Procore’s RFIs tool exists to facilitate a simple process: a numbered question, a person who has the ball, a due date, and an official response you can point to later. That process is what keeps a crew from building past an unanswered question. The platform is one way to run it, not the only way.

I kept RFI logs at Mortenson Construction, including the stretch when a mission-critical data center project moved onto Procore. The software made open items visible to a large team. But the habit (number it, date it, assign it, close it, and get the answer to the field) is what actually saved rework. You can run that habit in Google Sheets or Excel, with the PDFs in a Google Drive or Dropbox folder, as long as someone actually updates the sheet.

This is not a pitch to buy Procore. What follows is a plain-language map of the process, and of a simpler setup that reaches the same goal.

What the process has to accomplish

Whatever tool you use, an RFI system has to answer four questions without a scavenger hunt:

  1. What questions are still open?
  2. Who has the ball, and when is a response due?
  3. What was the official answer, and where is the PDF?
  4. If the answer changes the work, did the field actually receive it?

In a typical Procore project, the RFIs tool holds the number, the assignee, the due date, and the official response, and it can keep a history of that item. Configurations differ. Do not assume every job uses the same fields or the same workflow.

The simpler equivalent

Keep one spreadsheet log in the job’s 05_RFIs folder, and keep the PDF of each RFI and each response next to it. The columns that matter are in the RFI Log Template (Google Sheets) template: number, date sent, subject, drawing or spec reference, who has the ball, due date, date closed, one-line answer, whether it changes the work, whether it was filed with the current set, who in the field received it and when, and a link to the PDF.

A folder full of PDFs is not a log. A log without the PDFs is a claim you cannot prove. You need both.

A practical weekly habit:

  • Add a row when the RFI is sent, not later.
  • When the answer comes back, fill the closed date and the one-line answer from the source PDF, not from memory.
  • If it changes the work, it is not done until the answer is filed with the current set and a named person in the field has received it.
  • Twice a week, filter to open and late rows. The afternoon before a pour or a cover-up, filter to that area.

AI can help draft a one-line summary of a long response. A person still checks the source PDF before anyone builds from it. See Where AI Helps: Summaries, Draft Transmittals, and Searching a Folder and Where AI Should Not Be Trusted.

When this is enough

A spreadsheet log will carry a lot of jobs if someone gives it fifteen minutes twice a week. It will not hold if the sheet goes a week without an honest update, or if answers that change the work never leave the office. “How to Run an RFI Log Without Enterprise Software” is the longer how-to. The template is RFI Log Template (Google Sheets).

If the cadence will not hold, I can set up the log and the job file, or keep it current on a retainer. 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