Ask how SubPro runs a submittal from the spec book to closeout, what the app does, or how to get started.
What is a submittal intelligence system?
It's the end of the submittal as a spreadsheet row, a PDF in a folder and an email thread nobody can find. A submittal intelligence system keeps every submittal as one record from the spec book to closeout, does the reading and assembling your team does by hand, and proves where every requirement came from. Fewer submittals come back. Fewer orders go out late.
The definition
Submittals are a lot more than one job. The work starts the day the bid documents show up and doesn't end until the closeout binder is accepted, and most of it is still done by hand. Somebody reads the book, lists the products and the submittals, finds the documents, builds and sends the submittal packages, tracks them, deals with the addenda and then does it all again for closeout. When any piece of it slips, the submittal comes back, the review clock starts over and the order date moves.
A submittal intelligence system takes on all of that. It reads the project manual itself, so the list comes from the book instead of from somebody's memory of it. It runs from bid to closeout, so the product list it drafts from the book before award turns into the log your project engineer sends from after award. It builds the submittal packages by matching each specified product to the manufacturer's documents and putting them behind a transmittal on your form. And it shows its work. Rows point at the page they came from, and anything the system wasn't sure about gets flagged for a person.
The end of traditional submittal management.
Another submittal tool won't fix this. A submittal intelligence system will.
Three principles separate the two. Hold any tool to them, ours included.
- One Record. Every submittal has a single source of truth. The spec book lives in one place. The log lives in a spreadsheet. The submittal package sits in a folder. The architect's answer is buried in an email. And nobody is sure which one is right. A submittal isn't a spreadsheet row, a PDF or an email thread. It's a living record. In SubPro the spec page that called for it, every revision, the transmittal, the architect's response and the approval all belong to that one record, from the spec book to closeout. The test: open any submittal and see everything that ever happened to it.
- Intelligence Over Labor. Your team's judgment is worth more than their typing. Your PM and PE shouldn't spend their expertise hunting through spec books, chasing product data, building transmittals and copying rows from one system into the next. That's work that should never have existed. SubPro reads the book, finds the documents, assembles the submittal packages and tracks every one, so your people spend their time on the decisions, the risk and the procurement that need them. The test: who reads the spec book, and who builds the submittal package? If the answer is a person, it isn't intelligence.
- Evidence Over Assumption. Every requirement can prove where it came from. Trust doesn't come from a log that looks clean. It comes from being able to check it. Each row in SubPro points at the spec page that called for it, with the sentence marked, and when SubPro can't tie a row to a page it flags it and tells you why. Every product document shows where it was found, and its issue date when the manufacturer printed one. Intelligence without evidence is just automation. Intelligence with evidence is accountability. The test: click any row and see if it opens the page.
Where other tools come up short
A log tool you fill in by hand fails all three: the log lives apart from everything else, a person does the reading and the assembling, and a row is only as good as whoever typed it. A project platform routes and stores finished submittals, and some of them now draft submittals from the spec book too, so check whether yours builds the submittal packages and shows the page behind each row. A submittal service builds the submittal packages by hand, and the record of where everything came from ends up in somebody's inbox. Hold any tool to the three principles, ours included.
How SubPro runs it from bid to closeout
Read the full method- Before bid. You upload the project manual. The drafted rows name the manufacturers and products the book specifies, each with its page, so the estimator can go through them.
- The submittal log. After award, those rows become the log, grouped by CSI division with the section, type, description and page. Rows the system wasn't sure about carry a flag.
- The submittal packages. SubPro matches each row to the manufacturer's documents in its database and puts them behind a transmittal on your form, one PDF per submittal.
- Send and track. You email them from the app. The architect's response gets recorded, the stamped copy gets stored and every row shows how many days it's been out.
- Schedule and warnings. SubPro lays out a schedule in construction order with the early items first, flags the long lead items and puts a last safe send date on each scheduled row. If it doesn't go out by that date, it can't be on site when that phase needs it.
- Addenda and modifications. SubPro compares the revised book to the original section by section. It only reads what changed, and every changed row points at the change that caused it.
- Ask the book. You can ask the spec book or the log questions in plain language and get answers with citations you can click.
- Closeout. SubPro builds the closeout rows and the closeout package from the record the job already has.
- Handoff. You get Excel files that import into the platform your team already uses, and that platform stays the record for the job.
Why we gave it a name
For years all of this got called submittal software, and most of it was a list with a status column. We wanted a name for the whole job. To earn the name, a system has to go from bid to closeout and show its work the whole way, which means it does the reading, builds the submittal packages, tracks them and shows you where everything came from. That's what we built SubPro to do, and it's what we'd ask you to hold any tool to. Every submittal should be one record you can trace from the spec book to closeout. Anything less is just another submittal tool.
Questions about the category
Is a submittal intelligence system the same thing as submittal software?
No. When most people say submittal software, they mean a log with a workflow around it. A submittal intelligence system reads the spec book itself, builds the submittal packages and shows you the source behind its rows. The log is just one of the things it puts out.
Does it replace the project platform we already use?
No. Your platform stays the system of record. SubPro builds the log and the submittal packages and hands them off as PDF and Excel files that import into it. Your GC keeps getting submittals the same way they do now.
What does “shows its work” mean?
Rows carry the page they came from, so a reviewer can open the project manual to that page in one click. If the system couldn't sort a row out, it flags it for a person.
Does it estimate the job?
No. Before bid it gives the estimator a draft list of the manufacturers and products the book specifies, each with its page, to check. Pricing, quantities and takeoff are still the estimator's job.
Hold SubPro to the three principles.
Bring a project manual to a fit call. You'll get back the product list, the drafted log and one finished submittal package, and you can check every one of them against the three principles yourself.