For glazing & curtain wall subcontractors
Glazing contractor software for commercial subs — field measure to water test.
Close to half your contract is custom aluminum and glass you cannot order until the openings physically exist, cannot return once it is cut, and cannot bill until it is in the building and a water test has passed. That is the tightest material risk of any trade on the job. SubMark carries the stored material on your schedule of values, keeps the dated record for the opening that was out of tolerance, and — with Elevation Tracking switched on in Settings — tracks the work elevation by elevation.
14-day free trial, no card needed. Sign up from here and glazing is already selected when you pick your trade. See pricing →
- Custom material billed as stored material
- Elevation as the unit of work, once you switch it on
- Field measure and water test logged as gates
What actually goes wrong on a commercial glazing job.
Your material is custom, non-returnable and nearly half the contract.
Aluminum frames, storefront systems, curtain wall and insulated glass units are fabricated to your field dimensions with long lead times and a deposit up front. Once it is cut it fits one opening on one building. That is a very large amount of cash sitting in a yard or a warehouse, insured and exposed, long before anyone will certify it as installed. It has to be a stored-material line on the schedule of values or it is financed out of your own pocket.
Field measure is where the risk transfers to you.
You measure the openings as built. If a rough opening is out of tolerance, out of plumb or in the wrong place, you either fabricate to the error, wait for someone to fix it, or modify the opening yourself. All three cost money and all three are somebody else’s mistake. A dated change event with photos and measurements, raised the day your measure crew finds it, is the only version of that conversation you win.
Breakage after install is a ten-week problem.
A unit gets broken by another trade, or during handling, or nobody admits to it. The replacement is custom, so it is back to the fabricator with the original lead time, and your punch list stays open for two months over one panel. What makes that survivable is a dated, photo-backed daily log of when each opening was glazed, so the argument about who broke it has a starting date.
A failed water test holds your last 10% and your retainage.
The water test is the gate on acceptance, and a leak can come from your gasket, somebody else’s flashing or a detail that was wrong in the drawings. Until it passes, your punch stays open and retainage stays held. A dated daily log for every test attempt, with photos of what leaked and where, is what keeps a single elevation from holding up the whole contract.
Before you mobilize
The 4 things glazing 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 glazing subs ask them.
- Confirm the approved shop drawings, glass makeup and finish
- Confirm field dimensions and opening tolerances before release
- Confirm whose scope the perimeter sealant, flashing and anchors are
- Confirm delivery, hoisting and the installation window
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 glazing 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 glazing job, elevation by elevation.
Field measure, fabrication, frame install, glazing and seal are sequential per elevation, and the building gives you one elevation at a time. Here is how the work maps to what ships in SubMark.
- 01 Bid & estimate
Takeoff off the A-sheets and elevations, system selection, glass make-up, thermal and structural requirements.
Bid Board, Plans & Drawings, Takeoff, Estimating & Proposals
- 02 Submittals & engineering
System submittals, shop drawings, structural calcs and glass make-up approved before release.
Submittals with a material library and merged PDF export
- 03 Field measure
Openings measured as built, and every one that is out of tolerance documented before fabrication.
Daily Labor Logs with photos, Change Events for every opening out of tolerance
- 04 Fabrication & delivery
Aluminum cut and assembled, IGUs fabricated to size, then delivered and stored on or off site.
Purchase Orders, Invoices Inbox, Schedule of Values & Draw Log for stored material
- 05 Frame install
Perimeter frames, anchors, shims and sub-sill set and sealed to line and plumb, elevation by elevation.
Time Clock & Labor Logs feeding Job Costing
- 06 Storefront & curtain wall
Storefront and curtain wall systems erected, pressure plates and caps set, often off a swing stage or lift.
Crew Scheduling across jobs, Safety Program for inspections and certs
- 07 Glazing
Glass set with setting blocks and gaskets, dry glazed or wet sealed to the approved detail.
Job Costing for the job’s labor and material, Crew Scheduling
- 08 Doors & hardware
Entrance doors, closers, panics and specialty hardware hung and adjusted.
Purchase Orders, Invoices Inbox, Daily Labor Logs
- 09 Caulk, seal & water test
Perimeter caulking and sealant, then the water test per elevation and the rework it generates.
Daily Labor Logs as the dated record of each test attempt, Change Events
- 10 Punch & closeout
Glass replacement, adjustment, cleaning, warranties, as-builts and the retainage release.
Schedule of Values & Draw Log, Lien Waiver Tracking, Submittals for the warranties
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 7 phases load with the Glazing & Glass 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 Field Measure
- 02 Frame Install
- 03 Storefront / Curtain Wall
- 04 Glazing
- 05 Doors / Hardware
- 06 Caulk / Seal
- 07 Punch
Rename, reorder or delete any of them in Settings — the pack is a starting point, not a cage.
A glazing schedule of values that carries the material you already paid for.
Glazing is the clearest case in commercial construction for stored-material billing: the money leaves months before the glass is in the wall, and it leaves for material that fits exactly one building. These are the kinds of lines a commercial glazing SOV usually needs:
In the pack
Open the SOV builder on a new job and these 4 lines are already in it.
- Material 45%
- Frames 25%
- Glazing 20%
- Punch 10%
What most commercial glazing subs add
- 01 Submittals, shop drawings & engineering
- 02 Field measure
- 03 Aluminum & framing systems — material stored-material line
- 04 Glass & IGUs — material stored-material line
- 05 Frame install — Elevation A
- 06 Frame install — Elevation B
- 07 Storefront erection
- 08 Curtain wall erection
- 09 Glazing — labor
- 10 Entrance doors & hardware
- 11 Perimeter caulking & sealant
- 12 Water test & rework
- 13 Glass replacement & punch
- 14 Warranties, as-builts & closeout
Break the install lines down by elevation rather than by floor, because that is the order the building actually releases to you. And keep the water test as its own line — if one elevation fails, you want it holding up one line rather than every install line on the draw.
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 custom fabricated aluminum and glass are billable as stored material, and so install bills by elevation in the order the building gives it to you.
T&M tickets in commercial construction: getting signed, and getting paid
Modifying an opening that was out of tolerance is T&M work — what belongs on the ticket, how to get it signed on site, and how a stack of tags becomes one change order.
Inside SubMark
One calendar for every crew on every job.
Two frame crews, a glazing crew and a caulking crew across three jobs, each working a different elevation. SubMark schedules every worker in one calendar and flags the double-booking before the lift is rented.
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, glazing 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 Glazing / Glass at setup and SubMark loads the glazing pack: the real phase list from field measure through frame install, storefront and curtain wall, glazing, doors and hardware, caulk and seal, and punch; a material list built around aluminum frames, IGUs, storefront and curtain wall systems, gaskets, sealant and setting blocks; and the water test on the phase checklist. Switch Elevation Tracking on and elevation becomes the unit of work. Anything the pack gets wrong, you change in Settings.
The worker types are already there too — Foreman, Glazier, Apprentice and Helper — on every worker record and on every daily labor log. The only thing left to enter is your own rates.
Questions
Glazing & Glass subcontractors ask us these.
Can I bill for glass and aluminum that has been fabricated but not installed?
You build the schedule of values, so yes — and for glazing it is close to essential. Carry the aluminum and the IGU package as stored-material lines and bill them as they are fabricated and delivered, separately from the erection and glazing labor that may be months behind. SubMark tracks what you billed on each line, what was certified, what retainage is held and when payment landed.
Can we track work by elevation instead of by floor?
Yes, once you switch Elevation Tracking on in Settings — it is not on by default. With it on, elevation is the unit of work rather than a floor or an apartment, because that is how a building releases to a glazier, and labor rolls up by elevation. Left off, job costing still shows labor, material and sub cost for the whole job, grouped by cost type.
How do we document an opening that was out of tolerance?
With a change event raised the day your measure crew finds it, carrying photos, the measurements and the trade responsible. That becomes the basis for a T&M tag or a change order depending on how it is priced, and the superintendent signs the tag on site. The honest limit: SubMark gives you a dated, photo-backed record and a signature — it does not decide whose tolerance it was.
Does it help with the water test?
With the record of it, yes. Each attempt goes on that day’s daily log with the narrative, the crew and photos of where the water came through, and anything caused by another trade’s flashing goes up as a dated change event. Being straight about the limit: there is no itemized deficiency list to work down. What you get is a dated, photo-backed history per test — and it will not tell you whether the leak is your gasket or someone else’s flashing.
Do we have to stop using the GC’s billing portal?
No. Keep submitting through whatever portal or form each GC uses. SubMark is where the schedule of values lives — stored aluminum and glass on their own lines, frame install broken out by elevation, perimeter caulking, and the water test as its own line — and where every draw you submit is logged against it, with retainage held and payment tracked across every GC.
Do my field crews cost extra?
No. Field users are free and unlimited, and so are the subs you invite into a job. 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 glazing job.
Start the trial, confirm glazing 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.
Drywall & Framing
A third to half the contract spent on board before anything is hung, five finish passes nobody can measure, and three punch walks and a clean-up that are all on you.
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.
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.