The Submittal Log SOP

Purpose

Equipment on a commercial job cannot be ordered until its submittal comes back from the designer, and some of it takes longer to build than the whole rough-in phase. This procedure keeps one log of every submittal the shop owes, works out from each item's lead time the latest date it can be sent, and sends the longest-lead items first. Without it, submittals go out in the order they are easy to assemble, the rooftop unit goes out last because its package is the hardest, and the crew finishes rough-in in front of an empty curb.

Scope

Covers every submittal the shop's own scope requires on a job with a specification: product data, shop drawings, samples, and the closeout submittals the spec lists at the start of the job. Covers building the log, the send-by arithmetic, sending, tracking the review clock, logging returns and releasing orders. Does not cover what goes inside a package or how to check it against the drawings (see related: How to Prepare a Submittal for Your Own Scope), what each review stamp means (see related: What a Submittal Review Stamp Means and What It Does Not), or answering a returned package (see related: How to Answer a Returned Submittal and Resubmit). Questions to the designer go through The RFI Log SOP, not this log.

Roles and responsibilities

The procedure

1. Build the log from the specification, one line per required submittal. Open each spec section in your scope and read the submittals paragraph in Part 1 (see related: The Three-Part Spec Section: General, Products, Execution), plus the Division 01 submittal procedures section, which sets the review period, the numbering and the transmittal format. Enter each required item as its own line with its spec section number. Acceptance: the number of log lines equals the number of submittal requirements you marked in the book, counted twice. Wrong looks like one line reading "HVAC equipment" covering five products, or a section in scope with no line; stop and split or add before step 2, because a missing line is a submittal nobody sends. Hazard: none at this step, it is desk work.

2. Enter a written lead time and a need-on-site week for every line, then compute the send-by week. Lead time comes from the supplier in writing, in weeks from approved submittal to delivery. The need-on-site week comes from the job schedule. Compute order-by = need-on-site minus lead time, then send-by = order-by minus the review period minus one resubmittal cycle. On a job whose Division 01 gives two weeks for review, a resubmittal costs another two, so send-by sits four weeks ahead of order-by. Acceptance: every line has a number of weeks in each of the three fields and the subtraction shown. Wrong looks like a lead time written as "standard" or "stock"; stop and get a number from the supplier before you schedule anything off it. Hazard: none, desk work.

3. Sort the log by send-by week and flag anything due within two weeks. The sort puts long-lead equipment on top automatically, which is the point: a twelve-week unit needed in week 20 is due out in week 4, ahead of a four-week grille needed in week 22, which is due in week 14. Mark any line whose send-by is within two weeks of today as red. Acceptance: the log reads top to bottom in send-by order and every red line has a named person and a date beside it. Wrong looks like a red line with no owner; stop and assign it before closing the review. Hazard: none, desk work.

4. Before a package goes out, have the lead technician verify the conditions it depends on. For equipment that lands on something existing (a curb, a pad, a structural opening, an electrical service), the lead measures and records what is really there: curb inside dimensions, clearance to the parapet, the nameplate voltage of the service. Acceptance: measurements on paper with the date and the lead's name, matched against the package's dimensions, weight and electrical data. Wrong looks like a package whose unit footprint does not match the measured curb; stop, do not send, and route it as an RFI or a selection change. Hazard: on a roof, the lead works only with the fall protection the shop's roof procedure requires for that edge distance, and does not approach an unprotected edge to measure; at an electrical service, the lead reads nameplates and panel schedules with covers on and opens nothing.

5. Send the package and record the transmittal the same day. Send it through the route Division 01 names (usually the general contractor, who forwards it to the designer) and enter the transmittal number, the date sent and who it went to. Number the package by the job's scheme, commonly spec section plus a sequence and a revision digit. Acceptance: date sent and transmittal number filled on the log before the end of that working day. Wrong looks like a package emailed directly to the engineer around the general contractor; stop, recall it if you can, and resend through the contractual route, because a review clock may never start on a package that went the wrong way. Hazard: none, desk work.

6. Track the review clock and follow up on the dates the log sets. The review due date is the send date plus the review period Division 01 states. On the due date, if nothing is back, the coordinator sends a written follow-up to the general contractor naming the submittal number, the date sent, and the order-by week. Repeat every three working days. Acceptance: every open line past its due date shows the date of the most recent follow-up. Stop rule: any line more than three working days past due, whose order-by falls within four weeks, goes to the project manager the same day for a written escalation to the general contractor's project manager stating the delivery date at risk. Hazard: none, desk work.

7. Log every return with its stamp action and route it the same day. Enter the date returned and the reviewer's action as stamped. Releasable actions (commonly "No Exceptions Taken" or "Make Corrections Noted") go to purchasing that day with any noted corrections highlighted. Non-releasable actions (commonly "Revise and Resubmit" or "Rejected") become a new line with the revision digit raised, and the resubmittal goes out within five working days. Acceptance: no return older than one working day without a next action written on its line. Wrong looks like a "Make Corrections Noted" order released without the corrections; stop the order until the notes are on the purchase order. Hazard: none, desk work.

8. Release the order and record the order date and the confirmed ship date. Purchasing places the order from the approved submittal, not from the original quote, and asks the supplier to confirm a ship date in writing. Acceptance: order week no later than order-by, and a confirmed ship date no later than one week before need-on-site. Wrong looks like a confirmed ship date that misses need-on-site; stop and tell the project manager that day, because the schedule now needs a different sequence or a different product. Hazard: none, desk work.

9. Review the whole log every Monday. The project manager reads every open line against today's week: anything newly red, anything past due, any lead time that has moved. Acceptance: the review date written at the top of the log, and every line touched by this review carries today's date. Stop rule: a week where the review did not happen gets made up the next working day, not skipped, because the log is only as current as its last review. Hazard: none, desk work.

The record this produces

The log itself, kept as one spreadsheet or one table in the job file, read by the project manager weekly and by the office when building the closeout package. Each line carries: submittal number and revision, spec section, item, date sent, transmittal number, date returned, stamp action, lead time in weeks, send-by, order-by, order date, confirmed ship date, need-on-site, and the date of the latest follow-up. A returned package is filed with its line. At closeout, the approved revision of every line is what goes into the operation and maintenance binder, which is why the revision digit matters. See related: How to Assemble a Closeout Package.

A worked pass: week 7 review on a clinic tenant improvement

The shop has the mechanical scope. Division 01 gives two weeks for review, so send-by is four weeks ahead of order-by. The project manager opens the log on the Monday of job week 7.

SUBMITTAL LOG  Clinic TI   review: wk 7 Mon
all dates are job weeks; LT = lead time, weeks

NO-R SPEC     ITEM     SND RET STAMP LT SNDBY ORDBY ORD NEED
01-0 23 74 13 RTU-1    2   4   R&R   12 4     8     -   20
01-1 23 74 13 RTU-1    5   6   MCN   12 4     8     7   20
02-0 23 34 23 EF-1,2   3   5   NET   6  8     12    5   18
03-0 23 31 13 Duct SD  4   -   -     2  6     10    -   12
04-0 23 09 23 Controls -   -   -     8  7     11    -   19
05-0 23 07 13 Duct ins -   -   -     1  7     11    -   12
06-0 23 37 13 Grilles  -   -   -     4  14    18    -   22

Check of the arithmetic: RTU-1, 20 minus 12 is order-by 8, minus 4 is send-by 4. Exhaust fans, 18 minus 6 is 12, minus 4 is 8. Duct shop drawings, 12 minus 2 is 10, minus 4 is 6. Controls, 19 minus 8 is 11, minus 4 is 7. Insulation, 12 minus 1 is 11, minus 4 is 7. Grilles, 22 minus 4 is 18, minus 4 is 14.

• Step 3, sort and flag. Controls and insulation both have send-by week 7, which is today: red, assigned to the project manager and the coordinator for today. Grilles at week 14 are not red.
• Step 4, field verification for RTU-1. Done before Rev 0 went out in week 2: curb inside dimensions measured and matched to the unit. Rev 0 came back Revise and Resubmit because the package omitted the economizer the spec required, not for fit. Rev 1 went out in week 5, inside the resubmittal allowance the send-by arithmetic had reserved.
• Step 7, returns. RTU-1 Rev 1 returned week 6, Make Corrections Noted (a note on the condensate trap height). Routed to purchasing with the note highlighted.
• Step 8, order release. RTU-1 ordered week 7, against order-by week 8: pass. Supplier confirmed ship in week 18, against need-on-site week 20, which clears the one-week margin: pass. Exhaust fans ordered week 5 against order-by 12: pass.
• Step 6, review clock: stop rule TRIGGERED. Duct shop drawings went out week 4, so the two-week review fell due at the start of week 6. Nothing back. The coordinator's follow-ups went out on the due date and three working days later. Today the line is five working days past due, more than the three-day stop rule, and its order-by week 10 is three weeks away, inside the four-week trigger. The stop rule fires: the project manager sends a written escalation to the general contractor's project manager naming submittal 03-0, the send date, the due date, and that fabrication must start by week 10 for duct on site in week 12. The line gets today's date and "escalated" in the follow-up field.
• Step 9, review close. Seven lines read, two red lines sent today, one escalation, top of log dated week 7 Monday.

The controls package, second-longest lead at eight weeks, reached its send-by date unnoticed until the Monday sort put it near the top. Working in order of ease, the grilles would have gone first.

References

• See related: How to Prepare a Submittal for Your Own Scope
• See related: What a Submittal Review Stamp Means and What It Does Not
• See related: How to Answer a Returned Submittal and Resubmit
• See related: The Three-Part Spec Section: General, Products, Execution
• CSI MasterFormat, Division 01 submittal procedures section as written into the project manual, which sets the review period and transmittal route for the job