Reference 8 min read

Permit & pipeline glossary

Every term you'll meet in BuildMapper and on the permit paperwork itself, in plain language.

Permit paperwork

Building permit: Municipal authorization to construct, alter, or add to a structure. The core record BuildMapper tracks, ingested from municipal portals typically within 6–24 hours of filing.
Development permit: An earlier approval covering land use, siting, and form — in many municipalities it precedes the building permit, making it an even earlier signal.
Demolition permit: Authorization to tear down. On infill lots, the strongest leading indicator that a new-construction permit is coming.
Filed vs. issued: Filed = application submitted. Issued = approved, work may start. Trade windows run from the issue date; "in review" permits sit between the two.
Declared value: The construction cost the applicant declares, used to calculate permit fees. Usually conservative — read it as a floor.
Permit class: The category of work: new construction, addition, alteration, tenant improvement (TI), demolition.
TI (tenant improvement): Interior fit-out of leased commercial space. Fast-moving projects with compressed trade windows.

Fit score: 0–100 rating of a permit against your profile — nine factors summed into five buckets: Timing (36), Project fit (20), Location (18), Connections (20), Reachability (6).
Hot / Warm / Prospect / Watch: The priority tiers: 70+ / 40–69 / 14–39 / under 14. Pin colors match.
Qualification gates: Rules that demote a raw tier — Hot requires real trade-window timing, so relationship points alone can't fake urgency.
Trade window: The span of days after permit issue when a project realistically buys your trade — e.g. framing runs day 14–42, finishing day 98–140. Bigger projects stretch their windows.
Territory: Up to 5 service-area polygons you draw on the map. Permits inside earn up to +12 location points.
Project view: The unit of the free plan: opening a project's full details (address, builder, contacts) spends one of your 25. Browsing the map, scores, and table is always free, and viewed projects stay unlocked forever.
Reachability: The score bucket that grades contact quality — how good the phone and email on file are, shown before you dial.

Pipeline stages: New → Contacted → Quoted → Won / Lost by default, plus any custom columns you add. Drag cards between columns; each shows count and total value.
Scout: The AI wired into your scored territory and pipeline. Returns ranked permit tables, compares markets, flags stuck deals, and drafts outreach emails.
Watchlist: Builders and areas you track. New matching permits land in your notification inbox under the WATCHLIST label — the lead comes to you.
Notification inbox: The bell. Tabs for Hot, Watchlist, Calendar, and Stale, grouped by Today / This week / Earlier, with snooze.
GC (general contractor): The company running the whole build, who hires subcontractors. Usually your buyer if you're a trade.
Sub(contractor): A trade company hired by the GC for one scope — roofing, electrical, drywall.
Tender / bid invite: A request to price a scope of work. Getting on the invite list before it closes is what permit timing is for.
Take-off: The material quantity estimate derived from plans — the supplier's equivalent of a bid.