Preferred contractor lists

Most managing agents have a panel of trusted contractors they instruct first for any given service. PropLink supports this without forcing it: a vendor can be marked preferred at three different scopes.

Three scopes of preference

Organisation-wide preferred

The vendor is preferred for every site in the organisation. Use for the firm-wide go-to plumber, electrician or fire safety consultant.

Site-specific preferred

The vendor is preferred at one or more named sites only. Use when a particular building has its own dedicated cleaning company or boiler engineer.

Category-specific preferred

The vendor is preferred within one service category, regardless of site. Use when you have a specialist for a niche category.

A vendor can be preferred at more than one scope simultaneously.

Mark a vendor as preferred

1. Open the vendor.
2. Click Make preferred.
3. Pick the scope: organisation-wide, sites, categories or any combination.
4. Save.

How preferred status affects work orders

When you raise a work order:

1. PropLink filters the vendor list by service category.
2. Preferred vendors for the site or category appear at the top of the list, marked with a star.
3. Other vendors who match the category appear below.
4. Vendors with expired insurance or certification are blocked.

You can pick any vendor, preferred or not. Preference is a sort, not a constraint.

Reviewing the preferred list

The Preferred panel report under Reporting → Vendors lists every preferred vendor by scope, with their current performance metrics alongside. Useful for the quarterly panel review.

Removing preferred status

1. Open the vendor.
2. Click Remove preferred or remove the specific scope.
3. Confirm.

The vendor still receives work orders, just no longer at the top of the list. Past work orders are unaffected.

Preferred for procurement

Some firms run formal supplier procurement (CHAS, SafeContractor, ISO 9001 certifications). Use a custom tag on the vendor to track procurement membership in addition to the preferred status. Tags are filterable in the directory and reports.