What Is a Submittal in Construction? The Document That Approves Materials Before They're Installed

A submittal in construction is a formal package the contractor provides to the design team — the architect, engineers, and specialty consultants — for review and approval before specific materials, products, or shop-fabricated items go into the project. The submittal lets the design team verify that what the contractor intends to install actually meets the specifications, and catches substitutions or misinterpretations before they become installed and expensive.

Submittals are one of the highest-volume documentation streams on any project. A midsize commercial building might have 300-800 submittals across its life. Mechanical, electrical, structural steel, curtain wall, equipment — every scope with manufactured components generates submittals. Keeping the log moving is one of the core project management functions during the construction phase.

The Types of Submittals

Specifications call for several kinds of submittals, each with its own purpose:

The Submittal Workflow

Submittals flow in a defined sequence: the sub or supplier prepares the package, the GC reviews and stamps it, the GC transmits to the architect, the architect (and consultants, if relevant) reviews and stamps, the response flows back through the GC to the sub, and the sub either proceeds with fabrication or addresses any markups and resubmits.

Each step is a workflow checkpoint. The GC's review verifies the submittal is complete and matches the contract requirements before the architect sees it (prevents the architect from rejecting incomplete packages). The architect's review verifies compliance with the design intent. The consultant reviews (mechanical engineer for mechanical submittals, structural engineer for steel, etc.) verify technical details within their discipline.

Response Timeframes

Contracts specify a review turnaround — typically 10-14 calendar days from the architect's receipt. The clock starts when the architect receives a complete submittal, not when the sub first hands it to the GC. Incomplete submittals get returned without review and don't start the clock.

Slow submittal turnaround is a common source of schedule impact claims. When the architect takes 6 weeks on a 2-week review, the contractor can argue schedule impact for the delta. Contractors routinely track submittal turnaround as a metric precisely because it builds the evidence for future delay or cost claims.

Submittal Dispositions

The architect's review returns with one of a few standard dispositions:

Approval isn't unconditional. Most submittal stamps include language saying that approval doesn't relieve the contractor of responsibility for errors, deviations from contract documents, or coordination with other trades. The architect's approval verifies design intent is met; the contractor remains responsible for the overall coordination and correctness.

The Submittal Log

A submittal log is the master tracking document for the project. Every expected submittal is listed with its specification reference, the responsible party, the submission deadline, the date actually submitted, the architect's response date, the disposition, and any resubmit cycles.

The submittal schedule is usually one of the first things the GC develops after contract execution. It's driven by the construction schedule working backward — a product needs to be installed in Month 8, fabrication takes 6 weeks, architect review takes 2 weeks, GC review takes 1 week, so the submittal has to be in the GC's hands in Month 6 at the latest. Multiply this by hundreds of submittals and you get the log.

Submittals and Substitutions

When a contractor wants to propose an alternate product to what the specification calls for, the substitution request is usually handled through the submittal process with specific substitution paperwork. The spec either says "approved equal" products are acceptable (in which case the architect reviews for equivalence), or it names specific products without "or equal" language (in which case substitutions require formal approval).

Substitution requests typically require: the specific substitution proposed, a side-by-side comparison to the specified product, reasons for the substitution (cost, availability, lead time), any cost or schedule impact, and acknowledgment that the substitution doesn't affect adjacent trades. The architect evaluates these factors and approves, conditionally approves, or denies.

What AP and Accounting Need to Know

Submittal status affects AP in a few ways:

Digital Submittal Tools

Modern construction management platforms (Procore, PlanGrid, Submittal Exchange, and others) handle the submittal workflow digitally. The sub uploads the package, the GC reviews and annotates, the architect reviews and stamps, all with timestamps and audit trails. This replaces the older paper-based process where submittals got mailed or emailed and version control was a constant risk.

Digital tools make submittal log maintenance near-automatic — the log populates from the actual workflow, showing current status without manual updates. For projects with 500+ submittals, this is the difference between a manageable process and a chaotic one.

Bottom Line

A submittal is the mechanism that gets materials and shop-fabricated items approved before they're installed. It protects the owner's specification, lets the architect catch substitutions before they're built, and gives the contractor a paper trail that what they installed was approved. The process runs on discipline — complete packages submitted on schedule, reviewed within contractual turnaround windows, and tracked in a master log that ties back to the construction schedule. When the submittal process runs well, the project runs well; when it breaks down, schedule and quality both suffer.