Submittals and Specs

01Create a submittal

From a project’s Submittals & Specs tab, click + New Submittal to expand the inline form above the existing list.

1. Submittals & Specs tab. Active tab on the project — count chip shows open + under-review submittals.
2. + New Submittal / Cancel. Top-right toggle. Opens this form; turns into Cancel while the form is open.
3. Title. Descriptive: “HVAC Equipment — Exam Room Mini-Splits,” “Lighting fixture cut sheets,” etc.
4. Description. What’s being submitted, in detail. Reviewer reads this before opening attachments.
5. Spec section. Optional CSI section code (e.g., “Section 26 — Electrical”). Helps GCs filter on big jobs.
6. Create Submittal. Submit. Status defaults to Submitted; GC gets notified.
7. Existing submittals. Stay visible below the form for reference while you draft.

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Documents (product data sheets, catalog pages, material certifications) attach below the form fields and travel with the submittal through approval.

02Comment threads and discussion

Once submitted, both sides can discuss.

1. Comment thread at the bottom of the submittal detail.
2. Add a comment any time. All discussion threads inline.
3. Attach files to comments if you need to add a clarifying photo or doc.

The conversation history stays on the submittal, not in email or text, so anyone joining the project later has context.

03Approve, reject, or request resubmission

GC view: submittals from every sub on the project land in one aggregated list. Approve and Reject are inline actions on each row — no modal — so you can clear a stack of submittals quickly. The review timestamp and reviewer name are tracked automatically (no “I never approved that” disputes).

1. Sort toggle. Date (newest first) or Contractor (group by sub).
2. PDF + + New Submittal. Top-right actions: PDF exports the list; + New Submittal opens the form from tab 01.
3. ‘under review’ badge. First submittal’s status — opened by GC but no decision yet.
4. Cross-company attribution. “by Fairfield HVAC Services” tells you which sub submitted it. Subs only see their own submittals.
5. Approve / Reject inline. Per-row actions. Click Approve or Reject directly without opening the submittal detail.
6. + Add Spec. Attach a product spec to back up the submittal — useful when the submittal is for a customer-selected item.
7. Discussion / Comments. Open the comment thread for back-and-forth before deciding.
8. ‘submitted’ badge. Second submittal’s state — newly submitted, not yet under active review.

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For longer reviews where you need to ask follow-up questions, use Discussion / Comments first; the inline Approve/Reject is best when the answer is clearly yes/no on first read.

04Specs: the customer selection tool

Specs go beyond submittals — they’re for customer-facing item selection. From the project’s Submittals & Specs tab, click + New Spec. The form covers seven inputs before you commit to a build mode at the bottom:

1. Customer. Locked in from the picker. Required.
2. Project. Which project this spec belongs to.
3. Title. Descriptive: “Updated Kitchen & Bathroom Spec,” “Light Fixture Selections,” etc.
4. Link to Bid. The bid these selections will flow into when the customer confirms (covered in tab 06).
5. Notes. Customer-facing context they’ll see when reviewing selections.
6. Upload Spec PDF. Fast mode — for when you have an existing spec document.
7. Build Spec Manually. Interactive mode — Conduit walks you through rooms → groups → options.

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What the two build modes do

PDF mode is for when you already have a spec doc. Upload it, share the link with the customer, customer reviews — that’s the whole flow.

Manual mode walks you through three nested levels:

• Rooms (Kitchen, Master Bath, Living Room, etc.) — top level.
• Groups within each room (Flooring, Paint Color, Lighting, Fixtures) — categories.
• Options within each group, organized into three price tiers: Budget (entry-level), Mid-Range (middle), Premium (top-tier). Each option has a name, description, photo, and price.

Manual mode gives the customer clear choices at every price point.

05Customer selection

Click Share with Customer on a saved spec. The customer gets a link.

1. Customer’s view: clean browse-and-select interface organized by room.
2. Per group, they pick one option. Selections highlight in orange.
3. Real-time updates. Both sides see selections as they happen.
4. Confirm when all groups have a selection. Locks in the choices.

You see exactly what the customer picked, with photos, prices, and notes.

06Apply selections to a bid

Once the customer confirms their picks, the spec detail page shows the result and gives you the action that closes the loop. Apply to Bid pushes every confirmed selection into the linked bid as a fresh line item — no manual re-entry, the bid total reflects selections immediately.

1. Confirmed status. Green chip + “by [user] · [date]” attribution. Means the customer locked in selections.
2. Apply to Bid. Orange button — pushes selections into the bid linked in tab 04. Confirmation dialog asks which bid if more than one is linked.
3. Shopping List. Icon button next to Apply — exports the selections as a shopping list (PDF) for the field team or supply house.
4. Selected Total. Sum of every confirmed selection ($2,874.00 in this example). Updates as customer picks.
5. Notes. Customer-facing notes from tab 04, surfaced here for context.
6. Linked Bid card. Card with View Bid → link — jump straight to the bid the selections will flow into.
7. Room sections. Each room (Kitchen, Bathroom, etc.) expands below to show the picked options at full detail.

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07Linking specs to submittals

Specs can be attached to submittals. When a sub attaches a spec to their submittal, the GC can see the full product detail right from the submittal review page.

1. From the submittal detail, click Attach Spec and pick from the project’s specs.
2. GC sees a link to the spec when they review the submittal.
3. One click from submittal to spec detail.

This is especially useful when the submittal is for an item the customer chose — the GC reviewing can see exactly what was picked at what price tier.

That’s submittals and specs. Next: Change Orders for tracking customer-initiated scope changes.