Find anything: search, open items and ball in court
A project spreads across RFIs, submittals, punch, meetings and contracts. Three tools pull it back together: search for a record you can name, My Open Items for everything waiting on you, and ball in court for who has to move next.
Name it, list it, or follow the ball
From anywhere in a project: apps, actions and records as you type. The top hits per tool, grouped, so you can jump straight to RFI-214.
The full results view: up to 10 hits per tool, grouped by tool, each one linking to its record.
Every open record across tools that's assigned to you or waiting on you, soonest due first, overdue in red.
What search matches, and what it doesn't
Search looks in 33 groups of records on the current project. It matches any part of a record's title, number or description, upper or lower case: "damper" finds "Fire damper access panels". Type at least two characters. Results are grouped by tool, newest first. Spotlight shows the top few per tool, and the search page shows up to 10.
You only see what you could open anyway. A tool you can't view, or one that's turned off on the project, is skipped completely, and most tools also apply their own record rules: a private RFI stays private in search.
Not today: searching inside PDFs and files, searching across all your projects at once, fuzzy matching for typos, and ranking by relevance. Search matches the words in a record's title, number or description.
Which tools each one covers
Search covers every tool in the table. My Open Items covers the tools with a "mine" rule, and only open records: closed, void and finished statuses drop off. The last column shows where ball in court is a stored field.
| Tool | Search matches | In My Open Items when | Ball in court |
|---|---|---|---|
| RFIs | Subject, number | You manage it, are assigned, or created it | Advance Ball in Court |
| Submittals | Title, number | You're an approver, hold the ball, or created it | Moves with the workflow |
| Punch list | Name | You're assigned, hold the ball, or created it | Moves with the workflow |
| Forms | Name, number, description | You hold the ball, an approval waits on you, or you created it | Moves with the workflow |
| Coordination issues | Number, title, description | You're assigned, hold the ball, or created it | Set by hand |
| Correspondence | Title, number | You're assigned, hold the ball, or created it | Set by hand |
| Observations | Name, number | You're assigned or created it | — |
| Tasks | Number, title, description | You're assigned or created it | — |
| Inspections | Number, name, description | You're the point of contact, an inspector, or created it | — |
| Incidents | Number, title, description | You're assigned or created it | — |
| Meetings | Meeting title | Agenda topics you're assigned or created | — |
| Action plans | Number, title, description | Plan items assigned to you | — |
| Change events | Title, number | Ones you created | — |
| Change orders | PCOs: title, number | PCOs and CO packages you review or created | — |
| Commitments | Subcontracts and POs: title, number | POs you're assigned or created; subcontracts you created | — |
| T&M tickets | Number, title, description | Ones you created | — |
| Search only | Drawings · Documents (by file name) · Photos · Directory: people and companies · Specifications · Schedule · Prime contracts · Payment applications · Bidding · RFQs · Transmittals · Emails · Equipment · Materials · Direct costs · Prequalification | ||
For change events, subcontracts and T&M tickets, "mine" means you created it. My Open Items shows up to 100 open items per tool; each tool's own list has the rest.
One list, across the tools
Open it from the launcher (Open Items) or the ball-in-court link in the top bar. The list is sorted by due date, with undated items last; anything due before today is overdue and turns red. Each row links to its record, where you act on it.
| Tool | Item | Status | Due date |
|---|---|---|---|
| RFI | RFI-214 · Stair 2 rail embed conflict | Open | Oct 22 (overdue) |
| Submittal | 08 41 13-2 · Storefront shop drawings | Open | Oct 24 (overdue) |
| Punch Item | P-117 · Door 3.14 closer adjustment | Ready for Review | Oct 28 |
| Inspection | INS-031 · L3 fire-stopping | Open | Oct 29 |
| Meeting Item | OAC #42 · 3.4 Fire damper access panels | Open | Oct 30 |
| Change Event | CE-061 · Added door hardware, L2 | Open | — |
Who moves next
Ball in court is the person a record is waiting on. How it moves depends on the tool:
- Submittals, punch items and forms: it moves with the workflow. A punch item sits with the assignees while work is required, with the punch item manager at Ready for Review, and with the final approver at Ready to Close. When nobody needs to act, nobody holds it.
- RFIs: the RFI manager or the assignees. Advance Ball in Court hands it from one side to the other while the RFI is open.
- Coordination issues and correspondence: you set it by hand on the record.
Wherever it's stored, holding the ball puts the record in your My Open Items, so the list and the record never disagree about whose turn it is.
Keep going
Keep exploring
Related across os.construction
- DocsProjects and the record modelHow a job is structured in os.construction, what a record is, which record types the app has, and how links between RFIs, change events, change orders and pay apps keep the story connected.
- DocsStart your free trialCreate a workspace, explore the Riverside Medical Center sample project and invite your team, free for 14 days.
- GlossaryBall in CourtWho has to act next on an RFI, submittal, punch item or other open record, so the item never waits without an owner.
- ExplainerFrom field question to paid change orderFollow RFI-212 into a change event, a priced PCO, executed CO #14, the budget and a pay app in os.construction, with every link stored on one record.
- Blogos.construction is open for trialsThe app is live at app.os.construction. Start a 14-day free trial: project management and project financials today, with separate company accounting workflows and planned AI agents. Here's exactly what's live and what isn't.
- GlossaryMeeting MinutesThe written record of a project meeting: who attended, what was decided on each topic, who owns each open item and by when.
Sample project included
Try this workflow on the sample project
Every trial workspace includes a sample project with sample data, so you can follow these steps in the app before touching a live job.
Want this on live job data?
Search, My Open Items and ball in court are live in os.construction. Search matches record titles and numbers on one project; it doesn't read inside files.
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All figures are illustrative sample data, not a real project. Contract terms and state law decide how retainage, stored materials and change orders work on your job. Check both.