Building a vendor bench: scorecards, response targets and backups

Most vendor problems are list problems. One plumber you call for everything, no second choice when they go quiet, and no record of who answered and who didn’t. This guide builds a vendor bench you can run from a spreadsheet in an afternoon, then keep current in a few minutes a week.

You end up with four things: a list of trades with two vendors each, written response targets, a scorecard you fill in once a quarter and a backup order that says when a job moves to the next vendor. The vendor scorecard template has the blank sheet.

1. List every trade you call

Start with the last year of work orders and group them by trade. Most portfolios need the same core list:

• Plumbing, including drain clearing
• HVAC, heating and cooling
• Electrical
• Appliance repair
• General handyman and carpentry
• Locks and doors
• Water mitigation for floods and leaks
• Pest control, cleaning and painting for turnovers

Count the jobs per trade while you are there. The trades with the most jobs, and the trades with emergencies (plumbing, heating, water mitigation, locks), get the most attention in every step below.

2. Keep two vendors for every trade, per area

For each trade, name a first choice and a backup for each area you cover. The backup should have their paperwork on file and your terms agreed before you need them, because the night you need a backup is the wrong night to onboard one. For emergency trades such as plumbing and water mitigation, write down who takes calls after hours. The onboarding guide covers the W-9, the insurance certificate and the terms to agree.

Good tradespeople are busy. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of plumbers and of HVAC mechanics to grow much faster than the average for all occupations from 2025 to 2035. A first-choice vendor who is booked solid for a week is normal, and a backup is how your jobs keep moving.

If you have in-house technicians, put them at the top of each trade they cover. Vendors become the backup for those trades, and the first choice for everything your team doesn’t do. The post on technicians or vendors helps decide which jobs stay in-house.

3. Set response targets and write them down

Agree targets with each vendor when they join, and put them in your vendor terms. They don’t have to be strict. They have to be known:

Check the visit column against your state’s repair rules. Washington, for example, gives landlords no more than 24 hours to start repairs when a defect cuts off heat, water or electricity, 72 hours for a broken refrigerator, range or major plumbing fixture and 10 days for other defects, counted from the tenant’s written notice. Your vendor targets need to sit inside whatever your state requires. Repair timelines by state covers every state and DC.

Decide what happens when a target is missed: how many follow-ups, and when the job moves to the backup. The post on following up with a quiet vendor has a schedule to copy.

Put the terms on one page

Targets only work when the vendor has agreed to them. Keep a one-page vendor terms sheet and send it with the first job. It should answer, in plain words:

• How fast they reply to a job offer, by job level, and how they reply: text, call or the vendor app
• Whether they take nights and weekends, the number to use and the after-hours rate
• The spend limit on each job, and what they do when the repair will cost more
• Who books the visit with the tenant, and how much notice the tenant gets
• What counts as done: a short note and a photo of the finished work
• How long they warranty their labor, and how a callback is booked
• What every invoice shows: the work order number, the address and the parts

The vendor onboarding checklist has the paperwork side of the same conversation.

4. Keep a simple scorecard

Track four things per vendor, each quarter. A spreadsheet is enough:

• Reply time: how long from the job offer to a yes or no
• Visit time: how long from the yes to the visit
• First-time fix: how many jobs closed without a second visit or a warranty callback
• Paperwork: whether the W-9, insurance certificate and licenses are current

Add one line for tenant feedback if you collect it. Avoid more columns than you will actually update. Every number on the card should come from your work orders or your messages, never from memory.

A worked scorecard

Here is one quarter for two plumbers at a 60-door portfolio. Rick’s Plumbing is first choice and Harbor Plumbing is the backup. Every number comes off the quarter’s work orders:

Three actions fall out of the card:

1. Ask Rick’s for the new insurance certificate now, before it lapses mid-job.
2. Talk to Rick’s about the two callbacks and the two missed visit days. They still take most of the work, so the conversation is worth having before anything changes.
3. Offer Harbor more routine jobs next quarter. If they keep this up across more jobs, swap the order and make Harbor first choice.

Five jobs is a small sample, which is why the card says “offer more jobs” before “swap first choice”. Change the order on two quarters of evidence, not one good month.

5. Write a backup order for every trade

A backup order is who a job moves to when the person ahead doesn’t answer. Write one per trade and per area, with the time each step waits. Here is a plumbing order for an emergency:

For routine jobs, the same order runs in business days: first choice for two days, then the backup, then you. Nobody decides at 2:00 AM ET who comes next, because the order already says. Keep the emergency order next to your on-call rotation, so the person on call has both.

6. Set spend limits per job

Give each vendor a spend limit on every job offer, below the property owner’s approval limit. Anything above it needs a photo and a quote before the work starts. The owner approval limits template has wording for the owner side, and the post on setting owner approval limits explains how to pick the number.

7. Agree how warranty callbacks work

Write down how long each vendor warranties their labor and how you send a failed repair back. Then check the work order history before booking a new vendor for the same problem. See warranty callback and stopping repeat repairs.

8. Review the bench every quarter

• Fill in the scorecard from the quarter’s work orders
• Move a backup to first choice when they consistently beat the first choice
• Talk to vendors whose reply times are slipping before you drop them
• Renew insurance certificates a month before they expire
• Add a backup anywhere a trade has only one vendor
• Update the backup orders with any new names and numbers
• Thank the vendors who show up, and pay them on time, which is the best retention tool there is

When a vendor keeps missing

Have the conversation before you change the order, and bring the card. Name the numbers, not the feeling: “Two of your twelve jobs last quarter needed a second visit, and two visits moved without notice. What happened, and what would help?” Often the answer is on your side: job offers with no photo, no access notes or a spend limit that doesn’t cover the part. Fix those first, give it one more quarter, then decide.

If you do move a vendor down, tell them, and keep them as a backup if the work was good. A backup who already knows your properties is worth more than a new name.

Once the scorecard exists, the review takes under an hour. Most of the work is the first quarter, when you build the list and agree the targets. The post on why vendors don’t answer covers the habits on your side that get faster replies.

Where Now Ours fits

Ours offers jobs to your own technicians first and then to your vendors, by text or in the vendor app, in your company’s name. It sends 4 timed nudges, then the case comes to you. On Cautious, the default, it asks before it picks a vendor or spends money. Every message is recorded on the case, with who it went to and when, so the reply times for your scorecard are already on the record.