Share a job with a subcontractor

Send an outside company a link to one job. No login needed — they see the work, add photos and notes, and tell you when it's done.

When you bring in an outside company for part of a job — an electrician, a roofer, a drywall crew — you can share that one job with them through a link. They open it on their phone with no login and no account. They see where to go and what to do, add photos and notes, and tell you when they’re done. They don’t take a seat and they don’t become a user.

Who can share. Sharing a job hands its work to someone outside the company, so it needs Assign and reschedule other people's work: owners and admins always, and Office staff by default. Field techs and Billing can't share or change a share, but on a job they can open they see who's coming, read-only: see Subcontractors on this job. See Customizing access.

Your subcontractors

Keep the companies you work with under Settings → Subcontractors. Office staff, who have no Settings menu, open the same list from Manage subcontractors on a job’s Subcontractors card. You can also add one while you share a job.

Each subcontractor has:

Company — required.
Contact name — optional.
Email — optional, but needed to email them a link. Without one you copy the link and send it yourself. Two subcontractors can’t share an email address.
Phone — optional, a 10-digit number. The list shows it as a link you can tap to call, and Field techs and Billing on a job you share with them get a Call button for it. Lyteworkgo never texts it.

Deleting a subcontractor also turns off every link you shared with them. Anything they already added stays on the job.

Open the job. The Subcontractors card is under Crew.
Choose Share with a subcontractor. A page opens.
Who: search for the company, or choose New subcontractor to add one. If that company already has this job, the page says so and links to Open their share instead: each company has one share per job (see Send a new link).
When: leave it on Same as the job, or choose A different day or time (see below).
What to do: the scope, what to bring, anything they should know.
Getting in: gate or door codes, parking. It starts empty. Use the job’s site notes copies the job’s own site notes in, if you want them to see those.
Ask for: the person on your team they should ask for on site. It starts as the job’s lead, if the lead is still active on your team; choose someone else, or No one.
How to send:
- Email it to their address — we email them the job and the link; or
- I’ll send it myself — you copy the link and send it however you like.
Choose Share and email or Share and get link.

What you type is shown to them. What to do, Getting in and the Ask-for name appear on their job page exactly as you write them. What to do is also in the email, so it’s checked the way email templates are: it can’t carry offensive language, a scam or phishing message, or anything that speaks for Lyteworkgo. A gate, door, lockbox or alarm code in What to do (“Gate code: 4321”) is refused with a note to put it under Getting in instead: Getting in is shown on their job page only and is never emailed. A password or a card, bank or ID number in What to do is refused, and not pointed anywhere else. What to do can be up to 2,000 characters and Getting in up to 1,000. Ask for shows the person’s name only, never their phone number or email.

Their own day. By default they follow the job’s schedule: if you reschedule the job, their page moves with it. If they should come at another time, choose A different day or time, pick their day, and then:

Any time that day;
Arrive at a set time; or
Arrive within a window (from and to).

The page shows what they’ll be told, such as Tue, Oct 6 · Arrive 8:00–10:00 AM. Their day can’t be in the past. Cancelling the job, or its appointment, clears their own day so they follow the job again, and emails them that the job (or its day) is off: see If the job is off. If their day is on or after the day their link ends, the page warns you: Their link ends {date}, before their day. Send a new link nearer the time. You can still share.

Links are never sent by text message from Lyteworkgo.

A daily limit on emails. Your business can email up to 100 links to subcontractors in any 24 hours. Past that, the page asks you to copy the link and send it yourself; copying is never limited.

You can’t share a draft, or a job that is completed or cancelled (reopen it first).

The link is shown once. After you share, the page shows the link with a Copy button. If you emailed it, it says We’re emailing the link to their address. Choose Done to go back to the job. Once you leave that page the link can’t be shown again — we don’t keep a copy. If you lose it, open their share and choose Send a new link. Anyone who has the link can see the job’s address and what you wrote for them, so send it only to the company it’s for.

Share… from your phone. On phones, and on browsers that support it, the page also has a Share… button next to Copy. It opens your phone’s share sheet, so you can text the link or send it in a chat app yourself. It sends the job number and the link, nothing about your customer. Where your browser can’t do this, the button isn’t there; Copy always is. Lyteworkgo itself never texts the link.

One share per company per job. Each company has one share on a job, and one working link. To give them a new link, don’t share the job again: open their share and choose Send a new link. Different companies on one job each get their own share.

Send a new link

If a company lost their link, it expired, or you turned it off and want them back on the job, send them a new one:

On the job’s Subcontractors card, choose Open on their share.
Under Their link, choose Send a new link.
Choose how to send it: Email it to their address, or I’ll send it myself.
Confirm. The page shows the new link once, with Copy and Share…, just like after sharing.

Their current link stops working at once. Everything they added stays: their notes and photos, their report that the work is done (you won’t be notified a second time), and what you told them. The new link works for 90 days from now. Last opened on the card starts again at Not yet until they open the new link.

You can send a new link to a share that is active, expired or turned off; a share you’d turned off works again. The exception is a subcontractor you’ve deleted: their shares stay off, and the share’s page says so. Add them again to share the job. You can’t on a draft, or a job that is completed or cancelled (reopen it first). Emailing a new link counts toward the daily limit on emails; copying it doesn’t.

Changing what they’re told

On the job’s Subcontractors card, choose Open on a share. Change their day, What to do, Getting in or Ask for, then choose Save changes. Their page shows the change straight away. Their link stays the same, it still ends on the same day, and nothing is emailed — tell them yourself if the change matters. The link itself isn’t shown here: it can’t be shown again after you share. If someone else changed the share while you had it open (or the job’s appointment was cancelled), saving tells you so and shows the share as it is now; make your change again.

A revoked share, or a share on a completed or cancelled job, opens read-only: you can see what they were told, but not change it. A revoked share still offers Send a new link.

If the job is off

When a job is called off, we email every company whose link to it is still working, so they don’t turn up for nothing:

You cancel the job, or delete it before it’s completed or cancelled: they get “Job {number} at {address} is cancelled. You don’t need to go.” Deleting a job that’s already completed or cancelled sends nothing: they were told when you cancelled it, or the work is done.
You cancel the appointment: they get “The day for job {number} is off. The office will confirm a new day.” A company that already reported the work done isn’t emailed, and nothing is sent for a job that’s already completed or cancelled.

This happens whether or not you choose Notify client: that switch is only about your customer. The email doesn’t include their link and doesn’t mention one. A company with no email address on file can’t be emailed, so before you confirm (or, when you set the job’s status to Cancelled, under Cancellation notes before you save) we list each company: We’ll email ACME Electric, or Call Bolt Plumbing: no email on file, with their phone number when you’ve saved one. Call them yourself. The job’s History shows Cancellation emailed or Day-off notice emailed for each company we told.

When you give the job a new day, nothing is sent: tell them yourself, or open their share and choose Send a new link if they need one.

What the subcontractor sees

They see:

your business’s name and logo, and a Call button to your office phone;
When: their day and time, in one line, such as Tue, Oct 6 · Arrive 8:00–10:00 AM (or The office will confirm the day while there is no day);
Where: the address with Get directions, what you wrote under Getting in, and Ask for with the name you chose;
the job number and the job’s description;
What to do, as you wrote it (left out when you wrote nothing);
the notes and photos they added themselves.

They don’t see the items on the job (they’re the customer’s bill), your crew’s checklist, or how long the job is expected to take. They also don’t see the customer’s name, phone number or email, any price, cost, total or invoice, the names of anyone on your team other than the Ask-for name, anyone else’s notes and photos, or the job’s own site notes unless you copied them into Getting in.

They can add notes and photos, delete their own, and report the work done. What their page looks like: Your job link.

The job’s links

The Subcontractors card lists every link shared on the job, newest first:

the company, and whether the link is Active, Revoked or Expired;
when they’re told to come, in the same words their page uses;
when it was shared and by whom, and when you last sent them a new link, if you have;
when it expires, or when and by whom it was revoked;
when they last opened it (Not yet until they do);
Reported done, with the time, once they’ve told you they’re finished;
Open, to see or change what they’re told.

If you gave a company its own day and it isn’t the job’s day, the card says so, for example ACME Electric’s day: Tue, Oct 6 · Job: Wed, Oct 7 · Edit their day. Nothing is sent to them; Edit their day opens their share.

How long a link works

A link stops working at the earlier of:

90 days after you shared it, or sent them a new link; and
7 days after the job is completed or cancelled.

For those last 7 days they can still read the job, but can’t add anything. If you reopen the job, its links work again (up to the 90 days). The card always shows the date a link expires.

Turning a link off

Choose Revoke on an active link and confirm. The link stops working at once. What they already added stays on the job. To bring them back later, open their share and choose Send a new link.

Subcontractors on this job

Subcontractors are never part of the job’s crew. The people on a job who can’t share it, such as a Field tech or Billing, see them beside the crew instead, in a read-only Subcontractors on this job card. For each company whose link is working, it shows:

the company, and whether they’re Active or have Reported done (with the time);
their contact’s name and phone number, with a Call button when you’ve saved a phone for them;
when they’re told to come, in the same words their page uses;
What to do and Getting in, exactly as you wrote them for that company.

A link that was revoked or has expired isn’t shown there. If no link on the job is working, the card doesn’t appear at all. The card has no buttons to share, open or revoke anything, and it never shows the company’s email address or their link.

Who sees it. Anyone who can open the job but can't share it, such as Field techs (on their own jobs) and Billing. People who can share see the full Subcontractors card instead. Helpers don't see subcontractors.

What comes back

Notes and photos a subcontractor adds appear on the job like anyone else’s, marked via link: and the company’s name — for example via link: ACME Electric. The job’s History tab records every step too: the link shared, emailed, opened and revoked, each new link (New link issued, and Link emailed when you emailed it), each change to what they’re told (Subcontractor details changed, naming what changed but not what you wrote), and each note, photo and report that came through it.

When they report the work done, you get a notification: “ACME Electric reported the work done on Job #1042”. It goes to the same people as a helper’s report: the job’s lead and whoever schedules the team, by the bell only.

A subcontractor’s report doesn’t complete the job, and it doesn’t count toward “every visit is reported done”. Check what they sent, then complete the job yourself.

Their time and cost

Subcontractors don’t log time in Lyteworkgo. A link never starts a timer or adds hours to the job, so nothing they do shows under labor.

When their bill comes in, add it to the job as an expense in the Subcontractor category, with their invoice as the receipt. It then counts in the job’s profit. See Job profit and expenses.

Adding the expense needs permission to edit jobs as well as See costs. Office staff can share a job but don't see costs unless it is switched on for them, so an owner or admin usually adds it.

If you want someone’s real hours on the job, add them as a helper instead. Helpers sign in and clock their own time on their own visits, and that time counts toward the job’s labor cost at their labor rate (or your default rate). Time with no rate at all is flagged on the Profit card and left out.

Jobs · Crew on a job · When a helper reports a visit done · Your job link