Estimates, RFIs and change orders: the office work that keeps projects moving
Construction runs on a busy office: estimators, project managers, project engineers, schedulers, coordinators and accounting staff. Years of bids, RFIs, submittals, change orders and daily logs across your project management and accounting systems are the kind of real operational workflow AI labs are asking for.
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Who fits
- General contractors and construction managers
- Specialty subcontractors (electrical, mechanical, plumbing, concrete, steel and more)
- Home builders and remodelers with office and project staff
- Fabricators' estimating, project management and office teams
What a provider looks at
- A desk team: employees and contractors who work at a desk in your company's email and software. Field and hourly crews who aren't in the systems aren't the desk count.
- Several years of history in your systems.
- Work across systems, such as email, chat, file storage, CRM, tickets and billing.
- Requirements vary by provider, sector and dataset, and the provider confirms fit.
What a licensable workflow can look like
An invitation to bid comes in. Estimating builds the takeoff and bid, the project is awarded, project management logs RFIs and submittals in Procore, a field issue becomes a change order, the schedule is updated, and accounting bills the approved change.
A generic illustration, not a real client. Labs value the sequence of steps, decisions and handoffs across systems; how personal details are handled belongs in the agreement.
Records that count
- Estimates, takeoffs and bid workflows
- RFIs, submittals and transmittals
- Change orders and change-event workflows
- Daily logs, punch lists and inspection workflows
- Scheduling, subcontractor and vendor communication
- Drawings, models and revision history
- Job costing, pay applications and billing workflows (financial statements are excluded)
Good to know
- Design files, drawings and models are among the records these firms keep. What can be licensed depends on who owns them under your client contracts, and that's reviewed before anything is included.
- Project records may also be shared with owners, architects and other parties under your contracts. Your own estimating, coordination and billing workflows are usually yours, and the provider's review sorts out the rest.
- The desk team is where the documented work lives: office, estimating, project management, project engineering, scheduling, admin, accounting and sales staff, plus contractors who work in your systems every day. Jobsite and field crews who don't work at a desk in your systems aren't the desk team. Many builders with large crews still have a real office team.
- Kept out unless a review and the agreement say otherwise: privileged material and client matter files, health information and biometric data, payment card and bank account numbers, passwords and credentials, data about minors, export-controlled or classified information, another party's data or licensed third-party content, and sensitive personnel, safety or critical infrastructure details. Scope is a choice, so you can leave out anything else, such as pricing or trade secrets.
- Workflow data from QuickBooks, NetSuite and HR systems still counts.
- Usually not a fit anywhere: data involving minors, export-controlled or classified data, mostly paper records with little digital history, or records you don't have the rights to license.
- How personal details are removed or replaced belongs in the agreement, and the provider's review sorts out what's licensable. When in doubt, it's worth a conversation.
Tools your team already uses
Common construction software we see. Don't see yours? Other systems can hold the same kind of work, and old or retired systems can count too.
Project management
- Procore
- Autodesk Construction Cloud
- Buildertrend
- Bluebeam Revu
Estimating & bidding
- Trimble Accubid
- ProEst
- STACK
- PlanSwift
- Sage Estimating
- BuildingConnected
Scheduling
- Oracle Primavera P6
- Microsoft Project
Construction accounting & ERP
- Trimble Viewpoint Vista
- Trimble Viewpoint Spectrum
- Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate
- Sage Intacct Construction
- Foundation Software
- QuickBooks
What counts is your team's own work in and around these tools: the emails, tickets, notes, tracking and billing. No files are collected on this site, and we never ask for passwords.
Product names are trademarks of their respective owners and are listed for reference only; no affiliation or endorsement is implied.
Construction FAQ
Do our field crews count?
Desk staff: office, estimating, project management, project engineering, scheduling, admin, accounting and sales staff, plus contractors who work in your company's email and software, depending on the provider. Jobsite and field crews who don't work at a desk in your systems aren't the desk team. Requirements vary by provider, sector and dataset, and the provider confirms fit.
Can our drawings, RFIs and change orders be licensed?
Drawings, models and revision history are among the records firms like yours keep. Whether any of them can be licensed depends on who owns them under your client contracts, and that's reviewed before anything is included. Your own workflow records, like proposals, RFIs, correspondence and billing, are usually the clearest starting point.
What stays out?
Owner and subcontract agreements, financial reports and statements (pay-app and job-cost workflows still count), passwords and credentials, and anything you choose to exclude.
See If You Qualify
A few quick questions. No files needed, and we never ask for passwords.
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