On Sept 13, 2017 we provided a sneak peek during an online focus training of a new web-based data tool that is being developed for us called Analytics Dashboard.  A lot of feedback was provided during that training and we took it back to our app developers who incorporated the changes.  We are expecting the Analytics Dashboard to be made available by the beginning of the year.  You will be notified just as soon as it is available for your agency to use.

1. Change in Documents ‘File Name’ Column (Live Nov 13)
The way in which the “File Name” column displays in the Documents page was changed so that it includes both the File Name and the Document Name, separated by a slash (/).  This was done to patch together inconsistencies between different views in Accela.

2. New Report: Assigned Planner (Live Nov 13)
A new report called “Assigned Planner” shows all open Planning records that are assigned to a user.  A parameter for Open After Date is used to filter records opened after a specific date.  The report lists details about each record assigned to the Planner and is grouped by assigned Planner.  The report also includes a summary with the number of assigned records, per Planner.  Unassigned records will not appear in the report - a record list My Filter can be used to locate unassigned records.

3. Revised Report: Bldg Program Data Request (Live Nov 13)
The Bldg Program Data Request report which can be used to complete the Building Program Data Request Form that must be submitted to Building Codes Division has been corrected for the FY 15-16.

The report has been modified to include Residential Sign, Residential Phased Project, and Commercial Phased Project record types.  

The inspection portion has been modified to include Inspections with a status of ‘Insp Cancelled’ and results of ‘No Access’, ‘Not Ready’ or ‘Information Only’.  

The last page of the report describes the contents of the report.

4. New Report: Contractor NonContractor Permits (Live Nov 13)
A new report has been installed called “Contractor NonContractor Permits”. 

With this report you can gather information for a specified time frame, the report lists record types and the number of permits issued to licensed professionals and to property owners or other applicants with percentages. 

You can find a sample of this report and other sample reports like this by going to the Knowledgebase and selecting the “Reports” category and the “Sample Reports with Instructions” article. You can access the knowledgebase at: http://orepermittinghelp.kayako.com/Core/Default/Index

5. Department Picker (Live Nov 13)
In the Planning module, the Record Search screen was updated so that the Assigned to Department and Assigned to Staff fields are dropdowns instead of “picker” icons.

6. Revised Report: Contractor NonContractor Permits (Live Nov 20)
Three changes were made to the new Contractor NonContractor Permits report (referenced in #4 above):

1. Because the Commercial and Residential Site Development and Driveway Access record types differ in use from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, those record types were removed from the list.
2. The Fence Record type is predominantly set up to allow a jurisdiction to do a review/inspection and work is frequently done by the property owner, it was removed.
3. When a jurisdiction uses the Owner (Property) Licensed Professional type when the owner is doing his own work, those records will appear in a separate column.

7. Revised Report: Bldg Program Data Request (Live Nov 28)
A bug was found in the Bldg Program Data Request Report (referenced in #3 above).

Near the end of 2014, as the result of clarification fro the BCD Building Official, we switched from classifying Category of Construction = ‘Multi-family’  from Residential Structural to Commercial Structural.  The result of this is some agencies may have both Residential Structural with Category of Construction = ‘Multi-family’  and Commercial Structural with Category of Construction = ‘Multi-family’ showing in the reporting period of FY 15-16 that is currently being requested by Tyler Larson from the Building Codes Policy Team.  

Previously, if the Category of Construction equaled ‘Multi-family’, the report was only counting the Commercial Structural permits  in the ‘Multi-family’ category and putting the Residential Structural in the Residential ‘Other’ category.

If an agency had Multi-family permits during this reporting period (FY 15-16), the report should be rerun and resubmitted to Tyler Larson.

8. New Filter: ACA permits opened in the last 180 days but not issued (Live Nov 30)
This new filter is now being rolled out to Production. It's called "ACA permits opened in the last 180 days but not issued". It will show up in the Record List for the Building module. It includes all record types that have come in through ACA but are still in the status of “App Submitted”. It should help you catch anything that might have been missed or might need some follow-up work.

Jeff joined the ePermitting team in January 2014 as an Implementation Specialist. He works primarily on technical projects like data conversions and scripting but also does new implementations when needed. Some of the data conversions Jeff has completed are Klamath County, Springfield, Florence, Milwaukie, West Linn and Cottage Grove. He’s currently working on the Coos Bay and Junction City conversions.  Some of the new implementations Jeff has completed are Lincoln County, Curry County and Tillamook County. He’s currently working on implementing Pendleton and Wallowa County with go live dates of early 2018.

Jeff came to ePermitting from the Department of Consumer and Business Services Information Management Division where he supported the fiscal services division for several years and then supported the Building Codes Division prior to moving to ePermitting.

Jeff lives in Salem with his wife, teenage daughter, and two labradoodles. In his spare time Jeff likes to play tennis, hike and travel. His favorite travel destinations are Italy, Greece and Kauai and his favorite hike is the Kalalau Trail on Kauai.

The ePermitting Help Desk will be closed on the following upcoming dates:

• Christmas Day - Monday, December 25, 2017
• New Years Day – Monday, January 1, 2018

ePermitting has developed an optional enhancement for agencies to better handle Alerts for online activity.  This enhancement was developed because Alerts no longer persistently display nor are they easily reviewed in the New UI.  Another one of the primary and long-standing issues with Alerts is that if you completed an Alert and deleted it from your Alerts list, it was only deleted from your view.  It was still listed as potentially outstanding for any other user with access to Alerts.  This issue is resolved with this new option.

The enhancement allows us to configure Alerts to also send to an external email account.  Alert notifications would still display in Accela in the Alerts page, however they would also all be emailed to a mailbox that you designate.  We highly recommend this email be a group/shared email where more than one person has access to review incoming emails.

A few benefits:

1. Email can be a much more proactive approach to being notified of online activity, which is very helpful regarding the nature of alerts.
2. You can often tell if the email has been read or not and/or can leverage various email functionality like ‘checking off’ something as complete.
3. Once processed, the person that handled it can delete it from the shared mailbox so that no one else monitoring alerts reviews the same alert, taking care of our age-old issue with deleting Alerts within Accela.  

Several agencies using this option have been delighted with the ease of use and the ability to more easily manage online applications.  If your agency would be interested in this enhancement, please submit a help desk ticket to [email protected].

In addition to the email option, we also have a new custom filter called, “ACA permits opened in the last 180 days but not issued.”  This filter shows you all the online permits that have come in with the “App Submitted” status which is another way of online seeing the ACA applications that you need to work on (since they didn’t auto-issue).

In the next Focus Training Kelly Marshall will train on the power of using Conditions of Approval (COA).  The training will describe the differences between COA and Standard Conditions, where COA appear, and best practices in using COA.  This training will take place on Wednesday, December 13, 1:30 – 2:30 p.m.  Up to 12 participants can attend this class so please send an email to [email protected] and let her know how many from your office plan on attending the training by Monday, December 11th.  We will schedule additional training dates if this class fills up.

Future training topics to watch for:  State Surcharge Reports, Phased & Deferred Records, Fee Estimates.

By default, inspection calendars block out the following dates for all agencies.  If your agency deviates from this schedule, please email the help desk at [email protected] to block out the appropriate dates.

• Christmas Day - Monday, December 25, 2017
• New Years Day – Monday, January 1, 2018

There are many list pages in Accela, including the Record List, Inspections List, Fees List, Alerts List, etc.  You can expand the number of items you see in the list per page by going to Menu > Expand List.  Most times, this will expand the number of items to 20 per page.  This is helpful in the New UI where there is ample “real estate” to take advantage of.  To shrink the list again, go to Menu > Contract List.

​List Pages – Sorting by Column Headings
You can also sort by any of the column headings in list pages.  Simply click on the column heading to sort the list by that data item.  The sort will be in descending order for the first click.  Click a second time and it will sort in ascending order.  The sort will move back to the default once you navigate away from the list.

The Building Codes Division (BCD) is in the process of procuring licenses for Bluebeam for interested ePermitting agencies.  Bluebeam is a popular web-based electronic document review and mark up tool.  Agencies who currently use Adobe Acrobat Pro for electronic document review have the option to switch to Bluebeam.  One thing to keep in mind is that Bluebeam does not interface with Accela software at this time, like Adobe Acrobat does.  This means Bluebeam reviews will have to be done outside of Accela by manually downloading and uploading the electronic plans in Accela.  Please submit a help desk ticket if your agency is interested in using Bluebeam.  We will also continue to provide Adobe Acrobat Pro licenses for those agencies not interested in using Bluebeam.  BCD is also in the process of developing best practices for electronic document review to share with our agencies – more to come on this topic!