Permit admin rarely shows up on an invoice, but it takes real time on every file: working out which forms the city wants, typing the same address onto five PDFs, chasing a signature, sitting on hold for a status update. We broke that work into steps on a typical permit file, estimated how long each step takes by hand and in Permits2Go, and priced the difference at $50 an hour. Here is the result for all sixteen features, with every step and assumption shown.
What does each feature save on one application?
| Feature | Admin time saved | Worth at $50/h | By hand → in Permits2Go |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plain-English intake | about 45 min | ~$35 | 70 → 15 min |
| Every permit type, any city or AHJ | about 45 min | ~$35 | 65 → 10 min |
| Municipal business licences | about 1.5 hours | ~$75 | 115 → 25 min |
| Auto-filled government PDFs | about 75 min | ~$60 | 110 → 22 min |
| E-signatures, send to client | about 30 min | ~$25 | 39 → 4 min |
| Drawing submission check | about 30 min | ~$25 | 51 → 10 min |
| Batch rename to the city standard | about 30 min | ~$25 | 42 → 4 min |
| Preflight checklist | about 30 min | ~$25 | 39 → 2 min |
| Email submission with a compose step | about 30 min | ~$25 | 40 → 5 min |
| Portal automation (beta) | about 45 min | ~$35 | 62 → 15 min |
| A dedicated email address per application | about 45 min | ~$35 | 63 → 5 min |
| City comments with drafted responses | about 1 hour | ~$50 | 105 → 42 min |
| Site inspections with deficiency lists | about 45 min | ~$35 | 58 → 13 min |
| Pipeline tracking and the invoicing ladder | about 45 min | ~$35 | 68 → 10 min |
| AI phone calls to reviewers | about 1 hour | ~$50 | 80 → 16 min |
| One dashboard for every file | about 1 hour | ~$50 | 84 → 22 min |
Every figure is per application: an estimate for one typical file, rounded down. Don't add the rows up: several features remove the same typing or the same chasing, so each row is what that feature saves on its own.
How were the figures worked out?
Each figure is the time a feature's manual steps take on one typical permit file, minus the time the same work takes in Permits2Go.
- The typical file. One building permit application, filed by a professional or a repeat filer in a municipality they do not file in every week: 5 government PDFs, 12 drawing sheets, 2 forms signed by the owner or client, one comment letter of 12 comments, about 8 weeks from submission to permit, 10 emails from the city, 2 status calls to the reviewer and 4 inspections, one of them failed with a deficiency list.
- The steps. Each feature replaces a sequence of manual tasks: the "before" and "with" steps its feature guide describes. Each step gets an ordinary time, listed below.
- Rounding, always down. The saving is rounded down to the quarter hour and the dollars down to the $5, so no figure is larger than its steps add up to.
- Only admin time. The weeks a file loses to an intake bounce, a designer's redraw time, municipal fees and re-inspection fees are all left out. Where a feature prevents a delay, it is worth more than its row says.
- Estimates, not measurements. The figures come from a model of the work, not from timing customers' files. Your own times will differ: a bigger file, more revisions or an unfamiliar municipality mean more steps.
Why $50 an hour?
The median wage for an administrative assistant in Canada is $26.44 an hour (Job Bank), about $35 once payroll costs and overhead are added. A lot of permit admin is done by the contractor, architect or consultant themselves, whose time is worth more than that. $50 an hour sits between the two. To use your own rate, multiply the minutes saved by your hourly rate and divide by 60.
Feature by feature
For each feature: the saving, what the feature does, the work by hand with each step's minutes in brackets, the same work in Permits2Go, and what the figure leaves out.
Plain-English intake
About 45 admin minutes (~$35) per application. You describe the job in plain English and Permits2Go works out which forms and drawings your city or AHJ (authority having jurisdiction) requires.
- By hand, about 70 minutes: finding the city's permit page and the right permit category (15), reading its guide and checklist to see which forms and drawings apply (30), phoning the building department to confirm, the wait included (25).
- In Permits2Go, about 15 minutes: describing the project and reviewing the forms and drawings it recommends.
- Not counted: redoing an application filed with the wrong form set.
How plain-English intake works
Every permit type, any city or AHJ
About 45 admin minutes (~$35) per application. Building, planning, public works and right-of-way, trees, fire and licensing permits: the whole municipal inventory, searchable by a plain word.
- By hand, about 65 minutes: checking right-of-way, tree, sign and fire permits department by department (45), phoning to confirm the one that is unclear, the wait included (20).
- In Permits2Go, about 10 minutes: searching the whole inventory and reading the matches.
- Not counted: the schedule slip when a right-of-way, tree or sign permit surfaces late.
Every permit type in one search
Municipal business licences
About 1.5 admin hours (~$75) per application. You get the eligibility rules, documents, inspections and fees for your licence category where the city guide is loaded (Toronto and Hamilton are fully covered), then the filled and packaged application.
- By hand, about 115 minutes: finding the licence category and the by-law that governs it (20), reading the eligibility rules, documents, inspections and fees (40), phoning or emailing the licensing office to confirm (25), filling in and assembling the application (30).
- In Permits2Go, about 25 minutes: reading the category guide and reviewing the filled, packaged application.
- Not counted: a lease signed for a licence category whose requirements the business cannot meet.
Auto-filled government PDFs
About 75 admin minutes (~$60) per application. The government PDFs are filled from the project details and arrive editable and signable in the browser.
- By hand, about 110 minutes: downloading the current version of each of the 5 forms (15), typing the project facts onto every form (60), handwriting the 2 flat PDFs that have no fillable fields (10), proofreading values and addresses across the forms (15), printing, signing and scanning your own signatures (10).
- In Permits2Go, about 22 minutes: reviewing the pre-filled forms, adding what the app could not know, and signing in the browser.
- Not counted: correcting a value that differs between two forms after the examiner queries it.
How auto-filled permit forms work
E-signatures, send to client
About 30 admin minutes (~$25) per application. Forms go to the owner or client to sign in the browser, and the signed PDF comes back onto the application.
- By hand, about 39 minutes: preparing and emailing each of the 2 forms with signing instructions (10), chasing each signature with a reminder (10), checking each returned scan for every page and signature (6), renaming each scan and swapping it into the package (8), redoing a round for a missed page or a wrong version on one file in four (5).
- In Permits2Go, about 4 minutes: sending each form for signature; the signed copy files itself.
- Not counted: the days the package waits on a scanner.
Drawing submission check
About 30 admin minutes (~$25) per application. Drawings are checked against the city's submission requirements (north arrow, title block, scale, professional stamps) before you send. It is a submission check, not a code review.
- By hand, about 51 minutes: finding and reading the city's drawing submission requirements (15), checking each of the 12 sheets for north arrow, scale, title block and stamps (36).
- In Permits2Go, about 10 minutes: reviewing what the check flags on upload.
- Not counted: the week an intake bounce costs, and the designer's redraw time.
Batch rename to the city standard
About 30 admin minutes (~$25) per application. A whole drawing set is renamed to the city's naming convention in one pass, with a live preview.
- By hand, about 42 minutes: looking up the city's file-naming convention (10), renaming the 12 drawing files one at a time (18), renaming the 6 revised sheets again for the resubmission (9), checking every name against the convention (5).
- In Permits2Go, about 4 minutes: renaming the set in one pass, both times.
- Not counted: a package rejected for its file names.
Preflight checklist
About 30 admin minutes (~$25) per application. A send missing forms, drawings or signatures is blocked before it goes, with an override for the cases the checklist cannot know about. It blocks on missing items; it does not certify that a package is complete.
- By hand, about 39 minutes: checking the package against the requirements list for forms, drawings and signatures (20), reworking an incomplete package after it goes in, weighted by how often that happens (about 19: 21% of applications, at 90 minutes a time).
- In Permits2Go, about 2 minutes: reading what the checklist flags before the send.
- Not counted: the weeks an incomplete application loses at intake.
How the preflight checklist works
Email submission with a compose step
About 30 admin minutes (~$25) per application. The package is emailed to the building department after a compose step where you edit the recipient, subject and attachment names. Nothing goes to a city without a person confirming it.
- By hand, about 40 minutes: finding where this city takes applications, from its website or the counter (20), combining the PDFs, attaching them within the size limit and writing the cover email (15), logging what went, when and to whom (5).
- In Permits2Go, about 5 minutes: checking the compose step and confirming.
- Not counted: a package emailed to a general inquiries inbox and lost.
Portal automation (beta)
About 45 admin minutes (~$35) per application. For supported municipalities, a browser agent enters the application into the city portal while you watch a live view and stay in control. Portal automation is in beta.
- By hand, about 62 minutes: re-keying the application into the city portal, field by field (45), uploading each of the 17 documents to its slot (17).
- In Permits2Go, about 15 minutes: watching the agent fill and upload, stepping in where needed, and confirming.
- Not counted: portal sessions that time out mid-entry.
A dedicated email address per application
About 45 admin minutes (~$35) per application. Every application gets its own email address. Use it as the portal login and on correspondence, and city mail files itself against the right job; every email is also forwarded to you unchanged.
- By hand, about 63 minutes: finding, forwarding and filing each of the 10 city emails against the right job (30), getting the portal verification code from whoever holds the login, twice (10), retyping the 3 inspection notices into the job's log (15), rebuilding the correspondence when the login holder is away, on one file in four (7.5).
- In Permits2Go, about 5 minutes: skimming what filed itself on the application.
- Not counted: a file that goes quiet for a month because a comment letter went to someone on leave.
How the dedicated application inbox works
City comments with drafted responses
About 1 admin hour (~$50) per application. The city's comment letter splits into numbered comments by discipline with a response drafted for each, ready to export as a response matrix. Every response is a draft for you to approve.
- By hand, about 105 minutes: retyping the letter into a numbered response table by discipline (30), drafting a first response to each of the 12 comments (60), formatting and exporting the response matrix (15).
- In Permits2Go, about 42 minutes: checking the extracted comments, reviewing and completing each drafted response, and exporting.
- Not counted: a second comment cycle, which typically repeats the whole cost.
How review comment responses work
Site inspections with deficiency lists
About 45 admin minutes (~$35) per application. Every city visit is on the file with its type, date, result and inspector, and a failed inspection carries its deficiency list, ticked off as the site is fixed. Permits2Go records inspections; it does not book them with the city.
- By hand, about 58 minutes: logging each of the 4 inspections: booking, result and inspector (20), typing up the failed inspection's deficiency list and relaying it to the trades (15), confirming each deficiency is fixed before re-booking (15), sending the trades each inspection date (8).
- In Permits2Go, about 13 minutes: recording each visit on the file and ticking off the deficiency list, photos attached.
- Not counted: the re-inspection fee and the idle crew when a re-inspection is booked too early.
Pipeline tracking and the invoicing ladder
About 45 admin minutes (~$35) per application. Each file carries its status from pre-consultation to issued, days in review against the municipal deadline, the assigned reviewer's contact details, and the invoicing ladder next to the municipal fee and who paid it.
- By hand, about 68 minutes: working out days in review against the municipal deadline, 4 times (20), recording the 6 status changes and their dates (18), looking up the assigned reviewer's phone and extension, twice (10), reconciling the invoicing stage and fronted municipal fees at 4 milestones (20).
- In Permits2Go, about 10 minutes: setting each status and invoicing stage; the dates and days in review fill themselves.
- Not counted: a fronted municipal fee that never gets invoiced, which is money rather than admin time.
AI phone calls to reviewers
About 1 admin hour (~$50) per application. A voice agent phones the city reviewer for a status update from an agenda you edit, and the transcript lands on the application. It only calls a named contact and confirms who it reached.
- By hand, about 80 minutes: looking up the reviewer and pulling the file before each of the 2 calls (10), hold music and callbacks, about 20 minutes a call (40), the calls themselves (10), writing up the notes and updating the tracker (20).
- In Permits2Go, about 16 minutes: editing the agenda and approving the update the call proposes.
- Not counted: the time a file sits before anyone gets round to calling.
How automated reviewer calls work
One dashboard for every file
About 1 admin hour (~$50) per application. Every application sits on one dashboard with search, status filters and live counts of what is still outstanding, instead of a portal login per city and a spreadsheet nobody updates.
- By hand, about 84 minutes: logging into the city portal each week for 8 weeks to see where the file is (40), updating the tracking spreadsheet to match (24), answering "where is that permit?" from the client or the team, 4 times (20).
- In Permits2Go, about 22 minutes: reading the file's row on the dashboard each week, checking the portal when the city goes quiet, and confirming the status emails went.
- Not counted: a file found overdue weeks late; only one file is counted, not the portfolio.
Where do the benchmarks come from?
Published figures on permit admin time are scarce. These are the ones the estimates lean on:
- Incomplete applications. The Toronto Auditor General's 2024 audit of building permit intake and plan review found that 21% of the applications it reviewed were missing documentation that should have been identified at intake, and 55% were not processed within legislated or service-level time frames (the audit). The preflight checklist's figure uses the 21% as how often an incomplete package needs rework.
- Retyping. Studies of manual data entry find errors in 0.5% to 6.4% of fields (BMJ Open, 2013), which is why retyping the same facts onto several forms is followed by a proofread, counted as its own step.
- Compliance time. Canadian small businesses spent about 735 hours each on regulatory compliance in 2024 (CFIB).
These figures are estimates for a typical file, not measured results, and your own times will differ. This page is general information, not professional advice: permit requirements, by-laws and fees change and vary by municipality, so always confirm the current rules with your local building department.
Frequently asked questions
Are these savings measured or estimated?
Estimated. Each figure comes from a model of the work on one typical permit file: the manual steps a feature replaces, an ordinary time for each step by hand and in Permits2Go, and the difference priced at $50 an hour. They are not timed from customers' files. Every figure is rounded down, and the steps behind each one are listed on this page, so you can check them against your own experience.
Why price admin time at $50 an hour?
An administrative assistant in Canada earns a median of $26.44 an hour, about $35 once payroll costs and overhead are added. Much permit admin is done by the contractor, architect or consultant themselves, whose time is usually worth more. $50 an hour sits between the two. To use your own rate, multiply the minutes saved by your hourly rate and divide by 60.
Can I add the savings up for a whole file?
No. The features overlap: auto-filled forms, e-signatures and the preflight checklist all work on the same package, and the inbox, the tracking and the dashboard all cut the same chasing. Each figure is what one feature saves on its own, so adding them up would count some minutes twice.
Does a bigger project save more?
Usually. The figures assume a typical file: 5 government PDFs, 12 drawing sheets, one comment letter of 12 comments and 4 inspections. More forms, more sheets, more comment cycles or more inspections mean more steps by hand. Time a file loses waiting, such as the weeks an intake bounce costs, is not counted at all.
Do Permits2Go plans include the city's permit fees?
No. Municipal permit fees are paid to the city and are not included in any plan. Permits2Go plans are all-access and differ only by duration: a $4.99 Day Pass, or $9.99 a week, $14.99 a month or $249.99 a year, in Canadian dollars.
This guide is general information, not legal or professional advice. Permit requirements, by-laws and fees change and vary by municipality — always confirm the current rules with your local building department before you design or build.