Insurance companies send roofing work to contractors through managed repair networks, the approved contractor lists that Crawford & Company’s Contractor Connection and Alacrity run for carriers. A claims rep offers the homeowner a contractor from the list, and the roofer who gets the job pays the network a percentage of what it sells. You get on the list by applying with a fee and then waiting for a carrier to pick you, and Contractor Connection says that pick is not guaranteed.
Local insurance agents are the other way in, with no network between you and the homeowner.
Claims reps refer homeowners who ask for an approved contractor
Crawford & Company sells Contractor Connection to national and regional carriers as a managed repair service. Its 2024 annual filing puts the network at about 5,000 credentialed residential and commercial contractors.
The carrier’s claims reps screen claims and refer homeowners who want to use an approved network contractor, so the homeowner opts in. Each claim passed to a contractor this way is called an assignment.
Contractor Connection pitches the network to carriers for what it calls high-frequency, low-severity claims that don’t need a field adjuster. Ask the recruiter how roofing assignments in your area split between repairs and full replacements, because that tells you how big the jobs are that your fee comes out of.
Getting approved does not mean a carrier will send you work
Contractor Connection’s 2015 program requirements describe two steps. Once you qualify, Crawford presents you to carriers as their needs come up, and Crawford and the carrier decide together which programs you join. The insurance minimums and the Xactimate requirement applied only after that second step.
A contractor on r/Roofing asked other owners in November 2025 how Contractor Connection and Alacrity worked for getting leads. They had already seen bad reports about Contractor Connection from homeowners and contractors, and their company had joined Accuserve, another network, and had not received any projects yet.
Before paying to apply, ask the recruiter which carriers are adding roofers in your ZIP codes and how many roofers they already use there.
Each network takes a percentage of every job you sell through it
Contractor Connection’s 2015 schedule charged its general contractor and specialty programs a sales fee of 4.5% on each job sold, with a cap that rose with job size. The fee was due within 15 days of the invoice.
A yearly membership fee was waived until Contractor Connection assignments brought in $50,000 over the prior 12 months, then rose with that revenue to as much as $5,000.
Alacrity’s network fee addendum sets fees from 4% to 11% depending on the carrier program and the type of contractor, with 5.5% for general contractors.
Each Alacrity assignment also adds a $9.95 fee. Alacrity’s master contract describes the network fee as payment for using its AlacNet system, including its documents, forms, estimating software and initial training.
On a $15,000 roof, Contractor Connection’s older rate comes to $675 and Alacrity’s general contractor rate to $825. Neither rate is confirmed as current, and Alacrity’s roofing rate may differ from its general contractor rate, so get both schedules and the roofing rate in writing before you apply.
Material prices are the other thing to ask about. A contractor on Reddit disputed the materials pricing on a USAA claim handled through Alacrity, which ITEL had set. Ask the recruiter who sets material prices on network jobs.
Both networks ask for more than a license and insurance
Alacrity’s contractor network page asks for at least two years in business, business and trade licenses, references, financial stability, general liability and workers’ comp, Xactimate with a high-speed connection, on-site facility and equipment inspections, and credit and background checks.
The same Contractor Connection requirements asked for a year in business under current ownership and a non-refundable application fee of $250 online or $350 on paper.
The same requirements expected a professional business location with signage in a commercially or industrially zoned area, signed vehicles and uniformed employees, and said a contractor without these might not pre-qualify. If you run the company from home, ask whether that rule still applies before you pay the fee.
They also asked for three years of year-end financial statements or tax returns, repeated at each yearly recertification. Owners, and every employee who enters a customer’s home, needed a background check before activation and every three years after, and the current Contractor Connection FAQ still lists background checks on all job-site employees.
Contractor Connection requires every network contractor to back its work with a five-year workmanship warranty. If yours is shorter or only verbal, start from Roofing Workmanship Warranty Template.
Once a carrier picked a contractor, the 2015 rules required $1 million per occurrence in general liability, $1 million combined single limit in auto liability and workers’ comp regardless of state law, with Crawford and its carrier clients named as additional insureds. Ask your insurance agent what those limits would cost before you apply.
The same rules required Xactimate with an XactNet address for each office handling assignments. If you don’t estimate in Xactimate yet, read Xactimate for Roofers: Which Line Items Matter and Whether You Need It first.
Contractor Connection sets response deadlines and measures every assignment
On an emergency repair, Contractor Connection’s call center sets up a three-way call between the homeowner and the assigned contractor within one hour. On other work the contractor contacts the homeowner within 24 hours and should deliver an estimate within five days of meeting them.
Contractor Connection says it measures time, costs and customer satisfaction on every assignment. Ask the recruiter how those scores affect the number of assignments you get, and if calls to your office go to voicemail after hours, fix that before you apply.
Apply first to the network your carriers use
Contractor Connection’s 2015 requirements named seven carriers that had to be listed individually as additional insureds: American Family, Auto Club Enterprises (AAA), Erie, Frankenmuth, Nationwide, The Hartford and USAA. Alacrity runs carrier-branded repair pages for Nationwide and Allstate.
Look at which carriers wrote the claims on your last insurance jobs, and start with the network those carriers use.
Alacrity says it sold its Managed Repair Division, which now runs as an independent company called Altimeter Solutions Group. Before applying there, call Alacrity’s recruiting line at 1-866-953-3220, option 7, and ask whether the contractor network moved with it.
Local insurance agents can refer homeowners outside the networks
A roofing business owner on Reddit advised meeting local insurance agents and asking to be their preferred vendor. “Most of my leads come from insurance agents trying to help customers,” they wrote.
Start with the agents whose policyholders you have already roofed for, and see Roofing Referral Programs: Past Customers, Realtors and Insurance Agents for the agent side of a referral program.
Check these before you pay an application fee
- Which carriers send claims through the network in your ZIP codes, and whether they are adding roofers.
- The current fee schedule, the rate for roofing and who sets material prices.
- Whether a company run from home can pre-qualify.
- What your insurance agent would charge for the limits and additional insureds a carrier program requires.
- Whether someone at your office can meet the response deadlines on nights and weekends.
- For Alacrity, whether the contractor network now sits with Altimeter Solutions Group.
To see where you show up for homeowners who search for a roofer on their own, run the free Google Maps heatmap: pick your Google profile and a search, and in a few minutes you’ll see your rank at 49 points around your office.