What is a submittal schedule and how is it back-calculated?

A submittal schedule (also called a submission programme or submission register) is a planning tool that works backwards from the programme to tell each party when they must act to avoid delaying procurement or construction.

The back-calculation logic for each submittal is:

1. Need-on-site date — taken from the Primavera P6 activity that installs or uses the material or equipment. 2. Procurement lead time — the time from order to delivery, agreed with the subcontractor or supplier. 3. Order date — need-on-site minus lead time. 4. Review and approval period — the contractual time the design team has to review a submittal (commonly 10–21 days). 5. Submission date — order date minus review period.

The result is a "submit-by" date for every submittal in the register. If that date is missed, the procurement chain is affected and the programme risk is real.

Submittal schedules matter because:

• They make the contractor's obligations visible and trackable.
• They create a contemporaneous record of who submitted what, when — useful for claims if a late approval caused a procurement delay.
• They surface conflicts when two submittals compete for the same reviewer in the same week.

Bildstak can generate a submittal schedule by reading the Primavera P6 programme and the submittal register in Procore or Aconex, back-calculating submit-by dates automatically and flagging submittals where the deadline has passed or is approaching. Ask "which submittals for Package M are past their submission date?" and get a cited answer.