Government agencies today are tasked with more responsibilities than ever—ensuring public safety, stimulating economic development, and maintaining trust in governance. Licensing is essential government function that touches every sector, from small businesses and skilled workers to short-term rental operators. However, many licensing departments still rely on outdated processes, siloed systems, and paper-based workflows that hinder productivity and frustrate constituents. Accela licensing solutions from 3SG Plus help agencies unlock efficiency and achieve compliance.
The Accela Civic Platform redefines what’s possible for public-sector licensing. It offers cloud-based, configurable, and scalable solutions that help governments digitize and optimize every step of the licensing process. Whether your agency handles business licenses, occupational credentials, or short-term rental permits, Accela equips you with tools to automate approvals, reduce delays, and improve service delivery.
Reimagine Business Licensing for Speed and Transparency
Starting a business should be exciting—not frustrating. However, too often entrepreneurs encounter slow, opaque, and error-prone licensing processes that discourage innovation. Agencies struggle with balancing thoroughness and speed especially when multiple departments are involved in application reviews. Accela’s Business Licensing module directly addresses these pain points. By automating review processes and offering a centralized online experience for both staff and applicants, it transforms how business licenses are managed.
Agencies can configure automated workflows that reflect their specific rules, routing applications instantly to departments like fire, zoning, and health. These departments can work in parallel—rather than sequentially—to review submissions, reducing turnaround times by days or even weeks. Inspection scheduling, reporting, and sign-offs can be managed through Accela Mobile, allowing inspectors to work from the field with full access to records and application data.
For business owners, Accela’s user-friendly citizen portal is available 24/7. Applicants can track the progress of their submission, upload supporting documents, and receive automatic notifications about approvals or required actions. This transparency speeds up the process and reduces call volumes and improves customer satisfaction.
Agencies also gain access to robust reporting and analytics tools. Leaders can monitor performance metrics like average processing time, common rejection reasons, and workload distribution. These insights enable continuous improvement and data-informed policy development.
Accelerate Occupational Licensing Through Automation
Professionals in healthcare, construction, education, and other fields must maintain up-to-date credentials to practice legally and safely. For government agencies overseeing occupational licensing, this responsibility often includes verifying credentials manually, chasing missing documentation, and fielding frequent status inquiries—all of which take up valuable time.
Accela simplifies and modernizes these processes. The Occupational Licensing module enables agencies to accept applications and renewals digitally. Workflow automation routes the applications/renewals through clear approval paths. Staff can instantly verify education levels, test results, certifications, and work history through seamless integration with third-party systems, reducing manual entry errors and speeding up validation.
License holders benefit from the always-available online portal where they can check their status, upload new documents, pay fees, or update personal information. Automatic reminders help professionals stay compliant by notifying them of upcoming renewal deadlines, incomplete applications, or missing credentials. This level of automation and integration improves both the efficiency and reliability of the process. Agencies can license more professionals with fewer staff hours, while professionals face fewer delays and fewer uncertainties.
Manage Short-Term Rentals with Compliance and Community in Mind
The explosion of short-term rental platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo has created both economic opportunities and regulatory challenges for cities and counties. While these rentals can increase tourism and income for property owners, they also raise concerns about safety, zoning compliance, noise, and neighborhood disruption.
Accela’s Short-Term Rental Registration module offers a comprehensive solution for municipalities to register, track, and manage these properties. Hosts can submit applications, upload safety documentation, and pay registration fees through an intuitive portal. Agencies can configure intelligent workflows to review and approve submissions quickly while maintaining compliance with local ordinances.
A key feature of the platform is its integration with resident engagement tools. Communities can report concerns—such as noise, illegal occupancy, or improper waste disposal—directly through a citizen interface. These complaints feed into the same platform used by licensing staff, ensuring faster response times and centralized tracking.
Accela also enables agencies to publish real-time maps and dashboards of registered short-term rentals, offering transparency to the public, media, and policymakers. This data can be used to inform policy changes, track compliance trends, and communicate with stakeholders effectively. Ultimately, Accela’s solution supports both economic growth and public safety—two goals often in tension when regulating short-term rentals.
Enhance Multi-Department Collaboration in the Licensing Process
A major barrier to fast, reliable licensing is the need for interdepartmental coordination. An application for a new restaurant may require approvals from fire, health, building, and zoning departments. Traditional systems often handle these reviews one at a time, leading to backlogs, lost paperwork, and communication breakdowns.
Accela enables real-time, simultaneous reviews by all involved departments. Its automated routing ensures that as soon as an application is submitted, all relevant parties receive it and can begin their assessments. Status updates, comments, and decisions are shared instantly, reducing the need for manual updates or meetings.
This capability transforms how departments work together, making it possible to process licenses more quickly while maintaining or even improving review quality. Applicants benefit too—they can log into their portal to see exactly where their application stands, the departments reviewing it, and next steps. Check out this video from Accela to learn more.
Document management also becomes significantly easier. Floor plans, lease agreements, safety checklists, and other supporting files are submitted once and made accessible to all reviewers. This centralization reduces redundancy, prevents data loss, and enhances compliance with records retention policies.
3SG Plus: Your Trusted Accela Partner
3SG Plus is a trusted Accela reseller, systems integrator, and managed services provider with over 20 years of experience helping public agencies embrace digital transformation.
Our team collaborates closely with clients to design Accela deployments that match their unique regulatory environment, business rules, and operational goals. We configure automated workflows, build integrations with other platforms (i.e., financial or education verification systems), and train agency staff to use the platform effectively.
What sets us apart is our commitment to long-term success. Our managed services include platform monitoring, version updates, user support, and performance optimization. We don’t just install software—we partner with your team to make sure it continues to deliver results year after year.
Whether your agency is launching a new licensing program or modernizing a legacy system, 3SG Plus has the knowledge, tools, and people to help you succeed. Our goal is to liberate you from inefficiencies so you can focus on what matters most: serving your community.
For more information about Accela Licensing Solutions from 3SG Plus, please download our brochure.
Let's Build the Future of Licensing Together
Government agencies are expected to do more with less. Staffing shortages, increased demand, and rising public expectations have pushed traditional licensing systems to the brink. Accela’s Civic Platform offers a proven, scalable, and flexible alternative that streamlines operations and improves service delivery.
By automating approvals, enabling real-time communication across departments, and offering user-friendly portals to applicants, Accela helps governments increase compliance, transparency, and constituent satisfaction.
When implemented and supported by 3SG Plus, the platform becomes more than just a tool—it becomes a foundation for smarter, more responsive governance. Our expertise ensures that every deployment is tailored, every integration is seamless, and every user is equipped for success.