Set up a Workflow to a Submittal

The general contractor is the hub for all subcontractors, architects, engineers, owners, and other parties involved in a construction project. Any communication between the parties can only be routed appropriately by the GC. Hence, it becomes GC's responsibility to duly forward a submittal from the creator to the responsible parties for processing by setting up a workflow.

Once the workflow is set up, Linarc automatically moves the item to respective companies in successive steps for their actions as per the workflow.

The submittal workflow governs the routing of submittal to respective parties at successive stages in the order. For example, a submittal created by a SC is routed, the submittal manager of the GC reviews and sets up a suitable workflow for the submittal.

Submittal Workflow Overview

The submittal workflow governs how a submittal is routed through successive stages for response, review, and approval. In a typical sequence, an submittal created by the project manager of the general contractor progresses as follows:

GC (Create) → SC (Submit) → GC (Review) → Architect (Approve) → GC (Close and Publish)
Linarc empowers company administrators to create and manage custom workflow templates at the company level master list. These templates define different sequences of actions, assign company types responsible for each action, and specify the default permissible days for completing each step. Any company—whether it’s the Owner, GC, SC, or Architect—can be assigned responsibility for responding to or approving a submittal.
Once the workflow templates are defined at the company level, they become available for selection in project-level workflow template lists. The submittal workflow managers can select templates specifically for individual projects from the master list.
While handling submittals, the managers can choose and apply the most suitable template for each submittal based on its creator and the nature of the request, and configure its specifics.
At any stage in the lifecycle of a submittal, the manager has the flexibility to modify the workflow by updating responders and adjusting due dates for current or pending steps. Linarc also offers the versatility of dynamically adding steps to the primary workflow. For example, parties assigned to review, respond to, or approve a submittal can introduce ad-hoc steps to route the item to other parties—such as the creator—for additional clarifications or reviews.
Once these ad-hoc steps are completed, the submittal seamlessly returns to the original assignee as per the primary workflow, allowing the process to continue. This dynamic capability ensures that submittalss can adapt to evolving project needs, and ad-hoc steps can be added as many times as necessary during the item's lifecycle.

Roles and Permissions:
Only users with roles having 'Create,' 'Maintain,' or 'Manage' permission enabled for the submittal module can set up the workflow.
You can view the persons designated with the above permissions for a project in the 'Project'> 'My Team'> 'Members'> 'Workflow' screen.

You can perform an initial review of the submittals and move forward with setting up a workflow for legitimate ones.

• Forward for Review and Approval - If the submittal deserves clarifications from other stakeholders, you can set up a workflow and forward it to the next step, typically to the design team. 
• Respond- Depending on the context, you can respond to the submittal.  You can still set up a workflow and forward the submittal to the responsible party for the responses. See Submit a Submittal for more details.
• Delete - If you can answer the submittal through other communication means like the built-in collaboration or if the submittal is trivial, you can reject the submittal by deleting it. See Delete a submittal for more details

To open the submittal

• Ensure that you are in the management console of the project
• Click the app launcher and select 'Documents'
• Click 'Submittals' on the top, then select 'Boards' on the left
• Open the submittal from the 'Drafts' or 'In Progress' column
• Drafts: Displays submittals created by you and members of your company.
• In Progress: Shows submittals from other companies. Submittals that require your attention are marked as 'Open' and tagged with 'You' in blue, indicating they are assigned to you

To set up a workflow for the submittal

• Click the 'Workflow' tab
• Choose a template depending on the creator, the context, and the entities responsible for various actions on the submittal.

Tip: If the template you want to choose is not available in the list, first add the template to the project. See Configure Workflow Templates for the Project Documents to learn more.

Once chosen, the sequence of steps, with the actions and the responsible company types in each step shown as a list.

Note: The 'Create' step is completed by default and will appear in the list of actions once the workflow is saved. You can only configure the responsible companies and set durations for each action in the subsequent steps.

• Step - The serial number of the step - gets auto-populated once the workflow is saved and published.
• Action - The activity involved. The action can be a request, submission, review, approval, etc. This is pre-populated from the chosen workflow template.
• Company Type- The role of the contractor company in the project. This can be the general contractor, subcontractor, architect, etc.
• Company Name- The business name of the company. You can choose the company from the respective drop-downs.
  • Click inside the 'Company Name' field and choose the company from the options.
• Process Days- The maximum permissible days for the activity. The number of days allowed for each step is inherited from the respective values specified in the template by default. You can manually edit them as required. The 'Due Date' for each step auto-updates depending on the set process days. 
  • Double-click inside the 'Process Days' field to manually enter the number of days. 
• In Date - The date on which the submittal was received for the action from the previous step.
• Due Date - The target completion date of the activity. The date is auto-populated based on the completion date of the previous step and the allowed process days of the current step, excluding weekends and holidays. 
• Out Date - The date on which the action was completed.
• Status - Whether the action is complete, pending, or in processing.

• Click 'Save' to apply the workflow to the submittal.
• Click the 'Edit Workflow' button to change the assignee companies and/or the process days, if required. You cannot add or remove steps or change the sequence of actions by editing.

• Click the  button on the top right to forward the submittal to the next step.

You can view the status of the submittal in its workflow at any time by clicking the 'Workflow' tab.

Tip: You can chat with the team members and the participants of the submittal at any stage. Click the button on the top right. See Chat and Collaborate for more guidance.