How should you share plans and documents with subcontractors?

Give each job its own document area, grant subcontractors access to that job only, and remove it when the job closes. The alternative most builders default to, emailing links from one large shared drive, gives too much access to too many people for too long.

Two problems come from the shared-drive habit. The first is scope: a link intended to share one drawing frequently opens a folder containing pricing, margins, other clients and correspondence never meant for a subcontractor. The second is time, because links and access persist indefinitely, so trades who worked on a job in 2022 can typically still open it, including any who now work for a competitor.

Structuring by job solves both and has a third benefit that matters more day to day: version control. When each job has one location that is always current, the question of whether someone is building to the latest revision has a single answer. Work built to a superseded drawing is one of the more expensive mistakes in this industry, and it usually traces back to a drawing that was emailed once and revised twice afterwards.

Two practical notes. Use guest access for ongoing subcontractor relationships and expiring links for one-off documents, choosing by how long the relationship lasts. And put access removal on your job closeout checklist alongside the final invoice, because it is the step that never happens on its own and it takes about a minute. If you want your job documents structured properly, call 1800 456 567.