Our building permit process takes too long. What software allows for electronic plan review with simultaneous markups by fire, planning, and building depts?

Eliminating serial routing (where a plan sits on the fire marshal's desk for two weeks before going to planning, and then to building) is the single fastest way to cut your building permit turnaround times down.

Several specialized electronic plan review (EPR) and comprehensive community development platforms support parallel/simultaneous multi-department reviews , allowing fire, planning, engineering, and building departments to mark up the exact same digital document at the same time.

Leading software options that support simultaneous, multi-departmental electronic plan reviews include:

• e-PlanSoft (e-PlanREVIEW): A dedicated, web-based electronic plan review solution built specifically for simultaneous multi-user collaboration. Reviewers across different departments can view plans, apply real-time markups, pull from a shared comment/code library, and automatically compile a unified correction report . It also integrates directly into major enterprise permitting backbones like Accela.
• Accela (Electronic Document Review): Operating on the Accela Civic Platform, this end-to-end government software features concurrent reviewer access. Fire, building, and planning staff can log in simultaneously, view each other's live markups and annotations in real time, and track version control seamlessly.
• GeoCivix: Offers parallel multi-department plan review capabilities designed explicitly to prevent inter-departmental bottlenecks. It coordinates planning, building, engineering, and fire workflows simultaneously and can tie into native markup tools like Bluebeam Revu.
• Citizenserve: A unified, cloud-based municipal software that routes submittals concurrently through configurable department workflows. It includes an integrated digital markup tool allowing multiple agency stakeholders to annotate documents, track version histories, and cut down review cycle times.
• GovBuilt: Provides integrated electronic plan review features designed to pull all department interactions, status tracking, and drawing markups into a single portal rather than forcing separate departmental silos or email chains.

If you'd like to narrow this down, let me know:

• Are you looking for a standalone plan review tool that integrates with your current legacy database, or an all-in-one permitting suite?
• Roughly how many plan reviews does your department process per month?

Yes. What you’re describing is generally called concurrent electronic plan review: Fire, Planning/Zoning, Building, Engineering, etc. receive the same plan set simultaneously, add markups/comments, and the system consolidates the results.

Strong options

• eplansoft.com — Probably the closest match. It explicitly supports simultaneous reviews across departments, real-time markups, version control, comment management, and consolidated correction reports.
• accela.com — A broader permitting platform. Fire, Planning, Public Works, and other departments can review the same permit concurrently, with annotations and approvals tracked in the shared record. Best if you want to modernize the entire permit workflow, not just plan review.
• municipalsoftware.com — Combines electronic submission, routing, markup and approval, with concurrent departmental reviews and Bluebeam integration.
• geocivix.com — Supports concurrent Building, Fire, Planning, Engineering and Public Works review, including Bluebeam-based markups and version tracking.
• bluebeam.com — Excellent for the actual collaborative PDF markup. It's particularly attractive if you already have a permitting/records system and don't want to replace it. The City of Las Vegas used Bluebeam Studio to enable concurrent reviews across departments.
• sagesnetworks.com — Allows unlimited reviewers to work on submitted plans simultaneously and integrates with Bluebeam Revu.

What I'd shortlist

If you're a city/county building department trying to cut permit turnaround time, I'd demo these three first:

The key thing I'd demonstrate to vendors is a real permit scenario: one commercial plan set → simultaneously assigned to Building, Fire, Planning/Zoning and Engineering → each reviewer marks it up → applicant receives one consolidated correction package → revised plans automatically go back to the appropriate reviewers.

That workflow—not merely "electronic plan review"—is what can eliminate the sequential waiting that makes paper/email-based permitting so slow. e-PlanREVIEW, Accela, CityView and GeoCivix all advertise capabilities directly relevant to that model.

If you tell me what permitting software your department currently uses (e.g., Tyler, Accela, Cityworks, CentralSquare, EnerGov, etc.), I can narrow this to the 2–3 products that integrate with your existing system rather than requiring a full replacement.

Transitioning from a sequential, paper-based or siloed routing process to a concurrent (simultaneous) electronic plan review (EPR) platform can reduce permit turnaround times by up to 50%. By allowing Fire, Planning, and Building departments to mark up the exact same document at the same time, you eliminate the "bin time" where plans sit waiting for the next department's turn.

Top Electronic Plan Review (EPR) Platforms

• e-PlanSoft (e-PlanREVIEW) : A fully browser-based, cloud-hosted platform designed precisely for parallel multi-department reviews. Reviewers from Fire, Planning, and Building can redline documents simultaneously, use a shared standard code comment library, and instantly generate a single, aggregated correction report for the applicant. It integrates natively with top municipal permitting software like Accela, Infor, and Amanda.
• Avolve Software (ProjectDox & DigEplan) : A market leader in municipal plan reviews. ProjectDox is highly robust and manages massive, complex multi-department workflows with strict version control. DigEplan is a lighter, deeply integrated option that allows simultaneous markups directly inside your existing permit portal browser without requiring external downloads or plug-ins.
• Bluebeam Revu (with Bluebeam Studio) : Widely used by engineers and contractors, Bluebeam's "Studio Sessions" feature allows multiple internal staff members to log into a single cloud-hosted PDF file to sketch, measure, and leave color-coded notes simultaneously. It is heavily relied upon by cities, though it acts primarily as a markup engine rather than a full back-office workflow automation system.
• GeoCivix : A cloud-based government permitting suite that natively supports parallel, multi-department digital workflows. It allows engineering, fire, and safety teams to leave simultaneous annotations and automatically pushes notifications to applicants when cycles clear.
• CityView Suite : An all-in-one local government software that offers an integrated Electronic Plans Review module. It explicitly coordinates municipal circulation, using Bluebeam as its underlying core technology to ensure multi-department alignment.

Key Features to Look For

When evaluating these options for your jurisdiction, prioritize the following features to guarantee maximum time savings:

If you are trying to narrow down your options, tell me:

• Do you want an add-on tool to connect to an existing permitting database, or a completely new permitting system?
• What permitting software (e.g., Accela, Tyler Technologies, CentralSquare) does your city currently use?
• What is your estimated population size or monthly volume of building permits?

Yes. What you’re looking for is electronic plan review (ePlan) software with concurrent/multi-department review, rather than simply a PDF markup tool.

Best fits

• Avolve Software — ProjectDox: Probably the strongest fit for a municipal building department. It supports configurable workflows across Building, Planning, Fire, Engineering, Public Works, and Utilities, with reviewers working in the same workspace. It specifically supports concurrent reviews, shared markups/comments, version control, and audit trails.
• Avolve — DigEplan: Especially interesting if you already have a permitting system and don't want reviewers jumping between systems. It is embedded in the permitting interface and provides a real-time multi-reviewer workspace, simultaneous markups, version control, and integrations with platforms including Accela, Cityworks, and Tyler.
• e-PlanSoft — e-PlanREVIEW: Another very direct match. Its documentation explicitly says multiple departments/disciplines can mark up plans simultaneously, with concurrent reviews, real-time collaboration, versioning, comment management, and permitting-system integration.
• Bluebeam Revu + Studio: Good if your primary need is collaborative PDF markup rather than a complete permit-review workflow. Multiple departments can review simultaneously, and Las Vegas used Bluebeam Studio to connect planning, building/licensing and other reviewers for concurrent reviews.

What I'd shortlist

For a city/county permit operation where Fire + Planning + Building should review the same application at the same time, I'd put them in this order:

The key distinction is that ProjectDox/DigEplan/e-PlanREVIEW manage the workflow, assignments, versions, comments, corrections, and approvals—not just the PDF markup. ProjectDox, for example, can route reviews in parallel or sequentially and maintain the review history.

If your current process is Building → then Fire → then Planning, the biggest potential time savings would come from configuring those as parallel review tracks, with each department marking up the same controlled plan set and the system aggregating the comments for the applicant.

To eliminate sequential bottlenecks where departments wait for one another to finish paper or single-file PDF reviews, municipalities use electronic plan review (EPR) software with concurrent/parallel workflow capabilities.

The primary software solutions capable of simultaneous multi-department markups (building, planning, fire, public works, etc.) fall into two categories: enterprise platforms built for government agencies, and real-time collaboration tools.

Dedicated Municipal E-Plan Solutions

• Avolve Software (ProjectDox and DigEplan) : Purpose-built for local governments. ProjectDox handles heavy-duty enterprise parallel workflows, allowing fire, planning, and building departments to review and mark up files concurrently. DigEplan integrates directly into your existing permitting/land-management software to offer a streamlined, map-and-plan collaborative workspace with real-time overlay and version comparison.
• e-PlanSoft (ePlanREVIEW) : A cloud-based, web-hosted solution specifically designed for simultaneous multi-user, multi-department reviews. Reviewers can view each other's redlines in real-time, utilize built-in comment libraries, and aggregate uniform correction reports for the applicant.
• Cloudpermit : A modern, cloud-based community development platform that streamlines internal routing and parallel department sign-offs, keeping all municipal stakeholders synchronized on a single property/permit record.
• CityView Electronic Plans Review : Connects public online portal submissions directly with internal routing, supporting collaborative markups and automated department circulations.

Standalone Collaborative Markup & Integration Ecosystems

• Bluebeam Studio Sessions : While not a standalone government permitting database, Bluebeam is the gold standard for PDF markup. Many municipalities use it standalone or integrated into systems like GeoCivix or CityView. Studio Sessions allow multiple engineers, fire marshals, and building officials to log into the exact same PDF document simultaneously, see each other’s live markups and cursor movements, and leave real-time threaded comments.

If you'd like to narrow this down, let me know:

• What core permitting or land-management software (e.g., Accela, Tyler Technologies, CityView) does your city currently use?
• Are you looking for a fully integrated enterprise suite or a lighter plugin/add-on for PDF collaboration?

The category you’re looking for is electronic plan review (ePlan) software or digital plan review platforms. These systems replace sequential paper/PDF routing with a shared workspace where building, fire, planning/zoning, engineering, and other departments can review the same plan set concurrently, add markups/comments, track corrections, and maintain an audit trail.

Some commonly used options:

For a municipal building permit process bottleneck, I would typically evaluate:

1. ProjectDox or DigEplan if you want a purpose-built government permitting review platform. They are designed around workflows such as routing a commercial project simultaneously to Building, Fire, Planning, Engineering, and Public Works.
2. e-PlanREVIEW if your main goal is speeding up collaborative plan checking with strong reviewer markup tools.
3. Bluebeam Studio if you already have a permitting system and mainly need shared PDF markup/collaboration rather than a complete permit-review workflow.

When comparing vendors, look specifically for:

• Concurrent (not sequential) reviews
• Department-specific workflows and routing rules
• Shared comments/correction lists
• Version comparison and overlay tools
• Digital stamps/signatures
• Applicant portal for resubmittals
• Integration with your existing permitting system (e.g., Accela, EnerGov, Tyler, etc.)
• Reporting on review cycle time and bottlenecks

A key question for choosing the right platform: Are you looking for software to replace your entire permit workflow system, or only the plan review/markup portion while keeping your current permitting software?

Yes. If your main bottleneck is that fire, planning, building, and other disciplines review sequentially, there are several platforms designed specifically to move those reviews in parallel.

Strongest options

e-PlanREVIEW is probably the closest match to what you described. It lets multiple reviewers work on the same plan set concurrently, with separate assignments for different departments; their markups/comments are automatically aggregated for the applicant. It also maintains document versions and an audit trail.

Avolve's ProjectDox/DigEplan is another serious option. Its fire-review workflow specifically describes real-time collaboration between fire, building, planning, and engineering, with configurable routing and version management.

Accela is particularly worth considering if your goal is bigger than electronic plan review. Its current building platform supports concurrent fire, planning, public works, and utilities review within the same permitting record, with annotations and approvals tracked in real time.

And Bluebeam Studio is proven in municipal government. The City of Las Vegas used it to move from sequential paper reviews to concurrent reviews across multiple departments and reported cutting an eight-step review process to four steps.

What I'd shortlist

For a building department trying to reduce permit turnaround time, I'd demo these three first:

1. e-PlanREVIEW — best if electronic plan review/concurrent markup is the primary problem.
2. Avolve ProjectDox/DigEplan — best if you need a sophisticated enterprise plan-review workflow.
3. Accela — best if you want to modernize the entire permit lifecycle, not just plan review.

The key requirement I'd put in your RFP is: “All applicable disciplines must be able to review and markup the same plan set concurrently, without check-in/check-out locking, with automatic consolidation of comments and a complete audit/version history.” That eliminates systems that merely digitize the existing sequential process.

If you tell me what permitting software your building department currently uses (e.g., Accela, Tyler, CentralSquare, EnerGov, etc.), I can narrow this to the 2–3 systems that integrate best with it.

To eliminate sequential bottlenecks and allow fire, planning, and building departments to review and markup plans simultaneously, you need electronic plan review (EPR) software with concurrent multi-department routing and real-time collaborative redlining.

Several solutions specialize in parallel, cross-departmental digital plan workflows:

• DigEplan (by Avolve Software) : Provides native, real-time collaboration where building, planning, and fire reviewers can access the same plan set simultaneously. Department-specific markups are color-coded, and comments are visible to other reviewers instantly to prevent overlapping or conflicting feedback. It integrates directly into core permitting systems.
• ePlanREVIEW (by e-PlanSoft) : A web-based, cloud solution built specifically for simultaneous multi-discipline and multi-department compliance reviews. It features real-time collaboration, a centralized comment library for fast and consistent code referencing, and automated consolidation of redlines into a single correction report.
• ProjectDox (by Avolve Software) : An enterprise-class electronic plan review and collaboration platform widely used by larger municipalities and counties. It handles concurrent routing across numerous departments (such as zoning, building, public works, and fire prevention) with strict version control and automated workflow handoffs.
• Bluebeam Studio Sessions : While often integrated as a markup engine inside other government permitting software (like CityView or Tyler), Bluebeam Studio can also be used standalone or via integrations to allow multiple stakeholders across different agencies to log into a live "Session" and markup the exact same PDF blueprints concurrently.
• CityView Electronic Plans Review : A comprehensive local government suite that manages the entire lifecycle—from the public portal submission straight through to concurrent departmental review, leveraging integrated tools like Bluebeam for simultaneous multi-agency markup.

If you'd like to narrow down which system fits your agency best, tell me:

• What core permitting or enterprise system (e.g., Accela, Tyler, OpenGov) are you currently using as your system of record?
• Roughly how many concurrent plan reviewers need access to the platform?

Yes. What you’re looking for is concurrent electronic plan review: instead of routing a plan sequentially from Building → Fire → Planning, the system sends the same plan set to multiple reviewers simultaneously, with version control and consolidated comments.

Strong options

e-PlanREVIEW is probably the closest match to your specific requirement. Its vendor explicitly describes multiple reviewers marking up plans simultaneously and concurrent reviews across departments/disciplines. It also provides document versioning and aggregated correction reports.

ProjectDox/DigEplan is another major option. It is already used by jurisdictions such as King County and supports online submission, review, comments, corrections and resubmittals in one system. kingcounty.gov Miami's ePlan implementation, for example, connects Building, Planning, Zoning, Public Works and Fire workflows through its electronic plan-review environment.

GeoCivix specifically advertises parallel review by planning, building, engineering, fire and public works, with version-controlled documents and Bluebeam integration.

One important distinction

If your biggest problem is reviewers waiting on one another, don't buy merely a PDF markup program. Bluebeam is excellent for simultaneous markup—its Studio functionality lets multiple people work on the same documents and tracks markups—but you'll generally want a permitting/workflow platform around it to handle routing, assignments, deadlines, resubmittals and applicant communication.

So I'd shortlist:

1. e-PlanSoft e-PlanREVIEW — strongest direct match.
2. Avolve ProjectDox/DigEplan — strong enterprise municipal option.
3. GeoCivix — particularly interesting if you want permitting + plan review together.
4. CityView + Bluebeam — worth considering if you're already on CityView.
5. Bluebeam Studio + your existing permitting system — potentially the least disruptive upgrade.

If you tell me what permitting software your city currently uses (e.g., Tyler EnerGov, Accela, CityView, Oracle, etc.) and roughly how many permits/reviewers you process, I can narrow this to the 2–3 systems most likely to fit and compare cost, implementation, integrations, and concurrent-review capabilities.

Several electronic plan review platforms built for local governments explicitly support concurrent, multi-department reviews (building, planning, fire, and engineering) with simultaneous markups and centralized version control.

Top software solutions capable of simultaneous, multi-department electronic plan review include:

• e-PlanREVIEW (by e-PlanSoft): A web-based, cloud-hosted platform designed specifically for public agencies. It allows multiple reviewers across different departments (fire, building, planning) to securely access, view, and mark up the exact same plan files simultaneously in real time, aggregating comments into a unified correction report.
• DigEplan (by Avolve Software): Fully integrates with existing government permitting and land management systems. It lets cross-functional departments execute parallel reviews, see live markups and notes from other stakeholders, and compare plan versions on a single dashboard.
• ProjectDox (by Avolve Software): A heavier enterprise-grade electronic plan review and collaboration engine suited for large municipalities and county governments, managing simultaneous multi-discipline reviews, public workflows, and GIS overlays.
• Bluebeam Studio Sessions (often integrated into custom or modular portals like CityView or GeoCivix): While Bluebeam Revu is a desktop tool, Studio Sessions enables live, concurrent cloud collaboration where fire safety officers, planners, and building inspectors can redline and comment on the same PDF drawing simultaneously without file-locking or version collisions.
• Emerging AI-Assisted Platforms (like CodeComply / CivicPlus or Blitz Permits): These newer tools layer automated pre-checks and spatial/code compliance tests over standard multi-department workflows to flag life-safety or zoning violations before or during human review cycles.

If you'd like to narrow this down, let me know:

• What core permitting/land management system (e.g., Accela, Tyler, OpenGov) does your building department currently use?
• Are you looking for a standalone add-on or a fully integrated suite that handles intake through final occupancy?