Contractor licensing glossary

The words on a US contractor license and on this site, defined. Licensing differs from state to state, so where a rule is only true somewhere, the entry says where. Nothing here is legal advice.

New license

A new license, on this site, is one counted on its original issue date where the state's licensing records publish a date that does not reset on renewal, and otherwise on the first day it appeared in a daily comparison.

Renewals are not counted. The daily comparison started on October 31, 2026, so a state dated that way shows nothing new before then. The methodology page sets this out in full.

See also: Issue date, Renewal

Contractor license

A contractor license is permission from a state, county or city for a business or person to take on construction or trade work of a stated kind.

Who needs one changes by state and by trade. Texas licenses electrical and HVAC work but not general contractors, for example, and some states leave most licensing to their cities and counties.

See also: License class, Contractor registration, Trade

Contractor registration

A contractor registration is a filing that lets a business work as a contractor once it has given its details and, in many places, proof of a bond and insurance, usually without the trade exam a license can require.

Registered contractors appear here alongside licensed ones, because for someone selling to a new business the two mean the same thing: a contractor has just started up.

See also: Contractor license, Surety bond

License class

A license class is the category a licensing record gives a license, which limits the kind or the size of work its holder may do.

Classes mean different things in different states. In Virginia, Class A, B and C mainly set how large a job a contractor may take on. In California, Class A is general engineering, Class B general building, and Class C the specialty trades, such as C-10 for electrical work.

See also: General contractor, Specialty contractor

Trade

A trade, on this site, is the kind of work a license covers, such as HVAC, electrical, plumbing or roofing, assigned from the license type in the record.

A license type we cannot place in a trade stays on its state, county and city pages but has no trade page of its own.

See also: License class

General contractor

A general contractor is a business licensed or registered to run a whole construction job, usually hiring specialty contractors for parts of it.

See also: Specialty contractor, License class

Specialty contractor

A specialty contractor, also called a trade contractor, is a business licensed for one kind of work, such as electrical, plumbing, roofing or HVAC.

See also: General contractor, Trade

Home improvement contractor

A home improvement contractor is a business licensed or registered to do repair and remodeling work on existing homes, in the places that license it separately from new construction.

See also: Contractor registration

Qualifier

A qualifier, or qualifying individual, is the person whose experience and exam results allow a business to hold a contractor license.

The license belongs to the business, but it depends on that person, so a business that loses its qualifier usually has to replace them to keep the license. The names used differ: qualifying party, license qualifier, responsible managing officer.

See also: RMO

RMO

An RMO, or responsible managing officer, is an officer of a licensed company who acts as its qualifier, a term used in California and some other states.

California's version for an employee rather than an officer is the responsible managing employee, or RME.

See also: Qualifier

Journeyman

A journeyman is a worker licensed to do a trade's work, typically under a master or a licensed contractor, without being licensed to run a business.

Journeyman licenses are left out of this site, as are apprentice and other worker registrations: they belong to people, not to businesses that are starting up.

See also: Apprentice, Master license

Apprentice

An apprentice is a worker registered to learn a trade under supervision, and an apprentice registration is not a license to contract for work.

Apprentice registrations are left out of this site.

See also: Journeyman

Master license

A master license is the senior license in a trade such as electrical or plumbing, held by a person, which in many places is what allows a business in that trade to operate.

See also: Journeyman, Qualifier

License number

A license number is the identifier a licensing record gives a license, and its format changes from one state to the next.

A public page shows only its last two characters, enough to tell two rows apart. A plan shows the whole number.

See also: Masked

Issue date

An issue date is the day a license was first granted, as the licensing record gives it.

Not every record has a usable one. Some publish no date, and some publish one that moves forward at each renewal, which says nothing about whether the contractor is new. Those states are dated by a daily comparison instead.

See also: New license, Renewal

Expiration date

An expiration date is the day a license stops being valid unless it is renewed.

See also: Renewal, License status

Renewal

A renewal is the extension of an existing license for another term, and it does not make a contractor new.

Renewals are not counted in any figure on this site.

See also: Expiration date, New license

License status

A license status is what the licensing record says about a license today, such as active, inactive, expired or suspended, in that record's own words.

Status words are not standard between states, so a plan shows them as the record prints them.

See also: Expiration date

DBA

A DBA, short for doing business as, is a trade name a business operates under that differs from its legal name.

Where a record gives both, the listing usually shows the name the business trades under.

See also: Entity type

Entity type

An entity type is a business's legal form, such as a sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC or corporation, which many licensing records keep with the license.

See also: Sole proprietor, LLC, Corporation

Sole proprietor

A sole proprietor is a person who runs a business in their own name, with no separate legal entity between them and the business.

A public page masks the name on a license held by a person. Washington's list keeps business entities only and leaves sole proprietors out, because of the state's law on lists of individuals.

See also: Entity type, Masked

LLC

An LLC, or limited liability company, is a legal entity that separates its owners' personal assets from the business's debts.

See also: Entity type, Corporation

Corporation

A corporation is a legal entity owned by shareholders and separate from them, and in most licensing records it holds the license in its own name.

See also: Entity type, LLC

Surety bond

A contractor's surety bond is a three-party guarantee in which a surety company promises to pay valid claims against a contractor, who must then repay the surety.

Many states and cities require one before they will issue a license or registration. It protects the customer or the public rather than the contractor, which makes it different from insurance. The required amount varies widely.

See also: General liability insurance, Contractor registration

General liability insurance

General liability insurance covers a contractor against claims of property damage or bodily injury that arise from its work.

Many licensing rules, and most commercial customers, ask for proof of it, often at a stated minimum.

See also: Workers' compensation, Surety bond

Workers' compensation

Workers' compensation is insurance that pays for a worker's medical costs and lost wages after an injury on the job.

The rules on who has to carry it, and whether an owner with no employees is exempt, differ by state.

See also: General liability insurance

Masked

Masked, on this site, means part of a value is withheld on a public page: a phone shows its area code and last two digits, and an email its first letters.

The withheld characters are removed on the server, so they are not in the page's source. Street addresses are not shown at all.

See also: License number

Statewide and local coverage

Coverage, on this site, is what a state's records hold: statewide means the state's own contractors, some trades means only the trades it licenses, and local means one or a few cities or counties.

A state with local coverage may be a single city, and it is labelled that way before anyone pays. The methodology page lists every state.

TCPA

The TCPA, or Telephone Consumer Protection Act, is the US federal law restricting telemarketing calls and texts, including automated ones made without the required consent.

Whoever places a call is responsible for meeting it. Nothing on this site says a phone number is cleared for calling. This is a pointer, not legal advice.

See also: Do Not Call, CAN-SPAM

Do Not Call

Do Not Call lists are the federal and state registries of phone numbers that telemarketers generally may not call.

Phone numbers here come straight from licensing records and are not checked against any registry, and a number on a license can be someone's personal cell. Check them yourself before you call.

See also: TCPA

CAN-SPAM

CAN-SPAM is the US federal law setting the rules for commercial email, including an accurate sender, a working opt-out and a postal address in every message.

The sender is responsible for meeting it. This is a pointer, not legal advice.

See also: TCPA

How these terms apply to the data: methodology.