OSM Changes

1. Revised Report: Building Permit (Live Aug 17th)
The main goal with re-writing the Building Permit was to improve the efficiency of the report so that it generates faster. Other goals included slight layout changes and basic cleanup of the permit.  You can see an example of the new Building Permit appended to the end of this newsletter.

Is anything new with the Building Permit?
Yes! The following are new additions/features with the Building Permit:
1. Conditions of Approval:
These are shown in the “Additional Information/Requirements” section, when displayed on the permit, on the last page. If no Conditions of Approval exist then nothing will be displayed. The ability to toggle a Condition of Approval to display on the permit can also be controlled by checking/unchecking the “Display on ACA” check-box option (defaults as checked) when creating or editing the Condition of Approval.

2. Inspections:
The inspection section has now been split into two sections. The section that will display the pended inspections is named “PENDING INSPECTIONS”. This section will display only if a pending inspection exists. If no pending inspection is on the record, then it will not be displayed on the permit. The second section is named “SCHEDULING INSPECTIONS”. This section will always be displayed and contains the verbiage about inspections (see the verbiage change section below).

3. IVR Number:
The IVR phone and tracking number is now displayed in two places on the permit. It has now been added beneath the permit number at the top of the Building Permit for quick reference.

4. Licensed Professionals:
The primary contractor will now always be displayed on the top of the list if there are multiple contractors associated to the record and performing work.
There have also been changes with certain verbiage within the Building Permit.  They are as follows:

1. Inspections section header:
   Before: “INSPECTIONS – Additional inspections may be required through the life of the project.”
   After: “PENDING INSPECTIONS” and “SCHEDULING INSPECTIONS” separately.
2. Inspection section scheduling information:
   Before: ​   

​           After (now displayed in the SCHEDULING INSPECTIONS section)

3. Permit Fees section header:
Before:  “PERMIT FEES – Permit fees may change after staff review”
After: “PERMIT FEES”

Will there be training on the new Building Permit?
There will be a training to outline how to toggle the display of a Condition of Approval on/off, how to ensure pending inspections are displayed on the permit, and that when the home owner is the one performing work that important information displays properly on the permit.

2. Revised Report: Certificate of Satisfactory Completion (Live Aug 17th)
The Certificate of Satisfactory Completion report has been completely re-written. It has a more similar look and feel to the new permit. Type of Work with Valuation, Job Site information, Services (fees), Contractor Information and completed inspections are on the Certificate.  While these have always been displayed, the lay out now matches that of the new Permit.  The biggest change with the Certificate is that a red banner with white text will display in the first section indicating that the Certificate has not actually been issued if it meets any of the following criteria. There are two different notifications on this note:

“Certificate Not Issued Due to Insufficient Information” will display if one more of these is true:

• Category of Construction is blank
• Type of Work is blank
• Description of Work is blank
• There is no Owner on the record

​
“Certificate Not Issued – Permit Not Finaled” will display if the following is true:

• Permit does not show as “Finaled” in the record status

You can see an example of the new Certificate of Satisfactory Completion appended to the end of this newsletter. 

3. Revised Report: Building Placard (Available Now)
The Building Placard was not re-written but did have minor design corrections and changes that may have prevented the Placard from being used. The changes are as follows:

• Watermark has been resized
• Lines will no longer be cut off by the watermarks
• Owner / Builder can now grow in size instead of cutting off the names if they were too long
• Fonts now appropriately sized to fit on the page

You can see an example of the new Building Placard appended to the end of this newsletter.

4. New Report: Lookup by Invoice (Available Now)
Accela doesn’t provide an easy way to search by Invoice Number so a new report was developed as a simple searching tool to find what record an Invoice Number belongs to.  The report is available in all modules under Financial Reports v3 and is called Lookup by Invoice #.

5. New Report: C of Os Issued (Available Now)
A new building report is available under the Monthly category named C of Os Issued. This report shows the details of all Certificates of Occupancy issued in the specified timeframe so you can review the information quickly, as requested from our last Focus Training on Reconciling Exceptional Payment Methods.