Preconstruction
Review document sets early and identify difficult or ambiguous requirements before turnover.
For general contractors
Give the project team a register it can actually plan from.
Build the first register from the project manual, assign review responsibility, and preserve the source evidence behind every requirement.
Built for the people who own the first register.
Project management
Start with a cleaner register, then assign responsibility and plan dates around the work.
Project engineering
Verify items against the source without repeatedly searching the project manual.
Fewer vague rows at turnover
A generated list is not helpful if the project engineer must reopen every section to understand it. Specific action titles and source links reduce that second round of interpretation.
A record of the review
Confidence, evidence, and human decisions stay visible. That makes it easier to explain why an item was included, changed, combined, or removed.
Use specification requirements earlier.
Evaluate document complexity
Identify multiple volumes, dense delegated-design requirements, early selections, mockups, commissioning, and closeout obligations that may affect staffing or schedule.
Prepare the first register
Process the project manual and review a source-linked draft instead of assigning a project engineer to begin with blank rows.
Confirm buyout responsibility
Compare requirements with subcontract and purchase scopes, then resolve gaps before suppliers and trades begin preparing packages.
Plan around procurement
Connect early-release and long-duration items to the baseline schedule and update the working register as awards and milestones develop.
For preconstruction teams
A detailed register can reveal administrative and technical obligations that affect the project plan: delegated design, extensive samples, mockups, testing, manufacturer qualifications, coordination drawings, and owner turnover requirements.
SubmittalsHQ is not an estimating system, but earlier visibility into these requirements gives teams better questions to ask during scope development and turnover.
For operations teams
Project teams need rows they can assign and verify. Source-linked actions reduce time spent searching through the manual when a trade questions a requirement or a generic register title proves insufficient.
The reviewed export can enter the contractor’s existing scheduling, tracking, or project-management process.
Decisions the GC still owns
Contract responsibility
Confirm which subcontractor, supplier, testing agency, consultant, or internal team must prepare each requirement.
Packaging and sequence
Decide how related requirements will be transmitted and when they are needed to support releases and field work.
Final completeness
Complete the specification-derived list with drawings, addenda, owner requirements, scope exhibits, and ongoing document changes.
Questions from general contractors
Does SubmittalsHQ replace Procore, Autodesk Construction Cloud, or another project platform?
No. It focuses on specification processing and register creation and review. The resulting register can support the downstream system your team already uses.
Can we review only selected divisions?
The workflow can support focused review based on the project or team’s scope. The final register should clearly document what was and was not included.
Can the project engineer change the generated register?
Yes. Human review is central: titles, types, parties, merges, splits, suppressions, and other decisions remain editable with source evidence visible.
From preconstruction review to project-team ownership
Preconstruction can process the issued project manual, review the draft by division, and flag requirements that affect buyout or early procurement. At turnover, the team receives more than a spreadsheet: it receives the source basis, unresolved questions, and documented inclusion and grouping decisions.
The project manager confirms the register against current contracts and schedule milestones. The project engineer resolves remaining evidence questions and prepares the downstream import or working log. If revised specifications arrive, the team can compare affected sections rather than rebuilding the entire register without a record of its basis.
This handoff does not eliminate project-team review. It makes that review more focused and preserves what the earlier reviewer already learned.
Controls for a repeatable GC workflow
ControlRecommended practice
Document basisRecord manual volume, issue date, addenda, reviewer, date, and included scope.
Review ownershipAssign divisions or sections and use visible statuses for unreviewed, questioned, verified, and excluded findings.
Scope confirmationCompare proposed parties with executed subcontracts, purchase orders, testing agreements, and delegated-design assignments.
Schedule integrationPrioritize requirements tied to early releases, long fabrication, samples, mockups, and enabling work.
Revision controlReview changed sections and preserve the basis for added, removed, or modified register items.