Setup a workflow for an RFI

The general contractor is the hub for all subcontractors, architects, engineers, owners, and other parties involved in a construction project. Any communication between the parties can only be routed appropriately by the GC. Hence it becomes GC's responsibility to duly forward an RFI from the creator to the responsible parties for processing. 

The RFI workflow governs the routing of an RFI to respective parties at successive stages in the order. For example, an RFI created by the project manager of an SC is routed in the following order for review, response, and approval.

SC (Create) > GC (Review) > Architect (Respond) > GC (Approve and close)

The RFI workflow templates are defined at your company level by your administrator and are available for selection to apply to the RFIs you process. Linarc allows the company admins to create custom workflow templates with different combinations of company roles and actions, depending on their needs. Any company, may it be the GC, SC, or the Architect, can be set as the responsible party to answer an RFI in different templates. Project managers can use the template appropriate to an RFI depending on its creator and nature of questions and whom to provide clarifications.    

This section explains how a GC PM can set up a workflow for an RFI.

• RFIs created by you - You can set up a workflow in the draft stage itself
• For RFIs created by others - You can specify a workflow for an RFI only if you are the assignee for it (listed under 'Assigned to me' on your 'RFI' > 'Boards' interface).
• RFIs created by you are automatically assigned to you.
• RFIs created and forwarded by PMs of subcontractors will be automatically assigned to you.
• RFI drafts created by foremen of SCs are first routed to their PM. The SC PM performs an initial review and assessment of the RFIs, then forwards them to you for your review and defining a workflow.
• RFIs created by foremen of GC are first routed to you for initial review and defining a workflow.

You can perform an initial review of the RFIs assigned to you and move forward with setting up a workflow for legitimate ones. Others can be rejected by you. 

• See the previous section, Review an RFI, for guidance on reviewing an RFI
• See the next section, Reject an RFI, for guidance on declining an RFI.

Set up a workflow

• Ensure that the RFI is open
• Click the button.

The 'Select Workflow' pop-up lets you configure the companies and the personnel to whom the RFI should be routed at subsequent steps for review, response, and approval throughout its life cycle. You can also manually define the duration for each step to override the default durations inherited from the applied template. 

The drop-down at the top left shows all available templates for you to choose from. After selecting a template, you can customize the actions in each step, the company and user responsible for the activity, and the process durations.

• Click inside the 'Select Template' drop-down at the top right.

 The drop-down shows templates defined at your company level. If you do not find a template you want to apply, contact your administrator.

• Choose a template depending on the creator and the entities responsible for various actions on the RFI.

Once chosen, the actions and the responsible company types in the workflow template are shown as a list. 

• • Action - The activity involved. This can be 'add,' 'edit,' 'respond,' 'answer,' 'review,' etc., depending on the chosen template.
  • Company Type- The role of the contractor company in the project. This can be the general contractor, subcontractor, architect, etc.
  • Company Name- The business name of the company. You can choose the company from the respective drop-downs.
    • Click inside the 'Company Name' field and choose the company from the options
  • Process days- The maximum permissible days for the activity. The number of days allowed for each step is inherited from the respective values specified in the template by default. You can manually edit them as required. The 'Due Date' for each step auto-updates depending on the set process days. 
    • Double-click inside the 'Process Days' field to manually enter the number of days 
  • Received Date - The date on which the RFI was received for the action from the previous step.
  • Due Date - The target completion date of the activity. The date is auto-populated based on the completion date of the previous step and the allowed process days of the current step, excluding weekends and holidays. 
  • Response Date - The date on which the action was completed.
  • Status - Whether the action is complete, pending, or in processing.
• Select the responsible companies and enter the permissible days for each step
• Click  to apply the workflow to the RFI.

You can view the status of an RFI in its workflow at any time by clicking 'View Workflow' on the right.

• Click the at the top right to forward it to the next step

Tip:

You can chat with the participants of the RFI at any stage. Click the button on the top right. See Chat and collaborate on RFIs for more guidance.