Most growing field service companies hit the same wall. Demand outruns the crew, and hiring takes months, so they bring in 1099 subcontractors. Capacity goes up, and so does the chaos. The subcontractor has their own jobs, their own truck and their own idea of when "morning" ends. Your board can't see any of that.
Subcontractor scheduling is the problem of booking work into someone else's day. It has every difficulty of scheduling your own technicians, plus one more: you don't control their calendar or their location.
Why subcontracted crews break the board
You can't see where they'll be. With your own technicians, you know the job before the slot. With a subcontractor, you often don't. They may be coming from another company's job forty minutes away.
Availability is reported, not known. "I'm free Thursday" is a calendar statement. It says nothing about whether Thursday at 9:00 on your side of town is reachable from wherever they are at 8:15.
Confirmations lag. The subcontractor accepts the job hours later, or declines it, and the slot you promised the customer is already gone.
Visibility cuts both ways. Subcontractors are reasonably wary of sharing their customer list or job details with every company they take work from.
We wrote a full playbook on this: scheduling 1099 crews and subcontractors without losing control of the board.
How to schedule subcontractors well, with any tool
- Schedule them on the same board as your crew. A separate spreadsheet for subs guarantees double-booking and blind spots.
- Get availability as windows plus a starting area, not just days. "Thursday 8–12, starting near the north side" is schedulable. "Thursday" isn't.
- Apply the same travel check you'd use for your own trucks. Don't offer a customer a time unless the sub can reach it from where they'll be. See travel-time scheduling.
- Confirm before you promise. If confirmation takes hours, offer the customer a window you can hold, not one you hope to fill.
- Share only what's needed. The sub needs the job, address and scope. They don't need your other customers.
Worker classification is a legal question, not a scheduling one. For whether someone should be a 1099 subcontractor or an employee, talk to a professional.
What CrewLink does today
CrewLink builds live travel time into availability and checks feasibility before a slot is offered, with travel computed from where the truck will actually be. It gives your team a dispatch board where drive time sits next to each job instead of hiding inside it. That travel discipline is exactly what subcontracted capacity needs, because it's where sub-heavy schedules fall apart.
What's coming: the contractor network
Coming soon. This isn't live yet. The cross-company contractor network is on the roadmap. Nothing described in this section is available today.
Independent contractors have the mirror image of the company's problem. They have gaps: a ninety-minute window at 11 a.m., forty miles from the next stop, too short and too far for anyone to fill by phone. The companies that could fill those windows are calling around blind.
The network CrewLink is building lets a contractor publish availability, not their job list. Companies see that a contractor is open at 11 a.m. and close enough to make it, never who the contractor works for or where. Contractors get booked into their gaps. It will be free for contractors: you never pay to get booked.
If you run your own truck or crew and want in when it opens, join the list on the homepage. Pick the contractor path.
Who this page is for
- Companies of 5 to 50 trucks that supplement their crews with 1099 subcontractors, common in solar, roofing, security systems and HVAC installs
- Independent contractors who want steadier work without chasing dispatchers
What to take away
- Subcontractor scheduling adds one problem to normal scheduling: you don't control the sub's calendar or location.
- Put subs on the same board, collect availability as windows plus a starting area, and apply the same travel check you use for your own trucks.
- CrewLink builds live travel time into availability today.
- The contractor network, where contractors publish availability and companies book into their gaps, is coming soon, not live.
Common questions
How do you schedule 1099 subcontractors?
Put them on the same board as your employees. Collect their availability as time windows with a starting area. Only offer customers times the subcontractor can reach from their previous job, and confirm before you promise.
Can subcontractors see my other customers?
They shouldn't need to. Share the job, address and scope, and nothing else. The contractor network CrewLink is building (coming soon) is designed around sharing availability, not job lists, in both directions.
Is the CrewLink contractor network live?
No. It's on the roadmap. Contractors can join the list on the homepage to hear when it opens in their area.
Does CrewLink handle 1099 paperwork or payments?
No. CrewLink is scheduling and dispatch software. It doesn't handle contractor onboarding, tax forms or payments.