Watchlist Overview

Your Watchlist is the central hub for actively tracking permits with notifications enabled. Every permit on your watchlist consumes one "active permit slot" and is monitored for changes.

What is the Watchlist?

The Watchlist is your curated list of permits you want to monitor closely. When a permit on your watchlist changes status, gets an inspection scheduled, or has fees updated, you receive notifications based on your preferences.

Key benefits:

• Automatic monitoring - No need to manually check jurisdiction websites
• Real-time notifications - Email and SMS alerts when permits change
• Centralized view - All your tracked permits in one table
• Activity tracking - See notes, tasks, and change history per permit

Active Permit Slots

Each permit you add to your watchlist uses one "active permit slot." Your plan determines how many slots you have available.

Slot management:

• Check your limit - View available slots in dashboard quick stats or Settings → Billing
• Free up slots - Remove or archive completed permits to free slots for new permits
• Upgrade for more slots - Need more capacity? Upgrade your plan in Settings → Billing

What counts as "active"?

• Permits currently on your watchlist with notifications enabled
• Slots are freed immediately when you remove a permit from the watchlist

Table Columns Explained

The Watchlist table displays your permits with these columns:

Permit Number

The unique permit identifier from the jurisdiction. Click any permit row to view full details.

Clickable navigation: Clicking anywhere on a permit row (except action buttons) navigates to the permit detail page. This uses instant navigation for sub-200ms response times.

Address

The full property address where the permit work is located. Addresses are formatted for readability with street, city, state, and ZIP code.

Status

The current permit status with color-coded badges:

• Orange (Needs attention) - Client action required

  • Awaiting Client Reply
  • Fee Payment Required
  • Corrections Needed
  • On Hold

• Blue (Government processing) - In review or progress

  • Pending Review
  • Plans Submitted
  • In Review
  • Inspection Scheduled

• Muted (Completed) - Final states

  • Approved
  • Issued
  • Closed
  • Withdrawn
  • Expired

Status badges use keyword matching, so unknown statuses are automatically categorized based on their text.

Workflow

Shows the current blocking status from the processing pipeline. This indicates what's currently holding up the permit from advancing.

Common workflow statuses:

• "Awaiting plan review"
• "Pending inspection"
• "Awaiting corrections"
• "Ready for issuance"

This column helps you understand why a permit is in its current status.

Priority

A prediction of permit activity that helps you focus on permits likely to change soon.

Priority levels:

• Overdue Hot (red) - Very likely to change imminently, highest priority
• Approaching (yellow) - Expected to change soon
• Expect Update (blue) - Change anticipated in near future
• Overdue Warm (orange) - Moderate priority, change less certain
• Overdue Cold (gray) - Lower priority, delayed but possible change
• Checked (green) - Recently verified, no expected change
• Stale (muted) - Low activity, unlikely to change soon
• Dead (muted) - Inactive, very unlikely to change

Priority helps you triage which permits to check first each day.

Activity

Shows note and task counts with icons:

• Note icon + number - Number of notes attached to this permit
• Task icon + number - Number of open tasks for this permit

Click the permit to view notes and tasks in the detail page.

Dates

Key dates for the permit:

• Applied - When the permit application was submitted
• Issued - When the permit was issued (if applicable)
• Expires - When the permit expires (if applicable)
• Last Updated - Most recent change in the jurisdiction system

All dates display in your local timezone (configured in profile settings). Timestamps are stored in UTC but converted for display.

Completed Permits Handling

Completed permits (approved, issued, closed, withdrawn, expired) are visually dimmed to 60% opacity but remain on your watchlist.

Why keep completed permits?

• Historical reference for project timelines
• Access to full change history and notes
• Useful for reporting and analysis

Completed permits behavior:

• Dimmed appearance - Reduced opacity to visually de-emphasize
• Actions remain visible - You can still view details, add notes, or archive
• Still use slots - Completed permits count toward your active slot limit until archived

Best practice: Archive completed permits weekly to free up slots for new active permits.

Sorting Behavior

The Watchlist table has intelligent sorting:

Default sort:

• Active permits (not completed) appear first
• Sorted by most recent status change within active permits
• Completed permits appear below all active permits
• Completed permits sorted by completion date

Custom sorting: You can sort by any column by clicking the column header. Active permits always appear above completed permits regardless of sort order.

Available sort options:

• Permit number (alphabetical)
• Address (alphabetical)
• Status (by category: needs attention, processing, completed)
• Priority (by urgency level)
• Applied date (chronological)
• Last updated date (most recent first)

Filtering and Search

Search

Use the search box to filter permits by:

• Permit number (exact or partial match)
• Address (street name, city)
• Company name (from permit parties)
• Contractor name (from permit parties)

Search is debounced to 300ms for performance. As you type, the table updates to show only matching results.

Status Filter

Filter permits by status category:

• All permits (default)
• Needs attention only (orange badges)
• Government processing only (blue badges)
• Completed only (muted badges)

Priority Filter

Filter by priority level to focus on urgent permits:

• High priority (Overdue Hot, Approaching)
• Medium priority (Expect Update, Overdue Warm)
• Low priority (Overdue Cold, Checked, Stale, Dead)

Date Range Filter

Filter permits by date ranges:

• Added to watchlist (when you started tracking)
• Last updated (most recent change)
• Applied date
• Issued date

Bulk Operations

Select multiple permits using checkboxes to perform bulk actions:

Selecting Permits

• Select all - Checkbox in table header selects all visible permits (respects current filters)
• Select individual - Checkbox in each row
• Select range - Shift+click to select a range of permits

Bulk Actions Available

• Archive - Move selected permits off watchlist (frees slots)
• Export - Download selected permits as CSV or JSON
• Add tag - Apply tags for organization (if implemented)

Performance note: Bulk operations support up to 500 permits at once. For larger operations, break into multiple batches.

Quick Actions

Each permit row has quick actions (visible on hover or in actions column):

• View details - Navigate to full permit detail page
• Add note - Quickly add a note without opening detail page
• Archive - Remove from watchlist and free up a slot
• Copy permit number - Copy to clipboard for reference

Interactive Column

The "Select" column (checkboxes) and "Actions" column (dropdown menus) are interactive elements with higher z-index. Clicking these columns triggers their specific actions rather than navigating to the permit detail page.

To navigate to permit details:

• Click anywhere else in the row (permit number, address, status columns)
• This uses a CSS link overlay for instant navigation

Next Steps

Now that you understand the Watchlist:

• Learn how to add permits - Five search methods to populate your watchlist
• Managing permits - Archive, filter, export, and organize
• Permit details - Explore the full permit detail page
• Configure notifications - Customize which changes trigger alerts

Need help? Check common issues or contact support.