Permit Adapter · Updated April 2026

Accela Citizen Access Permit Tracking

Accela Citizen Access (ACA) is a public permit management portal used by more than a thousand US municipalities — including Sacramento, San Diego, Ontario, South Pasadena, San Bernardino County, Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, Fort Lauderdale, Denver, Grass Valley, and Anaheim — to issue and track building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, grading, and solar permits.

How Accela ACA Works

Accela Citizen Access instances share a common URL pattern at aca-prod.accela.com followed by an uppercase agency code, e.g. aca-prod.accela.com/SACRAMENTO or aca-prod.accela.com/COSP for South Pasadena. Each agency configures its own permit categories, application types, and fee schedules, but the portal surface — record search, status transitions, inspection scheduling, and payment — is consistent across agencies. Most ACA permit numbers follow a type-year-sequence convention, often with a letter prefix such as B (building), E (electrical), M (mechanical), or P (plumbing), followed by a four-digit year and a sequence number (for example B2026-01234). Permit lookups by record number or property address are available without login; applying for permits, scheduling inspections, or paying fees typically requires a free public account.

Portal URL pattern
aca-prod.accela.com/<AGENCY_CODE>
Permit number convention
Type prefix + four-digit year + sequence (e.g. B2026-01234)

How SignedOff Monitors Accela ACA Permits

Third-party permit monitoring services such as SignedOff poll Accela Citizen Access at the public-portal level on a recurring schedule to detect plan-check transitions, inspection scheduling, and expiration deadlines. Polling uses the same anonymous record-lookup interface a human user would, which means no agency login, API credential, or city-side configuration is required from the permit holder. This approach is most useful for contractors, architects, and project managers tracking multiple active Accela permits across different jurisdictions, where logging into each agency's portal manually for every job becomes impractical.

Supported Jurisdictions (12)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Accela Citizen Access?
Accela Citizen Access (ACA) is a public permit management portal built by Accela, Inc. and deployed by more than a thousand US municipalities. Agencies use ACA to accept permit applications, publish plan-check status, schedule inspections, and collect fees. Permit holders and the general public can search records, view status, and schedule inspections through the same public-facing portal.
Which cities use Accela Citizen Access?
SignedOff currently tracks Accela Citizen Access instances for Sacramento, San Diego, Ontario, South Pasadena, San Bernardino County, Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, Fort Lauderdale, Denver, Grass Valley, and Anaheim. Other Accela-powered jurisdictions are on the monitoring roadmap as demand warrants.
How does SignedOff monitor Accela Citizen Access permits?
SignedOff polls each agency's public Accela Citizen Access portal on a recurring schedule to detect status changes, scheduled inspections, and expiration deadlines. Polling uses the same anonymous record-lookup interface a human user would, so no agency login or API credential is required from the permit holder.
Can I track Accela permits without logging in?
Yes. Accela Citizen Access allows anonymous record search by permit number or property address at the public portal for every supported agency. SignedOff uses this same public interface to monitor permits on a user's behalf — no agency account, city-side configuration, or saved credentials are required.
How often does SignedOff check Accela portals for updates?
SignedOff runs nightly sync jobs against each supported Accela Citizen Access portal, diffing the latest public record state against the previously stored state and emailing the permit holder when status, inspection scheduling, or expiration data changes.
What do Accela permit numbers look like?
Most Accela Citizen Access permit numbers follow a type-year-sequence convention with a letter prefix such as B (building), E (electrical), M (mechanical), or P (plumbing), followed by a four-digit year and a sequence number. A typical residential building permit number might look like B2026-01234. Each agency configures its own type prefixes, so the exact format varies by city.

Track your Accela ACA permits without logging in

SignedOff polls Accela ACA on a recurring schedule and emails you the moment status, inspections, or expiration data change — no portal logins, no spreadsheets.

Start Free 14-Day Trial

No credit card required