Contractors, Quotes and Approvals

This guide follows an agency repair from contractor setup to completion. Each stage is controlled separately, so an agency can use the full workflow or use Lettie only for quote approval.

This is an agency-only workflow

Direct landlord

Direct landlord reports do not have the Contractor or Quotes cards, the contractor directory, approval bands or agency landlord-approval routing. Arrange contractors and approvals outside this workflow, then keep the report record up to date with notes and statuses.

Agency roles

Owners and Admins see reports across all branches. Members and Viewers see assigned or managed branches plus unassigned properties. The contractor directory itself is organisation-wide rather than filtered by report branch, so treat contractor notes and contact details as information available to internal agency users.

1. Build the contractor directory

Open Organisation, then Contractors.

1. Choose Add contractor.
2. Enter Name and Phone. Both are required.
3. Add Company (optional) and Email (optional).
4. Select one or more trades, such as Plumber, Electrician, Gas engineer, Locksmith, General maintenance, Kitchen appliances or Other.
5. Add internal Notes (optional).
6. If useful, turn on Set working hours and enter valid opening and closing times. Without hours, Lettie treats the contractor as available at any time.
7. Choose Add contractor.

Changing the contractor's phone or hours updates every place the directory record is used. Retire keeps past assignment history but prevents new use and revokes that contractor's live portal links. Restore makes the record active again.

Use Copy jobs link to give an active contractor an all-jobs link. It shows that contractor's work for this agency and lasts 30 days. Treat it as confidential.

2. Choose how the agency handles repairs

Only an Owner or Admin can open Organisation, Settings and change Contractor & quote approvals.

Start with How do you handle repairs?:

• Not using Lettie for this — reports are referred to the team and no contractor or approval stage starts automatically.
• We arrange the work, Lettie handles approvals — your team books contractors and uploads quotes; Lettie routes sign-off.
• Landlord approves the bigger jobs — smaller jobs can proceed automatically, medium jobs go to the agency and larger jobs continue to the landlord.
• Lettie handles it end to end — contractor engagement, tenant appointment choice, quote capture and approval are enabled.
• Custom — your own combination of the settings below.

The stages are:

• Contractor engagement — Lettie contacts the contractor and collects availability.
• Tenant confirmation — the tenant chooses an offered time.
• Quote capture — a received quote is added to the report and processed.
• Quote approval — the quote follows your value bands.

If Check the times before the tenant sees them is selected, times entered by a contractor remain held until the agency chooses Release times to tenant. Times entered by the agency are released directly. A work time held for quote approval cannot be released through the appointment check; payment approval must finish first.

This workflow is for planned work. It is not an emergency service. A tenant who needs immediate help follows the out-of-hours rules under When nobody is available in Settings, and genuine danger must be handled through the appropriate emergency procedure.

3. Set quote visibility and approval bands

Under What the tenant sees on a quote, select Tell the tenant when a quote has been received if the system note should be tenant-visible. Include the price is off by default; when it remains off, the tenant may see the contractor and scope but not the cost.

Under Approval by quote value, each band can use:

• Approve automatically
• Agency only
• Landlord only
• Agency then landlord

Set the thresholds in pounds and keep the open-ended Anything above band last. Also review Chase after (hours), Give up after (hours) and If there is no landlord. The missing-landlord choices are Send it to the agency, Approve it and Stop and wait.

Choose Save workflow settings. Turn off entirely returns the workflow to the all-disabled default.

Approval bands are financial controls. Check the thresholds, fallback and named landlord contacts before relying on them. Approve automatically means exactly that: a quote in that band needs no human sign-off.

4. Appoint a contractor

Open an active agency report and find Contractor.

1. Choose Appoint.
2. Select an active directory record under Contractor.
3. Choose Appoint and notify.

If messaging succeeds, Lettie confirms Contractor appointed and messaged. If it does not, the contractor can still be appointed, but the warning explains that no phone, sender, credentials or delivery was available. Do not assume they received the job. Correct the setup or choose Resend link.

Only one live contractor assignment is opened for the report at a time. The job link normally lasts 14 days and is scoped to this assignment. It stops working when it expires, the property is archived, the report is resolved or closed, the assignment is completed or cancelled, or the contractor is retired.

5. Collect and book times

The contractor can choose:

• I can quote from this information
• I need to look at it first
• I can just do the work

For a visit or work booking, they can offer up to 10 options with Add another time, then choose Send these times.

The agency report shows each time as Held, available to Book this, or Booked. Depending on policy, either:

• choose Release times to tenant and let the tenant select in their portal; or
• choose Book this to confirm a released time on the tenant's behalf.

The contractor and tenant are told only through configured messaging. Check the report after an action rather than assuming a message was delivered.

6. Receive and check a quote

A contractor can attach a PDF, JPEG, PNG or HEIC, or choose Type the figures instead and enter Total including VAT and What is included. Agency staff can also use Add quote on the report to upload a PDF, JPEG or PNG, including when the contractor was arranged outside Lettie.

Lettie may suggest the total and scope from an uploaded document. This is an extraction aid, not a verified account. Open View quote and compare the record with the source document.

The quote states are Draft, Check the amount, Awaiting approval, Approved, Rejected, Expired and Replaced.

If no reliable total is available, or the figure is too close to an approval threshold, the quote moves to Check the amount:

1. choose Confirm total;
2. enter Total inc. VAT (£);
3. choose Save total.

When quote capture and approval are enabled, Lettie attempts to route a new quote automatically. If it remains in draft, use Send for approval. Check the amount before routing: once approval has started, changing the figure would invalidate the approval band. If a routed figure is wrong, reject or stop that decision and upload the corrected quote rather than treating the old approval as valid.

7. Approve or reject

An agency stage shows With you. Choose Approve, Approve and send to landlord, or Reject. Rejection requires a reason so the next action is clear.

A landlord stage shows With the landlord. The intended approver receives a one-use approval link showing the property address, contractor, work scope, total and quote document where available. They choose Approve or Reject; rejection requires Why are you rejecting this?.

The full approval URL is the credential and does not require a separate sign-in. It contains a unique secret for that approval, but anybody holding the complete link could try to use it. Send it only to the intended approver and do not forward or post it. It stops working after a decision, after the configured deadline, when the property is archived, or when the report is resolved or closed.

If the landlord answered by phone or another channel, use Record landlord approval or Record landlord rejection so the audit record credits the landlord's answer. Approve without the landlord is an agency override; use it only with authority, because the audit record identifies the agency as standing in for that stage.

Approval of a quote linked to a contractor assignment releases that assignment's held work times. A quote uploaded without an assignment can be approved, but it cannot release another contractor's booking.

8. Complete or cancel the work

The Contractor card shows who has the next action and statuses such as Invited, waiting for availability, Appointment booked, Quote received and Approved, awaiting a work date.

• Choose Cancel job while an invitation or appointment is no longer required. This retires the job link and expires its undecided quotes and approvals.
• Choose Mark completed after an attended job is finished. This closes the contractor assignment and retires its link, but it does not by itself resolve the maintenance report.
• Review the notes and outcome, then choose Mark resolved on the report when the issue itself is complete.

Resolving or closing the report also cancels any still-open contractor assignment and expires its pending approvals. See Working with a report for the difference between Mark resolved and Close issue.

For the contractor and approver experience outside the dashboard, see Using the contractor portal and approval links.