Trade Letting: How CATProjects Helps Main Contractors Save Hundreds of Hours Every Year
Ask any main contractor what eats up a lot of admin time on a project, and letting trades will usually be near the top of the list.
Inviting subcontractors to tender. Distributing drawings. Chasing pricing. Reviewing quotes. Preparing agreements. Getting contracts signed before work can even start.
Done manually, each of these steps takes time. Done badly, they create risk.
A missed drawing revision sent to a tenderer. A subcontract agreement that goes out with the wrong terms. A signed contract that never quite gets filed properly.
For Main Contractors across Australia and New Zealand, trade letting isn’t a small administrative task. It’s a process that touches every project, every trade package, every single job.
That’s why Construction Software (Asia Pacific) built the Trade Letting module into CATProjects, and why it’s one of the areas we believe we do better than any other construction software on the market.
What Trade Letting Actually Involves
Trade letting covers everything between deciding which subcontractors to invite and getting a signed subcontract agreement in place. That includes: –
- Inviting subcontractors to tender
- Distributing tender documents, drawings and revisions
- Notice to Tenderers
- Collecting subcontractor pricing and options
- Running pre-letting meetings
- Preparing subcontract agreements
- Getting contracts signed
- Setting contracts up ready for the first progress claim
On paper, that sounds straightforward. In practice, most of it is still done through a scattered mix of email chains, spreadsheets, shared drives and manual document tracking.
That’s where things start to go wrong.
Fast Setup Using your Preset Defaults
One of the biggest time drains in trade letting is starting from scratch on every single project. Rebuilding trade lists. Rewriting invitation emails. Issuing Notice to Tenderers. Recreating folder structures for every new tender.
CATProjects removes that repetition. Main Contractors can set up preset defaults for trades, invites and documents once, then reuse them project after project. Instead of spending hours preparing a new letting round, teams can have everything ready to go in minutes.
Tender Invitations that Look Professional
First impressions matter. CATProjects sends Tender Invitations using a branded, properly formatted email template, rather than a plain and generic message.
Subcontractors receive a clear, professional invitation, and your business presents consistently every time, regardless of who on the team is managing the trade letting process.
Document Distribution, Drawing Registers and Revision Management
Few things create more disputes on a construction project than confusion over which drawing revision a subcontractor priced or built from.
CATProjects handles document distribution for tenders as part of the same process, including drawing registers and revision management, so every subcontractor is working from the same, current information. This then flows through to the construction phase of a project.
This part of the service is free for subcontractors to use, which means there’s no barrier to getting them onto the platform and working from the right documents from day one. They can include their trade staff also, minimising the risk of working from superseded drawings during construction.
For Main Contractors, that removes one of the most common sources of costly rework and disagreement later in the project.
Getting Pricing Back Without the Chasing
Once tender invitations go out, the real work often becomes chasing and collecting responses.
Notices to Tenderers are automatically sent to all invited subcontractors for the nominated trades, keeping the process moving without someone manually emailing each one.
When pricing comes in, the Subcontractor Pricing Receipt captures pricing and options exactly as submitted by the subcontractor. If your business uses CATProjects for estimating, that pricing feeds straight into the estimate, rather than being retyped or copied across from a separate spreadsheet.
That single step alone removes a significant amount of manual data entry, and a significant amount of room for error.
Pre-Letting Minutes, Prepared for you
Before a subcontract is finalised, most main contractors run a pre-letting meeting to confirm scope, pricing and expectations with the successful subcontractor.
CATProjects includes a pre-letting minutes template, so the meeting record is consistent, properly documented and ready to reference later if a scope question comes up during the project.
Instead of someone drafting meeting notes from scratch after every letting round, the structure is already there.
Subcontract Agreements, Ready in Seconds
Preparing a subcontract agreement manually usually means pulling together templates, checking clauses, checking attachments and making sure the right project details are included every time.
CATProjects has subcontract agreement preparation ready to go in seconds, reducing the time between agreeing terms with a subcontractor and having a properly executed, electronically signed subcontract agreement in place.
Subcontract letting then sends the tender acceptance, supporting documents and contract together, rather than as several separate, disconnected steps.
Electronic Signing: Fast, Simple and Legally Compliant
Chasing physical signatures, or even scanned and emailed ones, slows everything down and creates its own paper trail problems.
CATProjects includes electronic signing of contracts, so subcontract agreements can be signed quickly online rather than printed, signed, scanned and returned.
This isn’t just about speed. Electronic signing is recognised under electronic transactions legislation in both Australia and New Zealand, so main contractors can rely on it to keep them properly and legally covered, without the delays of a manual, paper-based process.
Contract Set-Up, Ready for the First Progress Claim
Once a subcontract is signed, there’s still work to do before the subcontractor can lodge their first progress claim.
CATProjects handles contract set-up as part of the same workflow, so everything is ready to go rather than requiring a separate administrative step once the ink is dry.
Module admin covers the details that keep the whole process consistent across every project, including:
- Trades available for tender
- Default folders
- Close dates and extensions
- Subcontract agreement template
- Schedule 1 details
- Notice to Tenderers
- Cover letters and other standard templates
Because these settings are configured once, every letting round follows the same, reliable process, regardless of which project or team member is running it.
Why This Matters for Main Contractors
Trade letting isn’t a background task. It directly affects how quickly a project gets moving, how well subcontractors understand what’s expected of them, and how well protected your business is if something goes wrong later.
Combined with CATDocs, the Trade Letting module in CATProjects saves main contractors hundreds of hours every year, while keeping the process intuitive, fast and contractually sound.
Rather than treating trade letting as an unavoidable administrative burden, CATProjects turns it into one of the most efficient parts of running a project.
The Manual Alternative, and What it’s Really Costing you
Many main contractors don’t set out to run trade letting manually. It’s simply how the process has always worked, built up over years of emails, spreadsheets and shared drives. The trouble is that approach doesn’t scale.
Every new project means rebuilding trade lists from memory or from last time’s spreadsheet. Every tender round means manually tracking who’s been invited, who’s responded, and who still needs chasing. Every drawing revision means checking who has the latest version and who might still be pricing from a superseded one.
None of these steps is especially difficult on their own. Together, across hundreds or even thousands of trade packages a year, they add up to a significant amount of lost time, and a significant amount of risk.
A subcontractor who prices from an outdated drawing. A tender that goes out with the wrong close date. A signed agreement that can’t be found when a dispute arises months later.
These aren’t hypothetical problems. They’re the everyday reality for main contractors relying on manual trade letting, and they’re exactly what the Trade Letting module in CATProjects was built to remove.
How CATProjects Compares to Doing it Yourself
Put simply, the difference comes down to consistency. A manual process depends on whoever is running it that day remembering every step, every template and every subcontractor detail correctly.
CATProjects removes that dependency. The same preset defaults, the same branded invitations, the same document distribution and the same contract templates are used every time, regardless of who on the team is managing the letting round.
That consistency is what allows the Trade Letting module to save hundreds of hours a year rather than simply moving the same amount of admin work from a spreadsheet into a new piece of software.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is trade letting? Trade letting is the process of inviting subcontractors to tender, distributing documents, collecting pricing, and finalising a signed subcontract agreement before work begins on a trade package.
Is the Trade Letting module only useful for large main contractors? No. CATProjects is configurable for businesses of different sizes, so the Trade Letting module suits growing main contractors as well as larger, more established ones.
Do subcontractors have to pay to use the platform? No. Document distribution for tenders is free for subcontractors, making it easy to get them working from the same, current documents without adding cost or friction on their side.
Is electronic signing legally binding? Yes. Electronic signing through CATProjects is recognised under electronic transactions legislation in both Australia and New Zealand, giving main contractors a fast and legally compliant way to finalise subcontracts.
Can Trade Letting be used alongside estimating? Yes. Subcontractor pricing captured through the Trade Letting module can feed directly into CATProjects’ estimating tools, or it can be used as a standalone tool for progressive trade letting.
See What CATProjects Trade Letting Can Do for your Business
Letting trades shouldn’t mean hundreds of emails, scattered spreadsheets and chasing signatures.
With more than 25 years of experience supporting Australian and New Zealand main contractors and subcontractors, Construction Software (Asia Pacific) built the Trade Letting module in CATProjects to make the entire process faster, more consistent and properly compliant from start to finish.
If you’re ready to see how much time Trade Letting could save your business, contact the team at CATProjects today.
