Forms & Permits

Online forms residents can complete from a phone, with clear confirmations for the resident and for the office that receives them.

The usual pattern is a PDF that has to be printed, filled in by hand, scanned and emailed, or brought to the counter during office hours. That is a barrier for the resident and a data entry job for staff, and neither side ends up with a record of what was submitted or when.

What the resident gets backA reference number, a plain statement of what happens next, and a copy by email. Most calls to town hall are people asking whether it arrived.

Illustration with invented content.

What a resident actually experiences

  1. 1Finds the formFrom search or the quick actions, on a phone, at nine at night.
  2. 2Fills it inOnly the fields that apply, with the photo or document attached.
  3. 3Gets a receiptA reference number on screen and a copy by email.
  4. 4Knows what nextWho has it, how long it takes, and how to check.

What residents get

The most common reason a paper form never comes back is that the resident does not own a printer. Forms complete on a phone, including the photo of the property or the copy of the survey that most applications actually need.

Most calls to town hall about an application are people asking whether it arrived. A reference number on screen and a copy by email answers that before the call happens.

A form that lands as an email attachment becomes one person's inbox problem. Submissions are records you can search, filter and export, which also makes a records request straightforward rather than an archaeology project.

Each form knows where it goes. The building department sees building applications and nobody has to forward anything, which removes the single most common place an application is lost.

What staff get

A form that lands as an email attachment becomes one person's inbox problem, and a records request becomes an archaeology project. Submissions are records you can filter, export and answer from.

The building department sees building applications. Nobody forwards anything, which removes the single most common place an application is lost.

Every submission keeps its timestamp, its contents and its trail. That is what lets staff answer "did you receive it" in seconds rather than by searching mail.

Nobody has to redesign a process to get online. The form residents fill in matches the one the office already knows how to handle, which keeps the change to one step instead of two.

Where a form still has to be paper

  • Some filings genuinely require a wet signature or a fee at the counter. Those keep a downloadable form, alongside clear instructions on where to bring it and when the office is open
  • Forms are built to be accessible: labelled fields, keyboard navigation and errors that say what to fix
  • Payments can be added where your town already has a processor, rather than requiring a new one

Included in every TownFront site

This is part of the core product, not an add-on module. Every TownFront website includes it, and it is built to the same standard as the rest of the site: fast on an ordinary phone connection, navigable by keyboard, readable by a screen reader, and maintainable by your own staff.

See how this would work for your community. Request a conversation and we will walk through your current site and what changes.

Other capabilities

What a form being online is actually worth

  • No printerThe most common reason a paper form never comes back
  • One recordSearchable and exportable, rather than a folder of attachments
  • Fewer callsMost are people asking whether their application arrived

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