Submittals
Send shop drawings, product data, and method statements for review — then track every approver's decision through to approval.
What are Submittals?
Submittals are the packages of information a contractor sends to the architect, engineer, or client for review before ordering or installing materials — shop drawings, product data, samples, method statements, test reports, and QA/QC documents. Every submittal runs through a review cycle, and Bestrack tracks exactly who has responded, when, and with what decision.
Submittals live inside each project. Open any project from your dashboard and select Submittals from the sidebar to get started.
Click "Submittals" to expand · Then click any stage to see details
Creating a Submittal
Click New Submittal to open the form. Each submittal captures:
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
| Submittal ID | Auto-generated from the project code (e.g. PROJECT-SB-001) |
| Name | Short descriptive title |
| Description | Optional longer detail about what's being submitted |
| Type | Shop drawing, product data, sample, method statement, test report, or a custom type |
| Package | Logical grouping (e.g. Structural, M&E, Finishes) |
| Priority | Low, Medium, High, or Urgent |
| Manager | The project team member driving the submittal |
| Contractor | The submitting contractor or vendor (optional) |
| Labels | Colour-coded tags for filtering across the project |
| Revision | Revision number — starts at 0 and increments on resubmission |
Add reference documents to link related drawings or specs from the project's Documents module, and upload attachments (PDFs, Word, Excel, images) — as many as the submittal needs.
Approvers and Review Workflow
Every submittal has one or more approvers — the people who need to respond before the submittal is considered decided. For each approver, set:
- Due date — when their response is expected
- Order — controls whether the review is sequential (each reviewer answers in turn) or parallel (everyone reviews at once)
Each approver records one of four responses when they've reviewed:
| Response | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Approved | Accepted with no changes |
| Approved as Noted | Accepted with minor comments |
| Rejected | Not accepted — changes required |
| Revise and Submit | Needs rework and resubmission |
Responses can include notes and a digital signature (captured on-canvas and stored with the response). The overall submittal status rolls up automatically from these individual responses.
Submittal Statuses
The overall status of a submittal reflects where it sits in the review cycle. Click any status to see what triggers it and what happens next.
Click "Submittal Statuses" to expand · Then click any status to see details
Status is calculated from the approver responses automatically, so you don't need to flip it manually — answer the last approver and the status lands where it should.
Revisions
When an approver asks for changes, bump the Revision number, update the attachments, and resend. The submittal is now on a fresh review round, and the history of what was submitted and who decided what stays attached for the audit trail.
Filtering and Managing
The submittal table has the tools you need for a busy review log:
- Search — match by name or submittal ID
- Status filter — Draft, Pending Review, In Review, Approved, Rejected, Resubmitted
- Contractor filter — show submittals from a single contractor
- Approver filter — find every submittal assigned to a specific reviewer
- Column toggle — show or hide Priority, Package, Type, Labels, Approvers
- Bulk select — tick rows to delete or update several submittals at once
Click any row to open and edit it — fields remain editable until the submittal is closed out.