Subcontractor files: the agent checks, you decide

It reads every document in the file, checks its validity date and its consistency with the contract, and prepares the reminder as soon as a certificate expires. The decision to let the subcontractor work on site stays with the company; the agent keeps the calendar of documents, at signing and then every six months. On paper, it is simple. On a site with ten subcontractors, it is a calendar nobody keeps, and that is exactly the kind of work an agent does without getting tired of it.

What the law asks of the ordering party

The rule: whoever signs a contract of at least 5,000 euros excluding VAT checks, at signing and then periodically until the end of the contract, that the other party is in order on its registrations and social declarations (articles L. 8222-1 and R. 8222-1 of the French labour code). Article D. 8222-5 says how: obtain, at signing and then every six months, a vigilance certificate less than six months old whose authenticity is verified with the Urssaf, and proof of registration. On a site, the file includes:

• The Urssaf vigilance certificate, less than six months old and verified with its security code on urssaf.fr.
• Proof of registration: a K or Kbis extract, or an extract from the national business register for a craft business.
• The insurance certificates the contract requires: liability, ten-year liability for the lots that call for it.
• The site-specific documents: the safety and health plan when there is a safety coordinator, the staff list, the construction workers’ professional cards.
• For a subcontractor established abroad, the equivalent documents provided for by the labour code, in French or translated.

Without these checks, if the subcontractor is reported for undeclared work, the ordering party pays jointly the contributions, penalties and wages due (article L. 8222-2). And it is no theoretical threat: the Urssaf ran 1,027 financial solidarity actions in 2025, 85% more than in 2024. The law of 25 June 2026 on social and tax fraud goes further: it extends this vigilance to the project owner for the subcontractors it accepts, on a date set by decree, at the latest by the end of December 2026.

Why it breaks down on site

Take a refurbishment with ten subcontractors, files put together at signing from documents received by email. Then the site starts, the lots follow one another, and the six-month calendar matches nothing: neither the site meetings nor the progress statements. The plasterer’s certificate expires in the middle of their lot, the plumber’s before they even arrive. Nobody keeps the calendar, because it is nobody’s job.

In its results published on 20 February 2026, the Urssaf announces 1.5 billion euros of adjustments for undeclared work in 2025, 7,665 targeted actions of which 84.5% led to an adjustment, and names construction among the sectors most adjusted. Damien Ientile, director of the Urssaf national fund, writes there that “the fight against undeclared work and against all forms of fraud is a civic commitment”.

What the agent checks

The agent reads each subcontractor’s file document by document, date by date, comparing it with the subcontracting contract and the lot. It does not just note that a file is present: it looks at what it says.

Each finding points back to the document and the line it comes from, to check in one click. And the agent rules nobody out: it describes the state of the file and prepares the next action, nothing more.

An example: the certificate that expired nine days ago

On a Monday morning, the site manager opens their Inbox. The agent has filed its check of the plumbing company expected on Thursday for lot 7: the vigilance certificate expired nine days ago. The rest holds: registration extract up to date, ten-year insurance valid, safety plan sent. The reminder is already written, with the list of expected documents.

They read, open the document, and call the manager before sending the reminder: without a valid certificate by Wednesday evening, lot 7 will wait until the following week. Late on Wednesday, the certificate arrives; the agent checks the code, confirms its validity, sets the next due date six months later and closes the item. On Thursday, the plumber is on site. Nobody spent their evening on the file, and nobody discovered the problem on Thursday morning.

What stays human

An incomplete file is not always a subcontractor at fault: the certificate may be under renewal, and the manager will tell you so in thirty seconds on the phone. That is why the decision to let them work or hold them back stays with the company, which carries the financial solidarity. Granting a delay too: a partner you have worked with for ten years is not judged on a date. And everything that makes the relationship, the tone of the reminder, the call before the email, the choice to carry on together, has no place in an agent.

In Scalt, these steps are approvals in the Inbox: the agent prepares, then waits for your consent before sending anything to the subcontractor. You can edit the reminder, hold it, or replace it with a call.

The record for an inspection

The law asks you to have checked; an inspection asks you to show it. In Scalt, each subcontractor has its case, with its timeline: which document was received, when, who checked it, with what result, which reminder went out, and who approved the intervention. This governance log exports, for an inspector, a project owner or your insurer.

These files contain personal data. They stay in a cloud in France, or on your premises if you install Scalt on site or in your cloud, and are not used to train models.

Step by step

Do not start with the whole site. Take one lot, two or three subcontractors whose files are already gathered, and for a few weeks compare what the agent flags with what you would have seen yourself. If it holds, extend to every subcontractor and leave it the six-month calendar; that is when reminders start going out before expiry, not after. Product sheets against the specification come next: the same reading, applied to products rather than companies.

Judge on facts: expired certificates spotted before the intervention, reminders sent in time, gaps you would have missed. The only prerequisite is a file organised per subcontractor, with the contracts and validity dates; if you do not have one, that is where to start, agent or not.

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