Buildertrend announced a set of AI and accounting features on September 29, 2026, aimed at builders taking on commercial and larger residential work. The one with the most bearing on project engineers is AI Submittals. Buildertrend says it generates the submittal log from the project documents and then routes each submittal through review and approval. The same release added AI Bill Capture for accounts payable, a Sage Intacct integration with two-way sync of bills and invoices, a Bluebeam integration, and AIA-style progress invoicing with a schedule of values and retainage.
What it does
Building the submittal log is usually a project engineer’s job at the start of a project. They read the spec book section by section, list every product data sheet, shop drawing and sample the specs call for, and assign each one a CSI division, a responsible sub and a due date. A line missed at this stage can surface months later as a product installed without approval.
Buildertrend’s help article describes the AI step. On the job’s Submittals dashboard, a user picks Generate Submittals and uploads a spec book. Buildertrend drafts the submittal log and returns it as a CSV file, which the user reviews and then imports. Buildertrend’s AI page says the tool also pulls in plan sets and organizes both into an importable format.
The CSV step matters for control. The project engineer can open the draft in Excel, delete lines that do not apply, add the ones the tool missed, and fix division codes before anything reaches the log. Division codes come from a standard CSI list set at the job level.
After import, the help article describes a fixed routing workflow. Each submittal goes to the assigned sub to upload documents, then to one or more approvers, and returns to the submittal manager to publish. Approvers answer with approved, approved as noted, revise and submit, or rejected. Step due dates are calculated from the days set for each step, and the log shows who holds the ball in court. Architects, engineers and subs can respond from an emailed link without a Buildertrend login.
| Feature | Who uses it | What goes in | What comes out |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Submittals | Submittal manager or project engineer | A spec book uploaded to the job | A draft submittal log delivered as a CSV to review and import |
| AI Bill Capture | Accounts payable staff | Bills and receipts | Vendor details and line items and cost codes pulled into the bill |
| AI Plans (Page Naming) | Project manager or document controller | An uploaded plan set | Sheets named and organized with slip sheet revisions tracked |
| AI Client Updates | Project manager | Daily job entries already in Buildertrend | A drafted client update for review before sending |
Evidence so far
The evidence so far is a customer comment in the release. Jacob Wittenberg of Edgemont Builders, a Baltimore firm that builds single-family, multifamily and light commercial projects, said, “AI Submittals is the clearest example; it’s become core to how we run a job now, especially on our commercial projects.” Accuracy rates, time savings and pilot results for AI Submittals are not yet public.
These claims come from Buildertrend:
- AI Submittals keeps architects, owners, subs and the field aligned on commercial and high-end residential projects.
- The Bluebeam integration gives faster submittal and RFI turnaround and lowers rework risk.
- Over 20,000 builders and over half of U.S. home builds run on Buildertrend.
The launch date is unclear. The release lists AI Submittals among its new capabilities, but Buildertrend’s AI page carried a Submittals entry before September 29. When the feature first reached customers could not be verified.
How to measure it on your projects
Track log recall, meaning the share of required submittals on a job that the AI draft included. Count a line as required if it appears in the final log for the job. Divide the lines the draft caught by all required lines.
Capture the baseline on a recent job before you pilot:
- Take the final submittal log from a finished commercial job and count its lines.
- Count the lines added after the log was first issued, since those are the items the manual pass missed.
- Ask the project engineer who built the log how many hours it took, and write the figure down.
On the pilot job, upload the spec book before anyone builds the log by hand. Save the CSV as it came out, then record the hours spent cleaning it up and every line added later. Compare recall and hours against the baseline job. Count the lines you deleted as well, since each false line costs review time.
A first step you can take this week is to pull the final log from one closed job and mark which lines were added after the first issue.
Availability and cost
Buildertrend prices by custom quote. Its pricing page asks for builder type and annual volume, and it says the subscription includes unlimited users. The AI page says there is no separate AI application to purchase. Whether AI Submittals is included in every plan could not be verified.