How to Verify a Subcontractor's Headcount Before You Pay the Invoice
When a sub bills for six workers and you only saw four, you need more than a foreman's manpower log. Here's how GCs verify subcontractor headcount without starting a fight.
5 min read
Every general contractor knows the moment: the sub's invoice bills six workers for eight hours a day, and your superintendent is pretty sure he only ever counted four. On time-and-materials work, extra work orders and any manpower-based billing, the difference goes straight to your bottom line. On a public job, it can become a certified payroll problem too.
The hard part isn't suspecting a gap. It's proving one.
Why the daily manpower log isn't enough
Most GCs rely on the sub's own daily report: a foreman writes down headcount and hours. The person filling it out works for the company being paid by it. Most foremen are honest. But a log written by the billing party, often at the end of the day, is weak evidence when you need to dispute a number.
Five ways to verify headcount
1. Require a named daily sign-in. "6 laborers" isn't enough. Ask for names, trades, and times in and out for each person, every day.
2. Do random counts. Have your superintendent walk the site and count heads at unpredictable times, and write it down. A few random counts a week create a record to compare against the invoice.
3. Cross-check certified payroll on public work. On prevailing wage jobs, the sub's certified payroll lists every worker and their hours. Compare it to your own site records.
4. Put it in the contract. Make verified daily attendance a condition of payment for T&M and manpower-based billing, and keep the right to audit time records. Have a construction attorney review the wording.
5. Have sub crews check in on your system. When every worker on your site, yours and the subs', checks in from their phone with GPS confirming they're inside the site boundary, headcount stops being a negotiation. You see each sub's verified crew on site in real time, and the invoice either matches the record or it doesn't.
Keep it from becoming adversarial
Honest subs benefit from verification too. An invoice backed by a verified attendance record gets approved faster and doesn't get argued over at closeout. Present it as "we pay clean invoices fast," not "we think you're stealing," and good subs will usually go along with it.
The bottom line
You can't pay for workers you can't prove were there. Named sign-ins and random counts help. A verified check-in record that every crew on site uses settles the question before the invoice arrives. It's the ghost-worker problem seen from the GC's side. Read more about ghost workers on the payroll.
Running multiple subs across multiple sites? Talk to us about GC and subcontractor setups.