For drywall & framing subcontractors
Drywall contractor software that knows hanging and finishing are two different jobs.
Board is a third to half your contract and it is on site before a single sheet goes up. Then the work splits into framing, hang, tape, finish, texture and three punch walks and a clean-up, and the only number the GC’s PM cares about is whether a floor is “paint ready.” SubMark tracks the job the way your superintendent does — by area, by work type, by punch pass — and bills it against a schedule of values that has somewhere to put the material.
14-day free trial, no card needed. Sign up from here and drywall and framing is already selected when you pick your trade. See pricing →
- Stocked board billed before it is hung
- Labor logged per area, work type and punch pass
- Areas you define yourself — units, corridors, floors, wings
What actually goes wrong on a commercial drywall job.
You buy the whole building before you bill any of it.
Board, compound, bead and screws get stocked floor by floor ahead of the hangers, and on a lot of jobs material is a third to half the contract value. That is cash out the door against a building the GC walks through and sees as empty studs. Carry stocked material as its own schedule-of-values line, separate from the labor that hangs it, and the stocking sheets your supplier delivers against become something you can bill.
Finishing is five passes and the GC counts it as one.
Tape, first coat, second coat, final sand and texture are five trips through the same room by different people at different rates, and then somebody has to decide the room is paint ready. A single line called “drywall finish — Level 3” tells you nothing about which pass you are on or whether you are making money on it. Set hang, tape and finish up as work types and log labor against them, and the finish phase stops being one undifferentiated bucket of hours.
Leave-offs bring your crew back three times.
You cannot close a wall the electrician has not finished, or rock around a frame the door sub has not set. So the crew leaves the area open, moves on, and comes back — twice, sometimes three times — and every return trip is mobilization you did not bid. Logging the leave-off as a dated change event with photos, rather than as a note in somebody’s phone, is what turns a pattern of returns into a conversation about compensation.
Patch work is endless, and most of it is somebody else’s damage.
Initial punch, GC punch, owner punch and clean-up, and between them every other trade putting holes in finished walls. Patch crews run for months after your scope is done. The only way that work gets paid for is if each instance is logged where it happened, with a photo and a date and the trade responsible — which is a T&M tag signed on site, not an argument at closeout.
Before you mobilize
The 4 things drywall and framing subs settle with the GC before mobilizing.
What is approved, where your scope stops, what has to be true before you start, and how you get at the work. Every one of them turns into a change order three weeks in if nobody writes the answer down — and the answer is worth nothing if it only lives in one PM’s inbox.
In the pack
Switch on Pre-Construction Review and these 4 questions are already the list, worded the way drywall and framing subs ask them.
- Confirm the finish level required in each area, and who specifies it
- Confirm the fire- and sound-rated assembly types and where they apply
- Confirm where our scope stops at tile backer, ceilings and soffits
- Confirm framing and in-wall inspections are signed off before hanging starts
Tick them off job by job, with your own note on each. The note is your answer — the pack ships the question and leaves the answer to you.
Pre-Construction Review is an opt-in module — it is not one of the eight switched on at setup. Turn it on in Settings and the list is already there in drywall and framing terms, with no upgrade and no setup call. Edit it once and it applies to every job; the tick and the note stay with the job it was asked on. See every module →
The drywall job, pass by pass.
Framing, hang and finish are three trades inside one subcontract, with different crews and different rates. Here is how the work maps to what ships in SubMark.
- 01 Bid & estimate
Takeoff off the A-sheets, board footage by wall type, partition schedule, finish levels, alternates.
Bid Board, Plans & Drawings, Takeoff, Estimating & Proposals
- 02 Submittals & stocking
Board, compound, bead and assembly submittals, then stocking sheets floor by floor ahead of the hangers.
Submittals with a material library, Purchase Orders, Invoices Inbox
- 03 Layout & framing prep
Wall layout off the control lines, top and bottom track set, openings and rough dimensions checked.
Plans & Drawings with markups and pins, Daily Labor Logs
- 04 Metal stud framing
Studs, shaftwall, soffits and furdowns, backing and blocking for everything that hangs on a wall later.
Time Clock & Labor Logs, Punch List Tracking budgets per phase
- 05 In-wall inspection
Framing, backing and fire-caulk inspected before anything closes — and whatever the MEP trades have not finished becomes a leave-off.
Daily Labor Logs as the dated record, Change Events for every leave-off
- 06 Hang
Board hung by wall type and fire rating, ceilings before walls, screwed off and ready for tape.
Labor logged per area and work type, Crew Scheduling
- 07 Tape, finish & texture
Tape, first coat, second coat, final sand and texture — five passes to get a wall to paint ready.
Labor logged per area and work type, Punch List Tracking budgets per phase
- 08 Punch & patch
Initial punch, GC punch, owner punch, clean-up, and months of patching other trades’ damage.
Punch List Tracking, T&M Tags signed on site
- 09 Closeout
Final billing, the last patch crew demobilized and the retainage you have been carrying since draw one.
Schedule of Values & Draw Log, Lien Waiver Tracking
Every module named above ships today; the eight below are on from day one, and the rest are a switch in Settings, not an upgrade. The full list is on the product page.
In the pack
These 11 phases load with the Drywall & Framing pack the moment you pick it at setup.
They are the phase list your foremen pick from on every daily log, so the hours come back tagged to the part of the job they were spent on.
- 01 Layout / Framing Prep
- 02 Metal Stud Framing
- 03 Drywall Hang
- 04 Taping
- 05 First Coat
- 06 Second Coat
- 07 Final Sand
- 08 Texture
- 09 Paint Ready
- 10 Patch / Repair
- 11 Inspection Prep
Plus “Other”, for the work that fits nowhere. Rename, reorder or delete any of them in Settings — the pack is a starting point, not a cage.
A drywall schedule of values that separates the board from the work.
Material and finishing are the two halves of a drywall contract that a thin SOV destroys — the first because it is spent long before it is billable, the second because it is five passes pretending to be one. These are the kinds of lines a commercial drywall SOV usually needs:
In the pack
Open the SOV builder on a new job and these 5 lines are already in it.
- Material 30%
- Metal Framing 20%
- Hang 20%
- Tape & Finish 25%
- Punch 5%
What most commercial drywall and framing subs add
- 01 Submittals & coordination
- 02 Stocked material — board & compound stored-material line
- 03 Metal stud framing — Level 1
- 04 Metal stud framing — Level 2
- 05 Shaftwall & stair enclosures
- 06 Soffits & furdowns
- 07 Backing & blocking
- 08 Hang — Level 1
- 09 Hang — Level 2
- 10 Tape & finish
- 11 Finish coats & final sand
- 12 Texture
- 13 Punch & patch runs past your scope
The stocked-material line is what lets you bill board that is on the floor but not on the wall. Splitting hang from finish is what tells you which half of the job is losing money — because a floor that is fully hung and untaped can read as 60% complete and still be weeks of labor from paint ready.
That longer list is an illustration, not a template — your SOV is negotiated with your GC. SubMark gives you the SOV to build, and tracks every draw, retainage amount and payment against it. It is your record of the job, not a replacement for the GC’s billing system — you submit the draw the way each GC requires and log it here.
Read next
Schedule of values for subcontractors: how to build one that bills clean
How to break out line items so stocked board is billable the month it lands and the five finish passes do not hide inside one unprovable percentage.
T&M tickets in commercial construction: getting signed, and getting paid
Patching another trade’s damage only gets paid for if each instance is a signed ticket — what belongs on one, and how a month of them becomes one change order.
Inside SubMark
One calendar for every crew on every job.
Framers on one job, hangers on another and three finish crews chasing paint-ready dates. SubMark schedules every worker across every job in one calendar and flags the double-booking before Monday.
On from day one, in every trade’s setup.
Nothing is paywalled by tier. These eight are switched on in every one of the 29 trade packs, drywall and framing included, from the moment you finish setup.
T&M Tags
Field tickets priced off your own rate lists and signed by the GC on the spot.
Change Events
The field logs a scope change with photos the day it happens, then it converts to a CO.
Draw Calendar
Every GC’s billing cutoff and submission method in one calendar, with reminders.
Submittals
Submittal packages with a material library, cover sheets and merged PDF export.
Daily Labor Logs
Weather, narrative, labor, materials and photos, with a submit-and-review workflow.
Timesheets
Weekly rollups with worker signatures and supervisor approval, plus a payroll summary export.
Where Workers Are
A live view of which workers are on which job today.
Safety
Toolbox talks, inspections, incidents, and certification and COI tracking with expiry dates.
Pick Drywall at setup and SubMark loads the drywall pack: the real phase list from layout and metal stud framing through hang, taping, coats, final sand, texture and patch; stocking sheets on the job checklist; board footage as a tracked quantity; and the four punch passes — initial, GC, owner and clean-up. Anything the pack gets wrong, you change in Settings.
The worker types are already there too — Foreman, Hanger, Finisher / Taper, Framer and Laborer — on every worker record and on every daily labor log. The only thing left to enter is your own rates.
Questions
Drywall & Framing subcontractors ask us these.
Does this handle metal stud framing as well as drywall?
Yes, and there is a separate Metal Framing pack if framing is all you do. The drywall pack already carries the framing phases — layout and framing prep, and metal stud framing — because most commercial drywall subs self-perform both and bill them on the same contract.
Can I track production by unit or by corridor instead of by floor?
Yes. Labor is logged per area and per work type, and both are yours to define in Settings — units, corridors, floors, wings or anything else your jobs are cut into — so a repetitive job can be tracked area by area rather than as one percentage for a whole building.
Can I bill for board that is stocked but not hung?
You build the schedule of values, so yes — carry stocked material as its own line and bill it as it is delivered to the floor, separately from the hang labor. SubMark tracks what you billed on each line, what the GC certified, what retainage is held against it and when the money arrived.
How do we get paid for patching other trades’ damage?
By logging each one where and when it happens. A patch logged against the area with a photo, a date and the trade responsible, priced by the office off your own rate list and e-signed by the superintendent on site, is a billable ticket. A list of grievances assembled at closeout is not. The honest part: SubMark gives you the record and the signature — it does not make the GC agree the damage was not yours.
Does SubMark replace the GC’s billing system?
No. Keep submitting through whatever portal or form each GC uses. SubMark holds the schedule of values — stocked board and compound, framing and hang by level, tape and finish, texture, punch and patch — and logs every draw you submit against it, with retainage held and the payment date on each. It is the sub-side record of what you billed and what came back, not a replacement for the GC’s system.
Does it connect to QuickBooks?
Yes. Connect QuickBooks Online once and bills and purchases pull into job costing (hourly, if you switch auto-pull on) so board, compound and sub costs sit against the right job; draws go across as QuickBooks invoices and POs as purchase orders, one at a time with a click; and a coverage meter shows how much of the cost pulled from QuickBooks is coded to a job.
Do my foremen and field crews cost extra?
No. Field users are free and unlimited — foremen, hangers, finishers, patch crews, anyone clocking in or filling out a daily log. You pay one company subscription: $249 a month with your first 3 office users included, then $39 a month each. The whole breakdown is on the pricing page.
See it on a drywall and framing job.
Start the trial, confirm drywall and framing on the first screen, and the pack loads your phases, checklists and worker types in your own words. Or take a 30-minute walkthrough with the person who built it, on your kind of jobs, instead of a canned demo script.
14-day free trial, no card needed. See the whole product →
$249/mo for your company, your first 3 office users included, $39/mo each after that. Field crews are free and unlimited. See what's included →
Other trades
Electrical
Gear you pay for months before you bill it, rough-in hours that disappear, and every tenant change landing on your scope.
HVAC / Mechanical
Equipment bought a year before it is billed, shop fab the GC will not pay for, and a closeout that holds your last 10% for six months.
Plumbing
First in the ground and last out of the building — with a quarter of the contract value stuck behind the finish trades.
Concrete
Pour days that cannot move, ready-mix invoices you reconcile weeks later, and forms that are capital cycling across placements.
Fire Sprinkler
Weeks of hydraulic engineering before you can bill a dollar, and every phase gated behind an inspection you do not schedule.
Glazing & Glass
Custom material you cannot order until you field measure, cannot return once you do, and cannot bill until a water test passes.
Roofing
A tear-off that owns the building until dry-in, rotten deck nobody bid, and a warranty package standing between you and retainage.
Low voltage
Drop counts that move with every furniture plan, cable sitting in a locked IDF for months, and a final 10% that waits on a test report.
Fire alarm
A quarter of the contract behind an acceptance test you do not schedule, retests you never bill, and device counts that move all year.
Painting
The last trade on the schedule, four return trips for other people’s damage, and prep bid against a wall nobody left you.
Flooring
A slab that fails its moisture test, prep bid against a flatness spec nobody hit, and a whole building’s material stored for months.
Masonry
Scaffold that is capital, grout lifts gated by an inspector, and a mock-up panel holding up the whole brick order.
Structural & Misc Steel
Two thirds of the contract is detailing, mill material and shop work, earned before a single piece is erected, and the last five percent is a handrail holding your retainage.
Wood Framing
Fourteen buildings billed as one percentage, a lumber package that is 40% of the contract before a wall goes up, and blocking you owe six other trades that nobody drew.
Excavation & Sitework
The only schedule of values on this site that opens without a single line for product you buy: your contract is production, billed against quantities somebody else surveyed.
Waterproofing
Work that is buried within a week of going in, blamed for every drop of water for the next ten years, and finished with sealants months after everyone forgot you were on the job.
Doors, Frames & Hardware
Half the contract is product you buy months early, and the last three openings out of four hundred hold your punch, your final draw and your retainage.
Demolition
A scope nobody can see until you open the wall, extra work that leaves in the dumpster before anyone prices it, and retainage held for a year after you demobilized.
Insulation
A four-day window between rough-in inspection and board that nobody protects, half the contract sitting in material you staged weeks early, and firestopping everyone assumed was yours.
EIFS / Stucco / Plaster
A schedule set by cure time that nobody believes, a weather barrier you bury on day two and get blamed for in year three, and joints drawn by somebody else that crack on your wall.
Acoustical Ceilings (ACT)
Grid that cannot start until every trade above the ceiling is finished, tile that drops in the last three weeks of a two-year job, and a finished ceiling the whole building then uses as an access hatch.
Paving & Asphalt
Material with a clock on it and a crew on the clock whether you place or not, a subgrade somebody else owns, and six months of construction traffic on the binder course you have to warrant.
Tile & Stone
A finished floor installed on somebody else’s slab, to a flatness tolerance the concrete sub was never asked to hit, with waterproofing and movement joints that belong to nobody until the warranty call comes.
Millwork & Casework
Half your contract earned in your own shop before anything reaches the site, built to a drawing of walls somebody else framed, with the furnish-and-install line drawn in a meeting you were not in.
All trades
SubMark ships a setup pack for 29 commercial trades. See the full list.