3Reviewing Permit Plans Manually

Manual Plan Review Process Flow

Building projects require a permit plan review to evaluate the projects before permits are issued.

Manual plan reviews are tracked as part of permitting workflow, but are performed without the use of integrated electronic document review software. Manual plan reviews are created for permits when the Plan Review Type is set to Manual for the associated permit type. For more information see Setting Up Permit Types.

Note: Electronic plan reviews are performed through integration with electronic document review software. For more information on electronic plan reviews, see Managing Electronic Plan Review Cycles.

The process flow for a manual plan review includes the following steps:

1. A registered public user submits a permit application with attached documents that require review by agency staff.

2. A permit technician accepts the permit application with a status that requires a plan review. For more information, see Using Workflow.

3. The plan coordinator adds a plan review cycle for the permit. See Managing Manual Plan Review Cycles.

4. The plan coordinator assigns reviewers to the plan review cycle. See Assigning Reviewers for Manual Plan Reviews.

5. The assigned plan reviewers complete their review. See Performing Manual Plan Reviews.

6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 for additional plan review cycles as necessary until the review is complete.

Managing Manual Plan Review Cycles

The plan coordinator manages the plan review cycle, which is a building plan review completed by multiple reviewers who work with plan reviews for different types of permits.

As a plan coordinator, you perform these review cycle tasks on the Plan Reviews page in the permit details component:

• Add plan review cycles.

• Cancel plan review cycles.

• View the different plan review cycles.

This example shows the Plan Reviews page for a manual review.

Manual Plan Review Cycle Workflow

The plan review workflow for the plan coordinator appears on the Task Management page. As a plan coordinator, you sort tasks by Workflow.

When the last reviewer provides a decision status for a plan review cycle, it is automatically closed. Upon closing, the overall review status changes to Complete.

The system also updates the plan review cycle details with the most severe decision status from the individual plan reviewers. The decision statuses are listed here, from most to least severe: Rejected, Revision Required, Approved with Comments, Approved, and Not Required. If plans have one or more rejections, or revisions are required, the plan coordinator may require the applicant to correct the plans and resubmit them for another review cycle.

If you configured a template for the delivered Plan Review Completed communication event, the completion or cancelation of the review cycle triggers the generation of a communication to the designated users. For example, the completion of a review cycle can send a notification to the plan coordinator. For more information on communication event templates, see Setting Up Communication Events.

Workflow is automatically moved forward to the next step when the current plan review cycle status is Complete and the plan review decision is Approved, Approved with Comments, or Not Required. The workflow process definition needs to identify the plan review task and the action to take when auto-advancing. For more information, see Using Custom Properties.

Once a plan review cycle or permit is closed or canceled, you can no longer edit comments.

Adding Manual Plan Review Cycles

Before assigning reviewers, you add plan review cycles for a permit on the Plan Reviews page.

1. Select Permits on the Agency Springboard.

2. On the Permits page, select a permit record with a status of Plan Review.

3. In the navigation panel, select Permit Information > Plan Reviews.

4. Click the Add Review Cycle button to add a new plan review cycle.

   This button is available only when:

   • You’re adding the first plan review cycle for a permit.

   • All other plan review cycles for the permit are complete or canceled.

5. For the initial plan review cycle, the default review cycle name is the Permit Type value, but you can enter a different cycle name on the Add Review Cycle page.

6. If you are resubmitting a plan review, select the check box on the Add Review Cycle page to copy the reviewers from the most recent review cycle.

7. Click the Add button.

The cycle must be canceled or complete before you can add another new plan review cycle. That is, you can have only one active plan review cycle at a time. The number of review cycles is shown in the Plan Reviews page header details, and you can switch between multiple cycles to view reviewer and decision details.

Canceling Manual Plan Review Cycles

You cancel a plan review cycle for a permit on the Plan Reviews page.

Canceling a cycle sets the review cycle status to Canceled. After canceling, the cycle and review details are read-only. All active tasks associated with the plan review are canceled when the plan review cycle is canceled.

Note: An active plan review cycle is canceled when the permit application that it is associated with is withdrawn.

1. Select Permits on the Agency Springboard.

2. On the Permits page, select a permit record with a status of Plan Review.

3. In the navigation panel, select Permit Information > Plan Reviews.

4. Click the Cancel Review Cycle button to cancel a plan review cycle that is active.

   This button is available only when the plan review cycle has a status of In Progress.

Viewing the Different Plan Review Cycles

You can switch between plan review cycles to view the Reviewers grid for each cycle.

1. Select Permits on the Agency Springboard.

2. On the Permits page, select a permit record with a status of Plan Review.

3. In the navigation panel, select Permit Information > Plan Reviews.

4. Click the Switch Cycle link in the plan review header details.

   This link is available only when there are two or more plan review cycles.

5. On the Switch Cycle page, click the Select button for the cycle you would like to view.

   The refreshed page shows the cycle header details and reviewers for the selected cycle.

Assigning Reviewers for Manual Plan Reviews

The agency’s plan coordinator assigns or removes plan reviewers from different departments on the Plan Review page in the permit details.

Adding Manual Plan Reviewers

After creating a plan review cycle, you add plan reviewers on the Plan Review page.

1. Select Permits on the Agency Springboard.

2. On the Permits page, select a permit record with a status of Plan Review.

3. In the navigation panel, select Permit Information > Plan Reviews.

4. Click the Reviewers field, and select from the available reviewers, which are listed by plan reviewer department. For more information on plan reviewer departments, see Setting Up Plan Reviewer Departments.

   Note: Reviewers are available in the list only when they have a permit type job attribute that matches the permit type of the permit. For more information on assigning job attributes, see Managing Agency Staff Profiles.

5. Click the Add Reviewer button.

   This button is available only when the review cycle is active.

   When the Reviewers grid refreshes, you’ll see the reviewer with an In Progress status.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 to add more reviewers.

Note: If you’re resubmitting a plan for review, you can elect to copy the original set of reviewers when you add a new plan review cycle. See Managing Manual Plan Review Cycles.

Removing Manual Plan Reviewers

As a plan coordinator, you can remove or delete plan reviewers from a plan review cycle on the Plan Review page.

1. Select Permits on the Agency Springboard.

2. On the Permits page, select a permit record with a status of Plan Review.

3. In the navigation panel, select Permit Information > Plan Review.

4. In the Reviewers grid, click the Delete button for a reviewer.

   You can remove reviewers when:

   • The plan review cycle is active.

   • The reviewer’s status is In Progress.

   • You entered an override decision for a reviewer, but the reviewer did not enter comments or a decision before the override.

   You cannot delete a reviewer if the reviewer has added comments or entered a decision.

Note: Removing the last plan reviewer who hasn’t yet submitted a decision permanently closes the plan review cycle. If desired, you can add a new reviewer before removing the last reviewer, or close the cycle and open a new one.

Performing Manual Plan Reviews

Plan reviewers perform reviews of building plan documents prior to permit issuance.

As a plan reviewer, you view a list of plans assigned to you on the Task Management page and provide your plan review decision on the Plan Reviewer Decision Details page.

This example shows the Plan Reviewer Decision Details page.

An agency’s plan coordinator can also use this page to override a plan reviewer’s decision.

The plan review functionality derives the overall plan review status from the individual plan reviewer decisions, inclusive of plan coordinator overrides, and updates the overall plan review with the most severe decision status.

Viewing Plan Reviews Assigned to You

As a plan reviewer, you can find the plan reviews assigned to you on the Task Management page.

1. Select My Plan Reviews on the Agency Springboard.

2. The Task Management page opens with a predefined filter to select tasks with the Plan Review type.

   You can also use the filter button to filter by additional parameters, including task name, permit ID, permit type, status, last updated date, or assigned by.

3. Plan review assignments appear in the task grid. Click the View More Details button for a permit record to open the Plan Reviews page.

Note: Both manual and electronic plan reviews that are assigned to you appear on this page. For more information on electronic plan reviews, see Performing Electronic Plan Reviews.

The plan review workflow tasks for plan coordinators also appear on the Task Management page. Plan coordinators sort tasks by Workflow.

Adding a Manual Plan Review Decision

As a plan reviewer, you can add your plan review decision on the Plan Reviewer Decision Details page in the permit details pages. You can modify your decision until the plan review cycle is closed or canceled, but you cannot modify your decision if the plan coordinator overrides your decision.

The system derives the overall plan review status from the individual plan reviewer decisions, and updates the overall plan review with the most severe decision status. The system-defined decision statuses are listed here from most to least severe: Rejected, Revision Required, Approved with Comments, Approved, and Not Required. If plans have one or more rejections, or revisions are required, the plan coordinator may require the applicant to correct the plans and resubmit them for another review cycle.

1. Select Permits on the Agency Springboard.

2. On the Permits page, select a permit record with a status of Plan Review.

3. In the navigation panel, select Permit Information > Plan Reviews.

4. In the Reviewers grid, click the View More Details button for your row.

5. On the Plan Reviewer Decision Details page, select a value from the Decision list.

   You can select from these system-defined decision statuses:

   • Approved

   • Approved with Comments

   • Revision Required

   • Rejected

   • Not Required

   The decision status names in the Decision list may not match the system status names, because displayed statuses can be modified by the agency. For example, if the agency changes the displayed status of Rejected, you might see Declined or Failed. However, the severity of the decision remains the same. Any displayed status associated with the system status Rejected, for example, is always calculated as the most severe status.

6. Click Add Comments to enter comments for your review.

   You can’t edit comments once the plan review cycle or permit is closed or canceled.

7. Click the Save button.

   The system updates the Decision Date field with a timestamp.

Note: An agency’s plan coordinator can override a plan reviewer’s existing decision but can't change decisions. When a plan coordinator overrides a decision, the decision status and timestamp appears in the Reviewers grid in the reviewer’s row.

Overriding Plan Reviewer Decisions

In some cases, the agency’s plan coordinator overrides a plan reviewer’s existing decision.

As a plan coordinator, you can override the individual plan reviewer’s decision on the Plan Reviewer Decision Details page.

1. Select Permits on the Agency Springboard.

2. On the Permits page, select a permit record with a status of Plan Review.

3. In the navigation panel, select Permit Information > Plan Reviews.

4. In the Reviewers grid, click the View More Details button for the selected plan reviewer.

5. On the Plan Reviewer Decision Details page, select a value from the Override Decision list.

   You can select from these decisions:

   • Approved

   • Approved with Comments

   • Revision Required

   • Rejected

   • Not Required

6. Click the Save button.

   The system updates the plan reviewer’s Decision Date timestamp and enters Yes in the Override field.

Note: If the plan coordinator overrides the last review in the plan review cycle, the override action changes the status of the plan review cycle to complete.