A Better Way to Manage Construction Submittals

Every commercial job runs on a submittal log, and on most jobs, keeping it current means chasing emails, updating spreadsheets, and asking who has the ball. RedTeam’s new submittals experience changes that. Now, your team can build the log from the spec book, standardize review workflows, and see who owns every next action in one place.

You can’t control how fast an architect turns a review around. However, you can control how quickly your log gets built, how clearly ownership shows, and how early an overdue item gets flagged.

Understanding construction submittals

What is a submittal in construction?

A submittal is the documentation a subcontractor or supplier sends to show exactly what they plan to install, before they order or build it. Common examples include shop drawings, product data, samples, and mockups. The GC reviews each submittal, then the architect or engineer approves it, rejects it, or returns it for revisions.

On a commercial job, that can mean hundreds of items, from curtain wall shop drawings to switchgear product data. That’s why the submittal log matters so much.

What a submittal log tracks

A submittal log (also called a submittal register) lists every required submittal on the project, usually organized by specification section. For each item, it tracks who submits it, who reviews it, the due dates, the current status, and who owns the next action.

The need: why the construction submittal process stalls

Most submittal delays don’t come from the review itself. Instead, they come from the process around it:

Building the log by hand
Someone copies hundreds of requirements out of the spec book, one section at a time. It takes days, and it’s easy to miss an item.

Nobody knows who has the ball
When the log lives in a spreadsheet, the only way to find out who owes the next action is to ask.

A different workflow on every item
If every submittal routes differently, setup takes longer, and reviews slip through the cracks.

Late approvals turn into schedule and cost problems
Nothing gets ordered until the submittal is approved. As a result, a stalled review can push long-lead items onto the critical path. It can also turn into cost. Here’s how submittals lead to change orders when they go wrong.

The solution: how RedTeam’s new submittals experience works

Build your submittal log faster

You don’t have to start every register from scratch. Instead, RedTeam gives you three ways to build it:

1. Extract from the specification book. Upload the spec book, and RedTeam identifies submittal requirements and groups them by specification section. Then, review each requirement next to the source document before you add it.
2. Import from another project. Reuse items when you’re working from similar requirements.
3. Add items manually. Enter items one at a time or in bulk when you want complete control.

See who owns every next action

Every item lives in one log that your team can search, sort, filter, group, and customize. The Court column shows who owns the next action on each item right now. For example, group by Court to see everything waiting on each person, or by submitter to see what each company still owes you.

Standardize your review workflow

First, set a default workflow for the project. Then, new submittals follow the right submission and review steps automatically. You can also rename and reorder review steps, add as many as the project needs, and copy workflows across multiple items.

Keep documents, reviews, and responses together

RedTeam combines files from you and the submitter into a single document for review. Reviewers apply their responses, and the submittal manager finalizes the official response, distributes it, and tracks receipt. Meanwhile, comments stay with the item, you can tag teammates for input, and confidential comments stay internal to your company.

Subs and suppliers don’t need a full seat in your system, either. Instead, they upload their documents through the RedTeam Portal, where they see only the items they’re involved in.

Keep submittals moving

Set reminders around submission and review due dates, so your team gets ahead of items before they go overdue. In addition, the notification center shows when an item arrives for your review or is ready for the official response.

How submittals connect to the rest of the job

A submittal log doesn’t stand alone. Instead, it drives three other parts of the project:

• Procurement: Approval dates drive order dates, especially for long-lead items in your construction procurement log.
• Scheduling: Submittal due dates belong on your three-week lookahead. That’s how bulletproof construction scheduling catches late items early.
• Quality: Submittal review is quality assurance. Your construction quality control plan then checks that installed work matches what was approved.

Questions that come up during review often turn into RFIs. So, keeping both in the same platform keeps the answers connected to the work.

What’s new for existing RedTeam customers

If you’ve used the legacy submittals experience, here’s what changes:

• Team members drive assignments. First, add anyone who submits or reviews, including subs, architects, engineers, and clients, to the project’s Team Members tab.
• Simpler access levels. Five levels (None, Viewer, Coordinator, Manager, and Administrator) control what each person can see and do.
• Reusable workflows. Set a default for the project and copy workflows across items.
• A log built for visibility. Search, filter, sort, group, and customize your view, with the next action always visible.
• Spec-based setup. Upload a specification book and confirm the requirements RedTeam identifies.

How to enable the new submittals experience

You turn on the new experience project by project, so you can start on new jobs and leave current ones as they are. Before you switch, keep a few things in mind:

• The switch is permanent. You can’t turn it off for that project.
• It’s for projects without submittals yet. Legacy submittals don’t migrate into the new log, so start on a new project.
• Commitments aren’t connected yet. If your process links submittals to commitments, stay on the legacy experience for that project for now.
• Re-upload your spec book. A spec book in Plans & Specs isn’t available to extraction, so upload it again in the extraction tool.

Projects that stay on the legacy experience keep working exactly as before, with no deadline to move over.

See how to enable the updated submittals experience →

Construction management software that keeps improving

Your software should keep getting better, rather than forcing your team to work around the same problems year after year. That’s the approach behind 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. Submittals now sit alongside RFIs, change orders, schedules, budgets, and daily logs, so your team manages more of the job in one place.

Unlike enterprise construction software, every RedTeam customer gets full software functionality and a dedicated implementation and customer success team. In other words, you’re not just buying a login. You’re getting a team that helps you set up workflows like this one the way your company runs.

If you’re comparing options or looking for an alternative to platforms like Procore or Autodesk Forma, see how RedTeam stacks up in our guide to the best construction management software. Or, explore RedTeam’s construction submittal software in more detail.

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

See the RedTeam submittals experience in action

Find out how your team can build a submittal log in less time and keep every review moving.