Adding Licenses to an Application Form
Whether you're a homeowner, contractor, a contractor's authorized agent, or agency staff, you select a contractor license associated with the project while applying for a permit or on a planning application. You also identify a contact person for the license.
Your agency may limit your license selection in the application to their own list of contractors, regardless of an integration with an external source. In this case, the contractor list is the source of truth. Only agency-approved contractors can be entered in the application. You can search for a contractor by license number, business name, or owner name to retrieve license information.
When your agency doesn't limit your license selection to their list of contractors, and the system integrates with an external licensing body, the process still initially checks the data in the main contractor records. You must have the exact license number to retrieve license information from the external source.
If configured by your agency, the system sends an email notification to contacts on the intake form upon application submission as well as to new contacts when they are added to the application after submission.
When public users review details for submitted applications, they can see the contractor information. As with all other information in a submitted application, the contractor information is read-only for public users.
Applying as a Contractor or Authorized Agent
Contractors or authorized agents can submit an application for a permit or planning application. A contractor’s authorized agent, such as an employee or contractor associated with the contracting business, can submit applications on behalf of a contractor. The applicant can self-identify as a contractor or authorized agent in the Contractor field group in an application form. When entering the contractor information, you select Contractor or Authorized Agent as the applicant role. If you don't self-identify as a contractor or authorized agent, this option doesn't appear, and the applicant role is Applicant.
Information about self-identified agents is saved to the associated contractor license details. Newly identified agents are saved with a status that shows that verification is pending. Agency staff can review the information, update the verification status, and indicate whether the authorized agent is a contractor operating under the contractor license.
If an applicant self-identifies as a contractor or authorized agent, then the applicant must select a contractor license. If integration is active and license selection isn't limited to the contractor list, the applicant can find the contractor using the exact license number.
The contractor information fields are populated by the process of validating a license number and only a system administrator can manually update them. The system creates a new contractor record in the agency's contractor list if there isn’t already a record for the specified license number, and the applicant’s contact information is automatically added to the Contacts page in the contractor license details.
Agency staff updating contractor information in the submitted application details can also identify the applicant as a contractor or authorized agent for the selected license.
Submitting an Application with License Alerts
If your agency has applied one or more conditions to the contractor license, you'll see an icon for the most severe condition when you add a contractor license. You can select the license but depending on the condition rules, you may not be able to submit the application until the condition is resolved. Click the Condition Applied icon to see a list of the conditions, including the condition name, severity, description, and the date when the condition was applied.
Agencies also sometimes add extra validations when you add contractors to make sure that contractor licenses meet permit requirements. The license requirements for a permit can include a specific license type, classifications, and insurance attributes. Validations can also check the license expiration date. Depending on the validation setup, you may not be able to submit the application if requirements aren’t met.
When you select a contractor to add to an application with license validations, the system displays an alert listing the contractor’s missing requirements.Once you’ve added one or more contractors to the application, you’ll see an alert that lists the combined validations for the permit. The addition of another contractor can satisfy the permit-level validation requirements. For example, if a permit requires at least one contractor to be a General Contractor, the requirement is satisfied when a General Contractor is added, regardless of the classifications of other licenses.
The Contractor page in the permit details displays the same missing attributes for contractors added during application intake and after submittal.
Adding License Contacts
When applicants add the contractor license to the intake form from the agency's contractor records, they select a contact person from the list of verified contractors associated with the license. They can't select an authorized agent as a contact person. When the applicant selects Done for the license information in the intake form, the selected contact person also appears in the Contacts section of the form. If there are multiple contractors associated with the license, applicants can select only one contact person.
Depending on the contact type the applicant assigns, the contact will have access to this permit or planning application. When the application is submitted, the applicant who self-identifies as a contractor or authorized agent is added to the list of contacts for the license in the agency's contractor records. The contractor will be available to select as a contact on application forms after the contractor details are verified on the contractor license details page.
Agency staff can also manually add contractors and authorized agents to the contractor license details on the Contacts page. Only system administrators can remove contacts from a contractor record.