Online Payment Software for Local Government
Collect Permit Fees, License Renewals, and Code Fines Online
GovOwl collects your agency’s fees online, so no one has to drive to the office with a check. Permit fees, license renewals, inspection fees, and the fines on the notices and letters you send are all collected around the clock. Because GovOwl issued the permit, the payment posts back to it, not into a separate system your finance office has to reconcile by hand.
Your Fee Schedule, Built as a Fee Table
The applicant picks the item and the invoice is calculated from your fee schedule, not typed in by a permit tech reading off a laminated sheet. Most agencies work from a dropdown: a food permit, a septic or OWTS permit, a health permit renewal, a pool or well permit, a business license, a code violation fine. When a fee depends on square footage, valuation, or another formula, the table runs the formula. We build the table with you during setup, and when your council adopts a new schedule you can change it yourself, without calling us.
From the Counter to the Website, One Ledger
The payment comes in by credit card or ACH. Penalties and late fees apply on schedule, and staff stop processing checks by hand. Payments taken at the counter run through the same system, so the window and the website are one ledger, and a receipt goes out either way, emailed or printed.
Reconciled Against the Record
A permit fee reconciles against the permit and a fine reconciles against the case. Deposits tie out by day, by fund, and by program, and what your finance office needs at month end is a report rather than a reconstruction. Refunds and voids post back to the same record, so the history stays whole.
Works With Your Processor, or Ours
Keep the payment processor your agency already uses, whether that is Authorize.net, Stripe, GlobalPay, TylerPay, Catalis, CoreBT, or Paystar, or we bring one. Payments run on a PCI-compliant processor, so sensitive card data never lives in your system. You are not locked into one vendor’s payment system, and you can run a convenience-fee model so the agency keeps the full permit fee while the payer covers the processing cost.
Related Programs
Portal | Online Applications | Permitting & Licensing | Environmental Health | Building
Tell Us What You Collect
Tell us what your agency collects and we will show you how it runs online.