eSUB’s digital workflows close the documentation gap, integrating core functions like RFIs, submittals, and change order management into connected workflows accessible from a single interface, anytime, anywhere.
Cloud-based digital subcontractor software enables better collaboration and standardizes critical processes, so PMs, field workers, and the back office can be productive rather than chasing information.
RFIs: The Digital Workflow
Here’s how the RFI gets created, logged, and tracked to resolution using a digital workflow:
Logging:
- Documentation: A PM or field worker uses the mobile app to document an issue.
- Standardization: A standardized form within the software allows them to provide question details, a recommended solution, pictures, and document references.
- Submit: The RFI is then saved into the project’s log.
Assigning:
- Ownership: Once created, the user can email the document themselves, or an alternate user can review the RFI details and send it once approved. This is dependent on each company’s specific workflow.
- Status: When in progress or in review, the RFI status saves as Pending.
Tracking to Resolution:
- Visibility: Pending RFIs are visible in real time from the project or global projects logs.
- Response: Once a response is received by the user who distributed the RFI, that user logs the response, uploads revised documents, and updates the RFI status to Answered.
- Closure: When the RFI is noted as Answered, the field team knows it can proceed accordingly.
Submittals: The Digital Workflow
Shop drawings, samples, and documents of all kinds must be submitted for GC approval to confirm compliance with the contract and project design.
Here’s what the digital submittal workflow looks like:
Logging:
- Creation: Submittal items are created within a given project, and each is assigned an item number for that project.
- File attachment: Related files, such as product data, shop drawings ,and certificates are uploaded directly to the submittal item.
- Specify new targets: Input a submit-by-date to track the required submission date for the User and the return-by-date for the reviewer per the project schedule.
- Status: The User assigns a status of Draft when the item is in progress and Sent when it is out for review.
Tracking:
- Review: Once a submittal item is ready for review, the user updates the status to Sent and emails the submittal from eSUB to the General Contractor.
- Updates: The submittal log displays updates in real time so all Users are aware of its new status.
- Email: The system tracks the sent submittal’s date, time, and recipient(s) for all users to be up to date.
- Alerts: The submittal log flags users on how many days until a submittal is due, or how many days it is overdue so team members know when a follow-up might be necessary.
Approvals:
- Markups: Submittal documents are reviewed by the design team and returned to the subcontractor from the General Contractor. The marked up and stamped submittal is then uploaded by a User to the submittal item.
- Status: Depending on the response noted in the submittal, the recipient amends the submittal status (ex: Returned, No Exceptions Taken, Revise and Resubmit).
- Resubmissions: If a revision is necessary, a new submittal is created for processing, and the original is kept intact to preserve the history.
- Field sync: When the Submittal is noted with one of the various Answered statuses, the field team knows they can proceed accordingly.
Using a digital platform to log, track, and approve submittals establishes a verifiable audit trail and centralizes documentation for all users.
Change Orders: The Digital Workflow
RFI responses or notes on a returned submittal often lead to a COR for a change in work or a delay caused by the updates.
Here’s how a change gets documented from trigger to approval:
Logging:
- Field documentation: Field supervisors use the eSUB mobile app to document unexpected or out-of-scope work requests with the T&M tickets and the GC’s superintendent signs off on the work on the jobsite
- Standardized COR: Using a standard template, itemize material, equipment, and labor hours.
- Evidence: Supporting evidence (photos, field notes, daily reports) is attached to establish an audit trail.
Tracking:
- COR log: All submissions populate into the tracking log and are visible on the system.
- Status: CORs are organized based on status (Pending, Approved, Void, etc.) to avoid unnecessary work.
- Alerts: Users can see how many days the COR has been open and if a response is overdue.
Reviewing to Approvals
- Verified receipt: Logged CORs are sent and tracked in eSUB.
- Signoff: GCs can digitally sign off on T&M tickets in the field. They can review and respond to CORs that are captured directly in the platform.
- Back-office sync: Once the COR is approved, eSUB automatically updates the contract and reports.
In eSUB, CORs become legally binding documents that sync to back-office systems, detailing extra work and approvals to support and substantiate billing.
Putting it All Together: One Connected System
Though RFIs, submittals, and change orders are three distinct processes, the data they generate informs how the rest are handled. Managing these processes in one place, rather than using separate, disconnected tools, closes the documentation gap, giving foremen, project managers, and back-office workers a holistic view of the project from a subcontractor’s perspective.
Scattered emails, texts, and local document storage become centralized; processes are automated; and documentation becomes more reliable and trackable, with an indisputable, time-stamped audit trail, traceable links, and automated accountability every step of the way.
Whether your firm is transitioning away from manual workflows or needs to adopt subcontractor-specific tools to boost efficiency and enable growth, eSUB is the only solution you’ll need.
Request an eSUB demo today and discover how connected systems and automated workflows can transform the way you work.