Internal SOP · Team
The four checks a real person runs by hand before we approve a Texas contractor for membership and put the word "vetted" next to his name. For each check: where to look, and what counts as a pass.
The written steps below are current and complete. Screenshots get added to each step as they are captured; the words will not change.
Work top to bottom. Pass a contractor only when every check that applies to him is cleared. A check that does not apply (a Texas GC has no state license, a solo operator may carry no workers' comp) is a note with a reason, never a silent gap. What you found gets logged on the vetting form, which lives on the contractor's record and is the evidence file we pull if a homeowner ever complains.
Texas does not license general contractors, remodelers, or home builders at the state level. Only specific trades are state-licensed (electrical, plumbing, HVAC, irrigation, a few others). So the license check is a routing decision: find out what the contractor actually does, then check the license that trade requires. A general contractor or remodeler will have no state license, and that is normal and legal. Never turn a Texas GC away for lacking a license the state does not issue; his insurance, registration, and work history carry the weight instead.
Where to look: Texas Comptroller Franchise Tax Account Status Search, comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/franchise/account-status/search. Search the business name or their 11-digit Texas taxpayer number. Read the line Right to Transact Business in Texas. (Texas has no free SOS entity search; the paid one is SOSDirect at direct.sos.state.tx.us, about a dollar a lookup, only needed if the Comptroller search comes up empty.)
Pass: Right to Transact Business is Active. Forfeited is a fail until they fix it. A sole proprietor working under his own name may not show up as an entity at all; note it and lean on the other checks.
First find out what the contractor actually does, then check the matching source. If he does more than one (a GC who also holds an electrical license), check both.
Where to look, by trade:
Pass: the license or registration is Active and the class fits the work (HVAC Class A is unlimited, Class B is limited; electrical Master and Electrical Contractor are the top classes; plumbing Master Plumber and Plumbing Contractor can run jobs). For a no-license scope, "no state license required, city registration confirmed" is a pass. Screenshot the lookup for the form.
Where to look: no public database for general liability, so we request it. Get a current Certificate of Insurance (COI) from the contractor; it names the carrier, agent, policy number, limits, and dates. Verify by calling the agent on the COI, or by having us added as a certificate holder so the agent sends it to us directly. Workers' comp is optional in Texas; if he carries it you can confirm at TDI's TXCOMP "Locate Covered Employer," tdi.texas.gov/wc/txcomp.html.
Pass: a current general-liability COI on file, dates not expired, verified with the agent. Attach the COI to the form. Workers' comp: carried and confirmed, or noted as none (legal for a contractor with no employees).
Where to look: ask for at least three recent jobs (city, scope, roughly when, a homeowner reference for each) and call the references to confirm the job happened, finished, and they would use him again. Then corroborate one independent way so we are not relying only on names he picked: before-and-after photos with real locations, reviews that read back over time, or his permit history in the city portal (Fort Worth Accela and DallasNow both let you search permits pulled by a contractor, which is hard proof he did the work).
Pass: three real completed jobs, references reached, and at least one independent source corroborating.
A contractor passes when every check that applies to him is cleared and logged on his form. What we never pass: forfeited entity status, a missing or expired license on a trade that requires one, no liability insurance, or a work history that does not check out. Anything you are unsure about goes up the chain before he goes live, not after. This is why the form matters: "vetted" is only as good as the file behind it, and that file is what we stand on if a homeowner ever calls angry.
Build this as a form on the contractor's record in GHL (where the contractor already lives and where the VAs already work), one record per contractor. Most identity fields are already on his record from onboarding, so reference them, do not re-collect. Keep the fields to what is re-verifiable later plus the three uploads that are the actual evidence.
Header (auto or reference from the contractor record): business name, owner name, trade / scope, date vetted, vetted by.
Per-check fields:
Three upload slots (the evidence): COI (PDF); license or registration lookup (screenshot, dated); reference-call notes (and project photos if we have them).