The 5-stage RFI flow
A diagram-first walkthrough from field capture to closed-out answer, with handoffs and SLAs at every step.
Workflow · Project Management
Cut your RFI cycle from days to hours.
A ready-made Request for Information workflow your field crew, project managers, and architects can run end-to-end. Deploy on Ontraccr in a week, no Excel, no email threads, no follow-up calls.
12 pagesPDF, no fluff
5 formsReady to deploy
7 automationsRouting & notifications
Send me the playbook
We'll email the PDF. No spam, one follow-up if you want a demo, otherwise we leave you alone.
Live RFI board · Tower 3
12 open · 4 today
RFI Inbox · Tower 3
12 open
RFI-204Mech room — beam clearance above ductRouting
RFI-203L4 column rebar spec conflictAwaiting
RFI-202Curtain wall anchor detailAnswered
RFI-201Slab penetration sleeve sizeOpen
Median response time
6h−85%
RFIs answered first-pass
92%+18%
Inside the playbook
Twelve pages a PM can read on a coffee break.
Built from how our customers actually run RFIs, not a generic blog post. Take what you need, ignore the rest.
Form templates
Field-tested forms for new RFI, response, and distribution — drop them into Ontraccr or rebuild in your own system.
Automation library
Seven pre-built rules for routing, escalation, daily digests, and overdue alerts. Copy or adapt.
Implementation checklist
What to set up in week one, week two, and ongoing — including the conversations to have with the architect's office.
Real benchmarks
Cycle-time numbers from active Ontraccr customers, not vendor PDFs. What good looks like at 20-, 100-, and 400-person firms.
Common pitfalls
The four ways RFI workflows quietly break down, and the small process changes that fix each one for good.
How the workflow runs
Five steps, three roles, one shared thread.
No more chasing an answer across email, WhatsApp, and a binder. Every RFI has one source of truth from capture to close.
1Field
Capture in the field
Foreman scans an issue on the plan from their phone, auto-tagged with location, photo, drawing reference.
~5 min2PM
Log & assign
PM reviews, fills the impact box (cost / schedule), and routes to the right consultant.
Same day3Consultant
Architect responds
Notified in their tool of choice, email, Procore, Newforma. Single source-of-truth thread.
1-3 days4PM
Distribute answer
Auto-distributed to affected crews, sub-trades, and project files. Drawing markups stay linked.
Hours5Field
Close & verify
Foreman confirms work matches the answer. Closed RFIs roll into the daily log automatically.
On task
What's in the box
Automations and use cases, ready out of the box.
Automations included
Pre-built rules. Toggle on, tune to your trades, ship.
- ✓Auto-route by trade. RFIs tagged 'mechanical' land in the MEP coordinator's queue without anyone forwarding.
- ✓Overdue escalation. If a consultant doesn't respond in 48h, escalate to the project lead and copy the architect's PM.
- ✓Daily digest at 4pm. A single end-of-day summary to PMs: open, answered, overdue, and what's blocking each crew tomorrow.
- ✓Auto-distribute answer. When closed, the answer pushes to every affected crew, drawing version, and the daily log.
- ✓Cost & schedule flag. RFIs with cost-impact > $0 or schedule impact > 0 days auto-create a change order draft.
- ✓Closeout export. All RFIs and answers package into a single PDF for project closeout, zero copy-paste.
- ✓Drawing version lock. If a sheet revs while an RFI is open, both parties are notified before they answer the wrong question.
Common use cases
Where Ontraccr's RFI workflow earns its keep.
- ✓Plan conflicts in the field. Beam clearances, rebar specs, penetration sleeves, the 80% of RFIs that block work today.
- ✓Owner-driven scope changes. Capture the question, the impact, and the answer in one thread before it becomes a dispute.
- ✓Sub-trade coordination. MEP-vs-structural conflicts caught early in BIM but answered in plain English on-site.
- ✓Submittal-related RFIs. Tie open submittals to the RFI thread so nothing falls between the two systems.
- ✓Pre-close punch sweep. Use the daily digest to clear open RFIs before substantial completion, not after.
- ✓Multi-site PM oversight. One queue per PM across every active job, not one inbox per job.
Trusted on jobsites across Canada and the US
MainroadHoneyBee ConstructionGWI BuildersNorPacStolk & SonsVector MEP
We had RFIs sitting in someone's inbox for a week. With Ontraccr we know exactly where every question is — and the architect knows we're waiting. The first month, our median response time went from four days to seven hours.
Mark Donelly, Operations Manager · 140-person mechanical contractor
Deploy this workflow on Ontraccr
The whole RFI workflow, pre-built in your Ontraccr workspace.
Don't translate this PDF into your tool of choice. We'll load the exact workflow — forms, automations, dashboards, drawings tie-ins — straight into your Ontraccr account in week one.
- Five forms, seven automations, three dashboards. Same artifacts as in the PDF, live in your account on day one.
- Plan-and-drawing tie-in. RFIs anchor to sheet, revision, and pin on plan, no separate viewer needed.
- Field-ready. Foremen capture from iOS, Android, or a hard-hat-mounted tablet. Offline-safe.
- Implementation in a week. A real implementation lead, not a chatbot. Goes live with your active projects.
● Week-one deployment● No long contracts● Built for 20-500-person crews
Workflows · Project Management · RFI
RFI · Tower 3
12
Open
6h
Median TTR
92%
First-pass
Open 4
RFI-204
Beam clearance
RFI-201
Sleeve size
Routing 3
RFI-205
Curtain anchor
Awaiting 3
RFI-203
Rebar spec
Answered 2
RFI-202
Wall anchor
Common questions
The questions we get most often.
Do I need to use Ontraccr to get value from the playbook?
No. The diagrams, forms, and automation logic translate to any modern PM tool, Procore, Newforma, Buildertrend, or a homebuilt stack. The PDF is yours either way.
How long does deployment actually take?
Most contractors are live with the RFI workflow in five to seven business days. We pull from your existing project list, sub-trade contacts, and drawing set so nothing's re-keyed.
What does my architect's office need to do?
Nothing new. They keep responding wherever they respond today, email, Procore, Newforma. Ontraccr handles the routing on our side so the architect's workflow doesn't change.
What about ongoing customization?
Every form, every automation, every dashboard is editable in-app. The week-one workflow is a starting point, most teams refine it monthly as they learn what their crews actually need.
Ready to ship this workflow?
Stop running RFIs out of a spreadsheet. Ship them out of Ontraccr.
Book a 30-minute demo with an implementation lead. We'll walk through the exact RFI workflow from this playbook — running in your account by next week.
