RFIs and submittals as tickets
Each RFI is a ticket with a custom field for the drawing reference, the ball-in-court party, and a due date. Idle three days and it is flagged as stuck automatically.
Feature details
Architecture, engineering & construction
RFIs, submittals and decisions in one place, not forty email threads.
When RFIs live in email, spreadsheets and project folders, work stops while someone hunts for context. Tenon tracks RFIs and submittals as tickets with owners and due dates, keeps drawings and specifications as linked pages, and records each site decision where the conversation happened.
Recommended: Tenon Cloud Team or Business; self-hosted Enterprise for an organization per project or JV partner
40open RFIs in a spreadsheet
With a labour shortage affecting most construction firms, teams cannot afford a project engineer manually tracking forty open RFIs in a spreadsheet, while work on site stops until someone with authority answers.
Source: Why RFI Management Breaks Down, Constructable
What goes wrong today
The three problems we hear most from aec firms.
- RFIs scattered across systemsThe question is in an email, the drawing is in a folder, the answer is in a text message. Every RFI is a scavenger hunt before it is an answer.
- Design phases collideStructural, MEP and architectural deliverables converge on the same week. Nobody sees it until the coordination meeting where three people report being late.
- Site decisions are undocumentedA change is agreed on a walk-through. Three months later the claim arrives and nobody can say who agreed or when.
How Tenon fits
Four things that change on day one.
Design phases on one timeline
Every discipline's deliverables on the same timeline, per person, with dependencies. The collision week is visible in the previous month.
Feature detailsDrawings, specs and meeting notes as pages
Import the spec as a page, link it from every RFI it relates to, and see backlinks when a revision is issued. Sketch details on the infinite canvas.
Feature detailsSite decisions recorded
The walk-through decision becomes a decision card in the project channel: what, who, when, with the photo attached. The claim conversation is short.
Feature details
In the product
What it looks like for an aec firm.
Disciplines on one timelineDeliverables per person and day, with today marked and the collision week visible early.
RFI boardBall-in-court columns with owners, due dates and the stuck flag.
Details on the canvasDrop the drawing next to the note and the checklist.
Three projects, ready to copy
How to set up the board, the fields and the pages.
These are complete configurations, not suggestions. Create the project, add these columns and custom fields, create the pages, and the rituals column tells you which Tenon features carry the week.
Design development
Coordinate disciplines from concept to construction documents with clashes resolved before issue.
Board columns
- Concept
- Schematic
- Design development
- Coordination
- Construction docs
- Issued
Custom fields
- Discipline (select)
- Drawing set (text)
- Issue date (date)
Pages
- Design brief
- Coordination log
- Specification index
- Issue register
Rituals
Timeline per discipline. Coordination column reviewed weekly. Decision cards for every resolved clash, linked to the drawing page.
RFI and submittal log
Answer every RFI on time with the context attached.
Board columns
- Received
- Assigned
- With architect
- With engineer
- With owner
- Answered
- Closed
Custom fields
- RFI number (text)
- Drawing reference (text)
- Ball in court (select)
- Cost impact (select)
Pages
- RFI response templates
- Spec sections
- Drawing revision log
Rituals
Stuck flag at three days for every ball-in-court column. Daily digest to the project channel listing open RFIs by party. Answers linked to the spec page.
Site phase
Run the construction phase with the site team, consultants and owner in one channel.
Board columns
- Upcoming
- This week
- In progress
- Inspection
- Snagging
- Complete
Custom fields
- Zone (select)
- Trade (select)
- Inspection date (date)
Pages
- Programme of works
- Site diary
- Snag list
- Handover checklist
Rituals
Site diary written as a daily async standup with photos. Weekly owner update generated by Brain from the board and shared by public link.
A week with Tenon
What Monday, Wednesday and Friday look like.
- Monday: the RFI board shows four items with the engineer for more than three days. The stuck flag put them at the top; the project engineer sends one message, not four emails.
- Wednesday: the timeline shows structural and MEP construction documents both due the week of the 14th, with the same two people on each. The lead moves one issue date and records the decision.
- Friday: the owner asks what changed this week. The Brain-drafted update lists closed RFIs, the revised issue date and the two site decisions, with links. The owner reads it on a phone on site.
Illustrative scenario based on how teams in this sector describe their week.
Questions
Common questions from aec firms.
Does Tenon replace Procore or BIM tools?
No. Tenon is the coordination layer: tracking, documents, chat and AI. Keep your model and estimating tools; link to them from pages and tickets.
Can subcontractors and the owner join?
Yes. Invite them as members with access to specific projects, or share pages by public link. On self-hosted Enterprise, give each JV partner its own organization.
Does it work on site, on a phone?
Tenon is a responsive web app: boards, chat and pages work on a phone browser. Native apps are on the roadmap.
Other industries
Similar problems, different vocabulary.
Set it up for your firm this afternoon.
Start free on Tenon Cloud, or self-host it. Copy one of the project setups above and you have a working board in ten minutes.