We've written a previous article with instructions on how to build out simple fees within Civic Review; so check out that article for an overview of how to find and edit within the fee area. However, many applications have formula-based fees that may require a little more math. We'll walk through a couple top examples in this article.
Before you start building out your fees, ensure you've got your fee schedule and calculations handy for you to reference.
Build these advanced fees within Civic Review by writing up your fee formula and inserting previous fees or form fields into your formula using these buttons:
Let's jump into the top advanced fee categories:
Valuation Based Fees:
When to use:
Valuation-based fees are the standard for construction projects, where the fee is proportional to the scope and cost of the work being performed. This ensures that the permit cost remains fair, whether the applicant is doing a minor repair or building a multi-story complex.
Often you'll have a separate calculation to generate a project's valuation (learn more about that here). The valuation typically will show up in a Project Valuation field within the application.
Once you've got the project valuation, many entities use that amount to calculate the building permit based on a building permit tier. Here's an example:
Example: Building Permit Fee Schedule
Project Valuation | Base Fee | Additional Fee |
$0 – $2,000 | $50.00 | None |
$2,001 – $50,000 | $50.00 | $10 for every $1,000 over $2k |
$50,001+ | $530.00 | $5 for every $1,000 over $50k |
Real-World Sample:
For a $60,000 home addition:
The project falls into the $50,001+ bracket.
Base Fee = $530.00
The amount over $50k is $10,000.
At $5 per $1,000, that’s $50.00 extra.
Total Fee: $580.00
Within Civic Review, you'll build out a fee for each building permit tier (typically there's 8 tiers) and add some conditions to ensure they show up for the correct project type and valuation range.
The first tier is typically just a simple fee. In this case, it would just be $50; and you'd add some conditions so it would show up if the valuation field is less than $2,000.
Tiers 2 through 8 will utilize advanced formulas. Here's an example:
round(50+(10*({Total Estimated Projec... | 657b96e65f6f0b6c103dfa1c}-2000)/1000))Pro Tip: For tips on rounding (like in the formula above), check out this help article.
We'd add some conditions to this fee that would look like this:
Project Type = New Residential -AND-
Project Valuation "is between" 2001 and 50000
This excludes permits with flat fees (solar, pool, etc...) and ensures that projects within the correct valuation range are assigned to each tier.
Percentage Based Fees:
The next type of fees that we'll cover are percentage based fees. This fee is calculated off a percentage of another fee or group of fees.
When to Use:
Percentage based fees are frequently used for administrative fees, plan review fees, or surcharges.
In a percentage based fee, you're typically just multiplying a fee or a group of fees by a percentage.
Here's a simple example:
(.10*(Business Revenue))
This fee will pull the business revenue (as inputted into the application by the applicant) and multiply it by .10 to generate a fee that is 10% of their annual business revenue.
Here's an example of a residential plan review fee:
.4*({Building Permit Tier 1 | fee_658614113cad99e82b9277f0}+
{Building Permit Tier 2 | fee_6586145f3cad99e82b927a22}+
{Building Permit Tier 3 | fee_658614c13cad99e82b929051}+
{Building Permit Tier 4 | fee_658614eb3cad99e82b929579}+
{Building Permit Tier 5 | fee_6586151e3cad99e82b92a183}+
{Building Permit Tier 6 | fee_6586155a3cad99e82b92aba8}+
{Building Permit Tier 7 | fee_658615983cad99e82b92bc17}+
{Building Permit Tier 8 | fee_658615c43cad99e82b92c88d})
This pulls in all the building permit tier fees from the section above and multiplies it by 0.4 to calculate a plan review fee that is 40% of their building permit fee.
Inserting previous fees to a formula is awesome because only the fees that apply to this application will be pulled into this formula. For instance, if the building valuation places this application within Building Permit Tier 5 the plan review will pull as 40% of that Tier 5 Building Permit fee total.
Unit Based Fees:
When to use:
Unit-based fees are designed for applications where the cost is driven by the volume or capacity of a specific unit. These allow you to charge a variable rate that scales naturally based on the size of the business or project.
If your formula is simply charging a specific amount per unit ($2 per seat, or $25 per machine), there is a simple checkbox in the fee area to help calculate this. Simply check the box and input the amount you're charging per unit:
However, there are instances when you may want to have a slightly more complex per-unit calculation. Per-hour rates is a great example of this.
Perhaps you need to charge a plan review or staff research fee that has an initial flat rate and then an additional per-hour fee after that. This can be used for building/planning permits, or for public record requests.
Fee | Formula |
Staff Research Time | $30 for the first 2 hours and then $20 for each hour after that |
You can create an internal field within your form to drop in the staff hours used, and create an advanced fee that looks like this:
(30+(20*({Staff Hours Used}-2))
So a value of 6 staff hours would calculate as a $110 Staff Review fee.