Set up a Workflow

It is the general contractor's responsibility to duly forward an RFI from the creator to the responsible parties involved in the construction project for processing. Linarc allows the company admins to create custom workflow templates with different combinations of company roles and actions, depending on their needs.  The RFI manager of the GC can use the appropriate workflow template for an RFI depending on its creator, responder, and nature of the question.

Note:
Only the RFI manager from the GC company can set the workflow with the duration for each stage of an RFI. The Lead Project manager of the GC will have access to view all RFIs of the project by default.

If you are the RFI manager of a GC, you can set up custom workflows for RFIs in the following instances:

• 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 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. 

Set up a workflow

• Open the desired RFI from the 'Draft' tab
• Tap 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.

• Tap 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. 

• Tap and drag to view the following details:
  • 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.
    • Tap 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. 
    • Tap 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
• Tap  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.

• Tap the  button on the top right to forward it to the next step.