# Answering questions

**Category:** [RFP Responses](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/categories/rfp-responses-1)
**Updated:** 2026-10-04

## The answering screen

The question list is on the left; the selected question's answer, sources and history are on the right. Everything is on one screen because leaving a hundred-row list to change an assignee means losing your place in it.
## The five states of a question

- **Unanswered** — nothing written yet.
- **Drafting** — a drafting run is working on it.
- **Needs input** — we could not answer it from what we have. Not a failure: the honest state when the knowledge is missing.
- **In review** — written, waiting for a second pair of eyes.
- **Approved** — signed off.

The counters along the top ARE the filter — click one to see only those.
## Assigning work

Tick questions and use the bar above the list; a whole section can be selected from its heading. Assigning a section hands somebody forty questions in one action, which is why they get ONE email covering the lot rather than forty.
## Suggested answers

Selecting a question shows answers from your library that look similar. These are a lookup, not a generated answer — no AI runs when you click a row, so browsing costs nothing. Inserting one records that it was used, which is what makes the library's reuse figures real.
## Comments stay inside

Comments on a question are internal, permanently. They are never exported, never harvested into the library, and never shown to the model that drafts answers — a note saying "do NOT claim we are FedRAMP" must never end up written into the answer.

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## Related Articles

- [Reminders and daily reports](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/rfp-reminders)
- [Adding a questionnaire](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/rfp-importing)
- [The answer library](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/rfp-library)
- [Exporting a finished response](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/rfp-export-1)
- [Working with people outside your team](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/rfp-guests)

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