You’re midway through reviewing the permit set when you spot it a line item that just says deferred submittal. If you’ve been in construction long enough, you nod and move on. If you’re a project manager, an owner, or someone newer to the preconstruction process, that phrase can feel like a gap you weren’t warned about. It isn’t a red flag. But it does mean something specific, it carries real cost and schedule implications, and handling it wrong is one of the more reliable ways to manufacture a problem late in a project when you have the least room to absorb one.
This guide breaks down exactly what a deferred submittal is, why it exists, who owns the risk, and what good management of the process actually looks like.
What Is a Deferred Submittal?
The International Building Code defines a deferred submittal as covering “those portions of the design that are not submitted at the time of the application and that are to be submitted to the building official within a specified period.” Strip out the code language and it means this: when the design team submits the permit documents, certain components of the building aren’t fully designed yet. Those components get flagged, listed, and handled through a separate approval process on their own timeline, often with their own permit, and almost always involving additional stakeholders beyond the core design team.
The key thing that separates a deferred submittal from a standard one isn’t just timing. It’s the approval chain. A regular submittal goes to the architect. A deferred submittal typically goes to the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) the city, county, or relevant building authority and that extra step is where most of the schedule and cost risk lives.
Read More : Submittal Package: How to Compile, Submit, and Track One Correctly
Why Do Deferred Submittals Exist?
There are legitimate reasons why certain components get deferred, and understanding the why matters for how you budget and schedule them.
Specialization: Some systems genuinely need trade-specific engineering that the core design team isn’t set up to provide. Fire protection systems, roof trusses, steel stair design, pre-tensioned concrete members, curtain walls, and metal building systems are common examples. A fabricator’s in-house engineer who works with these systems every day will often produce a better, more cost-effective design than an EOR working from a distance.
Owner preferences: Some owners have a specific subcontractor or manufacturer in mind for certain elements a custom kitchen configuration, a bespoke facade detail, a specialty interior feature. Until that party is under contract, the design can’t be completed. So it gets deferred.
Cost efficiency: Letting the contractor select a specialty engineer familiar with their preferred fabrication methods choosing, say, between shear tab and single-angle shear connections for structural steel can produce a leaner design than having the EOR specify every connection without that shop-floor context.
Scheduling: Some components require sign-off from a specific AHJ department the fire marshal, a utilities authority that operates on its own review timeline. Deferring those items lets the primary permit move forward and construction begin without everyone sitting on their hands waiting for one department’s queue to clear.
The Deferred Submittal Process: 4 Steps
Step 1: Identification During Initial Design
While producing the permit set, the design team identifies which components qualify as deferred submittals and compiles a formal list. That list travels with the permit documents to the GC. It should be specific not just what is deferred, but who is expected to design it, and what the AHJ will need to see for approval.
Step 2: GC Planning and Subcontractor Procurement
When the GC picks up the deferred submittal list, two questions immediately matter: How is the design being paid for is it an allowance, a design-build contract, or cost-plus? And how involved does the design team need to stay?
Some deferred items can be handed off almost entirely to a specialist. A window washing system on a high-rise, for instance, can often be fully managed by the subcontractor. Others HVAC integration, structural steel connections need the design team to review and reconcile drawings before anything goes to the AHJ. The GC maps those review cycles into the submittal schedule early and treats deferred items the same way they’d treat long-lead equipment: with extra runway built in.
Step 3: AHJ Submission
Most deferred submittals need their own permits. Jurisdictions handle this differently some have published processes and timelines, others require a call to confirm. What’s consistent across almost all of them is that building department queues are long, and submitting late is expensive. If you’re waiting until a deferred item is actually needed in the field before you pursue the permit, you’re already behind.
Step 4: Integration and Closeout
Once approved, the deferred submittal item folds into the main project workflow added to the submittal log, tied into the change order tracker if costs have shifted, and reflected in as-built drawings at the end. Closeout documentation for deferred items is the same as for anything else: operation manuals, commissioning reports, inspection records. Everything needs to be there.
Read More : Construction Submittal Process: A Step-by-Step Guide for GCs
The Owner’s Risk: Where Deferred Submittals Get Expensive
This is the part owners most often find out about at the wrong time. When a structural engineer lists something as a deferred submittal, the engineering cost for that component comes out of the design fee. The work doesn’t disappear it just transfers to the contractor, who hires a specialty engineer and rolls that cost into either their base bid or, more commonly, a change order that shows up mid-project.
There are three ways this typically plays out:
| Scenario | What Happens | Owner Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Project A (Baseline) | Design team engineers everything upfront | Predictable cost, no surprises post-permit |
| Project B (Double Cost) | Owner pays full structural design fee and a contractor change order for the deferred engineering | Most expensive outcome — the same work gets billed twice across two line items |
| Project C (Efficiency Gain) | Specialty contractor’s engineer designs the component more efficiently than the EOR would have | Genuine savings — this is the scenario deferred submittals are supposed to produce |
The risk of landing in Project B is real when deferred submittals are being used to reduce the design team’s scope rather than because the work genuinely requires a specialist. If you’re an owner reviewing a proposal and you see a long list of deferred items, it’s worth asking why each one is deferred. A vague answer is worth following up on.
The Biggest Operational Challenges for GCs
Even when deferred submittals are handled correctly, they add meaningful overhead. The places where projects tend to get into trouble:
Multiple approval chains: Standard submittals go to the architect. Deferred submittals go to the architect and the AHJ, sometimes through different departments, each with its own review clock. Keeping all of those threads moving simultaneously takes active attention.
Liability ambiguity: When a specialty subcontractor is both designing and building a component, the line between design liability and installation liability blurs. If something fails, figuring out who’s responsible can get complicated fast. Clear contract language before work starts is cheaper than arbitration after it.
Budget drift: Allowances for deferred items are estimates educated ones, but still estimates. Actual costs regularly exceed them. Without a tight change order process and visible cost tracking, these gaps tend to surface as surprises rather than managed adjustments.
Document sprawl: A deferred submittal generates its own paper trail: permit applications, engineering calculations, shop drawings, AHJ approvals, commissioning reports. On a project managing five or ten of these in parallel, that’s a lot of documentation to keep organized. When it lives across email inboxes and shared drives, closeout becomes a scramble.
Procurement compression: If the deferred design approval takes longer than planned, the fabrication and delivery window for the physical component shrinks. On items with long lead times structural steel, specialty mechanical equipment, prefabricated trusses that compression can push the component onto the critical path.
What Strong Deferred Submittal Management Actually Looks Like
Teams that consistently close out deferred submittals without drama don’t treat them as a separate category of problem. They run them through the same rigorous workflow they apply to everything else just with a bit more lead time and a dedicated tracking lane.
In practice that means:
- A separate deferred submittal log maintained from day one, distinct from the standard submittal register, so nothing falls through the cracks between the two
- Each item tied to its corresponding production activity, so a delayed approval shows up in the schedule look-ahead before it becomes a critical path event
- Deferred submittal status reviewed weekly in preconstruction and procurement meetings not just flagged when someone notices a problem
- AHJ permit requirements and review timelines confirmed at project kickoff, not discovered mid-construction
- Contract language that explicitly assigns design responsibility, review responsibility, and liability for each deferred item before anyone breaks ground
The teams that struggle are the ones that treat the deferred submittal list as a formality to file away. It usually catches up with them around substantial completion.
Deferred Submittal vs. Standard Submittal: Key Differences
| Factor | Standard Submittal | Deferred Submittal |
|---|---|---|
| Design status at permit | Complete | Incomplete — additional engineering required |
| Approval authority | Architect / Engineer of Record | AHJ (and often design team as well) |
| Who does the engineering | Design team (EOR) | Specialty contractor or fabricator’s engineer |
| Permit requirement | Covered by primary permit | Often requires a separate permit application |
| Budget treatment | Specified in contract documents | Typically carried as an allowance |
| Typical examples | Mechanical equipment schedules, material submittals | Fire protection systems, roof trusses, steel stairs, curtain walls |
| Schedule risk | Low–Moderate | Moderate–High (AHJ timelines add variability) |
How Construction Workflow Software Changes the Equation
Managing deferred submittals manually across spreadsheets, email chains, and disconnected permit portal works fine on small projects. On multi-trade commercial work, where you might be juggling eight to twelve deferred items alongside a full standard submittal package, the administrative load gets real.
When evaluating construction workflow platforms, the capabilities that matter most for deferred submittal management are:
- A unified submittal log that keeps deferred items visible alongside standard submittals without collapsing them into the same bucket
- Live linkage between the submittal schedule and the construction schedule, so a stalled AHJ review surfaces as a potential schedule impact not a surprise two weeks later
- Change order tracking connected directly to allowances, so when deferred costs run over, the financial picture updates in one place
- Document storage that keeps engineering calculations, AHJ approvals, permit applications, and commissioning reports attached to the right submittal item not floating in a shared drive folder labeled “misc permits”
If the platform you’re evaluating treats submittals as a standalone module with no connection to schedule or cost, that’s a meaningful gap when deferred submittals are part of the project.
Managing the Full Submittal Process Starts Before Permit
Deferred submittals don’t become problems because they’re inherently difficult. They become problems when teams treat them as an afterthought something to sort out once the primary permit is issued and construction is underway.
The teams that handle them well build the infrastructure before the first shovel goes in. Clear lists, defined ownership, AHJ timelines confirmed, allowances tied to change order workflows, and a tracking system that keeps deferred items visible alongside everything else.
If your current approach to submittal management is a shared spreadsheet and email threads, you’re one complex deferred item away from a schedule problem.
Palcode.ai is built for construction teams running tight procurement and submittal workflows. If you’re evaluating platforms and want to see how automated subcontractor coordination and document tracking handles deferred submittals in practice, book a demo and we’ll walk you through a live project scenario.
Frequently Asked Question
Can construction begin before a deferred submittal is approved?
No — and this isn’t a technicality worth testing. Installing work covered by a deferred submittal before it has AHJ approval puts you in a position where the inspector can reject the work and require it to be removed and redone. That’s a cost and schedule outcome that makes the original approval delay look minor.
Who is ultimately responsible for a deferred submittal — the GC or the specialty subcontractor?
The GC carries overall responsibility for project delivery, which includes deferred submittal items. But when a specialty contractor is doing design-build work on a specific component, the contract should explicitly define who holds design liability. Without that language, disputes over design errors get messy and expensive.
How are deferred submittals budgeted in the initial contract?
They’re typically carried as allowances in the GC’s bid a reasonable estimate of expected cost based on what’s known at the time. Once the specialized design is complete and actual costs are confirmed, the allowance gets reconciled. If the real number exceeds the estimate, the GC submits a change order for the difference.
What’s the most common reason deferred submittals end up causing delays?
AHJ permit review timelines. Contractors who approach deferred submittal permitting as something to deal with during construction often find themselves at the back of the building department’s queue while work in the field is ready to proceed. Getting into that queue early even before the full design package is complete, where the jurisdiction allows preliminary submissions is the most reliable way to avoid this.
How many deferred submittals should I expect on a typical commercial project?
It depends heavily on the project type and structural complexity. A straightforward mid-rise office building might have three to five. A complex mixed-use or industrial project can have fifteen or more. The design team’s deferred submittal list, included in the permit documents, is the definitive reference if you’re not seeing one, ask for it.
About the Author
Shikha is a Senior Product Growth Marketer at Palcode.ai, where she focuses on driving product adoption and improving user engagement through strategic, data-driven marketing. She also contributes to website content creation, translating complex product ideas into clear, structured, and SEO-optimized content that enhances user understanding and visibility. Explore More Blogs Here.
