Plotwise Permit Lifecycle & Data Consistency — How It Works and How to Keep Data Fresh

Keeping your permit data current is essential for timely decisions. This guide explains how a permit moves through Plotwise, what drives updates behind the scenes, and exactly what to do when something looks out of sync.

Why This Matters

Plotwise continuously brings in permit activity from local government portals and organizes it for your team. Sometimes a permit appears in a jurisdiction portal before it’s visible or fully updated in your dashboard. The fastest fix is simple: add the permit to your organization. This prioritizes the permit for immediate refresh and ensures your views reflect the latest information.

Placeholder — Screenshot: Global Search or Permit Detail view with “Add to Organization” action

How Permits Flow Into Plotwise

1. Detection and snapshot

• New and recently updated permits are regularly discovered from jurisdiction portals.
• When Plotwise first sees a permit, it creates a baseline snapshot and records its initial status. This allows the system to compare later changes to a fixed reference, so only meaningful differences appear in your timeline.

2. Add to your organization

• When you add a permit to your organization, Plotwise begins actively tracking it on your behalf.
• Active tracking ensures status updates, processing steps, inspections, fees, and related information are refreshed for your team.

3. Ongoing, reliable updates

• Plotwise updates tracked permits on a regular cadence and records changes in a structured timeline.
• Because changes are tracked idempotently, re-running a refresh will not create duplicates—it only fills in what’s missing.

Placeholder — Screenshot: Permit Detail page with Status Timeline and sections for Processing, Inspections, and Fees

What “Active Tracking” Includes

Once a permit is added to your organization, you will see:

• Status timeline: Current status and a record of status changes over time.
• Processing steps: Department-level milestones and workflow updates.
• Supporting data: Inspections, fees, documents, and other details where available.

Tip: You can compare the latest status you see in Plotwise with what’s shown on the jurisdiction portal. If the portal is ahead, add or re-activate the permit in your org to trigger a fresh update.

Completing the Lifecycle

When a permit reaches a final state (for example, Issued, Completed, or Closed), that status appears in your dashboard after the next update. At that point, many teams deactivate tracking for that permit in Plotwise to stop further monitoring while keeping the full history for reference.

Placeholder — Screenshot: Permit Detail with a final status and “Deactivate tracking” action

Common Scenarios and How to Fix Them

Quick Checklist

• Want a permit to show up now? Add it to your organization and wait for the next refresh cycle.
• Seeing a discrepancy? Check the Status Timeline. If the latest status is missing, add or re-activate the permit to force an update.
• Done tracking a permit? Deactivate it in your organization. History stays available for reference.

Where to Take Action in the UI

• From Global Search: Open the permit and use “Add to Organization”.
• From Permit Details: Use the “Add to Organization” or “Deactivate tracking” actions depending on the lifecycle stage.
• From Your Organization’s Permits: Filter by Active/Inactive, re-activate a permit to refresh, or remove it if you’re finished tracking.

Placeholder — Screenshot: Organization → Permits list with Active/Inactive filters

Key Takeaways

• Adding a permit to your organization prioritizes it for immediate refresh.
• Plotwise tracks changes in a way that prevents duplicates and preserves history.
• Deactivate permits confidently once they’ve reached a final state—your audit trail remains intact.

If you need help locating a permit or interpreting a status timeline, reach out to us from the Help menu in the app. We’re happy to assist.