The question on the drawing, numbered and priced
A question pinned to the drawing, answered by link without an account, closed as a change order with cost and days.
An RFI — Request for Information — is a formal question about something the design does not define: a detail that doesn’t add up, a dimension that contradicts another, a finish nobody specified. In Matterial it is born where the doubt is born: you pin the exact point on the drawing, write what doesn’t add up and direct it to whoever must answer. If that person is outside your company, it goes out numbered (RFI-001, RFI-002…) with a link to answer without an account. When the answer arrives, if it means money or days, you close it and a draft change order is generated with the cost charged to the right budget line. That last step is the one no document-management tool can take: turning an answer into billable money requires holding the budget.
The verbal instruction is the most expensive leak on a jobsite
The site engineer asks over the phone, the architect answers "do it this way", and the work gets built. Months later that extra work cannot be billed: there is no written question, no dated answer, nobody who signed that it was requested. On a mid-sized job this repeats dozens of times, and every one of them is money out of the contractor’s pocket. The problem isn’t a missing RFI form — there are plenty in Excel — it is that filling one forces you out of where you are working, and that once answered nobody connects it back to the budget.
How it works
Pin the doubt on the drawing
You open the sheet, click the exact point and write what doesn’t add up. The conversation stays anchored there: whoever opens it sees the place, not a description.
Direct it to whoever must answer
If it belongs to a teammate, it is an internal to-do. If it belongs to the architect, the engineer of record or the inspector, you pick "outside the company": it goes out numbered and with a due date.
Answered by link, no account
You send the link over WhatsApp or email. It opens a page with the question and an answer field. No signup, no app to download.
Close it with its impact
On closing you capture the cost and the days. Matterial generates the draft change order with the item on the anchored budget line, ready to formalize with the client.
The client approves it on their own link
From Change Orders it goes out with your branding and its approval link. The loop closes: question → answer → money billed.
What's included
- Sequential numbering per job (RFI-001, RFI-002…) generated automatically
- Anchored to the exact point on the drawing, the budget line or the contract affected
- Born from the conversation, not from a separate form
- Public link so an outside party answers without creating an account
- An internal owner who chases the answer, with an alert and a date
- Overdue ones surface on the today screen and in the notification center
- Closing with cost and time impact generates the draft change order
- Numbered record in the project file, next to minutes and approvals
- Answers can be captured internally when they came by phone or in a meeting
RFIs in a document tool vs. in Matterial
| Document software | With Matterial | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it is created | In the RFI module | On the drawing, where you see the doubt |
| Who answers | Needs an account or invitation | Public link, no account |
| When the answer arrives | It gets filed | It closes with cost and days |
| The price change | Captured elsewhere, in another system | Draft change order, on the right budget line |
| Getting paid | If somebody remembers | With the client’s own approval link |
A wall nobody specified
Without the written RFI, that $78,400 gets built and lost: there is nothing to prove the change was requested.
Who it's for
Works with the rest of Matterial
Coming from another tool?
Frequently asked questions
What is an RFI in construction?
An RFI (Request for Information) is a formal question the builder asks the architect, the inspector or the client about something the design does not define, or defines in a contradictory way. It carries a number, a date and an owner, and its answer stands as evidence: it is what allows the resulting work to be billed later.
Can an RFI be billed?
The RFI itself is not billed: what gets billed is the change its answer triggers. That is why it matters that the question is written and dated. In Matterial, when you close an RFI you capture the cost and the days, and a draft change order is generated with the item on the affected budget line, ready for the client to approve.
Who can answer an RFI?
Anyone holding the link while the RFI is open: architect, inspector or client, with no need to create an account. The answer is recorded with the name they type and the date. If the answer came by phone, you can capture it yourself from the project file.
How is an RFI different from a change order?
The RFI is the documented QUESTION ("is the wall on grid 4 fair-faced?"); the change order is the economic CONSEQUENCE of the answer. Matterial links them: an RFI closed with impact generates the change order and both stay cross-referenced in the project file.
Where does the RFI log live?
In the project file, next to meeting minutes and document approvals, because they are the same family: paperwork with evidentiary weight. It is not a menu section you have to remember to visit; open and overdue ones show up on their own on your today screen.
What if nobody answers in time?
The RFI shows as overdue, with the name of who owes it and since when. That visibility is in practice what makes answers arrive: nobody wants to be the name in red at Monday’s meeting.
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