You can now generate a single invoice across multiple records through a Set – see steps below!  The invoice will show the total outstanding balance for the entire Set, including a break down by record and by fee item.  It will ignore records in the Set that have a zero outstanding balance.  You also have the ability to email the invoice to your customers.

Steps:

1. Add the appropriate records to a Set.
2.  *IMPORTANT* Navigate to the Set tab > select a Set Type.  A new Set Type named Set Payment has been added to this list and can be selected but any of the other options will work too.  If a Set Type is not selected, you won’t see the invoice report in the next step.

    3. Navigate to the Set Member tab > place a check next to one record > hover over Reports > click Comprehensive Invoices for Set.

    ​4. The Invoice is ready to view/print/email.

Converge/Elavon – the credit card processing agent your jurisdiction uses for online (and potentially back office) ePermitting  transactions – has recently made us aware of a very important change process they require.

When and if the “Authorized Signer” – or person responsible for this account (Finance Manager or Director typically )–  changes for any participating agency – there is change process required by Converge/Elavon.  ePermitting provides the information and instructions from Converge/Elavon, when a  Finance Management Change Request form is filled out. This form is required because ePermitting has to make some updates and then we can also help ensure that your agency has the necessary information from Converge/Elavon.

Please be aware of this new requirement and process, failure to submit these changes with Converge/Elavon in particular, and in a timely manner, could potentially result in suspension of your agency’s credit card processing account.

The Financial Management Change Request form is available through the Kayako Knowledgebase at: https://orepermittinghelp.kayako.com/article/221-finance-management-change-request.

For jurisdictions using the Public Works module - a new service area for tracking Stormwater is now available, as of May 8, 2024!

Purpose:
Development brings with it more impervious surfaces that result in additional stormwater runoff that may require a permit be obtained from a local jurisdiction to comply with local post-construction quantity and/or quality treatment standards. The new Stormwater service area will allow jurisdictions to standardize their approach to regulating stormwater and more easily track those permits that don’t quite fit within the existing three service areas.

Changes you will see:

• A new checkbox named, "Includes Stormwater" under "01 General Information" / "Building Information"
• A new tab in the menu navigation named, "05 Stormwater" with several fields used to record the Stormwater permit details.
• Revised PW Permit that will display the Stormwater permit details and jurisdiction custom standard Stormwater permit language, if provided.

What we need from you:
Please submit a Kayako ticket by emailing [email protected] if you would like either of the following modified, based on the new Stormwater service area:

• Standard permit language that will appear on the PW Permit for Stormwater.  This language could include disclaimers, instructional text, County/State Code or Ordinance, policy statements, etc.
• Application Type dropdown list.

We hope that this new service area will assist you in your Public Works permitting!

Beginning Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, the following additional checks became effective and now prevents the C of O from being issued through workflow until resolved:

1. All related records are closed/finaled.
2. Valuation Calculator data is entered.

Both additions align the Certificate of Occupancy process with code requirements.  Feel free to reach out to the ePermitting Team by emailing [email protected] if you have any questions about this and we are glad to assist.

​The DEQ Surcharge fee is increasing from $100 to $117, effective Aug. 1, 2024.  The ePermitting team is working closely with DEQ on this timeline and will be proactively creating a new Onsite fee schedule version that will automatically go into effect Aug. 1, 2024 that will include the new surcharge amount.  This only applies to jurisdictions who are using the ePermitting Onsite module.  There is no need for each county to submit a ticket requesting the surcharge increase – we are taking care of it for you!  No other fees will be touched during this update.  Please feel free reach out with any questions by sending an email to the ePermitting Team at [email protected] or Corby Eden at DEQ at [email protected].  Please note that the surcharge increase will not be officially approved by the Environmental Quality Commission until their next meeting scheduled for July 12, 2024.  If the surcharge increase is not approved, you will be notified by DEQ and the ePermitting Team will not make any changes to the DEQ surcharge amount.

Following the Accela upgrade several users noted some changes in the task specific information forms (TSI) associated to some workflow tasks. In some cases, fields were squished, and in others the form would be extremely stretched to the point that users could not see all of the fields on the form. Strangely, this issue was not consistent across all workflow tasks or even across all agencies. We have submitted a ticket to Accela to help identify what caused the issue. In the meantime, we have reformatted all forms using the new designer which should alleviate the scrolling issues.

​As of Mon, 6/17/2024 changes were made to the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O), Temporary Certificate of Occupancy (Temp C of O), and the Onsite Certificate of Satisfactory Completion (Onsite CSC) reports.  The most exciting changes were made to the C of O and Temp C of O where a scanned image of the Building Official’s signature can be uploaded into Accela and display at the bottom of the document.  If a scanned signature is not available in Accela, the report will now display the Building Official’s name in a cursive font.  If your Building Official is interested in taking advantage of the option to include a scanned image of their signature, please email [email protected] and the ePermitting Team will provide specs for the scanned image file.  The Onsite CSC was reformatted so that the issuing Sanitarian stands out more and their name is included in a cursive font.  Unfortunately, the option to add a scanned image of each Sanitarian’s signature is not available.  See below for before and after screenshots of the report changes.
 
C of O
Before:

After:

 After (example with scanned signature)

​Temp C of O
Before:

After:

Onsite CSC
Before:

After:

A new enhancement was just released by our app developer so that we can customize the contact information at the top of the Inspection Summary Report that's generated from the Oregon Inspector App (OIA). Previously, we could only configure one set of contact information that displayed across all modules for an agency. If you would like the module contact information to be customized for each module of your agency, please submit a ticket to the ePermitting Team by emailing [email protected]. Be sure to include which modules should be customized and the appropriate contact details.

The Accela upgrade for 2024 is now complete, for more information visit: www.oregon.gov/bcd/epermitting/juris_hub/Pages/upgrade-info.aspx.
​
Accela Version Upgrade (23.2.4) Highlights

The Inquiry record type for Building can now be available to be searchable on ACA. If you would like us to turn this optional functionally on and allow the Inquiry record type to be search on ACA, please submit a help desk ticket request  – submit to [email protected].

This is just a helpful tip when using the V_RECORD or V_OSM_BUILDING_RECORD views in Adhoc Reports - the views automatically exclude records with the status of Void.  If you are comparing the number of records in your Adhoc Report to the number of records from search another method, like a Record List Search, you may see different results if any of the records are Void.

We are very excited to announce that the ePermitting Team has created a brand new Code Compliance (CC) module that will be rolled out to all jurisdictions who are currently using the Planning Investigation record type to track code compliance issues.  The new CC module is identical to all the things Code related that are currently in the Planning module, including the Investigation record type.  The biggest benefit to the new module is that users will no longer see confusing items that are related to Planning that do not apply to code work.
 
The CC module includes the two record types listed below.  There are also several enhancements we added to the new CC module - follow this link for a full list. 

1. Code Investigation - this record type is identical to Planning Investigation
2. Code Inquiry (NEW) - this is a new flexible record type to be used as a placeholder for non-case related Code information or activity.

 
As a part of this project, at go-live, our team will transition all existing Planning Investigation records over into the Code Investigation record type in the CC module so that all Code records can be found in a single module.
 
Klamath County was our first jurisdiction to go live with the new CC module on 12/11/2023.  We are working on a schedule to transition the rest of the jurisdictions who are actively using the Planning Investigation record type.  Our team will contact jurisdictions about two weeks prior to their go-live to prep and work through the transition.  There will be about a 30 minute downtime window on the early morning of go-live day for our team to process the transition in the system.  The new CC module will also be offered to newly implementing jurisdictions as an available module.  If you have any questions or would like more information, please submit a ticket at [email protected].

On 12/19/2023, the ePermitting Team released a new enhancement for the Onsite module. These changes were requested and approved by Oregon DEQ who has authority for Onsite. This change impacts online applications only; back office functionality did not change. Public users who are submitting online applications for an Onsite Authorization, Site Evaluation, or Permit will now be required to enter data in the fields listed below so that more complete information will be collected online to process the application.

Note: All existing required fields will not change (Authorization & Permit = Type of Application; Site Evaluation = Type of Application, Category of Construction, Site Ready for Inspection).
​
Additionally, a field named, Existing Use of Structure was added to the Onsite Site Evaluation record type.
 
Required Fields for Onsite Authorization:

• Category of Construction
• Acreage or Lot Size
• Water Supply
• Existing Use of Structure
• Proposed Use of Structure
• Site Ready for Inspection

** If Type of Application = Residential Authorization, then these additional fields will become visible and required:

• Number of Bedrooms (Existing)
• Number of Bedrooms (Proposed Total)

** If Type of Application = Commercial Authorization, then these additional fields will become visible and required:

• Number of Employees (Existing)
• Number of Employees (Proposed Total)
• Number of Seating (Existing)
• Number of Seating (Proposed Total)

 
Required Fields for Onsite Site Evaluation:

• Acreage or Lot Size
• Water Supply
• Existing Use of Structure
• Proposed Use of Structure

**If Type of Application = Residential Site Evaluation, then these additional fields will become visible and required:

• Number of Bedrooms (Existing)
• Number of Bedrooms (Proposed Total)

**If Type of Application = Commercial Site Evaluation, then these additional fields will become visible and required:

• Number of Employees (Existing)
• Number of Employees (Proposed Total)
• Number of Seating (Existing)
• Number of Seating (Proposed Total)

 
Required Fields for Onsite Permit:

• Category of Construction
• Acreage or Lot Size
• Water Supply
• Existing Use of Structure
• Proposed Use of Structure

**If Type of Application = Construction Permit - Residential, then these additional fields will become visible and required:

• Number of Bedrooms (Existing)
• Number of Bedrooms (Proposed Total)

**If Type of Application = Construction Permit - Commercial, then these additional fields will become visible and required:

• Number of Employees (Existing)
• Number of Employees (Proposed Total)
• Number of Seating (Existing)
• Number of Seating (Proposed Total)

We have begun assigning the individual user Bluebeam licenses that are replacing the concurrent login licenses that we currently use (Bluebeam no longer supports the concurrent licenses).

• The individual user licenses can be installed by each user on up to 3 devices.
• These licenses allow full mark-up and the use of Studio sessions: a fantastic feature which allows licensees to invite others, who don’t have Bluebeam licenses, to a “studio session” to look at plans and leave comments without consuming a license. Studio sessions also facilitate the plan review process by allowing reviewers to concurrently see each another’s comments. You can also invite design professionals and contractors into a studio session, if you choose
• Licenses can be transferred to new employees when you have turnover - new user contact information must be provided at the time of transfer.

Nathan Flowers has begun sending out emails to jurisdictions to get users setup and will continue to do so as quickly as possible to assure everyone has access to Bluebeam.

We plan to provide some Electronic Document Review (EDR) training sessions in 2024, to accompany the new licenses - stay tuned for training details.

Third Party Service Record Type - is used to record and process work done when an agency is acting as the third party to someone else on a regular, recurring basis such as providing inspection and/or plan review. They can schedule and result inspections on this record – and also record plan review results/notes. They can also attach any electronic documents, as needed.  This record type can also be used to charge third party fees for the work you’ve completed - which can then be invoiced and sent to the party/agency that received service, and ultimately initiate and post payment.  

A help desk ticket request must be made to add and configure this record type for an agency. It requires some configuration for custom dropdowns (to be collected from the agency), potentially for fees (agency dependent), add of any other users participating in this process, and some other small functionality.​

Third Party Billing - is when an agency uses a third party (receives service from) where the billing for the service(s) provided is a percentage-based split of fees collected and with no conditions (is always split and not dependent on any other criteria). Example, we cannot accommodate third party billing if they only split fees when the permit is greater in value than $10000 or when it is charged hourly, etc. Distribution codes are assigned to every fee to determine if it’s split and how it’s split – these must be configured as per the agency’s agreement.  This distribution is only a mechanism that feeds a dedicated report to be run monthly to assist in reconciling and ultimately paying the agency’s third party. This functionality also requires configuration at the fee code level and otherwise. Once implemented, this must also then be maintained with all fee updates thereafter - every active fee would then include a distribution code – up and until the agency is no longer using this split method.

A help desk ticket request is also required configure this fee functionality  – submit to [email protected].

If your agency has already published their 2024 holiday schedule where you know the dates that no inspections will be performed, please send that to the ePermitting Team as soon as possible by emailing [email protected]. Our team can verify all dates are blocked out for the year so that no inspections can be scheduled on those dates that your office is closed.
 
Just as a reminder, there are two helpful reports that you can generate to view a list of dates that are already blocked out on your inspection calendars. The reports can be found under Building Reports > Audit > select either:
 

• Inspection Calendar Block Out Dates
  • This report will show you all dates that are blocked out that are NOT a named holiday or weekend that fall within the next 35 days. Example block out dates you may see on this report could be when you have a different schedule based on inspection districts or all inspectors are in an all-day training.
• Inspection Holiday Block Out Dates
  • This report will show you all dates that are blocked out that are a named holiday (like “Christmas”) for the current year + the next year.

Currently, when this record type is created via ACA, no plan review fee is added. In those cases, when plan review is required, a back office staff member has to “Add fee”. When the record is created by back office staff, there is a Yes/No radio button that staff members must set to Yes in order to assess the Structural Plan Review fee. We have heard from several agencies that the structural plan review fee is required in several instances and that people often forget to add it (especially when the application has come in through ACA).

With this update, scripting has been revised so that the Structural Plan Review fee will now assess automatically when the record is created (regardless of whether it's created in the back office or through Citizen Access) and in the case where it is not required, back office users can delete it before invoicing the fees.

In conjunction with the scripting change, the Y/N radio button for Structural Plan Review mentioned above will be removed/hidden.

Valuation Calculator enabled on Citizen Access:
Public users will be able to see all of the Valuation Calculator values that have been added to the record in the back office except the Multiplier and Extra Amount. Public users will be able to navigate to the Valuation Calculator from the "Record Info/Schedule Inspections" dropdown menu.

Linn County joined Oregon ePermitting in Fall 2023: welcome Linn County!

We’ve added two new statuses to the Hearing task for the Planning Tracking record type:

• Final Denial: Will close the record
• Initial Hearing Complete/Referred: Will close the Hearing Task and loop back up to reopen the Staff Report/Decision task

These changes are now live in production and will be available for previously created Planning Tracking records as well as new records.

To find an updated Planning Tracking Workflow Diagram (a diagram showing how each of the statuses moves through/affects the overall Planning Tracking workflow) please click here.