RFIs and the Decision Log
Draft RFIs grounded in the project record, and keep the decisions that answer them somewhere they can be found.
These two modules are the ends of the same loop. An RFI is a question the project cannot answer from what it has. A decision is the answer, and it is worth nothing if nobody can find it in four months.
RFI Intelligence
Finding the context first
Before drafting anything, Bimiq searches the project record for what already speaks to the question: the spec clauses, the drawing sheets, prior RFIs, consultant letters, decisions already logged.
Two things fall out of that search, and the first is often the more valuable:
- This has already been answered. A prior RFI or a logged decision already settles it, and the RFI does not need to be raised at all.
- Here is what to attach. The clauses and sheets that the answering party will need in order to respond without a second round trip.
Drafting a response
Every drafted response is grounded in sources, and the sources are shown. A draft you cannot trace back to a clause is a draft you should not send.
Read the sources, not just the prose. The draft is a starting point that saves you the assembly work; it is not an answer from a person with authority over the design.
Status
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Open | Raised, awaiting a response |
| Overdue | Past its response date |
| Closed | Answered |
Where RFIs come from
RFIs can be raised directly, or from a finding elsewhere: a clash issue, a spec conflict, a drawing finding. Raising from a finding carries the evidence across, so the question arrives with the elements, clause or sheet already attached.
Where Procore is connected, approved RFIs can be pushed back to it. That push is the only write Bimiq makes to a connected source, and it happens only on RFIs you approve. See Connect a document source.
Cost
AI help on one RFI is charged once, and it covers both finding context and drafting the response. The second action on the same RFI is free. See How credits work.
Decision Log
What belongs in it
Decisions that change what gets built, and that somebody will later need to justify. The party wall build-up changed. The ceiling void was reduced. The cladding fixing was substituted.
Getting them in
Log a decision directly, or upload meeting notes or a transcript and have Bimiq extract the decisions from it. Extraction proposes; nothing is logged until you confirm it. A proposed decision that was really just discussion is yours to reject.
Superseded, not deleted
A decision has one of two states: active or superseded.
When a decision is reversed, the old one is not deleted. It is marked superseded and linked to the decision that replaced it. The record keeps both.
This is the whole point of the module. A decision log that only holds current decisions cannot answer the question people actually ask, which is not "what is the build-up" but "when did it change, and who agreed to it". Deleting the old answer destroys exactly the evidence a claim turns on.
It feeds everything else
Logged decisions become part of the project record that RFI Intelligence searches and that Project Intelligence draws on. A decision recorded once stops the same question being asked a third time.
Cost
Extracting decisions from a set of notes is charged per run. Logging a decision by hand is free.