You do not need enterprise software to know which questions are still open. You need a log that is visible on a phone, updated on purpose, and tied to the people doing the work.

I kept that kind of log at Mortenson Construction, on a mission-critical data center project, including the period when the job moved onto Procore. I am not writing this to talk you into that platform. Most contractors running several jobs at once, with a superintendent or PM doing the paperwork on top of the work, have no Procore budget and no one whose only job is the logs. A spreadsheet is enough if someone actually uses it.

Procore’s RFIs tool is built to facilitate that same process: a numbered question, a person who has the ball, a due date, and an official response you can point to later. You do not need that platform to run the process. A visible spreadsheet, a filed PDF, and a short note to the field do the same job, as long as someone keeps them updated. The process matters more than the tool.

What the log has to show

A folder full of RFI PDFs is not a log. A superintendent should be able to open the sheet and answer three questions without hunting through email: what is still open, who has the ball, and did the field receive the answer?

These columns do that work:

  • Number
  • Date sent
  • Subject
  • Drawing or spec reference
  • Who has the ball
  • Due date
  • Date closed
  • One-line summary of the answer
  • Does this change the work? (yes/no)
  • Filed with the current set? (yes/no)
  • Field received, by whom, and date
  • Link or path to the PDF

Color or filter the open rows so they stand out. If every line looks the same, the late ones hide until after the pour.

Give every question a due date, and watch that date against the work. An RFI with no due date is easy to forget. An RFI that changes sleeve locations, and a slab that is pouring at 4 a.m., should not meet each other for the first time in the dark.

The miss this prevents

Here is the pattern. It is not a story about a named client or a real invoice.

A good question goes to the design team. A good answer comes back, and it actually changes the work. The email lands in an inbox while the crew is still looking at the issued set. They install what they have in front of them. Then someone forwards the answer, and you are looking at a rip-out, a repair, and an argument about who saw what.

Nobody on that crew was careless in the usual sense. The answer simply was not under control. I walk through how that typically turns into rework, with example cost ranges labeled as examples, in "The Missed RFI: How One Unanswered Question Turns Into a Rip-Out."

How to run it in a folder and a spreadsheet

Put a Google Sheet, or an Excel file the team will actually open, in the shared job folder on Google Drive or Dropbox. File the RFI PDFs in an RFIs folder, named with the date, the number, and a short subject. If an answer changes the work, put a copy (or a combined "binding RFIs" packet) next to the current drawings, so the installer is not hunting through the log in the sun.

A short weekly cadence will carry a lot of jobs:

  1. Add new RFIs the day they go out.
  2. Update who has the ball when a reminder goes out or a response comes in.
  3. Close what is closed, in one line, in plain language.
  4. Send the answer to the superintendent and the affected subs, and record that it was received.
  5. The afternoon before a pour, a cover-up, or an inspection, read the open list for that area.

Arizona heat makes that last step real. Summer pours start early on purpose, so the review belongs on the afternoon before, not at the truck.

Used carefully, an AI tool can summarize a long response or draft a short "what changed" note. A person still checks it against the source PDF. The chatbot is not the log, and it is not the current set.

If the week cannot hold the log

If the questions are coming fast, or the sheet has gone stale for more than a week, that is a reason to simplify the habit or get help, not a reason to feel behind.

If that sounds like your job, I can set up the log and the job file, run the logs on a retainer, or prepare closeout. If you want a second set of eyes, bring a recent RFI thread and the folder where your drawings live. I will tell you straight whether a simple spreadsheet will hold.

The files stay yours.

If you want help, not just a checklist

Some jobs run fine on a clean file and a superintendent who gives the log fifteen minutes twice a week. Others do not: revisions are moving fast, closeout is already behind, or the field simply has no hours left for paperwork.

That is where I come in. I set up the job file, run the logs on a retainer, or prepare closeout before the scramble starts. Your files stay yours, and there is no software contract to sign.

Email travis@builtonrecord.com Get the free Job File Kit