A question without a reference
The form asks the designer to confirm the lintel detail but names neither the drawing nor its revision, so the answer is given for a different issue of the drawing.
RFI form
RFI form template: what a request for information should contain
An RFI form exists to get one question answered once, by the right person, before the work needs the answer. Most templates fail not for want of boxes but because the important ones are left blank: which revision the question refers to, who must answer it and by when. Below are the fields a request for information should carry on a UK project, and how each is filled in on Fidrel’s own RFI form.
30 days free · No minimum term.
Why RFI forms come back incomplete
No date the answer is needed by
Without a deadline the RFI joins the designer’s general queue, and the site learns it is late only when the bricklayers reach the opening.
Answers that never reach the log
The reply arrives by e-mail, the spreadsheet is not updated, and a month later nobody can show whether the question was ever closed.
The fields a request for information needs
A complete UK RFI form usually carries a unique RFI number; the project; the date raised and who raised it; the recipient; the drawing, specification clause or model it concerns, with its revision; the location on site; the question, put so that it can be answered without a meeting; any proposed solution; the date an answer is needed by; the answer, who gave it and when; and a status showing whether the question is open, answered or closed. Some forms add tick boxes for possible cost or programme effects.
Reviews, RFIs & issues
How Fidrel’s RFI form maps to those fields
The number is given automatically in the form RFI-0007, and Created by records who raised the RFI and when. Title and Question / description hold the question; Assignee / recipient, Response due, Priority and Area cover who, when, how urgent and where. Linked drawings and documents names files at a specific revision, and an RFI raised from a markup keeps that revision and markup as its source. Attachments take files of up to 25 MB each, and Answer, Comments and History hold the reply, the discussion and every change of field and status.
Filling in an RFI in Fidrel
Step 1
Start from the drawing or from New RFI
Mark the spot on the drawing in a review and choose Create RFI from markup, or open the RFI page and choose New RFI. Either way the same form opens.
Step 2
Write the question
Give the RFI a short Title and set out the Question / description in full: what you found, where, and what you propose if you already have a solution in mind.
Step 3
Name the recipient, deadline and priority
Choose the Assignee / recipient from the project’s members, set Response due, pick a Priority of Low, Normal, High or Urgent and, where useful, an Area. A draft is visible only to you and the project’s administrators.
Step 4
Send it and follow the answer
Set it to Open to send it. The recipient is notified, writes the reply in the Answer field and publishes it; you then close the RFI or send it back as Action required.
Statuses from draft to closed
An RFI moves from Draft to Open when it is sent, from Open to Answered or Closed, and from Answered either to Closed or back to Action required if the reply does not settle it. A closed RFI can be reopened. It cannot be set to Answered without an answer, and an RFI whose deadline has passed while it still waits for one is marked Overdue in the list.
One register instead of a spreadsheet
Every RFI in a project sits in one list that can be searched and filtered by status, with Overdue as a filter of its own. Each RFI can be linked to the issues it concerns, and a variation can be raised from it with the RFI as its source, so the question, the reply and any change it caused point to each other. The person who raised the RFI gets a notice when it is answered.
What Fidrel’s RFI form does not do
There is no printable RFI form or RFI register export: the RFI lives in Fidrel, and recipients answer it there. The recipient must be a member of the project; an RFI cannot be sent to an outside e-mail address. RFI numbers are unique but are not counted separately for each project, so a project’s first RFI need not be RFI-0001. There are no separate fields for cost or programme effect; raise a variation from the RFI when an answer changes either.
Related solutions
One project. One subscription. The entire platform included.
Your trial applies to your first own project and starts when that project is created. No card required. Afterwards, choose card or invoice to continue.
- 30 days free
- Unlimited participants
- No minimum term
Insights
View all
Project coordination just got simpler
The project system of the future connects people, documents and decisions. Discover the thinking behind Fidrel.
Read more
Your drawing, on site. Open DWG on your phone.
On site, answers need to be close at hand. Fidrel displays DWG drawings in your mobile browser, within the project’s document structure.
Read more
A clearer programme. From the first activity to the final milestone.
When everyone can see the next step, moving the project forward becomes easier. Fidrel brings activities, dates and reported progress together in a shared Gantt view.
Read more
At minimum a number, the question, the drawing or document and revision it concerns, the recipient, the date an answer is needed by, the answer itself and a status showing whether it is closed.
Fidrel does not offer a template file. Its RFI form in the project has the fields described here, and RFIs are raised, answered and closed in Fidrel rather than on paper.
Only the person who wrote it and the project’s administrators. Everyone else with access to RFIs sees it once it has been set to Open.
No. Fidrel refuses the status Answered while the Answer field is empty, so every closed loop has the reply on record beside the question.
When the RFI is set to Open, the recipient gets a notice in Fidrel. The person who raised it gets a notice in turn when the RFI is answered.
An RFI raised from a markup keeps the revision it was raised on and warns that the drawing has a newer revision, with a link to it, so the reply can be checked against the current issue.