QA Flow

QA Flow: NCRs, snags, RFIs and submittals

3 min read · Checked against the product 3 October 2026

Run the quality registers: raise and close NCRs with a disposition, manage snags by trade from the phone, and send RFIs and submittals to the main contractor with a reply period that is chased.

Around the forms sit the registers a main contractor asks about: non-conformance reports, the snag list, requests for information and submittals. Each has its own reference, its own life cycle and its own audit trail, under Records in QA Flow.

NCRs

Raise an NCR from a failed form step, which pre-fills it, or with “Raise an NCR” on the register. Say what is non-conforming and against which specification or drawing, and give it a severity of Minor, Major or Critical, an owner and a due date. It moves from Open to Under review, Disposition agreed, Action in progress, Closed and Verified, or to Rejected where the NCR itself does not stand. The disposition is the decision about the work: Rework, Repair, Use as-is (concession) or Reject, with notes so the reasoning survives. Closing records the fix; verifying records that someone checked it.

Snags

Snags are the punch list: a title, the location or room, trade, priority, photos, an assignee and a due date. Supervisors and the office raise them with “Add a snag” on the web or “Raise snag” in the app. An operative’s app shows the snags assigned to them, and they mark one fixed with a photo; someone else then closes it or rejects the fix for re-doing. Filter the register by trade to give each trade its own list on de-snagging day.

RFIs and submittals

An RFI is a question that needs an answer before work can proceed: set it out clearly, with the drawing or specification reference, the discipline and the date you need the answer. A submittal puts a material, product or drawing forward for approval against a specification clause. The decisions are Approved, Approved with comments, Revise & resubmit or Rejected, and a rejected or resubmitted item comes back as a new revision. Approved with comments is kept apart from Approved, because it is an instruction to read the comments.

Sending a record to the main contractor

On an NCR, RFI, submittal or inspection, the “Send to contractor” panel emails the record with a link that needs no login: the recipient, CC addresses that get read-only copies, a cover note and a reply period. The defaults are 7 days for an RFI or NCR, 14 for a submittal and 3 for an inspection; set the period your subcontract gives. Their reply files itself against the record: an answer to an RFI, a decision on a submittal, an acknowledgement with proposed corrective action on an NCR, or a countersignature on an inspection. An unanswered send shows as overdue and is chased automatically, and you can resend or withdraw it from the record.

What good looks like

• Severity used as triage: Critical for stop-work, Major for anything that blocks sign-off of an area, Minor for the rest.
• A trade on every snag, so de-snagging lists build themselves.
• Every RFI answer recorded on the RFI, not in an inbox.

Common mistakes

• Answering an RFI by phone and leaving the record open, so the question and the answer never sit together.
• Treating Approved with comments as Approved and ordering before reading the comments.
• Closing your own fixes. Verification by somebody else is what makes the record worth having.