Process family

Construction contract administration: RFI, change order, payment and time claims

The contract-administration chain on a building project: the RFI that exposes a gap, the change order that prices it, the progress payment that pays it, and the extension of time claim that protects the programme.

Construction contract administration is the paper trail that decides who pays for what and who owns the delay: a field question becomes a written answer, a written answer becomes a priced change, a priced change becomes a line on the next payment application, and an event that moves the finish date becomes a notice with a clock on it.

The chain usually starts with an RFI. The subcontractor's question is screened against the contract documents, logged with a response clock and sent to the architect or engineer of record; the decision that matters is whether the answer changes cost or time, because that sends it to a change order instead of closing it. The change order draws the notice, pricing, review and approval as separate steps, with an unpriced change directive as the exception path when work cannot wait for agreement.

Approved changes flow into the progress payment: the application, the quantity surveyor's measurement, the architect's certification, the owner's payment and the pass-down to subcontractors, with retainage and the dispute route drawn rather than assumed. The extension of time claim runs beside them, because an RFI answered late or a change that moves the critical path carries a notice period that may bar the claim if it is missed.

Contract forms differ in terms, notice periods and who certifies, so treat each chart as a starting point to be rewritten against your own agreement. The value of drawing them together is that the handoffs between the contractor, the design team, the owner's representative and the cost team become visible before a dispute depends on them.