Founding Municipality Pilot: your first year is free. Limited spots for the 2027 building season. Learn more

Building permit and code enforcement software for small towns

One system for the building department of a small town, village or township: online applications, plan review, fees, inspections, fire safety schedules, operating permits and complaints. Your state and Census reports are compiled from your records.

  • Live in about a week: we set it up and import your records
  • Inspectors work from an iPhone or Android phone, even with no cell signal
  • One login for a code officer who serves several municipalities

Choose your state to see availability and how Civicmill handles your state's requirements.

Civicmill office appDashboard
All municipalities (3) ▾
Inspections today3
Awaiting review5
Fire safety overdue4
Fees (YTD)$11,927
Upcoming inspections
Today AMFraming · 80 Bluff Point RdScheduled
Today PMFire Safety · Hillcrest DinerScheduled
TomorrowFinal / C.O. · 130 Canal StRequested
TomorrowComplaint · 58 Water StScheduled
Civicmill iPhone app showing an inspector's schedule for tomorrow
Nine statesSet up for each state's code
Works offlineiPhone and Android apps
Shared code officersOne login, several municipalities
Reports compiledState reports and Census C-404
Your dataExport any time

Small code offices carry big requirements

State building codes ask every municipality to track permits, inspections, certificates, stop-work orders, complaints, periodic fire safety inspections and operating permits, and many states require an annual report on all of it.

Most small towns and villages do that with a part-time code officer, paper files, spreadsheets, or desktop software that hasn't changed in years. Enterprise systems are priced and built for big cities.

  • Paper and spreadsheets that make the annual report a scramble
  • Fire safety inspections that quietly fall overdue
  • Phone tag to schedule inspections and collect fees
  • No signal at the job site, so notes get re-typed at the office
  • One code officer, several towns, juggling separate files and fee schedules

Everything your building department does, in one place

Simple enough for a part-time office, and complete enough for compliance.

Permits & plan review

Online or office applications, automatic routing to zoning, building and fire review, corrections, and one-click permit issuance with required inspections created for you.

Inspections in the field

Inspectors get their route on an iPhone or Android phone with checklists, photos and on-site signatures. With no signal they keep working, and results upload automatically once they're back in range.

Fire safety schedule

Every assembly space, multiple dwelling and commercial building on its required cycle, with overdue and due-soon alerts so nothing slips.

Operating permits

Track hazardous-use, public assembly and seasonal permits, expiration dates and renewals in one list.

Complaints & enforcement

Log complaints, schedule investigations, issue and print notices of violation and orders, and keep a full case history.

Fines & penalties

Fines, daily penalties and court cases for each complaint, with payments, balances and what's past due. The officer or the court sets the amount; Civicmill keeps the record.

Reports, done for you

Your state's required reports, such as an annual enforcement report or a quarterly permit report, and the Census Bureau's monthly building permit survey (C-404), compiled automatically from your records.

Fees & payments

Fees calculated from your fee schedule. Record checks and cash, or let applicants pay online.

Documents

Building permits, Certificates of Occupancy and Compliance, and violation notices, ready to print or email.

Public portal

Residents and contractors apply, check status and request inspections online, so your clerk takes fewer calls.

Your permits, your checklists

Your state's permit types plus your own local permits, such as fence, driveway or burn permits, and your code officer's checklists on every inspector's phone.

Secure sign-in

A login for each person, two-factor sign-in, and administrator, staff or read-only access. Each person sees only the municipalities they serve.

Building code compliance, set up for your state

Every state runs building code enforcement its own way. Civicmill is set up state by state, with the permit types, inspection cycles, forms and reports your state requires. Your municipality adds its own local permits and its code officer's own inspection checklists.

iPhone app in offline mode with an inspection in progress Inspection checklist with a failed item, a correction note, and Pass, Partial and Fail buttons

An inspection app that works without a signal

Rural job sites don't always have a signal. The Civicmill app for iPhone and Android downloads the day's inspections with checklists, permit details and the inspection history at each address, so inspectors can work anywhere.

  • Pass / fail checklists for every inspection type
  • Photos and on-site signatures attached to the result
  • Failed items automatically create a reinspection
  • Everything saves on the phone and uploads when back in range
  • Directions and one-tap calling to the contractor

One login for every municipality you serve

In many small communities, one code officer covers a town and its villages, or several municipalities at once. Civicmill keeps each municipality's fees, permit numbers, permit types, checklists, documents and reports separate, while the officer sees one combined schedule. Office staff see only the municipalities they serve.

Shared-officer arrangements get a multi-municipality discount.

Town of Harmony HillsHH-2026-####
Village of Millbrook FallsMF-2026-####
Town of Cedar RidgeCR-2026-####
One officer · one schedule · three sets of records

Online permit fees, deposited straight to your municipality

Applicants and contractors pay permit, inspection and operating-permit fees, and fines your municipality collects, by card or bank transfer from the public portal. Funds go directly to your municipality's bank account through our payment partner. Civicmill never holds your money.

  • Card and ACH bank transfer, with automatic emailed receipts
  • Payments post to the permit instantly, with no re-keying
  • Checks and cash still recorded in the same ledger
  • Deposit reports that reconcile with your bank statement
  • Your choice: the municipality absorbs processing, or the applicant pays an online service fee where permitted
  • Fines paid online carry no service fee

Transparent for your board

Online payment processing is billed at our payment partner's cost plus a small platform rate, set out in your agreement and itemized on a monthly statement.

Example monthly statement
Online fees collected$12,480.00
Payment processingitemized
Platform rateitemized
Deposited to your accountnet of the above

Online payments are optional. Your municipality decides whether to offer them.

Your first year is free

Through the Founding Municipality Pilot, a small group of towns, villages and townships help shape Civicmill. Each gets the full product free for 12 months, with setup and data migration included.

  • Full product for 12 months, no cost
  • We load your fee schedule, parcels and existing records
  • Dedicated onboarding, with one named contact on our team
  • No obligation to continue, and you keep a full export of your data
  • Founding-member pricing locked in if you stay
Apply for a pilot spot

Limited spots for the 2027 building season. Pilots start on your schedule, and winter setup is ideal.

  1. Kickoff visitAbout an hour at your town hall to gather your fee schedule, forms and open permits.
  2. We set it upYour municipality, fees, permit types, parcels, open permits and staff, plus the app on each inspector's iPhone or Android phone.
  3. On-site trainingAbout 90 minutes for your clerk and office staff, and an hour with your code officer on the field app.
  4. Go liveTypically about a week from kickoff, with a daily check-in that first week and reviews at 30 and 90 days.

One subscription, everything included

Your first year is free through the pilot. After that, Civicmill is one annual subscription sized to your municipality, quoted in writing before your free year ends. No per-user fees and no long-term contract.

Every feature

Nothing sold separately

  • Permits, inspections and complaints
  • Fines and your state's reports
  • The public portal

Unlimited users

Your whole office, and the field

  • Clerks, code officers and inspectors
  • The iPhone and Android app
  • Shared officers across municipalities

Set up for you

Onboarding and support included

  • Your fees, parcels and records loaded
  • On-site training
  • Priority support

Need a number for your budget?

Villages, towns, townships and cities

Tell us your population and about how many permits you issue in a year, and we'll send you a written quote.

Ask for a quote
  • Shared code officer? Each additional municipality served by the same officer is discounted.
  • Priced to fit within most small municipalities' purchasing thresholds. Check your procurement policy.
  • Optional online payments: processing at our payment partner's cost plus a small platform rate, itemized monthly. How it works
  • Founding municipalities pay nothing for the first year. See the pilot

Questions from code offices

What happens after the free pilot year?

Nothing happens automatically. Before your year ends we'll review how it went with you and give you a written quote. If you want to continue, you move to an annual subscription at your founding-member price. If not, you keep a complete export of your records.

How much does Civicmill cost after the first year?

It's one annual subscription sized to your municipality's population and permit volume, with every feature, unlimited users and support included. Ask for a quote any time. Founding municipalities keep their founding-member price for as long as they stay, and each extra municipality served by the same code officer is discounted.

Does the field app really work without a signal?

Yes. The day's inspections, checklists and property details are stored on the phone. Results, photos and signatures save on the device and upload automatically when a connection returns.

Our code officer serves more than one municipality. Does that work?

That's exactly what Civicmill is designed for. Each municipality keeps its own fees, numbering, permit types, checklists, documents and reports, and the officer works from one combined schedule.

Can you bring over our existing records?

Yes. We import from spreadsheets and common formats as part of setup, and load parcel data from your county's real property records.

Who can see our records?

Only the people you give an account to. Each person has their own login, with two-factor sign-in available, and administrator, staff or read-only access. Each account sees only the municipalities it serves, so a shared code officer sees each town they serve and nobody else's. Your administrators add and remove people, and every change is recorded with who made it. Civicmill's support staff can see your records to help you, and they sign in with two-factor codes.

Do we need IT staff?

No. Civicmill runs in a web browser and on iPhone and Android. We handle hosting, updates and backups.

How do online payments reach our bank account?

Each municipality gets its own account with our payment partner, linked to your bank. Payments are deposited to you directly on a regular schedule; Civicmill never holds municipal funds. Processing and the platform rate are itemized on your monthly statement.

Where is our data stored?

On servers in the United States. Everything travels over encrypted connections, your records are backed up, and you can export all of them at any time. If your municipality's policy requires its own server, ask us about running Civicmill on a server you control.

Who owns our data?

You do. You can export all of your records at any time, during the pilot or after.

What about electrical inspections by third-party agencies?

Where the electrical inspection comes from a third-party agency's certificate, permit checklists include a step to confirm it's on file before the final inspection. Where your state certifies inspectors by category, each inspection, electrical included, goes only to an inspector certified for it, whether on your staff or with an agency.

Which states do you support?

Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Choose yours in the state menu at the top of the page to see how Civicmill handles its rules, or tell us which state you'd like next.

Book a demo or apply for a pilot

See Civicmill with your own municipality's permit types in 20 minutes, online or in person at your town hall.