Submittal Example: Overview – PlanRadar HelpCenter

About Submittals

What is a Submittal?

A Submittal is a formal document package that contractors (typically general contractors or subcontractors) submit to architects, engineers, and other stakeholders for approval before proceeding with specific aspects of a construction project. Submittals usually include shop drawings, product data, material samples, and other documentation needed to confirm that the proposed work complies with the project design and contractual requirements.

Characteristics of a Submittal

Formal approval process – Ensures that materials, products, and methods align with design specifications and contractual obligations.
Traceable record – Provides a documented history of submissions, revisions, and approvals.
Role-based workflow – Typically involves a Submitter (subcontractor), a Coordinator (general contractor), and Reviewers (architect and engineer).
Linked to project documentation – References specifications, contract sections, or delivery schedules.

Importance of Submittals

Ensures compliance by confirming that the materials and methods used in construction meet the design specifications and quality standards set by architects and engineers. This process helps prevent issues that could arise from using substandard or inappropriate materials or methods.
Prevents costly mistakes by identifying and resolving potential issues before procurement or work begins.
Keeps the project on schedule by establishing clear submission and approval deadlines that help maintain workflow efficiency.
Creates accountability by serving as a formal mechanism for documenting approvals and decisions made throughout the project.

Regional Terminology

The term Submittal is most commonly used in US-based construction projects. Depending on local regulations and industry standards, equivalent processes may be referred to as Shop Drawing Reviews, Material Approvals, or Sample Approvals, among others.

Regardless of terminology, the purpose remains the same: to ensure that materials and methods comply with design and regulatory standards, and to obtain formal, traceable approval before execution.

Overview and Workflow

PlanRadar lets you manage Submittals flexibly. You can fully customise forms, approval workflows, and field permissions to match your organisation’s needs. This example Submittal explains a simple setup to get you started, which you can then adapt to your own project requirements.

Roles

Submitter: Creates or fills out the Submittal ticket and uploads the required documentation.
(In this example, the Submitter is a subcontractor with an in-house user license. In this article subcontractor refers to the stakeholder role and not to the PlanRadar user type, if not stated otherwise.)
Submittal Coordinator: Reviews completeness, coordinates revisions, manages deadlines, and starts the approval workflow.
(In this example, the Coordinator is the general contractor managing the project.)
Reviewers: Review the submittal and either approve, approve with comments or reject.
(In this example, Reviewers are the design team – architect and engineer.)

Workflow

If the Submittal details are complete and approved by all reviewers, the workflow proceeds in one direction.

Once the Submittal details are completed by the Submitter, the Coordinator starts the ticket approval workflow and reviewers of each approval step get notified automatically.
If the Coordinator finds missing Submittal details he asks the Submitter in Ticket comments to update the Submittal details and/or attachments before starting the approval workflow.
Once the approval workflow starts, the reviewers can approve or reject and add comments.
If a reviewer rejects, the approval process stops and next steps are up to the Coordinator (update the ticket details and restart the approval process or leave the ticket rejected).
The ticket (including all attachments) receives the final Approved status once all reviewers have approved.

Each step is explained in detail in Submittal Example: Workflow in Practice.

Read more about the Ticket Approvals feature below.

Ticket Form Fields

The following table shows all the fields for this Submittal Example, the field type and a short description of their purpose.

Field name	Field type	Purpose
Title	Default	Descriptive name (e.g. Rebar shop drawings)
Discipline	List	Categorise by discipline (e.g. Architectural, Electrical, Plumbing)
Description	Long text	Summary or additional details about the Submittal
Specification section	Short text	Reference to a relevant contract/specification section
Submittal type	List	Categorise by type (e.g. material, shop drawing, sample, product data)
Approve by date	Date	Deadline by which the Submitter requests an approval decision.
Submittal Coordinator	User field	Designated person (known to the requester)
Assignee	Default	Who is responsible for action (ball in court). The assignee is only relevant for the ticket details, not the ticket approval. In this case it is only the Submitter or Coordinator.

All fields are filled by the Submitter, except the Assignee field can also be updated by the Coordinator to reflect who is currently responsible for action. Coordinator stays assigned during ticket approval.

Ticket Approvals

Submittals rely on PlanRadar’s Ticket Approval feature to handle structured review and approval steps.

The Ticket Approval feature enables you to create custom, step-by-step approval workflows for any ticket type.

Once the approval process starts, the ticket is locked to prevent any changes to the ticket fields and attachments that are about to get reviewed.
The ticket receives the final Approved status once all reviewers approved it.
If any reviewer rejects the request, the approval process ends. The ticket needs to be unlocked in order to make corrections before restarting the approval workflow.
The approval applies to the entire ticket (including all attachments). There is no partial approval of single fields or files.
The approval status of a ticket is visible in Approvals, Ticket details, Tickets list view, and Ticket attachments view in Documents.

Email Notifications for Ticket Approvals

The following rules define who receives email notifications during the approval process:

Only Reviewers of the active step are notified when the request is:
- Pending their approval
- Due in 3 days
- Due today
All involved users — including the requester, reviewers, ticket creator, assignee, receivers, and any users in custom user fields — are notified when:
- An approval request started.
- An approval is overdue.
- A reviewer approved, rejected, or commented on a request.
- All reviewers completed an approval step.
- All reviewers completed all approval steps.
- An approval request got cancelled.
- A ticket got unlocked (approval status deleted and approval process cancelled).

If you do not want to notify receivers and users in custom user form fields, remove the checkbox in the approval workflow:

Users do not receive notifications about their own actions unless they have enabled that setting.

The requester is not notified when submitting an approval request, and reviewers are not notified about their own review actions (approved, rejected, or commented).

Also see Configure E-Mail Notifications > More Options.

Notification Settings

All participants should have email notifications enabled to ensure timely responses.

Notifications are triggered when Submittals are created, revised, or advanced through the approval workflow.

Numbering Sequence

The Submittal form can be configured to automatically assign a numbering sequence (e.g. SUB-001, SUB-002, SUB-003...). This makes it easy to reference submittals in meetings, reports, and correspondence.

Steps to Manage Submittals in PlanRadar

The following articles explain each step to set up and process this example Submittal:

Submittal Example: Setup – Configure the Submittal form, set permissions, and prepare the approval workflow.
Submittal Example: Workflow in Practice – Create a Submittal ticket with details and attachments and run the approval workflow.

Optional Fields

The following fields are suggestions that might be helpful in certain situations.

Field name	Field type	Edited by	Purpose
Responsible contractor	List	Submitter	The submitter's company is displayed next to the user. Add this field to manually put the company name in this dedicated field.
Submit by date	Date	Coordinator	In case the Coordinator creates the ticket and asks the subcontractor to provide the submittal details. Deadline for submission of documents, enter the date by which it must be ready to start the approval.
Priority	Default	Coordinator	Indicates urgency
Status	Default	Coordinator	Track process (e.g. open, in progress, closed). Use 'In progress' during ticket approval. Or create a custom list field with custom status. Note: The approval status is more relevant for submittals and additional ticket status may not be required.
Confirmed Delivery Date	Date	Submitter	Date when vendor confirms delivery. Later the actual delivery date can only be added when the ticket is unlocked (approval status removed). Alternatively, record the updated date in comments, which don't get locked by approvals.

Additional Possibilities

Processing Submittals as Tickets offers several additional possibilities and integrations that can enhance collaboration and efficiency.

Create and process Submittal tickets anywhere with the PlanRadar mobile app.
Read more in Create a Ticket.
Place the Submittal ticket on a plan or even on a 360° image of a SiteView run to give the reviewers more info about the current state or progress.
Read more in Set, Change or Delete the Plan Position of a Ticket and in Add Tickets to 360° Images in the Webapp.
Officially confirm a processed Submittal with signatures.
Read more in Sign a Ticket.
The PlanRadar Assistant can help to get documents insights which can speed up the Submittal process without compromising privacy.
Read more in Get Documents Insights in the Webapp.
Get insights about your Submittal with statistics.
Read more in Statistics.
Create PDFs or Excel files to summarise and share approved submittals by creating ticket reports.
Read more in Ticket Reports.
Use PlanRadar Connect or Open APIs for automations like generating PDF reports of Submittals and save them in PlanRadar Documents or other cloud storage services, or share them via email.