PermitIQ: a plan check that catches permit corrections before the county does
Florida drafting firms lose weeks and unbilled hours every time a county sends a permit set back. We built PermitIQ, a pre-submittal permit plan review, to check each plan set against the selected county's code before it's filed, and return only what's missing, with the code section that requires it.
- $10,500 a year projected staff time recovered (savings model)
- Every flag cites its code section
- The firm's reviewer confirms every flag
The problem
In Florida, a permit set that misses one dimension or one code note doesn't get fixed by the county. It gets sent back. State law gives the applicant 10 business days to answer a corrections notice or the permit is denied, and each correction round can add up to four weeks while the project waits. For a small drafting firm, the rework usually lands without a new invoice, and the owner is the last line of quality control.
The workflow we replaced
Before
- The drafter finishes the set and checks it from memory
- The set is filed with the county
- The county's reviewer finds what's missing and sends a corrections notice
- The firm has 10 business days to redraft, cloud each fix, and write a response letter
- Another review round, and sometimes new comments
After
- The drafter selects the county and runs the check before filing
- The set is compared against the Florida Building Code and that county's amendments and land development rules
- A checklist comes back with only what's missing, each item tied to its code section
- The firm's reviewer confirms or dismisses every flag
- The set goes to the county with the gaps already closed
The solution
A pre-submittal plan check that sits on the drafter's side of the counter, built county by county. A firm activates the counties it files in, and each county has its own code library: the Florida Building Code plus that county's local amendments and land development code, kept current by our team. The first deployment covers residential pool plans in Collier County, including the barrier and gate details the code requires on the drawings.
What it does
- County by county. Each county the firm activates gets its own code library, kept current as the state and the county revise their codes.
- Only what's missing. The checklist lists the details that are absent or undimensioned, and nothing else.
- Every flag cites its code. For example: gate latch height not dimensioned; verify 48 in. per Florida Building Code 3109.3.
- The professional decides. It's a first-pass review, not a code certification. The firm's reviewer confirms or dismisses each flag before anything is filed.
- Learns how the firm works. Every confirm or dismiss decision tunes the next check.
The savings model
For a firm filing 120 permit sets a year, our savings model projects about $10,500 a year in recovered staff time, and about $88,000 a year in carrying costs its new-home clients avoid. These are projections from the assumptions below, not measured results. Every deployment starts by measuring the firm's own baseline, so the projection can be replaced with real numbers.
Assumptions
- Sets rejected on first review today
- 33% (a published production-builder benchmark)
- Share of those rejections PermitIQ prevents
- 50%
- Rework per correction cycle (redraft, cloud, response letter, resubmit)
- 4 hours
- Code research saved per set
- 30 minutes
- Loaded staff cost
- $75 per hour
- Client carrying cost per avoided cycle (new homes)
- About $4,400
| Permit sets a year | Correction cycles avoided | Staff time recovered | Client carrying cost avoided (new homes) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60 | 10 | $5,250 | $44,000 |
| 120 | 20 | $10,500 | $88,000 |
| 240 | 40 | $21,000 | $176,000 |
Staff time recovered counts rework on rejected sets plus code research on every set. For pool and remodel work, clients feel the delay mostly as schedule slip rather than loan interest, so their figure is smaller. Neither column counts the 10-day denial risk, client retention, or the owner's own review time.
The impact
- Caught before the county sees it. Missing details are flagged before filing, while they can still be fixed without a corrections notice.
- Results counted, not assumed. The firm's first-pass approval rate is recorded before the first check, then tracked with correction cycles per month and hours per resubmittal.
Services used: AI consulting and implementation, Software development and implementation.
Questions about this project
Does PermitIQ replace our plans examiner or engineer?
No. It's a first-pass review, not a code certification. Your professional confirms or dismisses every flag before anything is filed.
Which counties does it cover?
It started with residential pool plans in Collier County. We add counties one at a time, each with its own code library built from the Florida Building Code plus that county's amendments and land development code.
How do you keep the code current?
Florida revises its building code on a regular cycle and counties amend it locally. Our team maintains each active county's code library as part of the service, so a check never runs against last cycle's rules.
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