How Does a Subcontractor Prepare a Submittal?

A submittal shows how you will meet the contract documents. It isn't part of them: under the AIA's general conditions, A201–2017 §3.12.4, shop drawings, product data and samples "are not Contract Documents", and their purpose is "to demonstrate how the Contractor proposes to conform". The architect checks your package against the design concept. Your job is to make that check fast.

Two rules shape everything else. First, an approval doesn't take responsibility off you: under §3.12.8 and the federal clause FAR 52.236-21, errors in your submittal stay yours even after it is approved. Second, you build to the approved submittal, so what you send is what you will be held to.

Open your spec section and find the Submittals article in Part 1 (General). It lists every item by type. Then read Division 01, usually section 01 33 00 Submittal Procedures, for the form, the file format, the number of copies and the review time. Build the package to match both.

Federal jobs spell out the label. UFGS 01 33 00 §1.6.3 asks for the project title, the contract number, the dates of the drawings, the name and phone number of the sub and supplier, the spec section, the submittal description (SD) number, and the product and its location. It numbers a resubmission with a suffix: "submittal 18 would become 18.1". Use your job's rule if it has one.

1. Pull every submittal your spec sections ask for and check each one against the GC's submittal log. Ask about any row you can't match.
2. Get the product data and shop drawings from your suppliers early, with the lead time from approval to delivery.
3. Mark up the cut sheets: highlight the exact model, size, voltage, finish and options; strike what doesn't apply. Add the tag or mark from the drawings (FD-3, Panel LP-1).
4. Verify field dimensions or say plainly which ones are still to be verified.
5. Write down every deviation from the specs on a separate sheet, with the reason and the spec paragraph it differs from. A substitution usually has its own request procedure; check Division 01.
6. Review the package yourself and stamp it. Then send it to the GC with the cover sheet, by the submit-by date on the log.

The GC's stamp means something. Under §3.12.5 and §3.12.6 of A201–2017, by submitting the contractor represents that it has reviewed and approved the submittal, verified field measurements and coordinated it with the rest of the work. The City of Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering's shop drawing procedure puts the return on the contractor too: it sends rejected submittals back to its subs and suppliers, and approved ones to them before the work starts.

A plumbing subcontractor on a made-up job, the Mill Creek Clinic, prepares submittal 002 for floor drains. The spec section asks for product data for each drain type on the plumbing fixture schedule.

The deviation is on the cover, in writing, with the paragraph it differs from and the reason. If the architect approves the submittal without noticing a strainer finish buried in a cut sheet, A201–2017 §3.12.8 says you are still responsible for it. Pointed out like this, the architect can accept it in writing as a minor change, authorize it by change order, or say no before you buy anything.

The review code tells you what you may do next. Specs word them differently, but they come down to four, plus an information-only receipt. How the architect chooses the code is its own process; here is what each one means for you.

On a resubmittal, answer each comment and flag anything else you changed. A201–2017 §3.12.9 makes the contractor direct "specific attention, in writing" to revisions the architect didn't ask for; without that notice, the approval doesn't cover them. And keep to the order of things: §3.12.7 says no work that needs a submittal is done until it is approved, and under the federal clause any work done before approval is "at the Contractor's risk". If a comment changes your scope or price, tell the GC in writing and follow your subcontract's notice rules: that is a change order question, not a submittal one.

In Conflo's Submittals tool, a subcontractor sees only its own company's submittals. You can start one yourself (you become its submitter, and the GC's project manager runs the log) or prepare one the GC set up for you: title, spec section, type, package and location, with the files attached to the record. When you submit, the GC reviews it first, then the design team.

Each submittal shows whose court the ball is in and which review step it is at. Reviewers answer with approved, approved as noted, revise and resubmit, or rejected, and anything other than approved carries a note. When it is returned as revise and resubmit, the next revision opens as a draft for you under the same number.

A submittal that comes back approved the first time is complete to the spec section's list, marked up to the exact product, honest about every deviation in writing, and checked by you before the GC sees it.

Send it through the GC by the log's submit-by date, and don't buy or build until it comes back approved or approved as noted.

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1. Summary: A201–2017, General Conditions of the Contract for Construction — AIA Contract Documents. Read October 17, 2026.
2. UFGS 01 33 00 Submittal Procedures (August 2026), §1.6.3 and §1.12.1 — Whole Building Design Guide, USACE / NAVFAC / AFCEC. Read October 16, 2026.
3. FAR 52.236-21, Specifications and Drawings for Construction — Acquisition.gov, U.S. General Services Administration. Read October 16, 2026.
4. Project Delivery Manual, 16.1 Shop Drawings — City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Engineering. Read October 16, 2026.