How to Ensure Compliance with Business Licensing Renewals in Local Government

Chasing after late renewals is such a drag, right? We had a panel discussion on this very topic and documented tips for improving compliance and renewal rates for your business licenses, dog licenses, or health permits.

January 29, 2025

Don’t you love the renewal season? All that work stuffing, stamping, and licking envelopes — followed by then opening return envelopes, cashing checks, and data entry. Obviously if you’re using Civic Review, you can bypass a lot of that work.

But the thing is, even if you have an automated system like Civic Review, you’re still gonna have people who JUST WON’T RENEW. 

And late renewals cause real issues for local governments. You’ll end up with outdated records, which can lead to public safety risks. For example:

If you don’t charge late fees on dog licensing, you probably aren’t keeping rabies vaccinations records up to date. The next thing you know, your community is making the 7 o’clock news because a rabid pack of dogs is running around terrorizing people. (This really happens!)

Here at Civic Review we’ve seen a lot of processes around renewals, and we’ve seen a lot of flaws with existing processes. These include poorly-defined internal procedures, software challenges (if you aren’t using Civic Review, heh), and breakdowns in communication between departments.

To help you manage your business licensing renewals more easily and with less stress, we invited some expert Civic Review users to share their best practices to help ensure timely compliance when it comes to renewals. The in-depth video is below — but if you’re the reading type, here are the takeaways we learned from your peers.

Start with a Clearly Established Renewal Timeline

Create a clearly defined timeline for all steps that happen with renewals. Even if you use a software that automates your timeline (like Civic Review), you should outline these milestones to serve as a reference point. 

You’ll want to maintain some consistency with this schedule - because your applicants like consistency. Here’s an example timeline (this one assumes a paper-based renewal system, without the benefits of software):

You can then share this schedule with other staff members, and even share a list of deadlines on your website. (Perfect for sending the page link to business owners who call for info that’s clearly outlined on the site.)

Come in Strong with Communication

The more channels you can utilize for communication, the better. We often preach about the benefits of using email over printed letters, but the fact is, if you can do both - all the better! 

If you have the resources to add in some phone calls and text messages, you’ve got a killer battlefront.

Of course, you might want to start with the cheapest channels and move up from there. That might look like:

  1. Send out initial emails: Ideally through the software you use. If it can do follow-up emails as well, all the better. Emails are virtually free.
  2. Follow up with text messages: There are a number of texting tools out there, like Pidj, that enable you to send out messages in bulk. Text messages cost money, but they’re still cheaper than stamps (and there’s no risk of paper cuts).‍
  3. Send letters: A few weeks before the due date, send out letters — but only to those who haven’t yet renewed. This will heavily decrease the costs associated with direct mail.
  4. Make phone calls: The most costly, but also most effective channel. We’ve seen a lot of municipalities do this after the due date. Want to go the extra mile? Let people renew over the phone with you.

You can also piggy-back off of other channels your local government already uses. For example, you could include announcements and reminders in utility billing statements, newsletters, and your website.

With each communication and outreach, you should document the activity. You never know when you’ll need to pull up a record to prove how much you worked to give that person a chance to renew.

Ultimately, clearly communicating what will happen if they remain non-compliant will create great motivation for your applicants.

[Texting] is a really quick and easy way for us to ensure compliance
- Amy Johnson

What Do You Say to Non-Compliant Licenses or Permits?

Getting the messaging optimized for action from non-compliant business license, dog license, or permit owners can be a challenge. If you’re naturally a nice person, it’s hard to be strict! 

We’ve seen the most success when administration takes a hard stance against late-comers. Here are things to keep in mind when communicating with the “slackers”:

It's been an amazing deterrent for us to have [our code enforcement officer] who is on top of all of these (business licenses).
- Jamie Logan

Teamwork: Collaboration Between Departments

Department collaboration is the grease that keeps local government running efficiently. We’ve seen municipalities that collaborate beautifully between departments — and we’ve seen others that have clear barriers between departments.

When it comes to permitting and licensing, workflows usually involve multiple departments. When we see applications that just aren’t moving through that workflow quickly, quite often there is an office culture that does not encourage collaboration.

You might consider organizing a regular (say once monthly) “compliance meeting”. This is a meeting where representatives from each department come together to discuss any compliance issues. These issues might involve permits undergoing approval, business licenses that are out-of-compliance, dog licensing, and code enforcement.

Finally, consider using tools that help you track approvals and communicate with fellow team members. You could try something simple like Trello, or use a purpose-built permitting and licensing software like Civic Review.

[The compliance meeting] was the smartest thing we have done. Because everyone's on the same page. We're all working together.
- Angela Katoa

Stay on Top of Lists with Frequent Monitoring and Reporting

Screenshot of a list in Civic Review
Screenshot of a list in Civic Review

Regular reporting will help you keep an eye on how your community is doing when it comes to compliance. With business licensing renewals, you’ll want to track trends regarding:

Taking actions and measuring results will help you understand what outreach methods are working the most efficiently.

Use Modern Technology such as Automated Renewal Software for Licensing or Permitting

For many municipalities, ensuring better compliance with renewals comes with a change in policies and procedures. You might find that it’s easier to enforce those procedures with modern business licensing software, like Civic Review.

Civic Review helps you achieve timely renewals by:

Read more about how Nibley, UT increased on-time renewals by 50% with Civic Review‍

Or, ask us how else you can use Civic Review.

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