Permits & Forms

Suprata Permits

Online permits and licenses from first question to final inspection: apply, check the map, pay, review, approve, issue and inspect in one place.

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Working copy, no sign-up 101 capabilities Ask about pricing

Overview

What Suprata Permits does

Suprata Permits takes any permit or license process online. Applicants answer a few guided questions, find their parcel or mark the location on a map, upload plans, pay and follow every step. The system checks the location against your map layers on the spot (zoning, wetlands, flood zone, distance to water, overlapping work nearby) and shows which permits apply, the fee and the review path before anyone submits. Staff get a work queue with due dates, plan markup, electronic signatures, permit documents with a QR code anyone can scan to verify, and a phone-friendly app for field inspections.

Everything is set up without code: permit types, fees, questions, required documents, workflows with parallel reviews, rules, conditions, letters and roles. Due dates are enforced with reminders and escalation, bonds and insurance are checked automatically, and every change is kept in a complete audit trail. Applications that need a board hearing land on a meeting agenda, neighboring owners within a chosen distance get mailing labels, and one system can serve several programs or several member towns side by side, from road and utility work to building, zoning, sewer connections and business licenses.

Who it’s for

Built for organizations like yours

Permits fits a wide range of organizations. Hundreds of organizations already run their work on the Suprata platform.

state transportation and highway agencies
cities and towns
counties
special districts (sewer, water, drainage)
public utilities and utility contractors
ports, airports and transit authorities
universities and large campuses with their own roads and facilities
parks and recreation departments
building and code enforcement offices
business licensing offices
event and film permitting offices
private property managers and developers that grant site access or work permits
homeowner and community associations
tribal governments
Towns, villages and cities (planning, zoning and code offices)
Counties and regional planning agencies serving several towns
Shared-services groups of small municipalities
Lake, river and coastal protection districts
Park and conservation agencies that review land use
Tribal planning departments
Special districts that issue connection or use permits
Health departments issuing septic and wastewater permits
Short-term rental and licensing programs
Universities and large campuses with internal building review
Homeowner associations and planned communities with architectural review
Private planning and engineering firms that run permitting for client towns

Features

Everything Permits can do

101 capabilities in 15 areas. Every one of them can be shaped to your rules.

Public portal (no sign-in)

Public home page that lists every permit program, recently issued permits and quick links
Look up an issued permit by permit number, application number, route, town or address; personal details of individual permittees stay hidden
Scan the QR code on any permit to confirm it is real and still valid (permit verification page)
Public permit map showing active work zones and upcoming closures, with sample layers for regions, routes, schools, bridges and sensitive areas
Library of standard designs and detail drawings (PDF and image), tagged by the regions where each applies
Help library with how-to articles, fees, inspections, renewals, bonds and training guides
Virtual assistant that answers plain-language questions (which permit, what it costs, which documents, where an application stands) from the help library, work-type catalog and fee schedule, with links to its sources

Applying online

Guided start: two quick questions suggest the right permit type, or pick from the full catalog
Questions adapt to earlier answers, with field help, live checks as you type and a list of problems before you submit
Draw the work area on a map; overlaps with other live permits are flagged while you draw
Fee estimate updates as you answer (per foot, per pole, per day, per lane, per unit, by construction value, deposits and impact fees)
Required documents listed per permit type, with upload of PDF, Word, Excel, images, drawings and email files, each with a description
Terms and conditions configured per permit type and accepted before submitting
Save drafts, discard drafts, and save any application as a reusable template for repeat filers
Track status and the current step, read reviewer comments and letters, then revise and resubmit a returned application
Request time extensions, renew annual permits, send a notice before work starts, and withdraw an application

Applicant self-service

My Permits dashboard: drafts, in review, active, expiring soon, and closed
Organization accounts: an account administrator invites colleagues and sets their access; members see only their organization's records
Bonds and insurance on file, including blanket bonds that cover every permit, with upload of renewals
In-app notifications (also recorded as emails) with the application number and description

Staff review and workflow

Personal work queue of everything waiting for you, with approve-by dates and step timers
One shared permit record with tabs for overview, workflow, documents, comments, conditions, fees, financial security, inspections and full history
Visual workflow strip showing finished, current, skipped and upcoming steps, including parallel reviews
Plan markup directly on uploaded drawings, with a comment on each mark and markup status
Recommend, approve, disapprove or return to the applicant, with form letters that give the reasons
Final approval with an electronic signature written to the record's transaction log with a fingerprint of the record as signed
Add or remove permit conditions from a standard conditions library
Reassign a step to another person; internal comments that travel with the workflow
Work-zone conflict board listing live permits whose work areas and dates overlap
Advanced search on any field with sort and filter on every column and CSV export
Read-only 'view as applicant' support session to see exactly what an applicant sees

Bonds, insurance and money

Financial security queue for bonds, insurance, deposits and blanket bonds
Review assistant reads each certificate and checks amount, approved surety list, principal, the agency as obligee or additional insured, and coverage dates, then flags problems for the reviewer to decide
Fees, deposits and balances on each permit, with payment step in the workflow

Issuing permits

Permit numbers assigned in sequence, continuing from a configured starting number
Permit document generated as a PDF from the agency's own template, with standard conditions and a QR verification code
Print view of a permit with its attachments and messages; regenerate the permit document when details change
Close-out of finished work and required inspections created automatically at issuance

Field inspections

Phone-friendly field app with today's inspections
Checklists per permit type, photos with location, notes, pass or fail result and typed inspector signature
Week schedule of inspections; applicants request inspections from their permit and staff schedule any required one
Permittee notified right away; a failed inspection schedules its own re-inspection

Service levels and reporting

Business-day timers on every step, including time spent waiting on the applicant
Automatic reminders before the approve-by date, escalation to the supervisor after it, then to the program manager with optional automatic reassignment
Service-level board with an escalation log
Dashboards and key numbers: applications by status, received by month, permits issued by type, average days in each step
Predefined reports plus build, copy, share and delete your own; tables and charts; CSV export and print-ready layouts

Configuration without code (administrators)

Permit types: fees, units, deposits, bond and insurance minimums, maximum duration, renewals, required documents and terms
Application questions with show-if logic, limits, patterns and help text; five agency-defined custom fields that are searchable
Workflow designer: steps, parallel steps, roles, time limits, payment and signature steps, region-specific variants
Business rules that pick a workflow, skip or auto-complete steps, require documents or fields, add conditions, set priority, assign a person, change time limits or send alerts
Distribution lists by permit type, region and step
Standard conditions library, permit and letter templates with merge fields and PDF preview
Roles and permission matrix, internal and external users, organizations, supervisors, programs and regions
Lookup tables, attachment rules (file types, sizes, retention), electronic signature settings and log
Help article editor feeding both the help library and the field-level help
Several permit programs side by side (for example highway, sewer and city building/licensing), each with its own work types and workflows

Security, audit and integration

Sign-in with password and a second factor (app, text or email)
Applicants see only their own organization's records; staff see only their assigned programs
Tamper-evident audit trail of every change (who, when, session, channel, old and new value) with filters and CSV export
Session log for every sign-in
Documented REST API (permits, inspections, work types, conflicts, map data as GeoJSON) with an OpenAPI file, scoped API keys and webhooks
Data import tools and file layouts for moving records in from older systems
Architecture and operations page with load-test evidence for 50 users at once

Planning and zoning

Public portal

Choose your community; each community gets its own branded portal page with office, phone and hours
List of permits offered in that community, with a plain description of each
17 permit types out of the box: variances, lot line changes, zoning permits, waterfront review, stormwater, septic, short-term rental, site plan, sound, subdivision, signs, floodplain, docks
Fee and review path shown before applying
Parcel search by address or tax map number with live suggestions
Parcel map with the parcel outline highlighted
Automatic map checks on the chosen parcel: zoning district, land-use class, mapped wetlands, flood zone, nearest waterbody and distance, average slope
Automatic county or regional referral flag with the reasons listed
Application form with applicant details, project description, estimated cost, and new housing type and units
Confirmation with application number
Check application status by number, with a step-by-step progress tracker
Public parcel lookup page

Staff workspace

Dashboard with work queue, recent activity and upcoming board meetings
Applications list with filters by status, community, permit type and referral flag
Application record: parcel card, map checks, applicant, project, fee, payments, activity log
Move an application through its configured steps with one click
Send the county or regional referral and log it
Place an application on a board meeting agenda
Approve and issue a permit with an automatic permit number and expiration date
Deny with the applicant notified
Record fee payments by check, cash or money order with receipt numbers
Staff map showing all applications on the parcel map, colored by status, with zoning, land class, wetland, flood and road layers
Community staff see only their community; regional staff see all

Boards and notices

Planning board and appeals board meeting calendar per community
Meeting page listing the applications on the agenda
Board agenda download as a Word document
Abutter search: every parcel within 200, 500 or 1,000 feet of the subject parcel
Owner mailing labels on Avery 5160 sheets as a Word document

Reports

Live statistics by community, permit type and date range, with charts and tables
Applications by permit type and by month
CSV export
Housing-production summary (units approved by community and type, and review timeliness) as a Word document

Setup and administration

Each community sets its own permit types, flat fees, review steps, target days and boards
Permit types, fees and workflows page per community
Add a new community by configuration in five steps; list of communities ready to add
Staff roles: regional planner, zoning administrator, clerk or deputy
Every action recorded in the application activity log

Screens

See Permits at work

Real screens from the working copy, filled with made-up sample data. Click any screen to enlarge it.

How it fits

One platform underneath

Suprata is a versatile workflow and business intelligence platform that delivers the power of custom software with ease and affordability. Permits is built on it, so it shares the same engine, records and controls.

Workflow & automation

Approvals, work queues, reminders and rules move every Permits request forward without anyone chasing it.

Business intelligence

Live dashboards for every role and custom reports built from your Permits data, with an AI report builder.

Customer portal

The people you serve sign in to apply, book, pay, upload documents and check status, day or night.

Payments & billing

When Permits takes money, card and bank payments, invoices and refunds land in one ledger.

Integrations & API

A documented API, webhooks and exports connect Permits to the systems you already run.

Live

Click around a working copy

The working copy of Permits is filled with realistic, made-up data. There is no sign-up and no password. Pick a role and explore. Your changes stay in your own copy.

Open Permits (opens in a new tab) Or book a guided demo

Pricing

Ask about pricing for Permits

Every organization is different, so we price Permits around your size and needs. Tell us what you run and we’ll come back with a clear number.

Ask about pricing Book a demo

Or call 888-494-4335