How a Trust Score is earned

Who can review

Only a user at a verified contractor company. They declare whether they were the GC, the sub, or a peer, and an approximate project date. Evidence is optional and is never shown to the company being reviewed. A company cannot review itself. One review is active per pair, and it can be edited. The edit waits for the next anonymous batch before it changes the published score.

Suppliers cannot review contractors. A contractor rates a supplier on a separate scale, and those stars never move a contractor Trust Score.

When a score appears

The profile says Netbridge rating pending until at least three qualifying reviews from three different reviewer companies are in hand. After that, new reviews are held until three more accumulate, or until the oldest held review passes a delay (30 days by default, set with BATCH_DELAY_DAYS). The reviewed company sees the aggregate only: the star rating, the would-work-with-again percentage, and the category breakdown. The internal 0–100 score is not shown.

What the number means

Formula nb-trust-1.0 lives in src/lib/trust-score.ts. Each review blends six professional categories with whether the reviewer would work with the company again. A mutually confirmed relationship weighs more than a one-sided declaration. Newer reviews weigh more than older ones. Reviewers with their own published reputation weigh slightly more. The result is pulled toward a neutral prior of 72 so a small set of reviews cannot pin a company at 0 or 100. Suspicious patterns — shared email domains, a shared public IP, a burst from a new account — reduce a review's weight and open an admin flag.

What you can search

Search is a qualification tool: trade, city and radius, license status, claimed or verified state, minimum star rating, and whether a current W-9, general liability certificate, or workers' comp certificate is on file. The documents themselves stay private.

Project Address

A verified company can record addresses where it worked. Another verified company can look up that address, see who was there, and request a private conversation. Netbridge does not store homeowner names or ratings. Addresses are not published on the public profile. A private note stays with the company that wrote it.

Two directions

A general contractor and a subcontractor do not grade each other on the same checklist. A sub reviewing a GC scores payment, schedule, change orders, communication, site safety, and respect. A GC reviewing a sub scores quality, showing up, manpower, communication, safety, and cleanup. Peer trades use a shorter shared set. Each direction is published on its own batch of three companies, so one sub review cannot move a GC profile by itself. The profile still has one Netbridge rating, and it splits into “as a general contractor” and “as a subcontractor” when both directions are published. A GC rated 4.5 or higher by at least five subs from different companies is marked Preferred to work with.

How stars are shown

Profiles, search, and address lookup show a Netbridge rating from 1.0 to 5.0. The stored score is still the nb-trust-1.0 number. toStars() maps it with a curve that keeps a company near the neutral prior from looking like a strong 4-star rating. Category rows are the average of the 1–5 ratings in that category. A rating stays pending until the same three-company rule is met.

Bid Hub

A verified company can post work privately to invited firms or list it on the open feed. Open listings show city and ZIP only. The street address and files marked restricted open when a company is invited, or when it clicks intend to bid and meets the gates. Bids stay sealed: a bidder never sees another price or name. Awarding the work writes the same mutual working relationship that lets later reviews count toward the Netbridge rating. Drawings are capped at 10 MB. Photos are re-encoded so camera location data is removed. DWG and DXF files are download-only. Replacing a file creates a numbered addendum and notifies everyone invited or bidding.

Home feed

After you sign in, Home shows posts from companies you are connected with. A member writes the post for their company. Each post needs a type — completed work, work in progress, hiring, equipment or materials, or company news — and at least one trade or project tag. The composer asks you to keep it about the work. A post can include a note, up to ten photos, and short videos. Photos are re-encoded so camera location data is removed. Videos are re-encoded with metadata stripped, including location, and play inline. A post is either visible to all verified members or to connections only. The feed also carries a few system cards: a connection earning Preferred to work with or becoming newly verified, a connection’s Netbridge rating being published (never an individual review, and never a drop), a light note when two companies in your network connect, and at most three new open Bid Hub opportunities a day that match your trade or, for a general contractor, open work within 60 miles. Verified Supplier offers show up for followers and connections, labeled Supplier offer, at most two a day. Ordering is newest first, with a connection’s post treated as 36 hours newer.

Verified suppliers

A supplier profile lists what the yard carries, branch city and ZIP, delivery area, hours, and a credit application. Following a supplier is one-way. A connection still needs both sides. Supplier stars cover pricing, delivery, stock, returns, and counter support, and they publish only after three companies with a confirmed purchasing relationship. The Verified Supplier plan, granted by an admin until Stripe is configured, is what lets a yard publish offers, reach followers’ feeds, and open analytics. A free profile can still be rated. On a Bid Hub opportunity, the poster can ask specific suppliers — or every verified yard in that city or ZIP — for a materials quote. Those numbers stay sealed the same way bids do.

Ratings elsewhere, work, and connections

A verified company can list self-reported profiles on Google, Yelp, BBB, and other sites. Those numbers are labeled with the date they were entered and never change the Netbridge rating. Work photos use a city and year only, are stripped of camera location data, and are visible to signed-in users. Connections are mutual and company-to-company. Accepting a connection is not the same as confirming a working relationship.