Our next focus training will be provided in September on the Power of Workflow Email Notifications – Internal and External.  We will be announcing the date/time in the next Newsletter edition.  We are also requesting feedback as to what upcoming training topics you would be interested in learning about.  Please provide training topics to Krista by emailing her at [email protected] with your top 3 training topics that would greatly benefit users in your agency. 

Kedar Kurpad joined the ePermitting team in May 2018. As a Business Systems Analyst, he works in Building Codes on a variety of projects that will help make the Division’s services easier to use and more accessible for Oregonians.

Kedar moved here from Philadelphia and has experience working as a product manager for consumer electronics companies, as a project manager and consultant for an executive coaching firm, and as an educator working with students around the world.

He lives in Portland and plays guitar, brews beer, and explores Oregon’s wilderness in his spare time.

We receive questions about Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) regularly from agencies, so thought we would shed some light on this report and the Certificate of Satisfactory Completion (CSC) and when these would generally be used.

In Accela, the C of O is available thru Workflow on Structural records as this record type is where occupancy is granted for new or added square footage, changes in use/occupancy, and tenant improvements (TI’s).  Outside of being generated thru Workflow, the C of O report is also available to be run manually once Workflow is closed thru the Reports dropdown in the Record Summary on building records and thru the Launchpad on the Building Reports page. However, if you are attempting to generate a C of O on a record type that it is not indicated for/not generally required for, the report will run but will be largely blank.  To answer a recent agency question, C of O is not required on Manufactured Dwelling placements/sitings (MFD record type), occupancy is typically granted on these at the factory – however, alteration/remodel of an existing Manufactured Dwelling may require change of use/occupancy or additional square footage and therefore is handled thru a Structural record type in Accela where the C of O is available if needed [Category of Construction = Manufactured Dwelling, Type of Work = Alteration].  Consult your Building Official for all decisions related to granting occupancy.  

The CSC report is an available report that formalizes the final inspection and overall completion of a construction project, any discipline, where occupancy may not need to be granted such as for Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing, many Structural Alterations, etc.  This report is not available thru Workflow so must be manually run from the Reports dropdown in Record Summary on building records or thru the Launchpad on the Building Reports page.  This report is often requested now by banks/lenders at the time construction loans are funded or completed, Homeowners, Real Estate agents at the time of sale, etc.   

Note, these two reports may not run successfully on converted records due to missing yet required data elements, check all tabs in Record Navigation to check for and complete required fields.  If you have any questions on how to run one of these two reports, contact the helpdesk at 503-373-7396 or submit a helpdesk ticket to [email protected].

We’ve recently received some customer calls inquiring about why the permit valuation in Accela does not match what they indicated on their application.  Recorded valuation is used on a majority of Building Reports and often shared with the local Tax Assessor who then reviews this information to determine whether a new appraisal is needed to re-evaluate property taxes.  And where valuation is used to calculate permit fees, it’s important to note that Accela will impose your minimum structural permit fee regardless of the valuation entered and will otherwise accurately calculate the exact permit fee as per your permit fee table.  Example, your minimum structural permit fee is $85 for valuation range $1 - $2000 – you do not need to input a job value of $2000 to make sure you get your minimum structural permit fee – you could enter only the $500 submitted job valuation and the system will still impose your minimum structural permit fee of $85.  Any dollar valuation in that first range and/or up to the calculation that meets your minimum permit fee will be imposed by Accela automatically – so you do not need to adjust the submitted job value to make sure your minimum permit fee is assessed.  The customer in our example was contacted for a possible appraisal but they had in fact not done an improvement valued at $2000 so they had to request a copy of their application from the agency and a copy of their contract with the licensed professional to show the lower valuation/improvement value.

If you have any questions about permit fee calculations, use of Contractor or Calculator Valuation, please submit a helpdesk ticket to [email protected] for assistance.

We have had a list of standard inspections across all ePermitting agencies since 2009.  Many jurisdictions have requested this list be pared down or changed.  To facilitate this project, a group of Building Officials and inspectors gathered and came up with proposed changes to the list of standard inspections.  Changes include: removing inspections and changing the names of inspections to make them more relevant to the work that jurisdictions do.  The ePermitting Team will be sending out these changes in September to all jurisdictions to provide feedback during a 2 week review window.  Please keep an eye out for this.  We want your feedback, as these changes will affect all ePermitting agencies!

If your agency has an upcoming fee increase, please send your new fees to the ePermitting team no later than two months before the effective date by sending an email to  [email protected].  The ePermitting team now supports over 60 OSM agencies and we need this much lead time to update each agency who will have new fees.  Please keep in mind that sending your new fee schedule to the Policy section of BCD for review is a separate process than sending your new fee schedule to ePermitting for updating in the Accela software.  Also, please do not wait for your local approval process to submit your proposed changes to us.  Often times this does not provide us enough time to complete and test this volume of change for all agencies requesting.  Thank you for your help with this!

Payment, Fee, and Workflow History and are available as tabs on individual records thru Navigation and include date and user details that can be extremely helpful when you are trying to problem solve an issue or explain changes on a record.  Fee History provides a line-by-line log of every fee-related update made on the record including things that are done thru scripting in the database such as the automation of fees at intake.  Payment History provides the same detail for anything related to payments including payment action information such as the payment simply being posted, then when it’s applied, and if it’s ever voided, etc.  Lastly is Workflow History and this is very necessary when trying to backtrack why the workflow was advanced, when, and by whom – down to the timestamp for sequence of events so you can evaluate what might have happened.  Also in Workflow History, a task comment (not task status) can be actively changed or edited by certain user groups so mistakes like typos or missing information can be corrected and saved. 

The Inspection Log is available thru the Inspections tab on a record or thru the Inspections page.  Select the View Log button > Inspection Log.  If on an individual record, a pop-up comes up with the log history for the record you are specifically on – consider backdating the start date if the record is older than the default one month.  If on the Inspections page, checkbox the particular inspection you want to view log history on and then select Inspection Log to run it.  The start date may have to be adjusted here as well.  In both cases, you will be shown a complete audit log of any and all updates made to that inspection including who scheduled it and when, what the status is and when, any request comment made, which inspector it was assigned to and much more.
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We use all of these logs daily in ePermitting to better assist in problem solving helpdesk tickets with agencies and to gather the necessary details that aren’t immediately available in other areas in the system or on the record.  Note that you can export all of these from the Menu button as CSV Exports into Excel and further analyze the data, etc.  Getting familiar with each of these will definitely help to advance your problem solving skills in Accela!

1. Added New Checkbox: “Work Being Performed in Floodplain” (Live May 3)
A new checkbox field was added called, “Work Being Performed in Floodplain”.

2. Revised “Inspection Trips Completed” Report (Live June 8)
The “Inspection Trips Completed” report has been modified to include three new parameters:  Module, Discipline (inspector discipline) and Inspector.  The Module and Discipline parameters selected from drop down lists.  One or more selection can be made for each drop down list.  To make multiple selections – hold down the Control [CTRL] key and click to make your selections.  The Inspector parameter allows the user to enter an inspector name (first name, space, last name).

This report shows inspections events that were a trip.  An inspection trip is defined to be an inspection that has status  'Insp Completed' with a Result of 'Accepted', 'Approved', 'Approved with Conditions' or 'Not Required' OR status must be 'Insp Cancelled' with a Result of 'Denied', 'Information Only', 'No Access' 'Not Ready', or 'Partial'.  
The report data is output as an Excel spreadsheet so that the user can sort the data as needed.

3. New “Fee Summary by Account” Report (Live June 27)
The “Fee Summary by Account” report shows a list of each fee type and amount of funds applied to an account code. The list is sorted by account code. 

Parameters: 
1. Start and End Dates:  

• The date span for records to include in the report.

2. Module:

• ‘-All-‘ will include every payment received during the date span.  
• One or more modules will include only payments for records or POS transactions that occurred in the selected modules.  Note that if a set includes records from multiple modules and some of the records are not in the selected modules the set payment amount will not match the sum of the individual records listed in the set.

3. Account_code: 

• Options are ‘1’,’2’ or ‘3’.  For most jurisdictions use Account code 1 to get the General Ledger account code totals.  For jurisdictions that share fees with other entities running the report for Account code 3 may be helpful.

4. Account_id: 

• -All- is the default
• A specific general ledger account id can be entered so the report will show only that account.  If the account id has fees from multiple modules and some of the modules are not included the total will only include fees that are both in the modules and in the account id.

4. New “Fee Summary by Module” Report (Live June 28)
The “Fee Summary by Module” report shows a list of each fee type and amount of funds applied to an account code. The list is grouped and sorted by module then account code. 

Parameters: 
1. Start and End Dates:  

• The date span for records to include in the report.

2. Module:

• ‘-All-‘ will include every payment received during the date span.  
• One or more modules will include only payments for records or POS transactions that occurred in the selected modules.  Note that if a set includes records from multiple modules and some of the records are not in the selected modules the set payment amount will not match the sum of the individual records listed in the set.

3. Account_code: 

• Options are ‘1’,’2’ or ‘3’.  For most jurisdictions use Account code 1 to get the General Ledger account code totals.  For jurisdictions that share fees with other entities running the report for Account code 3 may be helpful.

4. Account_id: 

• -All- is the default
• A specific general ledger account id can be entered so the report will show only that account.  If the account id has fees from multiple modules and some of the modules are not included the total will only include fees that are both in the modules and in the account id.
  
  

5. New “C of SCs Issued” Report (Live June 29)
The “C of SCs Issued” report lists Building records that have an application status of ‘Finaled’ and at least one copy of the Certificate of Satisfactory Completion report document attached.  Records must have an application status date with in the reporting period dates.  The report is designed to be output as an Excel spreadsheet.

6. New “Onsite C of SCs Issued” Report (Live June 29)
The “Onsite C of SCs Issued” report lists Onsite records that have a workflow status of ‘CoSC Issued’.  Records must have an workflow status date with in the reporting period dates.  The report is designed to be output as an Excel spreadsheet.  The report lists the type of permit application and the system type. 

7. New “Inspection History” Report (Live July 2)
The purpose of this report is to provide an overall view of the inspections that have been resulted, scheduled, or placed on a record. This report will exclude deleted inspections.  There are two parameter options to select from. The report will sort first by one, and second by the other, depending on in which order they are selected in the prompt page.

• Inspection Type
• Inspection Date
  
  

8. New “Detailed Scheduled Inspection” Report (Live July 2)

• The report name has been updated to “Detailed Scheduled Inspection Report”.
• There are now three separate versions that will show the exact same information, but they are sorted differently. The three versions are:

                   o Detailed Scheduled Inspection Report by Address
                   o Detailed Scheduled Inspection Report by Discipline
                   o Detailed Scheduled Inspection Report by Insp Type

• All previous parameters have been removed and replaced with the following:

                   o Scheduled Inspection Date
                   o Select Discipline
                   o Select Module
                   o Select Inspector
                   o View Conditions of Approval
                               • Yes/No options
                   o View Standard Conditions
                               • Yes/No options
                   o View Additional Contacts
                               ​• Yes/No options
                   o View Related Record Inspections
                               • Yes/No options
                   ​o View Related Records
                               • Yes/No options

• The agency contact information has been removed from the header with the exception of the agency logo.
• The username of who ran the report will now be displayed on the bottom left of the report header.
• The Lot/Block/Subdivision parcel information will now no longer individually display if it has no value
• In the “Request Info” section the field named “Inspection date” has been renamed “Scheduled date”.
• If the inspector name is empty it will now say “Not assigned” instead of remaining blank.
• Standard conditions are now an option to view. If this option is selected and there are no conditions a message “No conditions on record.” will be displayed.
• Pending inspections have been removed.
• CET and SDC fee schedules will no longer be shown. 
• The price of fees has been removed from the report. The report will now say “Unpaid balance” if there is a balance due or “Paid in full” if all fees have been paid.
• Related records are now an option to view. If this option is selected it will show records that are open at that same address.
• Due to the exceptionally long run-time of this report, the date range option has been removed and the report can now only be run for one specific day at a time.
• The owner has been added to the contacts when the “View Additional Contacts” option is selected.
• Only surcharge eligible fee items for both DEQ and Building will now be shown. All Public Works fees will be displayed.
  
  

9. New “Scheduled Inspections List” Report (Live July 10)
The purpose of this report is to provide a very simplistic scheduled inspection list that can be run either for all inspectors, multiple different inspectors, or simply one inspector alone. There is no date parameter option for this report and it will only pull inspections that are scheduled for the day that the report is being run.

10. Revised “Structural Exemption Certificate” Report (Live July 17)
The “Structural Exemption Certificate” report will now automatically save a copy of the PDF to the Documents page on a record.

11. Revised “Work Site Result Request” Report (Live July 19)
There are now three reports that are going to be replacing the “Work Site Result Report By Record” and “Work Site Result Report For Today reports”. They are as follows:

1. Inspection Result – Batch
2. Inspection Result – Record
3. Mobile Inspection Result

The purpose of these reports is to provide a printed or digital copy of the result of the inspection or alternatively provide a printed copy for the inspector to take out into the field and leave at the job site. This report can be run as a batch by date range (Inspection Result – Batch report) or at the record level (Inspection Result – Record report). This can also be run on a single inspection; this can be done from inside the inspection itself using the “Mobile Inspection Result” report from the reports button.  Finally, the Mobile Inspection Result can also be sent from the Accela Inspector app as well to be e-mailed.

12. Revised “Invoice” Report (Live July 19)
The new version of the invoice has a header that reflects the module that the record type is associated with.  For POS transactions the invoice header is determined by the module that the user is using when doing the POS transaction.

13. Additional Records Table Now Requires “Description” (Live July 19)
The Additional Records table that is used to automatically created additional related records now requires the “Description” column to populate the Description of Work for the new records.

14. New Onsite Permit Workflow Status “Pre-Cover Waived” (Live July 23)
A new workflow status was added to Onsite Permit records called, “Pre-Cover Waived”.  When selected, the workflow will advance to the next task, “Certificate of Satisfactory Completion”.
 
15. New “Open Records Review Status” Report (Live July 24)
This report is available for the Building and Onsite modules.  The report creates a spreadsheet that shows each open record .  For each of these records:

• The current permit application status and date the application status was updated
• The review status, the date the review was started, the date the review status was updated, and the reviewer.

16. Added “Allow Inspections Prior to Permit Issuance” to Public Works (Live July 25)
The “Allow Inspections Prior to Permit Issuance” checkbox was added to the Public Works Tracking and Public Works Investigation records.

17. Added “Closed Date” to Public Works (Live July 25)
The “Closed Date” field was added to the Public Works module records.  It will automatically populate when the workflow closes.

18. Added “Work Category” to Public Works and Onsite (Live July 25)
The “Work Category” column was added to the Professionals page for both the Public Works and Onsite modules.  This column will automatically populate the work categories selected in the LP details screen.

19. Added “Due Date” to Workflow Task Assignment Screen (Live July 25)
The “Due Date” field was added to the Workflow Task Assignment screen.

20. Revised Logic for Populating Workflow Emails Dropdowns (Live July 25)
The logic for populating the workflow email dropdown values for internal staff has been revised with the following changes:

• Removes users from previous department when they move departments.
• Accommodates an Engineering Department.
• Removes the user called “Delegate User Delegate User” that was available from the Building dropdown.
  
  

21. Corrected an Issue with Fees Being Assessed on DWL Records (Live July 26)
There was an issue for a short period of time when fees were not automatically assessed at intake on DWL records (Plan Review, Permit, State Surcharge).  This was only happening for a few agencies.  This is now corrected.

22. New “Work Performed by Contractor” Report (Live July 26)
This report will pull in the work that is being performed by each contractor. This information can be found in the Professionals page (within the record) in the Work Category column. To add the work being done, this is achieved by clicking on the license number, and selecting Yes to the applicable radio buttons according to which work the contractor is performing at the job.

The report provided will contain the following fields and data:

• Record number
• Record type
• Record status
• Category of construction
• Description of work
• Owner
• Parcel
• Worksite address
• Date the contractor was added to the record
• Licensed professional
• License number
• License type
• Work being performed

23. New “Planning Application Status” Report (Live July 27)
This report shows Planning Tracking records that were initiated  within the specified start and end date parameters.

The report is output as a spreadsheet.  Each planning tracking record shows:

• the application type
• the parcel number and address (if available)
• the project name and work description
• the initiated date
• the application status and date the status was updated
• the workflow step, status,  date the status was updated, the  assigned planner and any work flow comments.

24. Revised My Tasks Filter “Assigned Building Reviews” (Live July 31)
The “Assigned Building Reviews” filter on the My Tasks pages was revised with the following changes:

• Shows all building-related review tasks with the following names:

                 o ​Building Review
                 o Electrical Review
                 o Fire Review
                 o Mechanical Review
                 o Plumbing Review

• Available for the whole Building module.

25. Revised Subject Line for Emailed Reports (Live August 1)
The subject line for emailed reports was revised to include the record number at the beginning.

26. Corrected Scripting for School CET Fees (Live August 1)
There was an issue with the scripting that calculates the School CET fees where the Admin fee would include any Credited fees.  This has been corrected for all agencies assessing School CET fees.

27. New “Inspection Type Search” Report (Live August 7)
This report will allow you to search for any inspection type done within the date range selected from the parameter page. The report searches the inspection name for the value entered in the search parameter. So for example searching for “final” will pull in any inspections completed that contain the word “final” in the name within the date range provided. This will only show an inspection if it is considered an inspection trip. An inspection is considered a trip if the inspection status is Completed with a Result of Accepted, Approved, Approved with Conditions, or Not Required. Or if the inspection status is Cancelled with a Result of Denied, Information Only, No Access, Not Ready, or Partial. The report is automatically exported into MS Excel format.

Deferred plan review is when a project submittal is incomplete at intake and one of the portions of the overall structural building design is allowed to be submitted separately.  This does not apply to deferred permits in the Model such as Electrical, Mechanical, Plumbing, or Fire – deferral is only currently available on structural.  A common type of deferral is engineered trusses – since these are being designed and drawn up by a separate party, the truss pages are not included in the initial plan submittal.  The customer is deferring the plan review on these missing pages; however the plans examiner can begin review on the initial submittal knowing that a portion has been deferred.  The Deferred plan review fee is a premium; it is in addition to standard plan review fees and covers the added cost of the agency having to go back and review the plan submittal as a whole once the deferral is submitted, this takes time.  Once the deferral is submitted, a brand NEW record is started from the Launchpad or Record List – take note of the parent submittal record number, as you will need this number to intake the deferral.  Select Commercial or Residential, then Deferred Submittal from the record picker and the intake will pop up.  

There is a specific note included about the Job Value at intake, to enter only the value of the deferred portion of the project.  Important to note that the valuation of the deferral should not be omitted from the parent record valuation for the purpose of permit and standard plan review fee calculation, the parent record should be the total project valuation including the value of the deferral.  The deferred record will not assess a permit fee as it is not a permit record; it is a plan-review-only record type and simply allows you to track the plan review effort on the deferred portion of the submittal so will only assess the deferred plan review (premium) fee.  The intake will also ask for the “Master Application #” which is the parent permit record number you jotted down.  At Submit, you will have created a deferred child record to record the plan review activity on the deferred plans portion – follow this record through workflow to completion.  Unlike phased plan review, no work can begin on the project up and until the deferral is reviewed and approved.  If you have any questions or issues creating or managing structural deferrals, please contact our helpdesk at 503-373-7396 or submit a helpdesk ticket to [email protected].