Does reopening an RFI in Procore set it back to 'Open'?

Not always. Procore's Reopen an RFI page states that it returns to the status it was in when closed, so a closed 'Draft' returns to 'Draft' and a closed 'Open' returns to 'Open'.

Can an RFI be closed without an answer?

Yes. Procore's Close an RFI page states that RFIs can be closed without responses, and that after closing you are not permitted to add questions or responses.

Who can mark an RFI response as official?

The RFIs tool permissions table lists 'Act as RFI Manager' for users who are the RFI Manager or the RFI's creator, and 'Mark Official Responses' for users who are the creator, an Assignee or a Distribution List member.

RFI statuses, reopening and official answers

Treat a closed RFI in Procore as settled. Reopen it only for small corrections, and issue a revision when the answer itself has to change. Write your own rule for what counts as the answer, because the tool lets an RFI close without any response, and a response becomes official when a permitted user marks it. This rests on Procore’s support pages for the RFIs tool, for closing and reopening an RFI, and for responding to a ‘Draft’ RFI as RFI Manager.

Which status is this RFI really in?

Your RFI log is part of the project record. When a question about a governing drawing turns into a change order request or a claim, someone will ask what the answer was, who gave it, and when the RFI closed. If the tool’s status and your document control procedure disagree, that gets hard to answer. Procore’s Close an RFI page states that RFIs can be closed without responses, and that after you close an RFI you are not permitted to add questions or responses. Its Reopen an RFI page states that a closed RFI indicates the question has been resolved and requires no further action. So ‘Closed’ tells you the work stopped. On its own, it does not tell you an answer exists.

What closing, reopening and revising do

The Reopen an RFI page states that a reopened RFI returns to the status it was in when it was closed. A closed ‘Draft’ RFI returns to ‘Draft’, and a closed ‘Open’ RFI returns to ‘Open’. The RFIs tool release notes, in an entry dated 03/18/2025, add a ‘Closed-Draft’ status. It is automatically assigned when an RFI is closed directly from ‘Draft’, it is only applied in that scenario, and it can’t be manually assigned. Reopening it shifts it back to ‘Draft’.

Closing and reopening both require ‘Admin’ level permission, or ‘Act as RFI Manager’ plus being the RFI’s creator (‘Standard’ only) or RFI Manager. The Reopen page calls a revision best practice when a closed RFI needs additional action, and reserves reopening for small corrections. The release notes list RFI revisions as generally available from 09/22/2025. The Close page adds that when projects are connected via the Connection Manager tool, RFIs closed upstream automatically copy to the downstream project. We would keep reopening for typos and distribution list fixes, and send every changed answer through a revision.

What makes a response official?

In the RFIs tool permissions table, choosing an official response takes ‘Act as RFI Manager’, with the user being the RFI Manager or the RFI’s creator. It can also take ‘Mark Official Responses’, with the user being the creator, an Assignee or a Distribution List member. Procore’s answer on responding to a ‘Draft’ RFI as RFI Manager says you can mark your reply official while in ‘Draft’ mode, then change the status to open and close the RFI. The system will notify the assignees, the person in the Received From field and distribution list members. Official is a box someone ticks, so your procedure should name who may tick it.

Which event should count as the answer of record?

The decision is which event in the tool your procedure treats as the answer of record.

Which event should count as the answer of record?
Option	We would choose it when	What we would check first
Closed equals answered	Few RFIs close without a response	How many closed RFIs lack an official response
Official response required before close	Answers feed change order requests or claims	Who holds the two granular permissions
Reopen for small corrections only	Fixes are typos or distribution edits	Whether change history shows the earlier close
Revision for any changed answer	The answer changes after closing	How revised RFIs appear in exports and the RFI log

What to do this quarter

Pull every RFI in ‘Closed’ status and list the ones with no response marked official.
Name who holds ‘Act as RFI Manager’ and ‘Mark Official Responses’ on each project, and compare that list with who may answer under your procedure.
Report ‘Closed-Draft’ RFIs apart from other closed RFIs, since they were closed straight from ‘Draft’.
Write one rule into your RFI procedure: small corrections reopen, changed answers get a revision.
Check each project’s email settings for close and reopen notifications, and whether Connection Manager copies closures downstream.

What this means for a bottleneck worth $1M or more

When RFI answers feed rework, change order requests and claims across many projects, the status trail is worth redesigning as one domain together with revisions and transmittals. Rules carry the predictable checks, such as a closed RFI with no official response. AI handles the messy reading, such as long response threads, and suggests which reply answers the question. People approve what is official and when an RFI closes. AI never decides alone. See revisions and RFIs as one domain and how we size and redesign a domain with you.

Limits of this evidence

These pages are Procore’s own documentation of how its RFIs tool behaves. They do not show how often RFIs close without responses or get reopened on real projects. They show no results from any project, and nothing about whether a status trail holds up in a dispute. They describe one product, not other document control tools. They also do not show how any company configures its permission templates or email settings.