Department Reviews

You have been added as a reviewer to Civic Review and might be wondering what you need to know! This help article will walk through the approval process, some trouble shooting, and even contains a link to our full reviewer training.

Each department will likely be looking for different things within an application, but it is beneficial if you understand what is happening in the entire process so you know what to do when it is time to review.

There are three main stages of the process that you need to know.

The first is the pre-review stage. This is when the "gatekeeper" looks at the application to make sure everything seems accurate at first glance. The gatekeeper is the person who receives a notification when a new application is submitted.

If your application is set for applicants to pay after the initial pre-review, the applicants would receive an email telling them to pay their fees at this point. The applicants will have to pay before the application can move to the next stage of departmental reviews.

After the pre-review has been completed, the application moves on to the next stage. This stage is where you make your review. Anyone who is part of a reviewing department assigned to this application will receive an email notification when the pre-review is completed. At that point, you can go to the application and walk through your review process.

After all the departments have reviewed the applications, the gatekeeper will receive an email letting them know that it's time for them to give this application a final approval. They will go to Civic Review and do their final checks before clicking approved. Once that final approval button has been clicked, the applicant will receive a notification telling them that their application has been approved.

If your form is set to have applicants pay after the final approval, the applicant will now be prompted to pay for their application before it is considered complete.

What if you think you should be seeing permits that aren't in your list? Here are a couple of things that might be going on:

First, your department must be created and added to the permit type. It is likely that this was done during the setup, but if not, an admin in the organization can make that happen now.

Second, if conditions are tied to your department, the condition must be met in the specific permit for your department to be add as a reviewer.

Third, the pre-review needs to be completed. Sometimes the pre-review just isn't done yet. In that case, wait until you receive an email telling you it is time to make a review, or talk with the individual in charge of the pre-review if you think there has been a mistake.

Check out this help article for more information on the first 2 items: Adding Reviewing Departments

If you haven't yet had a chance to view our training slides, or would like a review, you can access them here: Reviewer Training

Hopefully this provided a brief overview of department reviews. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us!