A General Contractor's Guide to Construction Procurement

The switchgear was specified in March 2026. The submittal sat with the engineer for five weeks. The order went in late, and now the electrical inspection is waiting on a delivery that’s 12 weeks out.

You can’t control lead times, tariffs, or how fast the design team reviews submittals. You can control when you start, what you track, and how early you see a problem coming.

So, what is construction procurement? Construction procurement is how a GC buys out, orders, and delivers everything a project needs: subcontracts, materials, and equipment, on schedule and within budget. It starts in preconstruction and runs until the last PO is closed. A strong construction procurement process works backward from when each item is needed on site.

Understanding construction procurement

Procurement in construction: two meanings

When a client talks about procurement, they usually mean how the whole project gets delivered. When a GC talks about procurement, it usually means buyout and purchasing. Both show up in search results, so it helps to know the difference.

Construction procurement methods are the project delivery models a client chooses. The four most common are:

• Design-bid-build: the client hires a designer, then bids the finished design to GCs.
• Design-build: one contract covers both design and construction.
• Construction manager at risk (CMAR): the GC joins during design and guarantees a maximum price.
• Integrated project delivery (IPD): the client, designer, and builder share risk and reward under one agreement.

The delivery method shapes when you get involved. Once the job is yours, the rest of this guide covers GC procurement: how you buy out the job and get materials on site.

What GC procurement covers

• Buyout: bidding, leveling, and awarding subcontracts. Here’s how the construction buyout process protects your margin.
• Material and equipment purchasing: issuing construction purchase orders to suppliers.
• Submittals and approvals: getting shop drawings, product data, and samples approved before anything gets ordered.
• Expediting and delivery: tracking every order until it’s on site, inspected, and installed.

The need: why procurement is harder for GCs in 2026

Prices are climbing fast
AGC reported on September 10 that the producer price index for inputs to new nonresidential construction rose 8.9% from August 2025 to August 2026. It cited conflict in the Middle East and tariffs of up to 50% on key metals as causes. AGC’s survey also found that rising prices are contributing to project delays. And according to the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), prices for iron and steel, softwood lumber, switchgear, and copper wire and cable are up more than 10% year over year.

Here’s what that means on a real package. If prices keep rising at 10% a year, waiting six months to lock in a $400,000 electrical gear package could cost roughly $20,000 more:

$400,000 × 10% × 0.5 years ≈ $20,000

That’s a rough estimate, since prices don’t rise in a straight line. But it’s a real cost of waiting.

Long lead times hide in the spec book
Switchgear, elevators, curtain wall, and rooftop units can take months to fabricate. If nobody flags them in preconstruction, they end up on the critical path.

Submittals stall
Nothing gets ordered until the submittal is approved. Slow reviews or resubmittals can burn weeks of float, and approved submittals with changes can turn into cost. Here’s how submittals lead to change orders.

Commitments aren’t visible against the budget
If POs and subcontracts live in email and spreadsheets, the PM can’t see committed costs against the budget until the invoices show up. By then, it’s too late to make a different buying decision.

The solution: the construction procurement process in 7 steps

1. Define requirements and flag long-lead items.
   Review the plans, specs, and schedule with estimating, the PM, and the super. List every package and material, and flag anything with a long lead time.
2. Build the procurement log backward from need dates.
   For every item, start with when it has to be on site and work backward (see the example below).
3. Qualify subs and suppliers on more than price.
   Look at availability, lead times, quality history, financial stability, safety record, and insurance compliance. Don’t let a sub mobilize without current certificates of insurance.
4. Bid, level, and buy out.
   Compare bids on scope, not just the number, and award subcontracts with clear scope, payment terms, delivery dates, and change procedures.
5. Issue POs and track commitments against the budget.
   Every subcontract and construction purchase order becomes a commitment. Track it against the budget line it belongs to, so your job costing and forecasts reflect what you’ve actually bought.
6. Manage construction submittals and approvals.
   Track due dates, review times, and resubmittals for every item in the log. Open RFIs that affect a submittal belong on the same list.
7. Expedite, receive, and close out.
   Confirm ship dates with suppliers, log deliveries in the field, and close POs once materials are received and invoiced.

Procurement log example: working backward from the need date

A procurement log (also called a procurement schedule) tracks every item from submittal to installation. Here’s how the dates work backward for switchgear with a 36-week lead time, needed for installation in week 60 of the project:

If the sub doesn’t start the submittal by week 17, the switchgear is late before anyone has ordered it. Tie those dates to the three-week lookahead, and bulletproof construction scheduling catches the problem while there’s still time to recover.

Where construction procurement software fits

A procurement log in a spreadsheet works on one job. Across 10 jobs, it breaks down. Submittal dates live in one file, POs live in accounting, the schedule lives somewhere else, and the budget doesn’t show commitments until invoices hit.

Construction procurement software, or construction project management software that covers procurement, keeps those pieces together:

• Purchase orders and subcontracts tracked as commitments against the budget, as soon as they’re issued.
• Submittal status tied to the procurement log, so a stalled review is visible.
• Procurement dates connected to the schedule, so a late order shows up as a schedule risk.
• Field receiving, so the office knows what’s on site without calling the super. Construction field reporting closes that loop.
• Committed costs flowing into forecasts and your WIP report, so you know what’s bought, what’s left, and where margin stands.

Why GCs manage construction procurement in RedTeam

RedTeam is construction management software built for general contractors, by people who came from the jobsite. For over 20 years, small to mid-sized GCs have used RedTeam to simplify, automate, and standardize their work from precon through closeout, and procurement runs through all of it.

With RedTeam, your team can:

• Buy out the job and track commitments in one place, with subcontracts and purchase orders tied to the budget lines they belong to.
• Keep RFIs and submittals connected to the work, so approvals don’t stall in someone’s inbox.
• Connect procurement to the schedule and budget, so a late order or price increase shows up before it hits the job.
• Give the field and office the same information, with daily logs, jobsite photos, and project documents in the same platform.
• Carry committed costs into forecasting and billing, all the way to closeout.

Unlike enterprise construction software, every RedTeam customer gets full software functionality and a dedicated implementation and customer success team. You’re not buying a login. You’re getting a team that helps you set up your procurement workflow the way your company runs.

With material prices climbing, the GCs who protect margin are the ones who see every commitment and every lead time early. Compare your options in our guide to the best construction management software.

That’s total project control. That’s RedTeam.

See how RedTeam keeps procurement on schedule and on budget

Find out how your team can track every buyout, PO, and submittal in one place.