can commit to after your release conditions are met.
## Translate starts per month into crew commitments
For a production schedule, write your proposed starts per month, then show their actual release windows. Ask the sub how many starts it has already committed to during each month. Separate your houses from other customers' work without requesting their private terms.
For example, if you forecast four houses next month, list all four start windows. This is a planning example, not a production-rate benchmark.
Ask which crew and foreman cover each house. Add rough-in returns, finish visits, and punch work from earlier starts. Four starts spread across the month require a different discussion from four starts released together.
Record the number of committed starts, the number still tentative, and who can approve additional assignments. Ask which scope or readiness assumptions could change the count. If the crews cannot cover the overlaps, award fewer houses or change the sequence before adding work.
## Check assigned crews and other booked work
Ask for a crew plan for your proposed packages. Ask who leads each installation and who makes changes to the assignment. For repeated starts, discuss how the firm expects to move crews between sites.
Use the [reference questions](/guides/check-subcontractor-references/) to review comparable delivery history while keeping today's crew commitment as a separate check.
Use these questions to make the commitment specific:
- Which crews are you proposing for this program?
- What other awarded work uses those crews during our windows?
- Which starts can you confirm, and which remain forecasts?
- Who covers inspection returns and finish phases while new starts proceed?
- What changes if one site is not ready?
- Who can approve a recovery plan if a lead becomes unavailable?
Do not request another customer's confidential plans or terms. Ask when the crews are available without requesting another customer's project details.
Ask about estimating and management too. Confirm who handles revisions and answers the superintendent. Ask who handles changes while the owner is on tools or at another site.
## Check current staffing separately from company history
Years in business are background. They do not tell you which crew is assigned or what else the sub has booked. Ask for evidence of comparable work during a similar pattern of overlap.
An Available pill in Cercha does not identify the crew assigned to your houses, accepted dates, or committed starts per month. Ask the company to confirm those details for your program. Record its answer with a date and scope rather than copying the pill into an awarded-start field.
Connect that evidence to a builder reference. Ask how many packages overlapped on the referenced program if the reference can confirm it. Do not infer a production rate from a single finished-house photograph.
Keep the licensed scope separate as well. The [NC GC board FAQ](https://www.nclbgc.org/faq-contractors/) explains classification and project-value limitation.
Those limits define licensed work. They do not tell you how much work a crew can take. Ask the board about authorization and the company about staffing.
Bayfair's [published partner criteria](https://bayfair.com/tradepartner/) include following agreed timelines and scope. That offers one builder's example of a performance requirement. Define your own program's commitments and request evidence relevant to them.
## Include returns and inspection dependencies
Write the full cycle for each package. Include the first mobilization, required inspection response, later finish work, punch items, and agreed service. Ask how the sub will cover those visits while starting new houses.
Use the permit's actual requirements when defining the cycle. Raleigh's [residential guidance](https://raleighnc.gov/permits/services/residential-inspections) lists rough-in and final stages for plumbing, mechanical, and electrical work. Identify the applicable stages on your own permits and assign responsibility for readiness and return visits.
Ask what happens if the preceding trade delays several sites at once. Have the firm identify which commitments need rechecking. Confirm whether its original proposal assumed a smoother release pattern than your actual schedule.
Record the sub's proposed duration as an estimate. Record the scope and readiness assumptions behind it. Avoid turning that estimate into an industry-wide production rate or a guarantee for a different house type.
## Use a crew-and-package worksheet
Keep a working sheet for your own program and review it with the sub. Use real package identifiers and dates from your planning records. Leave unknown cells marked pending.
| Worksheet field | What to put in it |
| --- | --- |
| Package and location | The house or remodel assignment being considered |
| Release conditions | Preceding work, materials, and approvals required |
| Proposed crew lead | The person directing this assignment |
| Start window | Forecasted or confirmed, with the status stated |
| Work and return phases | Visits included in the proposed commitment |
| Overlap concern | Another commitment or delayed site affecting this window |
| Recovery contact | The person authorized to revise the crew plan |
| Next confirmation | The event or date when the commitment is checked again |
Check for crew assignments that overlap and return visits with nobody assigned. Ask the firm to revise the proposal where needed. Do not correct its staffing plan silently and assume it accepted the change.
Keep purchasing's forecast and the superintendent's ready-to-start list in agreement. If you award work earlier than a site is ready, state the remaining conditions. Tell the sub when a forecast becomes a confirmed request.
## Finish purchasing and field checks before awarding work
Lennar's [published purchasing role](https://careers.lennar.com/job/1863/purchasing_manager?change_lang=en) includes sourcing and onboarding trade partners with required insurance. It also includes quality and schedule audits, pricing, and scope review. This is one employer's workflow, not a universal purchasing rule.
Before awarding your program, have purchasing and the field team resolve these items:
- Match the contracting entity and applicable license evidence to the bid.
- Compare scope, exclusions, drawings, material responsibility, and pricing on the same basis.
- Confirm proposed starts per month against named crews, foreman coverage, other commitments, and return visits.
- Review comparable work and references for the same house type and overlap pattern.
- Have the responsible insurance reviewer resolve required evidence and project-specific coverage questions.
- Confirm payment, change, notice, and closeout terms with the people authorized to agree them.
- Complete tax onboarding and identify who can release the first house.
For insurance, [North Carolina's COI law](https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_58/GS_58-3-149.html) says a certificate cannot extend the referenced policy's coverage. Ask your licensed agent to resolve the project's requirements.
For tax onboarding, [IRS guidance](https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/forms-and-associated-taxes-for-independent-contractors) calls for W-9 after independent-contractor status is determined. Keep that review with your accountant and secure tax records.
Assign each open item to a person and set a decision date. Pause the award when a required check is incomplete. Keep the approved purchasing scope aligned with the superintendent's actual release conditions.
## Try one house before awarding a whole phase
For repeated new-home work, start with one representative house before offering a whole phase.
Choose a first assignment that represents the work you want to expand. Define its start conditions, scope, acceptance points, and required returns. Keep the first award manageable for both sides. Do not call a larger commitment a trial.
Explain what you want to learn. That might be foreman communication, a recurring technical detail, or response to the inspection sequence. Use the same written standards you intend for future packages.
At the first release, check that your side has met the agreed conditions. During the work, record questions and how they are resolved. Do not judge the sub against requirements you never gave it.
At closeout, compare planned and actual milestones. Identify whether changes came from the sub, the builder, materials, inspections, or revised scope. Discuss those facts with the firm before deciding what the first package demonstrates.
## Confirm crews again before adding houses
After the first job, ask what the next volume increase changes. Request an updated crew plan and identify any new lead, subcontracted step, or supervision arrangement. Recheck the evidence relevant to that change.
Increase assignments in a way you can observe and manage. Do not assume success on one package establishes readiness for every overlapping start. Agree when to reconfirm the crews against your schedule. Keep a backup for packages at risk.
If the firm cannot take the increased volume, narrow the award to what it can commit to. Record the boundary without treating a refusal as poor performance. Use the [backup bench guide](/guides/backup-subcontractor/) to cover the remaining scope.
Continue reviewing the forecast together when starts move. End each capacity discussion with a specific crew commitment and the next update. Keep that record with the job, not as a permanent label on the company.
Use [the subcontractor search process](/guides/find-subcontractors/) to place this check within the wider candidate search.
## Where Cercha fits
Cercha profiles show work examples and years of experience, while Search includes an availability pill. Use Messages to discuss the actual crews and start windows behind a potential assignment. Confirm production capacity directly before awarding volume. [Ask about the beta](/beta/).
Published 2026.10.14. Updated 2026.10.14.
[More guides: Find subcontractors]()
## Related guides
- [How to find good subcontractors: judge fit first]()
- [Questions to ask a subcontractor before you hire]()
- [How to line up a backup sub before you need one]()
- [How to check a subcontractor's references]()
## Build your connections
[Ask about the beta]()
## Sources
1. Bayfair. (n.d.). *Become a Trade Partner*. Retrieved October 14, 2026, from https://bayfair.com/tradepartner/
2. North Carolina Licensing Board for General Contractors. (n.d.). *FAQ for Contractors*. Retrieved October 14, 2026, from https://www.nclbgc.org/faq-contractors/
3. City of Raleigh. (2026, October 12). *Residential Inspections*. https://raleighnc.gov/permits/services/residential-inspections
4. Lennar. (2026, October 8). *Purchasing Manager*. https://careers.lennar.com/job/1863/purchasing_manager?change_lang=en
5. N.C. Gen. Stat. ยง 58-3-149. https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_58/GS_58-3-149.html
6. Internal Revenue Service. (n.d.). *Forms and associated taxes for independent contractors*. Retrieved October 14, 2026, from https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/forms-and-associated-taxes-for-independent-contractors