Blog / Construction Operations

Subcontractor Prequalification Form That Scores Itself in Google Sheets

By Keyona Meeks, Founder, ReRev Labs · Oct 31, 2026 · 10 min read

The short answer: A prequalification form is a short list of questions a new subcontractor answers before you hand them work. You can run it as a Google Form. Each answer lands in a sheet, a scoring table gives each answer points, and a Review tab shows a score, a next step and a queue of subs nobody has looked at yet. The score only sorts the pile. A person decides who is qualified. This post tracks the answers. It does not tell you what your contract, your insurer or your state requires.

By the end of this post, you'll be able to:

• List the questions a small prequalification form can ask.
• Build the form and link it to a sheet.
• Paste in scoring formulas that tell you which subs to look at first.
• Name the checks a spreadsheet cannot do for you.

A sub you have never used wants to start Monday. You email a PDF. It comes back Thursday, half filled, with a certificate of insurance attached to a different email. Nobody remembers who was supposed to read it. The form is not the hard part. The hard part is that the answers arrive in a form you cannot sort.

I sell build work, so you should know I benefit if you hire help. The pieces below are free to copy, and most small offices can run them without us.

What is a subcontractor prequalification form?

It is the set of questions you ask a sub before you award them work. The goal is to collect the same facts from every sub, in the same format, so you can compare them and see what is missing. It is not a verdict. A form that says "Yes, we have a safety program" tells you what the sub said, not whether the program is any good.

When I searched "subcontractor prequalification form template" on October 30, 2026, page one was mostly form-builder template pages, insurance and software vendor pages, and a few contractor PDFs. Titles only. I did not review them, and I name none. A template gives you the questions. It does not give you a sheet that scores the answers and shows you who is waiting.

Which written rule can you read as an example?

Private jobs follow your contract and your own standards. Federal work has a written rule you can read for free, and it is a useful list of what a buyer can look at. FAR 9.104-1 says "To be determined responsible, a prospective contractor must-" and then lists, among others:

• "Have adequate financial resources to perform the contract, or the ability to obtain them"
• "Be able to comply with the required or proposed delivery or performance schedule"
• "Have a satisfactory performance record"
• "Have a satisfactory record of integrity and business ethics"
• "Have the necessary organization, experience, accounting and operational controls, and technical skills"
• "Have the necessary production, construction, and technical equipment and facilities"

Source: FAR 9.104-1, General standards, page showing FAC 2026-01, last updated 10/26/2026, checked October 30, 2026.

On subcontractors, FAR 9.104-4(a) says "Generally, prospective prime contractors are responsible for determining the responsibility of their prospective subcontractors." Source: FAR Subpart 9.1, Responsible Prospective Contractors, checked October 30, 2026. That is the federal rule for federal contracts. It is an example of how a written standard can read, not the rule for your job. Your contract, your state and your insurer set yours. Check with an attorney, insurer or safety professional if you are unsure.

What should the form ask?

Keep it short. Every extra question is one more reason a sub does not finish. A starter set:

1. Company name. Free text.
2. Trade. Free text or a short list.
3. Years in business. Multiple choice: 10 or more, 5 to 9, 2 to 4, Under 2.
4. Written safety program. Yes or No.
5. Insurance certificate ready. Yes or No.
6. References provided. Multiple choice: 3 or more, 1 to 2, None.

Those four scored questions map loosely to the standards above: experience, safety record, insurance and performance record. You can add others. Financial resources, equipment and schedule are the ones the federal list names that this starter set skips. Add them if they matter to you.

Two things to leave out of the form:

• Tax IDs, bank details and anything you would not want in a spreadsheet. Collect those through a channel built for them.
• File uploads. Google's help says "To answer this question, responders need to sign in to a Google Account," and many subs will not. Ask for a link to a certificate instead, or ask them to email it. Source: Google's help on file upload questions, checked October 30, 2026.

Use multiple choice for anything you plan to score. A free-text answer cannot be matched to points.

How do you build the form and link it to a sheet?

Build the form with the questions above. Then link it to a sheet. Google's help page gives the steps. In Google Forms: open your form, click Responses, then the Summary tab. At the top right, click More, then Select destination for responses. Choose Create a new spreadsheet or Select existing spreadsheet, then click Create or Select. Source: Google's help page on choosing where to save form responses, checked October 30, 2026.

The sheet gets one row per answer. The question titles become the column headers. Check that yours match what you typed, because the formulas below depend on it. The tab is usually called Form Responses 1. If yours has a different name, change it in the formulas.

How do you set up the scoring table?

Add a tab called Scoring. Put these headers in row 1: Question, Answer, Points, Hard stop?. Then one row per possible answer. This is an example. Change the points to match your own rules.

In cell F1 type Strong-fit threshold and in G1 type 7. A sub at or above that score and with no hard stops is marked ready for review.

The Question text must match the form's question titles exactly, and the Answer text must match the answer choices exactly. If you reword a question in the form, change it here too.

A hard stop is not a rejection. It is a flag that sends the sub to a person. A missing certificate might just mean it is in the mail.

What formulas score the answers?

Add a tab called Review. Put these headers in row 1: Company, Trade, Submitted, Score, Hard stops, Unmatched answers, Next step, Reviewer status, Notes. In row 2, put these formulas in columns A to G. Then copy row 2 down to row 201, so new responses appear without you doing anything.

A2: =IF('Form Responses 1'!B2="","",'Form Responses 1'!B2)
B2: =IF($A2="","",'Form Responses 1'!C2)
C2: =IF($A2="","",'Form Responses 1'!A2)
D2: =IF($A2="","",SUMPRODUCT(SUMIFS(Scoring!$C$2:$C$200,Scoring!$A$2:$A$200,'Form Responses 1'!$D$1:$G$1,Scoring!$B$2:$B$200,'Form Responses 1'!D2:G2)))
E2: =IF($A2="","",SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIFS(Scoring!$A$2:$A$200,'Form Responses 1'!$D$1:$G$1,Scoring!$B$2:$B$200,'Form Responses 1'!D2:G2,Scoring!$D$2:$D$200,"Yes")))
F2: =IF($A2="","",COLUMNS('Form Responses 1'!$D$1:$G$1)-SUMPRODUCT(COUNTIFS(Scoring!$A$2:$A$200,'Form Responses 1'!$D$1:$G$1,Scoring!$B$2:$B$200,'Form Responses 1'!D2:G2)))
G2: =IF($A2="","",IF(F2>0,"Check scoring table",IF(E2>0,"Check by hand",IF(D2>=Scoring!$G$1,"Ready for review","Hold"))))

What each one does:

• Score adds up the points for the four scored questions (columns D to G of the response sheet).
• Hard stops counts how many answers are marked as hard stops.
• Unmatched answers counts the scored questions whose answer is not in the scoring table. Without this column, a typo scores as zero and nobody sees it.
• Next step says Check scoring table, Check by hand, Ready for review or Hold. None of these is a rejection.

Columns H and I are for people. The reviewer types a status in H, such as Approved, Declined or Need more info, and a note in I. If you want a dropdown there, Google's help covers adding one.

One warning: row 2 of Review points at row 2 of the response sheet. Do not sort or delete rows in the response sheet, or the Review rows will no longer match the people.

How do you see who is waiting?

Add a tab called Queue and put this in A1:

=IFERROR(FILTER(Review!A2:I201,Review!A2:A201<>"",Review!H2:H201=""),"Nothing waiting")

It lists every sub with a company name and no reviewer status. When someone types a status in column H of Review, the row drops off the queue. I could not run this formula in my test environment, so test it on a copy. Google documents FILTER as a standard function. If it fails for you, put a filter on column H of Review and show blanks.

What should you check before you trust it?

I tested the scoring formulas in LibreOffice, not in Google Sheets, with five made-up subs: a strong one, a weak one with a hard stop, a missing certificate, a missing reference and one with a typo in an answer. The scores, hard stops, unmatched count and next steps came out as I expected, and the empty rows stayed blank. I did not run them in Google Sheets, and I did not run the form.

Test on a copy:

1. Submit three test responses to the form: one strong, one with "No" for the safety program, one with a missing reference.
2. Open Review. Check the score, hard stops and next step against the table.
3. Change one answer in the scoring table and check the score moves.
4. Type a status in column H and check the row leaves the queue.

Step 3 matters most. Google Sheets and LibreOffice can treat a range of criteria inside SUMIFS a little differently. If the scores come out as zero, tell your AI tool the formula and what you see, and ask it to adjust for Sheets.

What can a spreadsheet not do here?

• Verify anything. The form records what the sub said. A certificate on file is not coverage that meets your contract. Ask your insurer or broker what your policy and contract require.
• Judge safety. "Written safety program: Yes" is a claim. A safety professional can tell you what to look for.
• Decide who is qualified. The score is a sort order. A person decides.
• Know your legal duties. If you are a public owner, or your contract or state sets rules for how you choose subs, ask an attorney.
• Replace references. Call them.

Where does an LLM fit in this?

Not in the scoring. Points, hard stops and thresholds are rules, and rules are easier to inspect than a model. An LLM can help in one place: reading a free-text answer, such as a description of the sub's last three projects, and summarizing it for the reviewer. A person should read that summary next to the original answer. My stance: AI writes the code, plain automation runs it, and an LLM shows up only where the input is messy and a person checks the result. For where that line goes wrong, read why AI agents fail.

Where this has limits

• Tracking, not advice. This post records answers. It does not say what your contract, state or insurer requires. Check with an attorney, insurer or safety professional.
• The federal rule is an example. FAR 9.104-1 is one written standard for federal contracts, read on October 30, 2026. It can change.
• Formulas tested in LibreOffice only. Test on a copy in Google Sheets.
• The Queue formula is untested. See above.
• The scoring table is an example. The points and hard stops are mine. Set your own.
• Sorting the response sheet breaks the Review tab. Leave it alone.
• No vendor claims. I did not compare the form-builder and software pages that rank for this search.

If you want a hand with the workflow, see our AI-powered operations work or tell us about it on /letstalk. Bring the questions you ask today and the step that gets skipped. Do not send contracts, tax IDs, passwords or login details.

Frequently asked questions

What should a subcontractor prequalification form include?

Start with company name, trade, years in business, safety program, insurance and references. Add financial, equipment and schedule questions if they matter on your jobs. Keep it short enough that subs finish it.

Can Google Forms be used for subcontractor prequalification?

Yes, for collecting answers in one format. Link the form to a sheet and score the multiple-choice answers there. Do not collect tax IDs or bank details in it.

Does the score tell me if a sub is qualified?

No. It sorts the pile. A person reads the answers, checks the certificate and calls the references.

Why use hard stops instead of rejecting low scores?

A missing item may just be late. A hard stop sends the sub to a person who can ask.

Do I need to know how to code?

No. The form and sheet use built-in tools and formulas you paste. Test everything on a copy first.

Does this replace a software tool for prequalification?

For a small team collecting a handful of forms a month, it can cover the basics. Software may fit better if many people need to edit at once, or if an owner requires a specific system.

Read next: The subcontractor onboarding checklist picks up where prequalification ends: W-9s, COIs and licenses, collected without chasing.