What is an RFI?
An RFI is used in the construction industry when a project's construction documentation lacks information that is required to proceed with any given scope of work.
An RFI raised by the general contractor that has been answered by the client, or architect, and distributed to all stakeholders, is generally accepted as a change to the scope of work unless further approval is required for costs associated with the change.
It is common and accepted practice for a subcontractor or supplier to use an RFI to state his/her concern related to the omission or misapplication of a product, and seek further clarification of the building owner's intended use or their official acceptance of the specified product. It is also acceptable for the subcontractor to use an RFI to call attention to an inferior product that may not meet the building owner's needs, and use his/her expertise to recommend the better/correct product.
An RFI is primarily used to gather information to help make a decision on what steps to take next. RFIs are therefore seldom the final stage and are instead often used in combination with the following: request for proposal (RFP), request for tender (RFT), and request for quotation (RFQ).
Where is the RFI Module
The RFI module is located at the project level. From either the drop down menu or the left hand menu, navigate to the project modules
This will bring up the RFI log Screen. All RFIs created on the project will reside here, and displayed in descending order from newest to oldest. This page will allow the user to:
Add RFI - Create a new request for information document.
Print - which will allow a user to generate a report using their computer's printer settings.
Export to Excel - which will automatically generate a excel file for the user.
Action icons - Looks like a gear, and are located to the right of each document. Depending on the status of RFI, the user has access to more functionality.
