Signal for permits
Permit Management Software
Most businesses hold more permits than anyone can name from memory. Signal turns the scattered pile into one register with a reminder schedule on every date.
Permits accumulate; the tracking never does
Permits arrive one at a time — a signage permit here, a fire department permit there, an operating permit when the new line opened — each obtained by whoever needed it, filed wherever they filed things. Five years later the business holds thirty permits and no single person can list them. The first complete inventory usually gets built during a crisis: an inspection, an acquisition due-diligence, or the day something expires and operations stop.
The renewal side is worse than the inventory side. Each authority runs its own cycle and notice habits; some send letters to old addresses, some send nothing. Managing this in a spreadsheet means the spreadsheet is the safety system — and spreadsheets don't send email. The businesses that never get burned all do the same thing: one register, one owner per permit, and automatic reminders with generous lead time.
Permit portfolios teams run in Signal
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Operating permits
The permits the business can't run without — health, fire, air handling, signage — each with its own authority, number, and renewal rhythm.
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Special use and event permits
Sidewalk use, temporary structures, event permits — short-lived, easy to forget, embarrassing to be caught without.
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Everything discovered in an audit
When due diligence or an inspection surfaces the full permit list, Signal is where it goes so the discovery never has to happen twice.
How Signal handles it
- One register, organized your way. Folders for departments or sites, companies for issuing authorities, categories and identifiers on every item — findable in seconds, filterable in one click.
- Reminder schedules per permit. A fire permit with a slow authority gets 90/60/30; a simple annual renewal gets 30/7. Each permit's schedule matches its real lead time.
- Multiple recipients. Every permit gets an owner and a backup. When either acknowledges the reminder, the whole team sees it's handled.
- Custom fields. The authority's contact, the fee, the account number — everything needed to renew lives on the item itself.
- CSV import and export. Import the register you have today in one upload; export the whole book to CSV any time an auditor or buyer asks for it.
Frequently asked questions
We honestly don't know all our permits. Where do we start?
Start with the ones that stop operations if they lapse — usually under ten. Add the rest as they surface. Signal's register grows incrementally; every permit added is one that can never ambush you again.
Different permits need wildly different lead times. Can Signal handle that?
Yes — reminder rules are per item. Stack any combination of offsets (90/60/30/7/1) and repeats on each permit to match its authority's real processing speed.
Can we prove our renewal process to an auditor?
Yes. The audit log records every reminder sent and every acknowledgement, and the item history shows each renewal — a documented, working control rather than a verbal assurance.