Contractor License Overview

Permit and planning applications can include information about the contractors who perform the work. Agency contractor records help you manage contractors used in the system to ensure licenses are active and in good standing.

Contractor License Information

Contractor information is stored and maintained in the agency's contractor records, where agency staff manually adds or loads licenses from an external source. Additionally, when agencies don't limit license selection to their list of contractor records and also integrate with an external licensing body, applicants can supply contractor information in permit and planning applications. If an application includes a license number that doesn’t yet exist in your main records, submitting the application creates a new contractor record.

If you implement contractor integration, you can validate license information against your state or other external licensing body using the integration capabilities of Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC).

Regardless of whether you integrate with an external licensing body, your contractor records include the same type of information. However, integration affects how you view and manage certain information. The following table describes how you manage information using only contractor records maintained by the agency or using an integration to validate and add licenses to your contractor records.

Information Type	Contractor List Only	Contractor List and External Source
All	Note: The agency limits the contractor selection to the agency-maintained contractor list. The agency allows applicants to select contractor licenses from the agency-maintained contractor records list only. In this case, applicants can search for and select licenses from the contractor records only and not from the external licensing body. Agency staff with appropriate permissions manually enter or update license information in the contractor list. Contractor records can also be loaded from an external source, but license selection in the application is still limited to licenses in the list. Applicants who are contractors or their authorized agents can search for and select their license to retrieve information from the contractor list, but can't manually enter their license information. Applicants who are not contractors or authorized agents, such as homeowners, can optionally search for and select licenses to retrieve information from the contractor records about the license and contractor. The same is true for agency staff who are applying on behalf of this type of applicant. You can search for a contractor by license number, business name, or owner name to retrieve license information.	Note: The agency doesn't limit the contractor selection to the agency's contractor list. The agency allows applicants to select contractor licenses from the contractor records list or an integrated external source. The validation process checks your contractor records first, and if you don’t yet have a record of the license, the process retrieves information from the licensing body. Agency staff and applicants perform a real-time license number validation that retrieves license details from the licensing body. For most users, the license detail fields are read-only, and re-validation is the only way to update the information. However, system administrators are able to modify contractor information. Applicants who enter a license number in an application can use the same validation process. Applicants who self-identify as contractors or the contractor's authorized agents must select at least one license number. Other applicants can search for and select a license to retrieve license details, but they can also leave the contractor license blank. They can’t manually enter data. You can search for a contractor by license number, business name, or owner name to retrieve license information.
License status	Agency staff uses the Status field to indicate if a license is active, suspended, expired, and so forth. Note: The license status is independent of contractor approval. For example, a license can have an active status but is disabled for use because it isn't approved. Licenses must be enabled to be entered in an application. Applicants can see the internal status if they bring details from your contractor records into an application. They can’t modify the status.	The license validation process retrieves a source status from the external licensing body. This status is read-only for all users, and can only be updated by re-validating the license number. Your status mapping settings assign a default agency status based on the source status. Agency staff can update the internal status. Your status mapping settings also specify if specific source statuses will prevent applicants from submitting applications. If the application is declined due to the source status, the applicant sees a message explaining that the application can’t be submitted. Note that the expiration date is checked regardless of status validation. If the license is expired, the application is declined regardless of the status.
License type	When integration is not enabled, the agency must create a license type for contractor licenses. Set up the license type in the contractor license options. Applicants must select this value as the license type when they enter contractor license information in an application. Oracle recommends creating a single license type for contractors, and using license classifications to track the specific types of work that a contractor is licensed to perform.	License types are not enabled in the contractor options, and applications do not include a license type field. Use license classifications to track the specific types of work that a contractor is licensed to perform.

Information Type

Contractor List Only

Contractor List and External Source

All

Note: The agency limits the contractor selection to the agency-maintained contractor list.

The agency allows applicants to select contractor licenses from the agency-maintained contractor records list only. In this case, applicants can search for and select licenses from the contractor records only and not from the external licensing body.

Agency staff with appropriate permissions manually enter or update license information in the contractor list. Contractor records can also be loaded from an external source, but license selection in the application is still limited to licenses in the list.

Applicants who are contractors or their authorized agents can search for and select their license to retrieve information from the contractor list, but can't manually enter their license information.

Applicants who are not contractors or authorized agents, such as homeowners, can optionally search for and select licenses to retrieve information from the contractor records about the license and contractor. The same is true for agency staff who are applying on behalf of this type of applicant.

You can search for a contractor by license number, business name, or owner name to retrieve license information.

Note: The agency doesn't limit the contractor selection to the agency's contractor list.

The agency allows applicants to select contractor licenses from the contractor records list or an integrated external source. The validation process checks your contractor records first, and if you don’t yet have a record of the license, the process retrieves information from the licensing body.

Agency staff and applicants perform a real-time license number validation that retrieves license details from the licensing body. For most users, the license detail fields are read-only, and re-validation is the only way to update the information. However, system administrators are able to modify contractor information.

Applicants who enter a license number in an application can use the same validation process.

Applicants who self-identify as contractors or the contractor's authorized agents must select at least one license number.

Other applicants can search for and select a license to retrieve license details, but they can also leave the contractor license blank. They can’t manually enter data.

You can search for a contractor by license number, business name, or owner name to retrieve license information.

License status

Agency staff uses the Status field to indicate if a license is active, suspended, expired, and so forth.

Note: The license status is independent of contractor approval. For example, a license can have an active status but is disabled for use because it isn't approved. Licenses must be enabled to be entered in an application.

Applicants can see the internal status if they bring details from your contractor records into an application. They can’t modify the status.

The license validation process retrieves a source status from the external licensing body. This status is read-only for all users, and can only be updated by re-validating the license number.

Your status mapping settings assign a default agency status based on the source status. Agency staff can update the internal status.

Your status mapping settings also specify if specific source statuses will prevent applicants from submitting applications. If the application is declined due to the source status, the applicant sees a message explaining that the application can’t be submitted. Note that the expiration date is checked regardless of status validation. If the license is expired, the application is declined regardless of the status.

License type

When integration is not enabled, the agency must create a license type for contractor licenses. Set up the license type in the contractor license options.

Applicants must select this value as the license type when they enter contractor license information in an application.

Oracle recommends creating a single license type for contractors, and using license classifications to track the specific types of work that a contractor is licensed to perform.

License types are not enabled in the contractor options, and applications do not include a license type field.

Use license classifications to track the specific types of work that a contractor is licensed to perform.