Skip to main content

In the dashboard: Business Tools → Recommended Contractors

Recommended contractors are the plumbers, electricians, roofers and other pros you send clients to. Add them once, tag each one with the recommendation services they offer, and Hive puts them on the matching defects in every digital report. Your client clicks Find a pro on a defect to get your contractor’s phone number, email and website, and can ask them for a repair quote without leaving the report. It works in three steps:
  1. Add your contractors and the services they offer.
  2. Give your defect comments a service. Your templates probably do this already. See Recommendation Services.
  3. Your client sees Find a pro on each matching defect, and Get repair quotes at the end of the report.
The Recommended Contractors page, Manage contractors for report recommendations, with an Add Contractor button and five contractor cards. Prairie Plumbing and Drain (Active, Maria Lopez, email, phone, website, services Plumbing Contractor and Sewer Scope Specialist, service areas 62701 to 62704), Bright Spark Electric (Active, Electrical Contractor), Summit Roofing Co. (Active, Roofing Professional, Gutter Contractor, Chimney Repair Contractor), Comfort Air Heating and Cooling (Active, HVAC Professional, Heating and Cooling Contractor, Air Duct Cleaning) and Lincoln Home Repair (Inactive, Handyman, Drywall Contractor, Door Repair and Installation Contractor and 1 more). Each card has Edit and delete buttons

​
Add a contractor

  1. Go to Business Tools in the left menu and click the Recommended Contractors card.
  2. Click Add Contractor at the top right (or Add Your First Contractor if you have none yet).
  3. Fill in the details, pick the Service Types, and click Add Contractor.
The Add Recommended Contractor window filled in: Company Name Prairie Plumbing and Drain, Contact Name Maria Lopez, Email service@prairieplumbing.example with the note Clients can send quote requests from their report to this address, Office Phone (555) 201-4410, Mobile Phone empty, Website prairieplumbing.example, a Logo upload box (JPEG, PNG, WEBP, SVG or GIF, max 5MB) with an or paste an image URL instead link, Description Licensed plumbers for leaks, water heaters, drains and sewer lines, Service Types 2 services selected with Plumbing Contractor and Sewer Scope Specialist, Service Areas 62701, 62702, 62703 and 62704, the Active switch on with Contractor will be visible in reports, and Cancel and Add Contractor buttons Service Types is the important part. A contractor shows up on a defect only when the defect’s recommendation service is one of the contractor’s service types. Click Select services…, search, and tick every service the contractor covers. A roofer might cover Roofing Professional, Gutter Contractor and Chimney Repair Contractor. The Service Types list open: a Search services box and checkboxes for No Recommendation, Plumbing Contractor (ticked), Electrical Contractor, Roofing Professional, HVAC Professional, General Contractor and Structural Engineer The list is your company’s Recommendation Services. If a trade is missing, add it there first, then come back and tick it.
Tick the exact services your templates use. If your electrical defects use Electrical Contractor, a contractor tagged only Heating and Cooling Contractor won’t show on them. To see which service a defect uses, open it in the template or report editor.

​
How contractors are matched to defects

A contractor shows on a defect when all of these are true:
  • The contractor is Active.
  • One of the contractor’s Service Types is the defect’s service.
  • The defect is in a report from your company.
Service Areas aren’t used for matching. Every active contractor with the right service shows on every report, wherever the home is. The ZIP codes are only shown to your client so they can see where the contractor works. If you work in areas far apart, say so in the Description, for example “North county only”. When more than one contractor offers a service, clients see all of them, in alphabetical order by company name.

​
What your client sees on a defect

When a defect’s service has at least one of your contractors, the green service label on the defect becomes a button: the service name, then Find a pro and an arrow. A defect in the digital report, 3.32 Light Fixtures, Switches and Receptacles (outlets), Receptacle - Reverse Polarity, with the Safety Concerns description, a Hive Context panel, and a green Electrical Contractor · Find a pro button with a hard hat icon and an arrow, above the photo Defects whose service has no contractor keep a plain green label, like Handyman in this example, and nothing happens when it’s clicked. Your client clicks Find a pro and the Recommended Contractors window opens, with the service name under the title.
With one contractor, their details are open straight away.The Recommended Contractors window for Plumbing Contractor with one contractor, Prairie Plumbing and Drain, Maria Lopez, a PP logo, Office (555) 201-4410, Email service@prairieplumbing.example, Website prairieplumbing.example, About Licensed plumbers for leaks, water heaters, drains and sewer lines. Same-week appointments, Service Areas 4: 62701, 62702, 62703, 62704, and a Close button
Only the details you filled in are shown: Office and Mobile phone, Email, Website, About (the description) and Service Areas. On a released client report, the window also has a Request a quote button when at least one of the contractors has an email. It opens the quote request below, with this defect ticked.

​
Get repair quotes at the end of the report

At the end of the digital report, after the summary, clients see Get repair quotes. It groups the report’s defects by service and lists your contractors for each one. There’s also a Repair quotes link in the report’s side menu. The Get repair quotes section: Request an estimate from contractors recommended by Hive Inspections. We'll send them the items you choose, with photos. Groups for Gutter Contractor (1 item from your report, Summit Roofing Co.), Roofing Professional (4 items, Summit Roofing Co.) and Electrical Contractor (7 items, opened to list 3.31 Receptacles/Switches Painted Over, 3.32 Receptacle - Reverse Polarity, 3.37 Inadequate GFCI Protection and more, with Bright Spark Electric and Capitol City Electric). Each group has a Request a quote button, and each contractor shows a phone number and a Website link Each group shows:
  • the service and how many items from the report need it. Click it to list the items and jump to them.
  • your contractors for that service, with their phone number and a Website link
  • a Request a quote button, if at least one of the contractors has an email
If none of the contractors in the section has an email, the section is called Recommended contractors instead and has no quote buttons.

​
How a client requests a quote

1

Pick the items

The client clicks Request a quote on a service. Every item from the report with that service is ticked. They untick anything they don’t want quoted, and choose which contractors to send it to under Send to. Then they click Next.Step 1 of 2 for Roofing Professional, What would you like quoted? Untick anything you want to leave out. 4 of 4 selected with a Clear all link, and four ticked items with a photo, number, name, the Recommendations category and the start of the description: 3.26 Moisture Staining/Damage Observed - Active, 9.17 Excessive Layers of Roof Covering, 12.12 Roof Covering Nearing End of Life and 12.18 Flashing - Inadequate and Improper. Send to Summit Roofing Co. Cancel and Next buttons
2

Add contact details

The client fills in their name, email and phone, picks the Best way to reach you (Email, Call or Text), adds an optional note, and clicks Send request. Hive fills in their details when it knows them.Step 2 of 2, How should they reach you? Summit Roofing Co. will use this to get back to you. First name Jordan, Last name Taylor, Email jordan.taylor@example.com, Phone (555) 014-2201, Best way to reach you with Call selected, Note for the contractor: We close on November 14. The roof is easiest to reach from the back yard. A note says Summit Roofing Co. will receive the 4 selected items with photos, the property address and your contact details. They will not see the rest of your report. Back and Send request buttons
3

The contractor gets an email

Each chosen contractor gets an email titled Quote request: with the property address and the number of items. It links to a page with only the chosen items, their photos, the address and the client’s contact details. The contractor doesn’t see the rest of the report.The client sees Request sent and gets a copy by email. The button then reads Send again, with the date of the request.
The contractor replies to the client directly. Hive doesn’t track the quote or take a fee. Limits: up to 5 contractors and 40 items per request. Sending the same request again within 10 minutes does nothing.

​
When repair quotes are shown

The Get repair quotes section and the Request a quote buttons appear when:
  • at least one defect in the report has a service that one of your active contractors offers
  • the report isn’t a re-inspection or a sample report
  • Hide recommendation service in customer view is off for the report
Clients can send a request only once the report is released to them. When you preview the report yourself, you can open the request form but can’t send it.

​
Where contractors show up

​
Edit, pause or delete a contractor

  • Edit: click Edit on the contractor’s card, change anything, and click Save Changes. Changes show in reports straight away, including reports already sent, because reports look up your current contractors each time they’re opened.
  • Pause: click Edit and switch off Active. The card shows Inactive and the contractor disappears from every report until you switch it back on. Use this when a contractor is booked up or you’re not sure about them.
  • Delete: click the red trash button and confirm Delete. The contractor is removed from every report, including old ones. This can’t be undone.
The list shows your newest contractor first. Each card shows up to three services and five ZIP codes, with + more for the rest.

​
Hide contractors from clients

There’s no separate on/off switch for the whole feature. You can:
  • Hide one contractor: switch off Active.
  • Hide them on one report or template: turn on Hide recommendation service in customer view in Report Tools or Template Tools. The service labels, Find a pro and Get repair quotes all disappear. See Hide the service from your client.
  • Hide them on one defect: set the defect’s service to No Recommendation.

​
Who can manage contractors

Team members who can open Business Tools can add, edit, pause and delete contractors. See Team permissions. The list belongs to your company, so every inspector’s reports show the same contractors.

​
Common questions

Check these in order:
  1. The defect has a service, and it isn’t No Recommendation. Open the defect in the report editor to see it.
  2. A contractor has that exact service under Service Types. Electrical Contractor and Licensed Electrician are different services.
  3. The contractor is Active.
  4. Hide recommendation service in customer view is off in Report Tools.
The label turns into Find a pro after the report page loads, as the client scrolls to it.
No. Service Areas are only for display. Every active contractor with the right service shows on every report. Add a note to the Description if a contractor only works in some areas.
None of the contractors for that service has an email address, the report hasn’t been released yet, or it’s a re-inspection or sample report. Add an email on the contractor’s card.
No. The PDF shows the service on each defect (for example Service: Plumbing Contractor), but not your contractors. Clients find them in the digital report.
No. Contractors belong to your company. Every report shows them on matching defects automatically, including reports you sent before you added the contractor.
No. Every report shows all your active contractors for each service. To leave one out, pause them, or change that defect’s service.
No. The request goes to the contractor, and the client gets a copy. Ask your contractors to let you know how referrals go.
No. A Sub Contractor is a contact you add to an inspection, such as a radon tester working the job with you, and you can email them with automations. Recommended contractors are the pros you suggest to clients for repairs. They live under Business Tools and only show in the digital report. See Subcontractor emails.
Yes. A rename shows the new name on the contractor, and they stay matched. A deleted service stays on contractors already tagged with it, and they keep showing on defects that use it. See Recommendation Services.

​
Watch how it works

This video shows how to add a contractor and what clients see. Some screens have changed since it was recorded: the defect button now reads Find a pro, and clients can now request repair quotes.

​
Where to go next

Last modified on October 20, 2026