Signal for permit tracking
Permit Tracking Software
When you're carrying forty active permits across a dozen projects, the question is always the same: what's expiring next, and who's on it? Signal answers it at a glance.
The permit spreadsheet is always slightly wrong
Teams that deal with permits in volume — expediters, developers, franchise operators, utility contractors — all converge on the same tool: a tracking spreadsheet with columns for jurisdiction, number, status, and expiry. And the same failure: the sheet is only as current as the last person who updated it, it can't tell anyone anything, and sorting by date is a manual ritual that happens less often than permits expire. The sheet records history; it doesn't prevent anything.
The cost of stale tracking is concrete: an expired permit discovered during an inspection, a renewal fee that doubled because it became a late re-application, a project meeting that opens with 'wait, when did that lapse?' Tracking permits is fundamentally a dates-and-owners problem, and it needs a system where the dates push back.
Who tracks permits with Signal
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Developers and expediters
Every application, approval, and expiry across active projects in one filterable list — sorted by what's due next, always current.
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Multi-site operators
Franchises and chains tracking the same permit types across dozens of locations, with location folders and per-site recipients.
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Utility and infrastructure crews
Street opening permits, right-of-way permits, lane closures — high-churn permits with short lives and hard expiry dates.
How Signal handles it
- A live, sortable register. The items list filters by category, folder, company, and expiry window — 'everything expiring in 30 days' is one click, not a spreadsheet session.
- Reminder schedules. Short-lived permits get 14/7/1-day reminders with daily repeats; long approvals get quarterly-scale offsets. The schedule fits the permit.
- Dashboard. Active count, expiring-soon count, overdue count, and the next ten deadlines — the Monday-meeting view without preparing anything.
- One-click acknowledgement. Owners acknowledge reminders from the email itself, so the tracker reflects reality: handled items marked, drifting items visible.
- CSV import and export. Migrate the existing tracker in with one import; pull a CSV out whenever a client or PM wants the full status list.
Frequently asked questions
How is this better than our tracking spreadsheet?
The spreadsheet is passive — it waits to be read. Signal actively emails owners before each date, records acknowledgements, and keeps the 'what's next' view sorted automatically. The register and the reminders are the same system, so they can't drift apart.
Can we track permit applications in progress, not just expiries?
Yes — an item's date can be any deadline that matters: a response-due date, a hearing date, or an expiry. Use categories to separate in-progress applications from issued permits.
Can clients or project stakeholders get reminders too?
Yes. Recipients are just contacts — add a client or external PM to the relevant permits and they receive the same schedule your team does.