How to print a GC prequal packet from the records your crew already signed
A general contractor's prequalification form asks for the same things every time: a written safety program, twelve months of training records, your certifications, your insurance, your EMR and three years of injury figures. Small subs lose days to it because the records live in six places. Tailboard prints them as one document, from what the crew already signed.
What a GC prequal actually asks for
The forms differ in layout and agree on substance. Whether it arrives as a PDF from the GC's office or as a portal like ISNetworld, Avetta or Highwire, it wants proof of four things.
| What they want to see | |
|---|---|
| A program | A written safety program, and evidence that it runs: meetings held, how often, on what. |
| Training | Twelve months of training records with who attended, and a register of current certifications. |
| Paper | Certificate of insurance, license, EMR letter, and the safety manual itself. |
| Numbers | Three years of OSHA 300A figures, hours worked, and the rates computed from them. |
A sub with a good record often cannot show it. The sign-in sheets are in the truck, the certifications are in a drawer, the 300A is at the accountant's, and the GC wanted it Friday.
What the packet contains
Ten numbered sections, built from the last twelve months of records the crew signed and the office filed. It is the same every time, so a GC who has seen one knows where to look in the next.
1. Safety meeting program
Your state's meeting rule and whether you are inside it, how many meetings were held, how many weeks had one, and the distinct topics covered.
2. Meeting log
Every closed meeting of the year: date, crew, who led it, the topic and its OSHA reference, how many signed, and the record code.
3. Job safety analyses
Each filed JSA with its job, location, hazards and steps, and the crew signatures under it.
4. Inspections
Walk-around, ladder, excavation and vehicle inspections filed in the period, with what failed.
5. Certification register
Every person against every certification you track, with what is current, what is near its date and what has lapsed.
6. Documents on file
Certificate of insurance, license, EMR letter and safety manual, with their expiration dates.
7. Injury and illness rates
The last three certified 300A summaries, one per year, with the rates a prequal form asks for. A year without a certified summary says so.
8. Corrective actions
Opened and closed over the period, and what is still open. An honest open list reads better to a GC than a blank one.
9. Safety committee
Who sits on it and when it met, with each meeting's record code.
10. Site-specific safety plans
The plans filed for named projects, with the GC, the address and the version.
How to print it
Open Records, then Prequal packet
The office opens the packet from the Records section. It is built the moment the page opens, from the live records, so it is never a week old.
Print, or save as PDF
One button. The phone or computer's own print dialog saves it as a PDF you attach to the GC's email, or prints it for the binder the superintendent still keeps.
Answers for a portal
ISNetworld, Avetta and Highwire ask questions rather than for a document. A second page lays out the answers in their order: meetings held, weeks with a meeting, topics, inspections filed, actions opened, committee meetings, roster, certifications, and the three years of 300A figures. Download it as a spreadsheet and work down it.
Or give the GC a link
A sub can add its prequal answers and its insurance certificate to the link it shares with a GC, so the GC's office opens the current figures itself and stops emailing for them.
Questions we get asked
Does the packet attach my insurance certificate and license?
No. It lists the documents you hold, with their expiration dates, so the GC sees what is current. You attach the certificate itself, because the carrier's PDF is the thing they want.
We never filed a 300A in Tailboard. What does the rates section say?
It says so. A year with no certified summary prints as a year with no certified summary. Nothing is estimated, because an invented rate on a prequal is worse than a blank.
The GC uses ISNetworld. Does this upload to it?
No. Tailboard gives you the answers a portal asks for, as a page and as a spreadsheet, and you type or paste them into the portal. Portals are built so that only the account holder can enter them.
Which tier prints the packet?
Company and Fleet. The certification register and the equipment units are Fleet features, and on Company the packet says plainly that those sections are not included rather than printing a shorter document quietly.
Can the GC open the records in the packet?
Every record in it carries a code. Anyone with the code can type it at tailboardsafety.com/verify and see that the record exists, when it was closed and who signed, without an account.
Why a GC trusts it
Every record in the packet carries a code.
A meeting, a JSA, an inspection or a committee meeting is closed on the phone and sealed. The packet prints each one's code, and anyone can type a code at tailboardsafety.com/verify and see that the record exists, when it was closed and who signed, with no account. A packet assembled from sealed records is a different document from a folder of scanned sign-in sheets.
The packet is on the Company tier at $89 a month and on Fleet. Crew members never need an account and never cost you anything; they tap their name and sign. How the rest of it works.
A prequalification packet reports your own records. Whether a particular general contractor or portal accepts it in place of its own forms is their decision, and Tailboard does not submit anything to a portal on your behalf.