Why Email Is a Bad Place to Manage RFIs (and What to Do Instead)

If you’ve spent any time in construction administration or contract administration, you’ve probably seen the same story play out: a project is moving fast, questions start flying, and the simplest way to get an answer to a question seems to be through email. 

At first, it feels efficient. Someone types a quick note, attaches a screenshot, and hits send. Done. 

But RFIs aren’t just “questions.” They’re contractual documents with a lifecycle that influence scope and schedule and often become part of the project record. When you manage them primarily through email, you’re essentially trying to run a mission-critical process through a tool that was never designed for it. 

The result is predictable: missed context, unclear accountability, and RFIs that are harder to track, manage, and defend than they should be. 

To understand why email creates problems, it helps to clarify RFI meaning. 

An RFI is a Request for Information, a formal question used to resolve uncertainty in drawings, specifications, or field conditions.  

So when people ask: “what is a RFI?, what are RFIs?, or what does RFI stand for in construction?,” the answer is straightforward. RFIs are how teams clarify intent so work can continue without guessing. 

RFIs are also a cornerstone of construction admin because they help teams track decisions, reduce rework, and keep projects moving. And from a contract administration perspective, RFIs matter because responses can influence cost, schedule, and responsibility—and become part of the project record during closeout or dispute resolution. 

Email is excellent for sending messages quickly, but construction administration requires more than just speed. It requires structure, visibility, and traceability,  especially for critical project information like RFIs. 

Email creates multiple versions of the truth 

Through email, one RFI quickly turns into multiple conversations. The question gets forwarded, replied to, or partially answered in different threads. Attachments change. Screenshots get updated. Before long, the team isn’t sure which version is the official one. 

Instead of a single, shared answer, you’re left with scattered responses across inboxes. And when the field is under pressure, that confusion can easily turn into delays or rework as they try to find the latest and most accurate information. 

Email makes accountability and deadlines hard to manage 

RFIs don’t exist in a vacuum. They impact procurement, sequencing, and field productivity. That means due dates matter. 

But email doesn’t manage deadlines or ownership. It doesn’t show which RFIs are open, which are overdue, or which ones are actively blocking construction. Project teams often compensate by building spreadsheets or manually tracking status, but that introduces yet another system and another opportunity for error. 

What should be a proactive process becomes reactive, with issues only surfacing once something slips. 

Email weakens the project record 

From a contract administration standpoint, RFIs matter because they document how ambiguities were resolved. That documentation often becomes critical months, or years, later. 

Email, however, lives in personal inboxes. Letting vital project information live in your inbox exposes said project to a litany of risks because people leave projects, threads get archived, and attachments disappear. So, when it’s time for closeout or dispute resolution, reconstructing the full RFI history from email is time-consuming, unreliable, and borderline impossible. 

RFIs are meant to be permanent; email makes them fragile. 

Most teams managing RFIs in email are also managing construction submittals the same way, and that compounds the problem. 

So what is a submittal? A submittal is the contractor’s documentation showing that materials, products, or methods meet the requirements of the contract documents. That’s the core submittal meaning, proof of compliance before installation. 

The challenge is that RFIs and submittals often depend on one another. An RFI clarifies intent, and a submittal confirms execution. When both workflows live in email, teams lose visibility into how decisions connect. It becomes harder to confirm whether a submittal was based on the latest RFI response, whether the field is working from the right clarification, or whether a decision has been superseded by a newer answer. 

Email isn’t going away, and it doesn’t have to. The problem is using email as the system of record for RFIs. 

That’s why purpose-built RFI software exists: it turns scattered conversations into a structured, trackable workflow. 

Effective RFI tools provide: 

• Standardized formatting, routing, and response tracking
• Visibility into ownership, deadlines, and status 
• A complete audit trail tied to drawings, specs, and related submittals 

Newforma takes a practical approach: instead of asking teams to abandon email habits, it helps ensure important email communication becomes structured project information. 

With Newforma, teams can capture an email-based question and convert it into a formal RFI, bringing message content, attachments, and participants into a centralized workflow. That way the conversation can start where people naturally work (email), but the record lives where it belongs: in a system designed for construction administration and contract administration. 

This helps preserve context, reduce confusion, and ensure RFIs are searchable, trackable, and defensible, without relying on individual inboxes to hold the project’s history. 

Email isn’t going away, and it doesn’t have to. The problem isn’t that teams use email to ask questions; it’s that those questions never fully become RFIs. 

That’s where Newforma Konekt comes in. As a project and information management platform, Newforma Konekt brings scattered project data like emails, documents, actions, and conversations into one centralized, connected workspace. Instead of information living across inboxes, file shares, and systems, it’s synthesized into a single source of truth for the project team. 

From there, Newforma Konekt’s Contract Administration features in CA Track are designed for the realities of how teams actually work. With the Outlook add-in, emails can be filed directly as RFIs, without changing workflows or duplicating effort. What starts as a simple email is instantly captured, structured, and tracked within a proper RFI workflow, complete with status, deadlines, and a defensible project record. 

The result is fewer lost questions, clearer accountability, and RFIs that stand up when it matters most: during reviews, claims, or closeout.