CONTRACTOR GLOSSARY · FIELD & PAPERWORK
What is a Subcontractor?
A subcontractor performs a specialized portion of a project — electrical, plumbing, HVAC — under contract with the general contractor rather than the owner.
Subs are the trades: licensed specialists who contract with the GC to deliver their scope. The defining feature of the position is being one contractual step from the money. The owner pays the GC; the GC pays you — on the GC's timeline, subject to "pay-when-paid" clauses, requisition cycles, and retainage.
That's why the paperwork stack that protects subcontractors is different from what protects GCs: signed daily records (evidence independent of the GC's log), and per-GC receivable tracking (because your risk concentrates in whoever owes you across multiple jobs).
Common questions
What's the difference between a subcontractor and a general contractor?
The GC holds the prime contract with the owner and coordinates the whole project; a subcontractor contracts with the GC to deliver one specialized scope — and gets paid through the GC, not the owner.
Related terms
RevnuPros tracks the thing, not just the word
Permits to sign-off, T&M tags to signature, materials to billed through, retainage to released — built for subcontractors. Browse the full contractor glossary or the Massachusetts permit guide.
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