Here is a tip to make logging in way quicker. If you have the Accela log in page in your favorites, you just need to add some simple commands to auto fill your Agency and Username.

1. Right Click on your favorites link.
2. Go to Properties.
3. Go to the Web Document.
4. Go to the URL box.
5. Add "&agency="(your agency name)"&userid="(your username)
6. Click OK

The URL should look something like this: 
https://av-oregon.accela.com/security/hostSignon.do?&agency=OREGON&userid=nflowers 
When you click on your favorite link, your agency and username will be auto filled in.
​
How to Bookmark/Favorite a web site:
Chrome users:
Right click on your shortcut and click on EDIT

Edit the Bookmark. Change the information in the URL I posted above with your own information. Copy & paste it, replacing what is currently in the URL box and then click on SAVE.

Internet Explorer users:
Right click on your shortcut and select PROPERTIES

​Change the agency and user id in the link I posted above to reflect your own information. Copy & paste it into the URL box and click OK:

The Prod to Staging refresh was completed by Accela. You can now log into the Staging environment and see records from Production as new as 3/27/2019. 

Note: Jackson County and Lane County were both excluded from the refresh.

As mentioned in the January 2019 ePermitting Newsletter, we’ve made some changes to the inspection types available in ePermitting. 

We’ve heard for a number of years that there are too many inspections types which can make it confusing for contactors and homeowners when choosing inspections to be scheduled.
We worked with several building officials as well as the technical experts here at the Building Codes Division to:

• Consolidate duplicate inspection types
• Remove overly specific inspections
• Add a few missing inspections, including Radon Mitigation
• Create new inspection brochures with better instructions on inspection scheduling for the contractors and homeowners

The inspection changes will be pushed out to all ePermitting agencies on Saturday, April 13, 2019. 
In addition to making changes to inspections available for scheduling, we will be making updates to existing scheduled and/or pending inspections (remapping the retired inspections). This is necessary to keep the apps working properly and to preserve functionality in the OSM agencies for re-adding pending inspections for failed instances. Existing inspections will be updated according to the following criteria:

• The inspection is in a status of Pending or Scheduled
• The overall record is not in a closed status
• The inspection is not missing required information (some converted records may not include the information needed to properly remap affected inspection types)

Accela Inspector App: Inspectors will need to refresh system data within the app. Instructions on How to Refresh the Inspector App System Date.

For some OSM agencies, these changes may affect which inspections you have automatically pended at record creation. Following the 13th, if you’d like to review which inspections you have auto-pended for possible changes, please submit a ticket to the help desk via [email protected].

Due to the consolidation (we retired 160 inspection types) and remapping of inspections, you may find duplicates of pending and/or scheduled inspections. For example, 1118 Footing Drain and 1128 Foundation Waterproofing became 1124 Foundation Drain/Waterproofing. It’s possible that, if you had both 1118 Footing Drain and 1128 Foundation Waterproofing pended and/or scheduled, you might now see two instances (because both inspection types were mapped to 1124 Foundation Drain/Waterproofing). You can simply delete one of the instances (as appropriate). If you run into any difficulty and need more information for those inspections, you may request a spreadsheet of changes via the help desk.

Click here to find a PDF that details which inspections are being retired and which inspection type they will be mapped to, according to the criteria above. There is also a PDF with the new inspection types. You can find an updated version of the inspection brochure here.

For OSM agencies: Because only pended/scheduled inspections on active records were updated, if you reinstate a record, you will need to delete any pending and/or scheduled inspections and re-add the appropriate inspections. If you don’t do this, the scripting that adds a new instance upon a failed inspection, may not work properly.

As a reminder for those agencies that do their own administration within Accela, inspection types must match throughout all ePermitting agencies so that IVR and the apps will work. If you’d like to make changes to inspections please submit a help desk ticket. 

The State of Oregon ePermitting is proud to announce the launch of SelecTXT, a new service allowing contractors and homeowners to utilize interactive text messaging to:

• Schedule inspections
• Reschedule inspections
• Cancel inspections
• View inspection results
• Include comments/instructions for Inspectors

Our IVR vendor Selectron has developed this new solution that simply uses your existing cellular text messaging functionality for scheduling inspections. It’s easy and fast, and better yet, does not require installation of an app, keeping an app up to date, or any other add-ons. With one word, users can begin the inspection scheduling process and SelecTXT will guide them from there. Helpful hints will ask them for their IVR tracking number and inspection code to complete the process in just a few key strokes. The commands are simple to remember and intuitive. It also offers “Express Commands” where users can complete the scheduling process with one single text message making it one of the fastest ways to schedule inspections offered.

We are currently working with a couple of agencies as ground users to try this new service out and see how they like it and soon it will be available to all agencies. An end-user brochure is available for your lobbies, to provide with issued plans, or to hand out to your contractors along with an informational/instructions document for agencies. 

​It’s that time of year again! If your agency is in the process of any fee updates for the fiscal year – we are asking that you please work to get them submitted by Wednesday, May 1st. Due to the sheer volume of agencies updating at the fiscal year (July 1st) and other projects that are currently in progress, turnaround time on all the changes to include testing, could take up to several weeks.

Please note that your fee updates do not have to be all the way through the approval process or have completed BCD Notice, so we ask that you send the draft of your fees that is currently under review/in process. We can get all the changes drafted and then only have to make minor changes as needed upon approval.

If you wait to submit your fee updates, we may not be able to guarantee their availability in production for July 1.

Thank you! If you have any questions regarding fee updates, please contact our helpdesk at [email protected]. 

1. Emailed Permit and Receipt - Available from Communications
As of Monday, March 11, 2019, you will be able to see a copy of the emailed Permit and Receipt documents under "Communications" when permits are automatically issued through Citizen Access. Previously, these emails were not saved or available from the record. Please let us know if you have any questions about this enhancement.

Emails sent for "App Submitted" Citizen Access records will also be available soon under "Communications".

2. Change in Model Fee Item - formerly "Drywell, leach line or trench drain"
In the Model, fee item B_PLM_680 (Residential Plumbing) and B_PLM_185 (Commercial Plumbing) formerly called “Drywell, leach line or trench drain” is currently being updated to just “Trench drain”. This change does not require any action on the part of agencies. The reason behind this change is the drywells and leach lines have been removed from the Plumbing Code and are now covered under Public Works in general, trench drains remain under the referenced code. You will likely see this update to your agency in the next week.

3. Changes to the Open Records Review Status report
The Open Records Review Status report has been changed so that when no data has been entered for the Review Status Date, it is displayed as blank instead of ‘01/01/01’.
The same change has been made to the Review Start Date.

4. Updated State Surcharge Reporting
Attention: Please use State Surcharge Report V3 & State Surcharge Details V3 for reporting the Building State Surcharge.

These updated reports include fees paid with 'ACH', 'Cash', 'Check', 'Credit Card', 'Credit Card Other', 'Fund Transfer', 'Internal Transfer', 'Journal Entry', ' Refund Check', and 'Billed'. Specifically 'Fee Waiver', 'Write off' and 'Credit Memo' are not included.

5. Print Permits Issued report
This report allows the user to optionally suppress the inspection section of the permit and/or suppress the legal text of the permit.

The default setting is ‘Yes’ which will suppress each area. To continue to print the entire permit reply ‘No’ to both prompts.

6. New Record Filter Called, ‘Active Records – Exp Date Passed – Building’
A new record filter is now available to retrieve a list of active Building records with an Expiration Date that is past the current date.

7. “Rain drain connector” fee now working correctly on Citizen Access
We recently discovered that the “Rain drain connector” fee was not assessing properly when applied for through Citizen Access. This fee has been corrected.

8. Enhancements Made to Expiration Process
The following enhancements have been made to the Expiration Process:

1. a. An agency can now execute the script from a Set to expire all records ad hoc in addition to using an automatic batch schedule to expire records. Previously, an agency could only expire records from a set or automatically, not both.
2. b. Several record types are now excluded from the Expiration Process:

                 i. Building/Commercial/Structural/Phased
                 ii. Building/Residential/Structural/Phased
                 iii. Building/Commercial/Deferred Submittal/Comprehensive
                 iv. Building/Residential/Deferred Submittal/Comprehensive
                 v. Building/Commercial/Revision/Comprehensive
                 vi. Building/Residential/Revision/Comprehensive
                 vii. Building/Commercial/Temporary C of O/Comprehensive
                 viii. Building/Residential/Temporary C of O/Comprehensive

9. Enhancement to Deferred Submittal Conditions
Previously, a Deferred Submittal Condition was automatically added to both the Parent and all Children Deferred Submittal (DS) records and one for each DS record. For example, if there were 16 Children DS records, there would be 16 DS Conditions on the Parent and all 16 Children records. This has been modified so now there is only one DS Condition added to just the Parent record. Then once all Children DS records are Completed, the Condition is removed from the Parent record. This was effective on 4/8/2019.

​The February 2019 ICC Building Valuation Data has been loaded into Accela for all agencies and was effective and available for use on April 1, 2019.