Equipment submittal books, assembled from cut sheets and checked against the schedule.

Once the award comes in, a project coordinator works down the schedule. For each item number someone pulls the current cut sheet, marks the model and accessories, and compares voltage, phase, amps, gas type and water and drain sizes with what the plans show. Clearances and rough-in dimensions go onto the sheet or the drawings. Custom stainless has shop drawings of its own. Then the pages are put in the order the section wants and go to the consultant.

For the test, AI reads copies of those schedules, sections and cut sheets and drafts the book: the index by item number, each sheet in its place with the model and accessories marked, and a check sheet naming every line where a cut sheet and the schedule disagree or the section wants something the file doesn't hold. It marks nothing approved, and your reviewer sets it beside what your team sent.

Every consultant wants a different book. A North Carolina high school asks for a binder in numerical sequence by item number, and warns that leaving data out doesn't reduce the obligation to supply the item. An Oregon high school wants the sheets backed by a typed list of item number, description, quantity, maker's name and address, model and notes, delivered complete, because partial submittals won't be reviewed. A California community college says the reverse: nine separately tracked files, 11400.1 through 11400.9, from the product book to walk-ins, hoods, fire suppression and sneeze guards, and not one combined document. UNC Charlotte's 2022 dining renovation set rejects shop drawings with any line color but black. The draft follows the section it was given, and your reviewer scores the format along with the content.

A sheet has to match the schedule, not just the model. An Ohio elementary school's schedule puts a table under each item: volts, cycle, phase, connection type, height above the floor, NEMA configuration, amps, kilowatts, horsepower, MCA and MOCP, then hot, cold and filtered water, condenser lines, and indirect and direct waste. Its reach-in refrigerator reads 115 volts, single phase, 7.4 amps on a 5-15P plug, and its disposer reads 208 volts, three phase. One model number can cover several electrical options, so the check runs on the option actually marked. The North Carolina section sends any difference between site power and the contract documents to the architect before equipment is ordered, and writes its gas-fired items for natural gas. The Oregon section wants dimensions given left to right by front to back by height, as the operator faces the unit. The draft lists each mismatch with its page and changes nothing.

Marks differ by section, and sometimes by line. The Ohio section calls for an NSF Certification Mark or a UL Classification Mark and for electric and fuel-burning equipment to be UL certified, while the reach-in on its own schedule reads cETLus and NSF. The California college accepts NSF, UL Sanitation or ETL Sanitation marks, a listing from a nationally recognized testing laboratory as OSHA defines one, and AGA certification on gas appliances. New York's master section tells its specifiers to revise the UL paragraph where another testing agency's certification is acceptable. One book can involve NSF/ANSI 2, Food Equipment; NSF/ANSI 4, Commercial Cooking, Rethermalization and Powered Hot Food Holding and Transport Equipment; NSF/ANSI 7, Commercial Refrigerators and Freezers; and UL 197, Commercial Electric Cooking Appliances. The draft shows the mark on the sheet next to the mark the section names, and leaves any verdict to your project manager and the consultant.

Drains and clearances have public numbers. The FDA Food Code, 2026 edition, which each jurisdiction adopts in its own form, bars a direct connection between the sewage system and a drain from equipment where food or utensils are placed, with exceptions such as a warewashing machine within 5 feet of a trapped floor drain where the law allows it. That is why waste columns split indirect from direct, and why a Virginia Department of Health plan review guide asks about air gaps on ice bins, prep sinks and steam tables. The code also wants floor-mounted equipment that isn't easily movable sealed to the floor or raised on legs giving 6 inches of clearance, or 4 inches where no part of the floor underneath is more than 6 inches from the point of cleaning access, and fixed equipment spaced for cleaning, sealed, or within a thirty-second of an inch of its neighbor. The draft sets each sheet's data beside the schedule and offers no opinion on compliance; this page isn't code advice.

Rough-ins carry other people's work. The North Carolina section wants CAD-drafted rough-in drawings at quarter-inch scale, a separate drawing per discipline, covering services for scheduled equipment even when it isn't in your contract, and it holds you to relocations caused by your own errors. The California college adds refrigerant and syrup or beer lines, floor depressions, wall blocking and recesses, and bars any drawing from the job site without an Accepted or Accepted as Noted stamp. The Oregon section wanted hood seismic bracing stamped by a structural engineer licensed there. Oklahoma's State Fire Marshal, in a January 2026 checklist naming NFPA 96, wants each cooking device's type and surface dimensions, fryer dripboards, range backshelves and every appliance's energy source on hood suppression plans, and denies plans that leave anything out. So your reviewer will watch the index, every utility mismatch, each listing mark, and whether a changed appliance reached the rough-ins and the hood drawings.

If your reviewer says yes, newly awarded jobs get the same draft book for about 30 days.

A project manager releases every submittal, makes every call on a mismatch and answers the consultant's comments. Questions to a factory or a rep still come from your team.

The live month carries a fixed price settled before you sign. The next job is chosen and priced by itself, and monthly support comes later.