This guide only repeats what ISNetworld and hiring clients publish. Your grade and its reasons are in your own account and with your hiring client. It is not legal or compliance advice. Every source was opened and checked on October 14, 2026.
1. The short answer
ISNetworld (ISN) does not explain on its public website how grades are calculated. On October 14, 2026 we read its pages for contractors and suppliers and for hiring clients, its FAQ, its pages on prequalification, insurance, analytics and services, and both of its user agreements. None of them gives a grade scale, the weight of any item, or a rule for what raises or lowers a grade. The only mention of grading we found is a contractor’s testimonial on ISN’s customers page, thanking ISN’s team for guidance on grading.
What the public pages do say is that hiring clients set their own requirements, and some hiring clients publish how they grade. So a grade only means something next to the client that set it.
2. What ISNetworld’s own pages say
- What ISN collects. Health, safety, quality, insurance, training, cybersecurity and sustainability information, so that a contractor can complete the qualification requirements of several hiring clients at once (ISNetworld for contractors and suppliers).
- Who reviews it. ISN’s Review and Verification Services (RAVS) team reviews submitted documents against regulatory and hiring client requirements. The documents named include insurance certificates, written programs, training documentation, and others that connected hiring clients require.
- What the review looks at. ISN’s FAQ says the RAVS team reviews the information for accuracy, relevance and timeliness, and that hiring clients use it to connect with contractors that meet their qualification requirements.
- Whose criteria. ISN’s page for hiring clients says contractors and suppliers are evaluated based on regulatory, industry and hiring client criteria, and that hiring client requirements can be configured by location, level of risk, or specific designations.
- Insurance, client by client. ISN’s insurance page says insurance requirements should reflect a company’s risk tolerance and the type of work, and that hiring clients can set them per contractor with tools such as an insurance pre-questionnaire, an insurance classification and an insurance variance tool.
- Your side. Contractors can see each hiring client’s requirements, spot gaps, and get updates from connected clients about new or changing requirements and compliance deadlines, with email reminders. ISN adds that once a client’s requirements are met, many accounts need only periodic updates.
3. What some hiring clients publish
A few operators describe in public how they grade, or what ISN reviews for them. In summary:
| Operator | What its own document says |
|---|---|
| Apache | Onsite contractors and suppliers are graded on scorecard components: written programs, safety questionnaire, fatalities, total recordable incident rate (TRIR), days away, restricted or transferred (DART) and experience modifier (EMR). Drug and alcohol status, a master service agreement or contract, and insurance verification are mandatory. A passing grade of A, B or C keeps a supplier on Apache’s approved list, and the scorecard can change at any time. (Apache, ISNetworld Requirements for Onsite Suppliers) |
| Ovintiv | A PASS dashboard grade is the minimum. Ovintiv scores with a blend of weighted criteria that includes, but is not limited to, the questionnaire, ISN’s program reviews and evaluations. If the grade falls to FAIL, the details are in your ISN account’s Message Center. (Ovintiv Supplier Resources) |
| PG&E | Medium and high-risk contractors must achieve and keep an ISN grade of A or B. A contractor whose grade falls to C or F has 30 calendar days to restore it, and grades use the previous three calendar years of statistics plus recent serious injuries or fatalities. (PG&E Contractor Safety Handbook) |
| Spire | Contractors in elevated-risk work may need an ISN subscription and a passing grade of C or better, based on Spire’s criteria. (Spire Supplier Requirements and Expectations) |
| SM Energy | Contractors submit safety and training programs, safety performance data and proof of insurance to ISN, which verifies them independently. They are graded on the strength of their EHS management systems and training programs and on their performance, and some are audited. (SM Energy, Social) |
| Kinder Morgan | Names no grade on its page. Its ISN questionnaire collects EHS data and quarterly statistics, RAVS reviews written programs against regulatory standards, Kinder Morgan’s or both, and ISN reviews the certificate of insurance against Kinder Morgan’s requirements. (Kinder Morgan) |
They use different scales and different bars: A to C passes for Apache and C or better for Spire, but only A or B for PG&E, and PASS or FAIL for Ovintiv. Each client picks its own criteria and its own bar, so a result for one client tells you little about another. Twenty operators’ public requirements, including whether they name a minimum grade, are on the operator requirements pages.
4. What to check in your own account
Since the rules are not public, the reliable source is your own account and your client. What the sources above point you to:
- Each client’s requirements. ISN says contractors can see what each hiring client is requesting and where the gaps are. Go client by client, not only by your overall status.
- Messages from clients. ISN says connected clients send updates about new or changing requirements and deadlines. Ovintiv sends contractors with a FAIL to the Message Center for the details.
- Help inside ISN. ISN’s FAQ says a help menu and recorded trainings are available through the Help link in your account, and its contact page reaches its Customer Service Team.
- The client itself. Ask for its requirements in writing. Apache points contractors to ISN Customer Service for help, and Ovintiv lists a dedicated ISN team for score questions.
- Insurance. ISN lets you give your insurance agent or broker access to submit and monitor insurance documents for you, at no extra fee. See our certificate of insurance guide.
Keep your own note per client: the grade or status you see today, each open item, its expiry date and who owns it. ISN’s user agreement is clear that your company alone is responsible for giving hiring clients the information they require, and that you must not enter inaccurate, invalid or incomplete information (ISN User Agreement).
5. The subscription and expiring items
Some things that move a status are plain dates:
- The ISN subscription. It lasts one year from your activation date, and you renew by paying the annual fee on or before its anniversary. A lapsed subscription may be charged a reinstatement fee (ISN User Agreement).
- Client rules on the subscription. Kinder Morgan says each contract company must subscribe and keep its subscription to be considered. Apache says failing to keep an active subscription removes a supplier from its approved list.
- Documents that expire. Insurance certificates and training records are among the documents ISN reviews, and each one has its own end date.
- Yearly statistics. The OSHA 300A is posted by February 1 by employers who must keep OSHA records, and some establishments submit it online by March 2.
The ISNetworld renewal checklist lists these dates with their sources, and the yearly dates calendar (.ics) puts the fixed ones in Outlook, Google Calendar or Apple Calendar.
6. Sources
Every source was opened on October 14, 2026. Where a page shows no date, we say so.
- ISNetworld, For contractors and suppliers, For hiring clients, FAQs, Contractor prequalification and ongoing monitoring, Insurance and financial risk management, Analytics and reporting, ISN services, Customers: contractors and suppliers and Contact (no date on any of them).
- ISNetworld, User Agreement for contractors and suppliers and for hiring clients (no date on either page).
- Apache, ISNetworld Requirements for Onsite Suppliers (PDF; no date in the document).
- PG&E, Contractor Safety Handbook (PDF; edition 2.2, 6/2025); Spire, Supplier Requirements and Expectations (PDF; no date in the text).
- Ovintiv, Supplier Resources; SM Energy, Social; Kinder Morgan, Safety Compliance (no date on any of them).
- OSHA, 29 CFR 1904.32 and 29 CFR 1904.41.
Requirements and grading change. Confirm each item in your ISN account and with your hiring clients. PrequalReady is not affiliated with ISNetworld, Avetta, Veriforce or any hiring client, and their names belong to their owners.
7. Where PrequalReady fits
PrequalReady is a workspace that keeps each hiring client’s requirements, your documents and every expiry date in one place, ranks what needs attention first and emails reminders before your dates. You can note the grade you see for each client; for PG&E, Spire and Ovintiv it also shows the bar each one publishes and says when the grade you entered is below it. PrequalReady does not read grades from ISNetworld, does not log in to it for you, does not judge whether your documents are acceptable and cannot promise a grade: the network and your hiring client decide. It is free during early access. See the 3-minute demo with a sample company, or the consultant view if you keep many contractors qualified.