Construction Submittal Tracking: How to Manage the Process Without Delays

If you have been running projects for any length of time, you already know the pain of a late submittal. One missing shop drawing holds up a material order. That delayed material order pushes your rough-in back two weeks. And suddenly the entire second floor is sitting idle while your subs stand around billing you for show-up time.

Submittals are one of those parts of construction that nobody gets excited about, but they will sink your schedule faster than weather delays if you do not stay on top of them. The good news is that managing submittals does not have to be complicated. It just has to be intentional.

This guide breaks down how to set up a submittal tracking process that actually works, from the day you get the contract through project closeout. No fluff, no theory. Just the stuff that keeps projects moving.

What Submittals Are and Why They Matter More Than You Think

Let’s start with the basics for anyone newer to the GC side of things. A submittal is any document, sample, or piece of product data that gets sent to the design team for approval before you install it. Shop drawings, material data sheets, color samples, equipment cut sheets, manufacturer warranties, mix designs. The list goes on.

The spec book on any commercial project will spell out exactly what needs to be submitted. On a mid-size project you might have 200 to 400 individual submittals. On a large commercial or institutional job, that number can easily hit 1,000 or more.

Here is why this matters to you as a GC: every single one of those submittals has to go through a review cycle before the associated work can happen. The architect or engineer needs to look at it, confirm it meets the design intent, and send it back with one of four stamps:

• Approved (good to go)
• Approved as Noted (minor comments, proceed with noted changes)
• Revise and Resubmit (fix it and send it back)
• Rejected (start over)

Each review cycle takes time. On most contracts, the design team gets 10 to 14 business days to review. Add in your own internal review, the time it takes the sub to prepare the submittal, shipping time for physical samples, and any resubmittals, and you are looking at 4 to 8 weeks from start to finish for a single submittal.

Now multiply that by a few hundred line items and you start to see why submittal tracking is not just paperwork. It is schedule management.

Building a Submittal Schedule That Actually Works

The single most important thing you can do for submittals is create a submittal schedule before the project starts. Not during. Before.

A submittal schedule is basically a master list of every submittal required on the project, tied to your construction schedule with real deadlines. Here is how to build one that does not just collect dust in a binder.

Step 1: Pull the Requirements from the Specs

Go through every section of the spec book and identify each submittal requirement. Most spec sections have a “Submittals” paragraph near the top that lists exactly what is needed. Your project engineer or PE should own this task. It is tedious, but skipping it is how things fall through the cracks.

Step 2: Assign Every Submittal to a Responsible Party

Each submittal needs an owner. That is almost always a subcontractor or supplier. Make sure every sub knows which submittals they owe you during the preconstruction kickoff meeting. Do not assume they read the specs. Hand them a list.

Step 3: Work Backward from the Schedule

This is where most GCs drop the ball. You need to figure out when each material or product needs to be on site, then work backward through the lead time, fabrication time, and review time to get a “submittal due” date.

For example, if your structural steel needs to be on site by Week 20, and the fabrication lead time is 8 weeks, and the review cycle is 3 weeks, your steel sub needs to have that submittal to you by Week 9 at the latest. That is much earlier than most people think.

Step 4: Build in Buffer for Resubmittals

Plan for at least one resubmittal cycle on critical items. If you are counting on everything getting approved on the first pass, you are setting yourself up for problems. Architects reject submittals. It happens. A realistic schedule accounts for it.

Step 5: Track It in One Place

Your submittal schedule needs to live somewhere that everyone on the project can access. Spreadsheets work on small jobs, but they fall apart fast when you have multiple people updating them. A proper document control system that ties submittals to your schedule and your project files is worth its weight in gold on anything above a couple million dollars.

Common Bottlenecks That Kill Your Timeline

Even with a good submittal schedule, things go sideways. Here are the bottlenecks I see over and over on projects, along with what you can do about them.

Subs Who Drag Their Feet

This is the number one problem. You hand a sub their submittal list at the kickoff meeting and then hear nothing for six weeks. By the time you start chasing them, you are already behind.

The fix: Put submittal due dates in your subcontracts. Make them contractual obligations, not suggestions. Follow up weekly starting two weeks before the due date. If a sub is consistently late on submittals, it is a red flag about how they will perform on the rest of the job too.

Architects Who Sit on Reviews

The design team gets a contractual review period, and some firms use every single day of it. On a fast-track project, that 14-day review window can be brutal.

The fix: Build a relationship with the architect’s project manager. Call them directly when you have a critical submittal in the queue. A quick phone call asking “Hey, can you bump the elevator shop drawings to the top of the pile?” works better than sending another email into the void. Also, clearly mark submittals that are on the critical path so the design team knows which ones matter most.

Missing or Incomplete Submittals

A submittal that is missing half the required information is going to get kicked back. That is another 3 to 4 weeks down the drain.

The fix: Review every submittal before you forward it to the design team. Your internal review should catch missing items, wrong product selections, and submittals that clearly do not match the spec. This is basic quality control, but a lot of GCs skip it because they are in a rush. Spending 30 minutes reviewing a submittal up front saves you weeks on the back end.

No Tracking System in Place

If you do not know the status of every submittal at any given moment, you cannot manage the process. The project manager who keeps submittal status in their head is the project manager who gets blindsided.

The fix: Use a log. Update it weekly at minimum. Every submittal should have a status (not yet received, under internal review, submitted to architect, approved, rejected, etc.), a date for each status change, and a flag for anything that is overdue. This is where photos and document management tools make a real difference. When all your submittal files, review comments, and status updates live in one system, nothing gets lost.

The Submittal Review Process Step by Step

Let’s walk through what a clean submittal review process looks like from the GC’s chair. This is the workflow you want to have dialed in before the first submittal hits your desk.

1. Sub Prepares and Sends the Submittal

The subcontractor or supplier puts together the submittal package and sends it to your office. This should include everything the spec requires for that item, along with a completed submittal cover sheet that identifies the spec section, project name, submittal number, and description.

2. GC Internal Review

Your project engineer or project manager reviews the submittal for completeness and general conformance with the contract documents. You are not doing the architect’s job here. You are checking that the right product was selected, the right number of copies are included, and the submittal actually addresses what the spec asks for.

This is also when you assign a submittal number if you have not already and log it in your tracking system.

3. Forward to the Design Team

Send the submittal to the architect or engineer of record with a transmittal letter. Note the date you sent it and the contractual review period. Start your clock.

4. Follow Up Before the Deadline

Do not wait until the review period expires to check in. A quick email at the halfway point asking for an update keeps things moving. If the design team is overloaded, they will prioritize the GC who is paying attention.

5. Receive the Review and Distribute

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When the submittal comes back, log the response immediately. If it is approved or approved as noted, distribute it to the sub and your field team. Make sure the approved submittal gets into your project blueprints and document files so the field crew is working from the right information.

If it is rejected or needs revision, get it back to the sub the same day with clear notes on what needs to change. Time lost between receiving a rejection and forwarding it to the sub is time you will never get back.

6. Track Resubmittals

Resubmittals go through the same process. Log them separately with a revision number so you have a clear paper trail. On projects where disputes arise, that documentation trail is critical for avoiding delay claims.

How Submittals Connect to RFIs, Schedules, and Everything Else

Submittals do not exist in a vacuum. They touch almost every other part of your project management workflow, and understanding those connections will help you manage them better.

Submittals and RFIs

A submittal and an RFI (Request for Information) often work hand in hand. Sometimes you cannot prepare a submittal until an RFI is answered. Other times, the architect’s review of a submittal generates questions that turn into RFIs. Track these dependencies so an open RFI does not silently block a submittal that is sitting in your queue.

Submittals and Procurement

Every approved submittal triggers a procurement action. The sub orders the material, the fabricator starts production, the supplier ships the product. If your purchasing team does not know a submittal just got approved, you lose days before the order even gets placed. Build a notification workflow so approved submittals automatically trigger the next step.

Submittals and the Schedule

This is the big one. Your CPM schedule should have submittal activities built into it. Not just “submit shop drawings” as a single line item, but the full cycle: preparation, internal review, design team review, potential resubmittal, and procurement lead time. When a submittal is late, your scheduler needs to know so they can assess the impact and adjust the plan.

If you are not connecting your submittal log to your schedule, you are flying blind. The two need to talk to each other. This is one area where having your scheduling and document management in the same platform, like Projul’s scheduling tools, saves you from chasing information across three different systems.

Submittals and Closeout

Here is something a lot of GCs forget: submittals are closeout documents. At the end of the project, the owner is going to want a complete set of approved submittals as part of the project record. If you have been sloppy about filing and organizing submittals throughout the job, you are going to spend weeks at the end pulling everything together. Stay organized from day one and closeout becomes a non-issue.

Practical Tips for Running a Tighter Submittal Process

Let me wrap up with some field-tested advice that does not require a massive process overhaul. These are things you can start doing on your next project.

Hold a Submittal Kickoff Meeting

Within the first two weeks of the project, bring all your major subs together and walk through the submittal schedule. Hand them their list, confirm due dates, and answer questions. This one meeting saves you months of chasing people.

Use a Numbering System That Makes Sense

Number your submittals by spec section. Submittal 03 30 00-001 tells everyone it is the first submittal for cast-in-place concrete. When you have 400 submittals on a project, being able to find one quickly matters.

Review Submittals Within 48 Hours of Receiving Them

Set an internal policy that no submittal sits on your desk for more than two business days. You are adding your review time to the total cycle. If the architect gets 14 days and you sit on it for a week before sending it, you just added 33% to the timeline.

Flag Critical Path Submittals

Not every submittal is equally important. The tile color for a bathroom can wait. The structural steel shop drawings cannot. Identify your critical path submittals early and give them priority treatment through every step of the process.

Send Weekly Status Reports

Every week, send your project team a submittal status report that shows what is due, what is overdue, what is under review, and what was recently approved. This keeps everyone accountable and makes sure nothing slips through the cracks.

Stop Relying on Email Chains

Email is where submittals go to die. Someone forgets to reply-all, an attachment gets lost, a revision gets sent to the wrong distribution list. Move your submittal process into a proper project management platform where every file, comment, and status change is logged automatically. If you are still managing this through Outlook folders, take a look at what purpose-built tools can do.

Document Everything

When a submittal is late, document who was responsible and when it was due. When a review takes longer than the contract allows, document it. When a rejection causes a schedule impact, document it. This is not about being adversarial. It is about protecting yourself when someone asks why the project is behind. Good documentation is the difference between absorbing a cost and recovering it.

Plan for Long Lead Items First

Identify your longest lead time items in the first week of the project and get those submittals moving immediately. Generators, switchgear, elevators, custom curtain wall systems. These items can have 20 to 30 week lead times after approval. If you wait until the “normal” submittal schedule to process them, you are already too late.

Submittal tracking is not glamorous work. Nobody becomes a GC because they love processing shop drawings. But the contractors who run clean, disciplined submittal processes are the same ones who finish on time and on budget. The ones who treat submittals as an afterthought are the ones writing letters to the owner explaining why the project is six weeks behind.

Set up your process before the project starts. Hold your subs accountable for deadlines. Review submittals quickly and thoroughly. Track everything in one place. And when something goes sideways, document it immediately.

Ready to see how Projul can work for your crew? Schedule a free demo and we will walk you through it.

That is how you keep submittals from becoming the bottleneck that tanks your schedule. It is not complicated. It just takes discipline and the right system backing you up.