Software for permit expediters

An expediter's day is split between the city's permit portal, the counter and the phone. What falls behind is the office work: which job is waiting on revised drawings, which client owes the plan review fee you paid for them, which contractor never signed. SoloWOS keeps that side in one place; the filings stay in the city's own system.

From intake to an issued permit

1. A contractor, homeowner or architect fills out your intake form: address, scope (kitchen remodel, deck, change of use, sign permit), whether drawings exist and the deadline. A conditional question asks for the contractor's license details only on work that needs a licensed contractor.
2. Send a proposal with your fee per permit or per phase (application prep, filing, plan review responses, inspection scheduling) and a separate line for estimated city fees billed at cost. For example: $850 for a residential alteration, plus city fees as paid.
3. On acceptance, send your service agreement through E-Signatures with the owner and the contractor as signers in order. City forms such as owner authorizations get signed the way the city requires; if one needs a notary, that happens outside SoloWOS.
4. Add the job to your Notes & Boards board, with a column per stage: Intake, Preparing, Filed, Plan review, Corrections, Approved, Issued, Inspections. A page per job holds the application number, the reviewer's name and each round of comments.
5. When corrections come back, record a 3-minute Screen Recording going through the comments for the architect, instead of forwarding a 12-page PDF with no context.
6. Invoice your fee from the proposal and add the city fees you advanced as a line, with the receipt logged in Expenses. Clients pay by card through your Stripe account or with the ACH details on the invoice.

A typical week

• Monday: the board shows 14 open jobs. Three have sat in Plan review for more than 30 days, so you call the reviewers.
• Tuesday: two intake forms from a general contractor you work with. Both proposals go out from your saved template before noon.
• Wednesday: counter day. You pay a plan review fee for a client and log the receipt in Expenses before you leave the building.
• Thursday: corrections on a restaurant buildout. You record a walkthrough of the comments for the architect and move the job to Corrections.
• Friday: a deck permit is issued. You invoice the balance plus the city fees you advanced, and the contractor pays by card that evening.

All 13 tools, one by one

An expediter uses the office tools daily and the marketing ones barely. Here's each one, honestly:

• Link in Bio: one page with your intake form, the jurisdictions you work in and your phone number, for your Google Business Profile or the bio on a contractors' association directory.
• Short Links: a QR code on your business card or a contractor supply house flyer that opens your intake form, with clicks counted so you know which flyer works.
• Forms: the job intake: address, scope, drawings or not, deadline and who the contractor is, with conditional questions by permit type. Drawings can't be uploaded, so they still come by email or file share.
• Scheduling: a 30-minute consultation for homeowners who don't know which permits they need, free or paid at booking, and site visits with a buffer for driving time.
• Proposals: your fee per permit or per phase, city fees as a separate pass-through line, a deposit percentage and terms for extra correction rounds.
• E-Signatures: the service agreement with the owner and contractor signing in order, plus change orders when the scope grows. 15 signature requests a month on Solo, 50 on Team.
• Document Tracking: share the filed application set or the approved permit as a PDF with an expiration date and see when the client opened it, instead of attaching it to an email that gets lost.
• Screen Recording: walk an architect or owner through plan review comments in up to 5 minutes on Solo (15 on Team), pointing at the sheet each comment refers to.
• Notes & Boards: the job board by permit stage, with up to 12 columns you name, due dates and labels per jurisdiction, and a page per job with application numbers and reviewer contacts.
• Time Tracking: time the hours on each job, including waiting at the counter, to see whether your flat fee per permit type still pays; bill hourly correction rounds with "Add unbilled time".
• Invoicing: your fee plus the city fees you advanced, with a card pay link and your ACH details, and reminders for the contractor who pays when the job closes.
• Expenses: every city fee you advance, with the receipt, plus parking, mileage and copies, so you can rebill them and see what each job really cost.
• Automations: when the intake form is submitted, email the client the list of documents you need; when a proposal is accepted, create a "Prepare application" task on the board.

Registration and licensing for expediters

There's no national license for permit expediters. Some cities register or license them, and rules on who may file for an owner vary. Two examples of how different it gets:

• New York City: the Department of Buildings registers Filing Representatives (Class 1 and Class 2), and applications go through DOB NOW: Licensing. The DOB lists a $150 registration fee for a 3-year term, and Class 1 calls for a Department-approved 16-hour course (check the DOB page for the current training rules).
• Chicago: plan-based building permit applications are submitted by an Illinois-licensed architect or structural engineer or by a City-licensed expediter, and each licensed expediter needs a personal account in the city's permit system; shared company accounts aren't allowed. The city's permit professional lookup shows an expediter's license status.
• Anywhere else, check your city or county building department before you file for clients, including whether owner authorizations must be notarized.

This is general information, not legal advice. Rules vary by state; check yours with a lawyer or your licensing board.

SoloWOS or monday.com: which fits

Many small expediting firms track permits in a spreadsheet or a work management board. monday.com is the board people move to when the spreadsheet gets too big, so it's the comparison that comes up. See monday.com vs SoloWOS Notes & Boards for more.

Choose monday.com if:

• A team of three or more tracks dozens of permits with fields such as application number, reviewer and fees, and needs dashboards across jurisdictions.
• You report on many jobs and people at once.
• Your clients or partner architects already work in monday.com and invite you in.

Choose SoloWOS if:

• You work alone or with one or two people, and a 3-seat minimum means paying for seats nobody uses.
• You want the intake form, the proposal, the signed agreement and the invoice in the same place as the job board.
• A board with stages, due dates and a page per job is all the structure your jobs need.

Prices and features checked on October 23, 2026 on each company's site.

Start with these three

Notes & Boards with your open jobs by stage, Invoicing for your fee plus the city fees you advance, and Expenses for those fees' receipts. Add Forms and Proposals when you take your next new client.

Free tools that help

• Business days calculator for the review periods a city counts in business days.
• Mileage deduction calculator for the drives to the counter and job sites.
• Project cost calculator to set a flat fee per permit type from the hours it really takes.
• Invoice late fee calculator for clients who hold your invoice until the job closes.
• Client intake form template to adapt into your job intake questions.

What SoloWOS won't do for a permit expediter

• No filing with the city and no connection to any permit portal; status updates are what you move on the board.
• No uploads of drawings or documents from clients.
• No notarization of owner authorizations or affidavits.
• No date-based reminders when a permit is about to expire; put the expiration date on the job's task.
• SoloWOS doesn't file taxes, issue 1099s or collect sales tax for you. Invoicing sends the invoice with a pay link (card through your Stripe account) and your other payment details; your accountant or tax software handles the rest.