Skip to main content
A contractor company works inside other companies in Stralos. You pay once for each of your people, in your own company, and they can then work in as many client companies as you need. There are two ways a contractor gets into another company:
  • You create a company for a client, and work in it with your own people.
  • A company sends you a link, and you accept it.
Contractor companies are being rolled out. If you don’t see the screens below yet, they aren’t switched on for your company.

​
Becoming a contractor company

Choose Contractor company when you sign up, or upgrade an existing company in Settings → Billing → Upgrade to contractor. The upgrade appears once your company has a subscription.
  • A contractor company is NZ$499 per person per month, incl GST, in New Zealand, and US$359 per person per month everywhere else.
  • There’s no free trial for contractor companies. If you upgrade during a free trial, the trial ends and your first month is charged straight away.
  • If you upgrade with an active subscription, you’re charged the difference for your current seats today, then the contractor price each month.
  • Your company becomes a contractor company as soon as the payment goes through.
You can change back to a standard company in Billing with Change to a standard company. Before you confirm, Stralos lists the client companies your people work in. When you change back, your people lose access to all of them. To work in them again, you’d need to upgrade again and be sent new links.

​
Creating a company for a client

Open Settings → Client companies and choose Create a company. There are three steps.
  1. Details: the company’s name, country, type of business and time zone, and its own quote numbering (a Quote number prefix of up to 20 characters and a Starting number). Any name is fine, even if another company already uses it. Nothing about quote numbers is copied from your company.
  2. People: tick which of your people will work in the new company, and whether each is an admin or a member. You’re always included as an admin. Your people don’t cost anything extra there, and you can add more later.
  3. What to bring: choose what to copy from your company: suppliers and their locations, rates, rate categories, company settings, and activities. Everything starts ticked, and you can choose individual suppliers, rate categories or activities instead of a whole group. All of your own locations come across. For each one, choose which of your locations it takes rates from, or None (no rates). The Rates coming column shows how many rates each location will get. Choose Bring these across to start, or Skip for now.
Stralos sets the company up in a minute or two, then opens it for step 3. If it takes longer, open the company from the company switcher later, then use Refresh from home to bring your rates across. You can keep working while the copy finishes. A company you create is free while only your people work in it. To invite anyone from outside your contractor company, an admin of that company must first set up its own billing in Billing. After that, only the people from outside your contractor company are paid seats.

​
Refreshing rates from your company

The copy is a one-off. To bring later changes across, open Settings → Client companies and choose Refresh from home for the company. Stralos switches you into that company to show what’s changed.
  • Each changed rate shows your company’s price beside the client company’s price.
  • Things added to your company since the last copy are listed as new. Use Tick all changed or Tick all new to tick a whole group.
  • Nothing changes unless you tick it. Refresh only ever copies from your company to the client company, never back. Things the client company added itself never appear.
  • Prices set at your locations follow the choices you made when you first brought rates across. If the company invited you rather than being created by you, prices set at your own locations aren’t brought across; prices for all locations and supplier prices are.

​
Your people in client companies

In Settings → Client companies, choose Add people on a company’s row. Tick or untick your people, choose Member or Admin for each, then choose Save people. People you add can start straight away; they’re told they’ve been added rather than sent an invitation. Removing someone from your own company also removes them from every client company. Your people still need to be added to projects in the client company in the usual way. In a company you created and still manage, your admins see all of its projects, because they run the company. In a company that invited you in, or one whose own admins have taken it over, your people see only the projects they’re on.

​
Inviting a contractor to your company

Any company can ask a contractor company to work in it. Open Settings → Contractors, enter the email address of someone at the contractor company under Send a link to a contractor, and choose Send link. If they aren’t an admin, they can forward the email to one of their admins. The link works for 14 days. If the link can’t be sent, Stralos tells you why: Several contractor companies can work in the same company. Contractor people only see the projects you add them to. They can’t see other projects in your company, ask to join them, or add themselves to them. Contractor people don’t cost your company a seat. Rates in your company stay yours: your supplier agreements are with your company. Contractor people can change them like anyone else, and Rate history shows the contractor company beside every change they make. When a company sends your contractor company a link, an admin of your contractor company opens it while signed in to your company and chooses Accept. The company then appears in your company switcher. Add your people to it from Settings → Client companies. If someone else opens the link, the page explains what to do: a person who isn’t an admin can forward the email to an admin, and a standard company needs to upgrade to a contractor company first. Either side can end a link with End link: the company from Settings → Contractors, or the contractor from Settings → Client companies. The contractor’s people lose access straight away. To work there again, the contractor needs a new link. A link that hasn’t been accepted yet can be withdrawn with Cancel link. A free company you created for a client can’t be unlinked. Close it instead with Close company: its projects and rates are kept, but nobody can open it. Or ask the client to set up billing and take it over. To take over a company a contractor created for you, an admin of your company first sets up billing in Billing, then chooses Make independent in Settings → Contractors. Your company runs itself from then on. The contractor’s people stay until you end the link, and they still don’t cost you a seat.

​
If your contractor company’s billing needs attention

The companies you created without their own billing follow your company’s billing. If your company becomes read-only or blocked, so do they. Your people’s access to companies that pay for themselves follows your company’s billing too. While your company is read-only, your people can look but not change anything there. If your company is blocked, your people can’t open those companies until its billing is sorted. In a company you created without its own billing, nobody can fix billing from that company, so there is no Manage billing link. While it is read-only, a notice names your company and says its billing needs attention, so the company you are in is read-only for now. While it is blocked, it asks people to contact an admin at your company to check Settings → Billing. In your own company, members see a message telling them to ask their admin to update billing. Admins see a Manage billing link pointing to Settings → Billing. Once an admin updates billing and payment is confirmed, clicking Check again on the blocked screen restores access immediately without requiring a sign-out. If Stralos cannot reach the billing service to check your subscription status, the app shows a Billing is unavailable screen with a Check again button. Admins can still open the billing recovery page. The Manage subscription action remains available during read-only and blocked access so an admin can restore billing.