Your Permit Agent Chases Plan Review Until the Permit Is Issued
What it takes off your plate
The AgentWorks Permit Agent carries each permit application from submittal to issue: it checks status with the building department, routes plan review comments to the right design professional, and chases the resubmittal. It frees your project manager and your office staff from permit follow-up, so the PM can stay with the client and the job that is already under way.
Here is how it usually goes. The permit set goes in and everyone moves on to the next project. Weeks later the PM remembers to check the portal and finds a round of plan review comments that posted a while ago: a missing structural calculation, a fire separation detail, an energy form. They get forwarded to the architect, who sends the structural item to the engineer, who is out that week. Nobody owns the loop. The resubmittal goes in late, the second review adds more time, and the start date the client was promised slips. The subs you lined up take other work.
What the Permit Agent does, step by step
The Permit Agent starts with the communication, because permit delays mostly happen in the gaps between people.
- Checks status on a schedule. It checks each application in the jurisdiction's portal or with the permit counter by email and phone, and records where it sits in review.
- Routes comments the day they post. When plan review comments arrive, it sends each one to the right person: the architect for life safety and detailing, the structural engineer for calculations, the MEP engineer for their sheets, your office for forms and fees.
- Chases the responses. It follows up with each design professional on the date they committed to, and tells the PM plainly which item is holding the resubmittal.
- Assembles the resubmittal. When the responses are in, it gathers the revised sheets and the response letter, checks that every comment has an answer, and sends the package to the PM to approve and submit.
- Asks for fees and pickups. When the permit is ready to issue, it asks the PM to approve the permit fee payment and arranges the pickup or download.
- Tells the field and the client. Once issued, it sends the superintendent the permit and its conditions, updates the client on the start date, and posts the permit on the project record.
- Tracks the dates that follow. It records the permit's expiration and the inspections it requires, so nothing lapses later.
The Permit Agent tracks and chases; the design professionals answer code questions and the PM decides what gets submitted. Code interpretation stays with the architect, the engineers and the building official.
Where the work is recorded
Every status check, email and phone call the Permit Agent makes is logged on the project and the client record in the CRM your team already sees. When the client calls asking about the start date, whoever answers sees exactly where the permit stands and who is working on what.
In Procore, Buildertrend or your project management system, the agent keeps the permit log current: application date, review rounds, each comment with its owner and response, the issue date, the conditions and the expiration. The next morning, the PM opens one log and sees which permits are moving and which are waiting on someone.
Once the permit is issued, its conditions have to reach the crew, which is the job described in putting every permit condition in the field's hands. And because a permit date drives the start, it feeds keeping the published schedule true to the field.
What your people do instead
Your project manager spends that time with the client and the jobs already running: walking the site, working through selections, keeping the owner informed. Your office staff answer the phone and handle the client's questions instead of refreshing a portal. The superintendent gets the permit and its conditions when they arrive, not when someone remembers to forward them.
With the Permit Agent keeping the building department, the design team and the paperwork moving, the start date you gave the client is the date you start. That reliability is what clients remember and what brings the next referral.
One next step
Permit tracking may be the right first workflow to hand over, or daily logs, sub communication or bids may cost your team more time. The free Industry Assessment for construction companies shows which workflow an agent should take first. To see how AgentWorks agents support builders and contractors, visit the construction industry page.
See where the Permit Agent would start in your construction business.
I'm Jackie, the Construction ambassador here. The free Industry Assessment reads your website and asks how calls, follow-ups and records happen today, then shows the first workflow worth handing to an agent like this one — and what your team gets back. Leave your email and I'll send the link.
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