Getting RFIs, Daily Logs and Change Orders Out of the Inbox
- Client
- Commercial general contractor, 20+ years in business, active in three states
- Work
- Ground-up restaurant and franchise builds, plus medical and early-education projects
- Systems
- Zoho One (Projects, Sign, Forms, CRM, Creator), Sage Intacct, GCPay, RingCentral
- Engagement
- Fractional AI team on a monthly retainer, kicked off July 2026
The Challenge
Change orders went from about 3 per job to about 25. One staff member could lose 2 days a week to them, and each signed change order was retyped into three systems.
RFIs and submittals lived in a spreadsheet and email threads, which led to lost messages and "he said, she said" disputes. Superintendents logged the same information daily and then retyped it into a weekly report built on a 19-year-old template.
With liquidated damages of $1,000–$3,000 per day, every missed delay or unapproved change order was a direct financial risk.
“I'm having to say the same thing every day, and then once a week, I have to sit here and type all the things I've already said.”
Our Solution
We built one connected operating layer on top of the client's existing Zoho stack, with no new software for subs or architects to learn.
Every RFI now has an owner, a clock and an audit trail. Field updates become formatted daily logs automatically, and leadership can ask Claude about any project in plain English. The client owns all the code and infrastructure.
What We Built
Sub and architect RFI portal
Subs submit RFIs on a mobile-friendly portal with one-time code login and no extra license. Each RFI syncs both ways with project management in real time.
LiveBall-in-court tracking and daily digest
Shows who holds every RFI, emails each user a daily list of their open items, and lets them reply straight from email.
LiveRFI email-reply sync
Each RFI gets its own email address. Replies from subs or architects land in the portal automatically with a full audit timeline.
LiveAI voice and text daily log agent
Supers text or send voice notes and photos through the day. The AI fills the daily log, asks only for missing fields, and translates Spanish.
Rolling outLive, expanding across active jobs
Client (owner) portal
Owners see daily logs, signed change orders and contract status in one branded portal.
LiveClaude connected to project data
Leadership asks project questions in plain English and gets on-demand client updates (for example, "65% complete, 235 of 352 tasks closed").
LiveOps dashboards
Daily-log compliance, missed workdays, delays, change-order aging and signature status.
Being finalizedAuto weekly report
Turns the week's daily logs into a branded PDF with a 1–3 week look-ahead.
In progressChange-order sync across e-sign, ERP and sub-pay
Sign once, then status and documents flow to accounting and billing automatically.
In progressWorkflow repairs
Rebuilt broken contract and project automations ahead of a platform deprecation deadline.
Complete
The Results
In under three months, an email-and-spreadsheet operation became one connected system, running on infrastructure the client owns.
All on client-owned infrastructure.
Subs are onboarded to the portal project by project.
One system of record replaces email threads, with full audit history.
Supers report once, by text or voice, and the system formats it.
“This is great, by the way. This is awesome. I love it so much.”
“The week when they see that their daily log creates their weekly report, we will have overnight buy-in.”
