How to simplify the work of General contractors in collecting, processing, and entering data from subcontractors.

Imagine a typical situation. The General contractor has its own project management system (Procore or Plangrid) for creating and recording, for example, RFIs. It is clear that RFIs from a subcontractor also need to be processed and enter into GC system. Often subcontractors do not have their own RFI system (only Excel or Google Sheets) and they send emails, text in the messenger or just call the GC manager responsible for the RFI.

There is an option to grant the subcontractor access to GC system, but this is a rather complicated way that requires preparation, training, and not every subcontractor or GC is ready to do it. In addition, in this case, the subcontractor loses its own RFIs records, or it needs to duplicate it. That actually happens, 69% of contractors are forced to manually re-enter data in different systems.

Another option is integration between general contractor and subcontractor systems, but this is a difficult solution, not for everyone, especially not for small contractors. It requires specialists, time and money.

What is the way out?

What if you leave your subcontractors the ability just to send messages? The easiest way is to connect the subcontractors to your Slack collaboration tool. Buildout.ai integration for Slack allows creating records directly in your project management system without manual reentry. Let your subcontractors simply type RFIs in Slack channel, and the system will automatically create the RFI in your Procore.

At the same time, the system will create records in the PM system of the subcontractor (for example, Excel, Google spreadsheets, Plangrid, etc.), so the subcontractor can analyze or work with its RFIs. The reference to the RFI number of the general contractor will also be saved so it can be identified as a single RFI.

It’s also suitable for other types of records: tasks, punch list, quality and safety observations, daily logs, etc.

The Buildout.aI solution gets back the time of your managers. And you don’t have to force your subcontractors to spend time and money, do it the easiest way.