Accela API
Accela is a cloud platform for cities, counties, and state agencies that powers permitting, licensing, code enforcement, planning and zoning, inspections, and citizen access workflows. An unofficial API lets you programmatically pull permits, license records, inspections, plan reviews, service requests, and resident applications—and push updates like status changes, fee assessments, inspection results, and document uploads back into Accela.
What is Accela?
Accela is the end-to-end government software platform for permitting, licensing, asset management, planning and zoning, code enforcement, and citizen services. It serves 900+ government agencies—including more than half of the top U.S. cities and counties—through the Civic Platform, a unified SaaS environment for routing applications across departments, scheduling inspections, processing fees, and exposing resident-facing portals for 24/7 self-service.
Core product areas include:
- Civic Platform (Workflow Engine, Data Management, GIS Visualization, Mobile Interfaces, Resident Access, Electronic Document Review, System Extensibility)
- Building Communities (Building Permitting, Planning & Zoning, Plan Review/ePermitHub, Asset Management, Service Request Management)
- Growing Business (Business Licensing, Occupational Licensing, Alcohol Beverage Control, Short-Term Rental Registration, Cannabis Regulation)
- Protecting Citizens (Environmental Health, Fire Prevention, Disaster Recovery)
- CivicAI and the Accela Construct API management system for system extensibility
Common data entities:
- Records (permits, applications, complaints, service requests, cases)
- Licenses & Renewals (business, occupational, alcohol, cannabis, short-term rental)
- Inspections (schedules, results, checklists, inspector assignments)
- Plan Review documents and Electronic Document Review (EDR) markups
- Parcels, Addresses, GIS layers and spatial relationships
- Contacts, Applicants, Owners, Professionals (licensed contractors, architects)
- Fees, Payments, Receipts, and Trust Accounts
- Workflow Tasks, Conditions, and Status histories
The Accela Integration Challenge
Government agencies and the vendors that serve them rely on Accela daily, but turning portal-based government workflows into API-driven automation is non-trivial:
- Partner approval gates: The Accela Construct API is gated through the developer portal and partnership review, so third parties cannot self-serve credentials for an arbitrary agency tenant
- Jurisdiction-specific configuration: Each city, county, or state agency configures record types, fee schedules, workflow tasks, conditions, and inspection checklists differently—generic integrations break across tenants
- Citizen Access portals: Resident-facing application, payment, and inspection-scheduling flows often live in the multilingual Civic Access portal rather than the Construct API surface
- Document and plan review artifacts: EDR plan sets, permit attachments, and signed approvals require careful upload/download handling and revision tracking
- Authentication complexity: Agency staff use SSO (SAML/OAuth via Okta/Azure AD/state IdPs), MFA, and role-based permissions that gate visibility per department
- GIS and parcel coupling: Permits, addresses, and inspections are tied to parcels and GIS layers that vary by jurisdiction and require spatial reconciliation
- Configuration—not customization: Accela emphasizes per-agency configuration over code, so workflow steps, record schemas, and fee logic differ enough to require tenant-specific mapping
How Supergood Creates Accela APIs
Supergood reverse-engineers authenticated agency portal flows, Civic Access citizen interactions, and Construct API surfaces to deliver a resilient API layer for your Accela tenant—without waiting on partnership reviews or one-off agency integrations.
- Handles username/password, agency SSO/OAuth, and MFA (SMS, email, TOTP) securely
- Maintains session continuity with automated refresh and change detection across jurisdiction-specific configurations
- Normalizes records, licenses, inspections, fees, and parcel data so you can integrate once and rely on consistent objects across agencies
- Aligns with each agency's role-based permissions and Civic Access portal scope to ensure compliant access
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Getting Started
- Schedule Integration Assessment
Book a 30-minute session to confirm your agency tenants, Civic Solutions in scope, and authentication model.
- Supergood Generates and Validates Your API
We deliver a production-ready Accela adapter tailored to the jurisdictions and workflows you operate against.
- Deploy with Monitoring
Go live with continuous monitoring and automatic adaptation as agency configurations and Accela releases evolve.
API Endpoints
Authentication
/authenticateAuthenticate against an Accela tenant using username/password, agency SSO/OAuth, or Construct API credentials, with MFA handling.
Records
/permitsList permit records (applications, complaints, service requests) for a jurisdiction with filtering by status, type, and date range.
Applications
/submit_applicationSubmit a new permit, license, or service-request application through Civic Access on behalf of an applicant.
Licensing
/licensesRetrieve business, occupational, alcohol, cannabis, and short-term rental license records and renewal status.
Inspections
/inspectionsFetch inspection schedules, checklists, results, and inspector assignments tied to records and parcels.
Inspections
/schedule_inspectionSchedule or reschedule an inspection against a record, including inspector assignment and checklist selection.
Use Cases
Automate Permit Application Intake
- Stream new permit applications from Civic Access into your downstream systems - Validate applicant, parcel, and contractor data against external sources - Trigger routing and review tasks the moment an application is submitted
Track License Renewals at Scale
- Pull business, occupational, and short-term rental license records on a schedule - Detect upcoming expirations and renewal status changes across jurisdictions - Push renewal notices, fee assessments, and status updates back into Accela
Schedule and Sync Inspections
- Read inspection schedules, results, and checklist items per record - Assign inspectors and update outcomes from field or third-party tools - Reconcile inspection events with parcel and GIS data automatically
Sync Citizen Access Portal Activity
- Capture resident-facing applications, payments, and service requests in real time - Mirror Civic Access status changes into CRM and constituent comms tools - Surface multilingual portal activity in a single normalized API
Technical Specifications
Authentication
Username/password, agency SSO/OAuth (Okta, Azure AD, state IdPs), MFA (SMS, email, TOTP), and Construct API credentials where partner approval is granted
Connectivity
REST endpoints over HTTPS with per-jurisdiction Civic Platform configurations and Civic Access portal authentication
Response format
JSON responses normalized across agency tenants
Rate limits
Tuned per agency tenant and Construct API allocation; Supergood smooths bursts and respects portal-side throttling
Session management
Automated session refresh, MFA handling, and continuity across jurisdiction-specific configurations
Data freshness
Near real-time for portal-driven flows; scheduled syncs for bulk record, license, and inspection pulls
Security
Encrypted credential storage, role-based permission alignment with agency departments, and audit logging
Webhooks
Supergood-emulated webhooks for record status, license renewal, and inspection result events when native hooks are unavailable
Latency
Sub-second reads for cached entities; portal-bound writes complete in seconds depending on jurisdiction workflow
Throughput
Scales to multi-tenant agency portfolios with per-jurisdiction concurrency controls
Reliability
Continuous monitoring with automatic adaptation to Accela releases and agency configuration changes
Adaptation
Per-jurisdiction record types, fee schedules, workflow tasks, and inspection checklists mapped into a unified schema
Frequently asked questions
The Construct API is gated through Accela's developer portal and partnership review, so third parties typically can't self-serve credentials for an arbitrary agency tenant. Supergood works with your existing portal access and Construct API allocation where available, so you can integrate without waiting on a partnership decision.
Each city, county, or state agency configures record types, fee schedules, workflow tasks, conditions, and inspection checklists differently. Supergood maps each tenant's configuration into a unified schema, so you integrate once and get consistent records, licenses, inspections, and fees across every jurisdiction.
Yes. Resident-facing application, payment, and inspection-scheduling flows often live in the multilingual Civic Access portal rather than the Construct API surface. Supergood reverse-engineers authenticated Civic Access interactions so you can pull citizen activity in real time and push status updates back.
Most agencies run Accela's hosted Civic Platform SaaS, but some operate on-prem or hybrid configurations. Supergood adapts to your tenant's deployment model, authentication stack, and portal endpoints, with no infrastructure changes required on the Accela side.
Supergood securely handles username/password, SAML/OAuth SSO via Okta, Azure AD, or state IdPs, and MFA (SMS, email, TOTP). Sessions are maintained automatically and aligned with each agency's role-based permissions and department-level scopes.