Ensure Contract Compliance with an Early, Accurate Submittal Log

Embarking on a new project is an exciting and daunting time for your team as you rise to new challenges and set the stage for the foreseeable future. Your team needs to hit the ground running on a number of concurrent tasks, all of which have an effect on each other. Providing your precon teams with project costs, quantities, and requirements; collecting bids from partners, vendors, and subcontractors; defining the scope of work overall and for each team; starting any of these off on the wrong foot can hinder progress at every stage in the project’s lifecycle. Your team needs a rock-solid jumping-off point at every stage, and that jumping off point should be an accurate submittal log.

When general contractors like Mortenson prioritize detailed submittal logs, they see an increase in quality throughout the project. According to Alison Hart, Mortenson’s Manager of Project Solutions, “By adding Pype to our field applications platform and having them auto-create that submittal register upfront, it really frees up our project managers to get ahead of those quality issues.” Whether you use Pype AutoSpecs or invest hours of effort at the start of a project, creating and reviewing accurate submittal logs is essential to increase quality and mitigate liability issues before they become a major risk. 

Estimating and Preconstruction

Pulling everything from a spec book into a submittal register upfront can seem like a lot of busy work, but it is crucial for kicking off every other stage of the project, starting with estimating. Looking to place a bid on a potential project that’s feasible but competitive? Having all of the project’s available submittals, product data, QA/QC requirements, and more already pulled can allow you to line up potential subs and material or product sources for your bid. Creating a detailed cost estimate based on 100% of the information in the available specs will save you money down the line in change orders and project delays, and will impress the owners when you can back up your realistic estimate. Then, once you win your bid, you can focus your efforts on acting on the mock-ups, meetings, action submittals, basis-of-design products, and other communication items since they’ve already been pulled and can easily be added to your project in BIM 360.

During the Project

Even when using BIM 360 to track submittals, returning to the submittal register for review is invaluable to your build-phase workflow as quality control. A submittal in your project may be marked as complete, but how do you ensure that it meets all of the contract requirements? A side-by-side comparison with the submittal register and the relevant page from the spec book can provide context to a requirement, helping PMs to better decide if an RFI is necessary. That’s why we created the SpecView feature in AutoSpecs; a thorough review is an essential risk mitigation strategy. 

New Spec Versions

Suppose an RFI is filed and a change order comes through—keeping track of an evolving spec book can be a logistical nightmare with on-site implications. Having a well-built submittal register for each version can make comparison far easier and far more accurate. You’ll be able to notify your crew on-site of submittal additions, deletions, or changes, preventing mistakes in work that would waste time to correct. See how AutoSpecs handles versioning here.

Project Closeout

Project closeout is when everything comes to a head, from tests and inspections to turnover to payment. Mistakes made at any other part of the lifecycle come to light here, often having last-minute influence on your bottom line. If you have your closeout requirements pulled during precon with your other submittals, you can easily dive into closing out trades before they leave the site, and make fulfilling all closeout requirements that much easier. Missed mock-up requirements can easily cost thousands of dollars per occurrence, a financial headache that could easily be avoided by weekly reviews of your closeout log.

Of course, creating such comprehensive registers and logs is a dreaded, tedious process that requires a lot of focus and time. Consider letting Pype AutoSpecs do it for you. Using Pype’s industry-leading AI and machine learning algorithms, AutoSpecs can scan your entire spec book in minutes, pull out and organize requirements and information by type, and let you upload new versions of your spec book to immediately highlight changes to your project. Starting a project off with a solid foundation is key, and AutoSpecs lets your team hit the ground running. 

Looking to get a head start on contract compliance, but don’t have a spec book for your project? With Pype SmartPlans, project teams will be able to upload their drawing sets and automatically unlock their project requirements. And, with our advanced AI, teams will be assisted as they review their draft log, evaluating potential and recommended submittals, and exporting their schedules into excel spreadsheets to get ahead on procurement logs. Ensure contract compliance across every project with Pype.