Business Portal

Help entrepreneurs understand the costs and requirements of starting a business.

Painful permitting processes shouldn’t stand in the way of economic development in your city. Not with new jobs, increased tax revenue, and greater innovation all on the line. With OpenCounter, you can untangle your city’s municipal codes and make permitting easier for everyone to understand. Demystify permit discovery for business owners, improve collaboration and workflows across City Hall, and more — all with our Business Portal.

 

Portal features

Intelligent land use search

Intelligent land use search

Don’t let dense, jargon-filled language overwhelm applicants from square one. Our use code search allows applicants to enter simple terms — like “bookstore” or “nail salon” — and see a list of matching land use codes. And if the right option isn’t there, they can browse the entire list of use codes and make the correct selection for their project.

Intuitive zoning maps

The zoning maps reveal where the project is permitted, conditionally permitted, and prohibited in the jurisdiction. These clearances take into account conditional considerations, such as whether a restaurant will serve alcohol, or offer drive-through service.

Intuitive zoning maps

Automatic permit scoping

Automatic permit scoping

Nested questions quickly surface permit requirements. Applicants won’t be stuck answering irrelevant questions. Location data can also be leveraged for triggering permit requirements (i.e. zoning permits, business improvement and parking districts, environmental overlays, etc).

Real-time fee calculation

Fees are calculated in real-time as applicants enter project details. A unique feature in the marketplace, OpenCounter can run fee estimations across departments and data sets. By digitizing the fee schedule and normalizing internal data, this feature also powers admin reporting, which gives policymakers insight into the effects of existing regulations and processes.

Real-time fee calculation

Summary and next steps

Summary and next steps

On the summary page, required permits can be listed by department or the order in which the applicant should apply, with links to relevant application methods. These include downloadable PDFs, instructions for in-person applications, and online applications through OpenCounter and other systems of record including Accela ACA.

Insightful analytics

Powerful dashboards and utilization metrics offer insight into high-level permitting trends in your community. Respond to inquiries and measure the performance of the portals.

Insightful analytics

Business Portal Fact Sheet

Business Portal Fact Sheet

Learn more about our Business Portal solution.

View PDF

Government services accessible to everyone.

The Business Portal can be fully translated into any of the following 35+ languages:

🇸🇦Arabic

🇧🇬Bulgarian

🇨🇳Chinese (Simplified)

🇨🇳Chinese (Traditional)

🇨🇿Czech

🇩🇰Danish

🇳🇱Dutch

🇬🇧English (British)

🇫🇮Finnish

🇫🇷French

🇩🇪German

🇬🇷Greek

🇮🇱Hebrew

🇮🇳Hindi

🇭🇺Hungarian

🇮🇩Indonesian

🇮🇹Italian

🇯🇵Japanese

🇰🇷Korean

🇲🇱Malay

🇳🇴Norwegian

🇵🇱Polish

🇧🇷Portuguese (Brazil)

🇵🇹Portuguese (Europe)

🇷🇴Romanian

🇷🇺Russian

🇷🇸Serbian

🇸🇰Slovak

🇲🇽Spanish (Latin American)

🇪🇸Spanish (Spain)

🇸🇪Swedish

🇵🇭Tagalog

🇹🇭Thai

🇹🇷Turkish

🇺🇦Ukranian

🇻🇳Vietnamese

Platform Features

Cloud-hosted SaaS

Our service is hosted at U.S. data centers, ensuring Patriot Act and Freedom of Information Act compliance.

Secure

Served over SSL, encrypted-at-rest, and backed up to a ISO 27000/SOC 1 and SOC 2/SSAE 16/ISAE 3402 data facility.

Mobile-friendly

All OpenCounter products feature responsive design, making them friendly on all screen sizes and mobile devices.

Accessible

OpenCounter can be translated into over 40 languages to make the permitting process accessible for all.

Expert Setup

Our account team comes from the public sector, so we know the processes and vocabulary of the city's project team.

Questions? We’ve got answers

Nothing. Zilch. Not a single penny. We'll handle all of your zoning and municipal code updates for the duration of your OpenCounter subscription, completely free of charge.

Project time frames depend on the scale of implementation. We can deliver a single customized portal in fewer than two months, whereas a suite of portals will take between three and six months to deliver. (But remember, our white-glove service means we do all of the heavy lifting!)

Yes, we can. We have three levels of integrations available — light, medium, and deep — to ensure our products work seamlessly with any or all of your existing systems.

See OpenCounter in action

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