Sub-to-GC coordination, by text

The mech sub's foreman commits to having the rough-in ready by Friday. The GC super hears it in person, forgets to log it, and Friday comes around with the wrong expectation. Forward captures sub-to-GC commitments inline in the text thread.

Where coordination commitments leak

Sub-to-GC coordination commitments — “we’ll have the rough-in done by Friday,” “the steel delivery slipped to Tuesday,” “we can’t start the slab pour until the EOR confirms the rebar layout” — happen across three channels:

Email (where most teams keep a fragmentary record).
Phone calls (where there’s no record at all).
In-person walks (verbal, easily forgotten).

When a schedule conflict surfaces three weeks later, finding who committed to what is forensic. Disputes happen.

What Forward does for coordination

Sub PMs and foremen text the Forward number for the project. The bot captures the structured commitment alongside the free-form text:

Mech sub PM: rough-in mech for level 3 will be ready Friday
              5/16. need elevator down by Wednesday morning so
              we can run the riser past it.

Forward: Logged commitment.
  From:    Glen Mechanical (PM Sarah Kim)
  Re:      Level 3 mech rough-in
  Ready:   Friday 5/16
  Depends: Elevator down Wed 5/14 AM
  Status:  Logged · awaiting GC ack

  Forwarded to PM Sarah Chen for acknowledgment.

The GC PM sees the commitment in the Forward dashboard + gets a notification. Single-click acknowledgment writes the commitment into the project record (Procore daily log + the Forward audit chain).

Why this matters for disputes

Three weeks later, the elevator down-time isn’t scheduled until Thursday. The mech sub pushes their rough-in to next Monday and asks for a change order. The GC pulls up the audit log:

5/9 commitment from mech sub: Friday 5/16, contingent on elevator down Wed AM.
5/9 GC ack.
No subsequent change-of-commitment.
Actual elevator down-time: Thursday.

The audit trail makes the resolution obvious: the elevator slip caused the rough-in slip; change order is on the GC side, not on the mech sub.

How to try it

Drop your email above for early-access. Sub-coordination works best on a project with a dedicated project line so the sub PMs all text the same number and the coordination thread stays in one place.

Try Forward right now

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