RFI workflow

Requests for Information (RFIs) are the audit-grade question/answer trail between site and design. Every RFI in NEOM has a strict lifecycle and a single source of truth for who currently owes a response.

Raising an RFI

From the project home, open Tools → RFIs and click New RFI. The form captures:

Title — keep it short and outcome-focused. "Confirm slab edge detail at GL-7" beats "Slab question".
Discipline — architectural, structural, MEP, civil, FF&E, or general. Drives the default reviewer pool.
Spec section — optional but recommended; ties the RFI to the relevant package and flows into the variation evidence chain if a change order later cites this RFI.
Due date — the contractual response window. NEOM warns if you set a due date inside the project's contract response window.
Attachments — drag drawings, photos, mark-ups directly onto the form. Files go to project storage and are linked, not embedded, so the register stays fast.

Saving creates the RFI in status = open with the originator on the ball-in-court (BIC) field. The reference is allocated atomically (RFI-0001, RFI-0002, …) and cannot be edited.

Routing and the ball-in-court

The BIC field is the single most important value on an RFI. It answers "who do we chase next?" and drives:

The project home attention strip — open RFIs where BIC is your team count against your daily punch-list.
The reminders dispatcher — the email outbox sends a nudge the working day before the due date and again on the day after if BIC has not changed.
The notifications bell — when an RFI is routed to you, a persistent notification lands. It clears automatically once you respond or hand off.

Reassign BIC via the Route button on the detail page. The audit log captures the from/to actors and a free-text reason.

Responding and the official response flag

A response with Mark as official ticked is the response the project lives by. There can be more than one comment on the thread, but only the marked-official one closes the audit loop. The detail page surfaces it in a green-bordered card at the top.

Operator tip: do not mark a response official until you have confirmation from the discipline lead. Unmarking after publication is possible but writes a rfi.official_response_revoked audit event that auditors will ask about.

Closing and the answered archive

When an RFI has an official response and no outstanding follow-ups, click Close. The status moves to answered, BIC clears, and the record drops out of the active register. The answered archive (/projects/<id>/rfis?tab=answered) is the searchable, read-only history. Closing is reversible (the Reopen button is on the detail page) but the audit log captures both directions.

Cross-references

Variations — when a variation order is raised from an RFI, the variation detail page renders the originating RFI as part of the evidence chain.
Drawings — RFIs raised against a drawing revision pin to that revision. If the drawing is superseded, the RFI carries forward and the new revision is annotated with the carry-forward note.
Email correspondence — formal letters tied to an RFI appear in the correspondence register under the same reference, with the formal tab filtered to that project.

If you need to bulk-import RFIs from another platform, the import preflight (/admin/import) deduplicates against the existing register before any write happens.

Raising an RFI

From the project home, open Tools → RFIs and click New RFI. The form captures:

Title — keep it short and outcome-focused. "Confirm slab edge detail at GL-7" beats "Slab question".

Discipline — architectural, structural, MEP, civil, FF&E, or general. Drives the default reviewer pool.

Spec section — optional but recommended; ties the RFI to the relevant package and flows into the variation evidence chain if a change order later cites this RFI.

Due date — the contractual response window. NEOM warns if you set a due date inside the project's contract response window.

Attachments — drag drawings, photos, mark-ups directly onto the form. Files go to project storage and are linked, not embedded, so the register stays fast.

Saving creates the RFI in status = open with the originator on the ball-in-court (BIC) field. The reference is allocated atomically (RFI-0001, RFI-0002, …) and cannot be edited.

Routing and the ball-in-court

The BIC field is the single most important value on an RFI. It answers "who do we chase next?" and drives:

The project home attention strip — open RFIs where BIC is your team count against your daily punch-list.

The reminders dispatcher — the email outbox sends a nudge the working day before the due date and again on the day after if BIC has not changed.

The notifications bell — when an RFI is routed to you, a persistent notification lands. It clears automatically once you respond or hand off.

Reassign BIC via the Route button on the detail page. The audit log captures the from/to actors and a free-text reason.

Responding and the official response flag

Closing and the answered archive

Cross-references

Variations — when a variation order is raised from an RFI, the variation detail page renders the originating RFI as part of the evidence chain.

Drawings — RFIs raised against a drawing revision pin to that revision. If the drawing is superseded, the RFI carries forward and the new revision is annotated with the carry-forward note.

Email correspondence — formal letters tied to an RFI appear in the correspondence register under the same reference, with the formal tab filtered to that project.

If you need to bulk-import RFIs from another platform, the import preflight (/admin/import) deduplicates against the existing register before any write happens.