Rows drafted from the spec book
Requirements arrive grouped by section, so your team reviews a list instead of building one.
Submittal log software for the first draft your team can review.
SubPro turns a project manual into a reviewable first draft: every row cites its spec page, the rows that need a decision are flagged, and the whole log exports as an editable Excel file.
Catch the row that never made it in
Every PM has met the log that lies: tidy columns, plausible section numbers, a respectable row count. Then month five arrives, the GC asks for the fire-stopping product data, and there is no such row, because the requirement lived on page 412 and page 412 got typed late at night.
A hand-built log fails quietly: the rows that exist look identical to the rows that should. Submittal log software earns its keep by making every row checkable and every gap findable while the mistake still costs minutes.
Start from rows, not a blank sheet
A source page on every row
When someone asks why a row is there, the answer is the page attached to it, not another hunt through the manual.
An editable handoff
Clean it up and export to Excel. Your tracker gets a finished starting set instead of an empty register.
Work in the spreadsheet you already run
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Number | The submittal number, so a phone call can reference it. |
| Section and title | Section 08 71 00 Door Hardware, so a stranger knows which trade owns it. |
| Type | Product data, shop drawings, samples, or test reports. Each follows a different path. |
| Responsible party | The name Friday's question lands on. |
| Source page | The page in the project manual that created the row. Everything else stands on it. |
| Status and notes | Where the row is and what was decided. The log is a conversation, not a monument. |
Audit the draft row by row
Every product page on the internet says accurate. SubPro attaches the evidence instead: each drafted row carries the page it was read from, and the citation is a working link. Checking a suspect row takes less time than complaining about it.
In a hand-typed log a wrong row survives until it hurts. In a cited log it dies in review, at a desk. Rows that need judgment arrive flagged, because uncertain beats confidently wrong.
Review one section as drafted rows
Section 08 71 00 Door Hardware runs 40 pages of hinges, closers, and keying language and carries one of the longest submittals lists in the book. It is exactly where a hand-typed log starts dropping rows.
- A row for the hardware schedule, tagged 08 71 00 with the page behind it.
- Separate product data rows for hinges, closers, locksets, and exit devices, so each is reviewed on its own.
- The keying schedule row flagged as an owner decision, because keying is coordinated, not picked from a catalog.
- All of it in the XLSX beside every other section, ready to sort and hand off.
Keep one log from kickoff to closeout
Most submittal logs die young: built in a burst of kickoff energy, accurate for six weeks, then outrun by revisions in inboxes. Here status changes happen on the row as rows get reviewed, sent, returned, and revised. Keeping the record current is never a separate chore, which is the only record-keeping that survives a real project.
Built for whoever owns the log
Specialty contractors
Your scope, your rows, without borrowing a week from estimating to type them.
Project engineers
You review a cited draft and spend the reclaimed week on coordination.
Document controllers
Source pages and statuses built in, instead of a formatting project with 40 tabs.
PMs inheriting a job
Run the project manual, get a cited baseline, reconcile it against what the last team left.
Catch the boilerplate section too
Section 23 05 29 Hangers and Supports for HVAC Piping and Equipment reads like boilerplate and gets skimmed like boilerplate, until a seismic bracing requirement surfaces at inspection with no submittal behind it. The draft carries rows for hanger types, channel framing, and attachment hardware, keeps the bracing row a skim would lose, and flags the support layout drawings for coordination.
Answer the two objections we hear most
"Our Excel log works fine."
It does, until the 850-page ground-up job with three addenda, and nobody picks which job that is. Page count is what breaks hand-typing.
"We tried extraction once. It made things up."
Unverifiable output deserves that distrust. Here a fabricated row has nowhere to hide: click the citation and the paragraph either says what the row claims or it does not. The project manual itself is processed for your job and then removed, per the data handling page.
Submittal log software FAQ
What should submittal log software actually do?
Find the submittal requirements in the project manual, keep the source page on each row, flag the rows that need a decision, and carry status and history forward so the log stays a live record instead of a spreadsheet that dies after kickoff.
What does the exported submittal log look like?
An editable XLSX with one row per requirement: section, submittal type, responsible party, source page, review status, and notes. It sorts, filters, and pastes into whatever tracker your GC runs.
Can I edit the draft SubPro produces?
Yes. The draft is a starting point, not a locked output. Your team edits rows, adds or removes requirements, and owns the final log. SubPro removes the typing, not the decisions.
What happens when an addendum lands?
The affected rows update as revisions rather than silent overwrites, and the prior state stays in the row's history. You can always answer what changed, when, and what the log said before.
Keep going
Submittal log automation
How the first draft appears before anyone opens the project manual.
Submittal register automation
The same rows as a register, page citations riding along.
Submittal handoff output
The export formats your GC and your closeout binder will want.
Review a real draft, not a demo.
Send one project manual. Read the rows it produced, click a citation, and decide whether the draft holds up on your own job.