RFIs and tasks

An unanswered RFI is a claim in waiting

The problem is never raising the question. It is noticing three weeks later that nobody replied, by which time the delay has already happened and somebody is going to pay for it.

Basis of valuation from the RICS hierarchy, contract rates through to quotation
Contract clause recorded, so the valuation route is on file
Extension of time in days and whether loss and expense applies

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Variations

VO-06 from RFI-011

Basis of valuationContract rates

Contract clauseJCT 5.6.1

Raised fromRFI-011 lintel spec

Extension of time2 days

Value£1,240.00

RFI-011 asked which lintel to use over a new opening. The answer changed the works, so it was instructed and raised as VO-06 with its own valuation basis.

When a question becomes a change

Most RFIs close with an answer and cost nothing.

Some reveal that the works have to change, and the moment an instruction confirms it, the question becomes a variation with its own basis of valuation. Keeping RFIs and variations as separate records is deliberate. A question is not a change until somebody instructs it, and pretending otherwise fills the account with variations nobody priced.

RFIs

The question, the answer, and the date of each

An RFI is worth exactly as much as the record of when it was asked and when it was answered.

Question, who it was raised with, and the date raised
Answer and the date it was given
Days outstanding counted from today, not from memory

RFIs

Outstanding on this project

QuestionRaisedStatus

Confirm lintel spec over new opening4 AugOpen 16 d

Drainage invert level at MH311 AugOpen 9 d

Finish to exposed soffit2 AugAnswered

Open on this project2

QScope keeps the question, the answer and both dates on one record, and counts the days it has been open.

Tasks

Counted where you will see it

A list of open items on a report nobody opens is not a reminder.

Open RFI and open task counts shown in the project sidebar
Tasks carry an owner and a due date
Closed items stay on the record rather than disappearing

Tasks

Open actions

TaskOwnerDue

Measure remeasured drainage runsAdrian22 Aug

Agree star rate for VO-04M. LewisToday

Chase making good certificateAdrian7 Sep

Open tasks3

Tasks work the same way: an owner, a due date and a status, counted in the same place.

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Instructions

When the answer is an instruction

An RFI asks a question.

Architect’s instruction, CA instruction, CVI and site instruction
Instructions with a cost effect and no variation, shown in red
Verbal instructions awaiting written confirmation, shown in amber

Instructions

Unconfirmed

No variation

AI-014 · Revised lintel specVariation VO-06

AI-015 · Additional drainageNo variation raised

CVI-003 · Verbal, 8 AugAwaiting confirmation

With a cost effect16 of 21

An instruction that answers an RFI and changes the cost of the works needs a variation against it, or it will not reach the final account.

Files and plans

The question sits with the rest of the record

An RFI is worth what the surrounding file can prove.

Drawings versioned as they are superseded
Photographs tied to the project and the date they were taken
Correspondence filed against the job, not a mailbox

Files and plans

Record behind RFI-011

DocumentStatus

Drawing A-102 rev C, gable elevationCurrent

Drawing A-102 rev BSuperseded

Site photographs, week 1612 files

Correspondence, RFI-011 replyFiled

QScope keeps the RFI beside the drawings, photographs and files for the same project, so when the answer matters two years later the whole record is in one place.

Who it is for

One change, four people it touches

You are applying

You price the change and defend it

You price the instruction, submit the variation and defend it when it comes back cut. Instructed work with no variation against it is money you have already spent.

Applying for payment

the same measurement

You are certifying

You value the change and answer for it

You value the variation from the other chair and account for what you cut. The register you keep is the one the final account will be argued from.

Certifying payment

You are doing both

You build the change, paid or not

You absorb the small changes as they come, and the ones nobody wrote down are the ones you end up building for free.

Doing both yourself

You are reporting

You fund the change, priced or blind

You check that scope changes are priced and approved before money moves, because an unpriced variation is risk the facility is carrying blind.

Recommending a drawdown

The client, the architect and the tenderer are not on this list. They are the people you let in on a link: they see the one document you sent them, answer it, and that answer is written into the record. No account, no licence, no charge, on every plan.

FAQs

The questions this page raises most often, answered without a sales pitch at the end.

No. If your main contractor runs RFIs through a dedicated site platform, keep using it. This exists so the commercial record of a question that affected time or cost sits beside the valuations, rather than in a system you lose access to at the end of the job.

Yes, with comment level access. Their entry is recorded against them in the audit trail, so the record of who asked and when survives.

Not automatically. An RFI that turns into an instruction becomes a variation, and you record it as one with its own valuation basis. Keeping them separate is deliberate: a question is not a change until somebody instructs it.

They stay on the record. Closed and open alike, with their dates, exportable with the rest of the project.

From the blog

The part nobody teaches you, written down

Three pieces from the same corner of a contract as this page, answered at length and without a sales pitch at the end.

Variations10/08/2026

How do you price extra work so the client actually pays for it?

Instruction first, then the valuation ladder your contract sets: contract rates, adjusted rates, a fair price or dayworks. Where each rung applies, and why the smallest variations are the ones that never get paid.

Read now

Variations15/07/2026

Small extras keep eating the job. How do I stop doing them for free?

No single extra under two hundred pounds feels worth the awkward conversation, and thirty of them are a month’s wages. The three-sentence habit that captures small changes without souring the job, and the quote clause that makes the habit expected.

Read now

Variations11/06/2026

Loss and expense is not the same as an extension of time

Time and money are separate entitlements with separate tests. Why an extension of time does not carry money with it, what has to be ascertained, and where these claims usually fail.

Read now

All 174 pieces

Keep reading

The three parts this page leans on

Variations Record the instruction, basis of valuation and clause, on JCT, NEC or FIDIC. Approved variations pull straight into a payment certificate. See how it works Programme A commercial view of the programme: works against the contract period, today marked, and any overrun past practical completion stated in weeks. See how it works Audit trail An immutable record of who changed which figure and when, across certificates, variations, retention and access. Exportable to CSV for RICS traceability. See how it works