Submittal status by text
Submittals are the second-highest-frequency lookup question on a commercial project — right behind drawings. Forward turns 'is the lobby tile approved yet' into a 4-second SMS round trip with the actual ball-in-court.
17s demo — submittal lookup + vision-powered panel ID.
The four questions that drive submittal traffic
Across the supers and PMs we’ve worked with, four submittal-related questions account for 90% of the volume:
- “Is X approved yet?” Field worker about to install something needs to know it’s past architect review.
- “Who has it right now?” Ball-in- court tracking. Architect? GC? Owner? Sub?
- “When was it last touched?” Submittals that have been ball-in-court with one party for 14+ days need escalation.
- “What revision are we on?” Revise-and-resubmit history.
Forward answers all four from a text.
The texting flow
| You text | Forward replies |
|---|---|
is 09 51 13 approved | Acoustical Panel Ceilings — APPROVED 4/12. Ball-in-court: GC PM. Next action: release to installer. |
ball-in-court for the steel submittal | 05 12 00 Structural Steel — REVISE-AND-RESUBMIT 3/17. Currently with Pacific Steel Erectors. 8 days outstanding. |
what’s blocking 23 21 23 | 23 21 23 Hydronic Pumps — REVISE-AND-RESUBMIT. Architect flagged the pump head curve at 60 GPM. Submittal coordinator is rebuilding. Procurement on hold; 6-week lead time at risk. |
show me all open submittals over 30 days | 3 submittals open >30d: 23 21 23 (45d, with sub), 26 22 00 (33d, with architect), 09 30 13 (32d, with owner). |
Where Forward gets the data
Three sources, checked in priority order:
- Procore Submittals tool — if the GC keeps the canonical submittal log in Procore’s structured Submittals workflow, that’s the source. Returns submittal #, spec section, status, dates, ball-in- court, distribution.
- Autodesk Construction Cloud submittals — same shape, if you’re an ACC shop.
- Uploaded submittal-log spreadsheet — the common case for electrical and mechanical subs who keep their submittal log in Excel and upload to Procore Documents. Forward parses the spreadsheet, stores the rows, and answers queries from them.
The spreadsheet case in detail
Most subs maintain their submittal log in a spreadsheet, not in Procore’s structured Submittals tool. The log gets uploaded to the GC’s Procore Documents folder periodically for the project record.
Forward detects submittal-log spreadsheets uploaded to your project’s Documents folder, parses the rows (Spec, Submittal #, Date Submitted, Approved/Rejected, Notes, Resubmission status), and makes them queryable. The foreman’s question hits the spreadsheet’s data directly — no separate database to maintain, no re-entry, no “please update the Procore submittals too.”
Pre-installation gating
The most expensive submittal failure pattern: installing product before the submittal is approved. Forward exposes a pre-flight check — foreman texts:
ok to install 09 51 13 tomorrow
Forward replies with the current approval status, the date of last activity, and a YES / WAIT / NO recommendation based on whether the submittal is closed.
Try it now
Text +1 (682) 300-6750 with submittal status for 09 51 13 — the demo project returns the actual status from its submittal log.
Try Forward right now
Drop your email above for early access — or skip the form and text +1 (682) 300-6750 from your phone. The live demo answers anything you can ask a project manager in plain English — no signup needed.