Ridgeline Construction
General contractor · illustrative company
Illustrative scenario based on how teams use Foliato. Not a customer testimonial.
The problem
Ridgeline Construction runs a plant-expansion site with 12 subcontractors: electrical, HVAC, steelwork, scaffolding. Before any crew enters the site, its company must hand over insurance certificates, safety plans, crew lists, and equipment certifications.
Today that lives in email. The project manager chases each contractor, saves attachments into a shared drive, and hopes the folder structure survives. Confidential documents from one contractor have already ended up visible to another.
Twice this year, a crew arrived at the gate with an expired insurance certificate — discovered right there. A stopped crew costs a full day of schedule.
Contractor documents in play
12 subcontractors × 6 required documents, plus monthly certificate renewals. One expired certificate at the gate stops a crew — and the schedule — for a day.
The solution
The team modeled contractors as groups. Creating a group provisions its restricted folder automatically, with the right permission — and requests with expiry dates keep certificates current.
- 01
Create the group type once
A "Subcontractors" group type linked to a Contractor role: target project, parent folder, permission level.
- 02
One group per contractor
Creating "HVAC Corp" auto-creates its restricted folder. Invitations assign role, group, and access in one step.
- 03
Request certificates with expiry
Insurance and safety documents are requested with due dates. Reminders chase renewals — not the project manager.
- HVAC CorpContractorEDIT/Site/Contractors/HVAC Corp
- Voltaic ElectricalContractorEDIT/Site/Contractors/Voltaic Electrical
- Steelworks SAContractorEDIT/Site/Contractors/Steelworks SA
The result
The project's document flow changed shape:
Running a site with more than two contractors?
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Foliato expert — the setup
The setup is one group type, one role, and a folder convention. Three decisions make it work:
1 · The group type carries the provisioning rules. The "Subcontractors" group type is linked to a Contractor role that defines where folders are created and with which permission. Creating a group executes those rules — nobody creates folders by hand:
2 · Restricted folders keep siblings invisible. Each contractor's folder is created as restricted: its group gets EDIT on its own folder and nothing else. A shared policies folder stays read-only for everyone:
/Site/Contractors/{group}
3 · Certificates carry expiry dates. Insurance and safety certificates are requested with a due date and automatic reminders. A wrong or expired certificate is rejected per item, with a reason:
Site access · HVAC Corp
Ridgeline Construction asks you for 4 documents
- Insurance certificateRequired
insurance-2026.pdf · uploaded yesterday
- Safety planRequired
Site-specific
- XLSX · PDFCrew listRequired
Names and ID numbers
- Equipment certificationRejected
equipment-cert.pdf · 1.4 MB
Frequently asked questions
Can one contractor see another contractor's documents?
No. Each group's folder is restricted: the group has access to its own folder and to whatever you explicitly share — nothing else.
What happens when a contract ends?
Deactivate the group. Its members lose access; the folder and its documents stay in the project for the record.
Do contractors need Foliato accounts?
To upload via document requests, no — they use a secure link. To work inside their folder, invitations create the account and assign role, group, and access in one step.
Who can create groups?
Workspace admins. The group type and its provisioning rules are defined once; after that, creating a group is a single field.