Coming Soon - The NEW Permits Online

Posted 7/10/2018

 

It's been a few years in the making, but we are excited about the improvements we're making to Permits Online!  We gathered a lot of feedback, including through two usability studies with industry volunteers, and we took what we learned to create our roadmap for making these improvements.

The NEW Permits Online will be available on July 31, 2018.

The Wizard and the Application Package

We're adding easy to use wizards to help you identify, fill out, and submit a package of the applications you need in order to obtain or amend your TTB permits.  The wizards ask you a series of questions, and depending on your answers create an application package.

Once you've completed and reviewed all the applications you'll submit the entire package to TTB at once.

Entity Records and Commodity Operations Records

Information in Permits Online will be organized in two different kinds of records.  The entity record equates to a single company or business entity, represented by a unique Employer Identification Number (EIN).  A commodity operations record is created for each TTB-regulated operation or permit, registration, or notice the entity is approved for.

Amend the Entity Record Instead of Amending Each Permit

Because we are restructuring the records to separate the entity information from the commodity operations information, if your company holds multiple permits under the same EIN and you need to report changes about your business entity, like new owners or officers, you can file just one entity amendment application.  When approved, those changes will be associated with all permits for that EIN.

Submitting Multiple Amendments at One Time

Currently you are limited to submitting one change (or amendment) at a time, and you have to wait until TTB acts on that amendment before submitting another.  While you'll still have to wait for TTB to act before requesting additional changes, you'll soon be able to submit multiple amendments at one time.

Auto-approval of Certain Amendments

Labeling trade name requests

We recognize the importance of having labeling trade name amendments approved in a timely manner.  Soon most labeling trade name amendments will be automatically approved.  If the requested trade name passes certain system checks, your trade name amendment will be approved instantly*, otherwise, the amendment will get assigned to a TTB specialist to process.

Mailing address changes

Soon all mailing address changes will be automatically approved upon submission of your amendment*.

*It may take up to 24 hours for these amendments to be reflected on your approval documents, but the amendments are considered approved when you receive the automated approval notification.

OOIs and Personnel Questionnaires

The Owner Officer Information application (OOI) is (again!) called a Personnel Questionnaire.  Any OOI applications that you previously submitted in Permits Online are still labeled as OOIs and you can still associate them with new applications or amendments.

We've also significantly reduced the number of questions we ask on the Personnel Questionnaire, making it much less burdensome for applicants to complete.

Key Contacts

Permits Online will require that you designate at least one owner or officer of the business as a key contact.  The purpose of having a key contact is to ensure that there is a person at the TTB-regulated business who has access to all Permits Online applications and records for their company, rather than just the application contact, who may or may not have a long-term relationship with the permitted entity.

Paper Filers Can use Permits Online

We're transferring the records for applications that were submitted on paper forms into Permits Online.  With the exception of the few application types that cannot be filed through Permits Online, now most industry members will be able to submit all new and amended applications for those businesses electronically using Permits Online.

New "Delete" Function

We're adding a delete function to the Attachments section so if you accidentally upload the wrong supporting documents you can delete them before you submit your application.

Application Tracking Numbers

You'll no longer receive multiple tracking numbers for the same application.  Because we're splitting the application process into the business entity record and the commodity operations or permit record you will receive separate tracking numbers for each of those application types.  We're also removing the amendment type designation from amendment tracking numbers.

Serial Numbers

The format of the serial numbers appearing on your permits/registrations/notices will be changing. The new serial numbers will be the Julian date (year and day) that the application was filed.

Elimination of Environmental Information

We've begun the process of evaluating the information we collect in conjunction with applications, and we determined that it is no longer necessary for TTB to collect the environmental information appearing on TTB Form 5000.29.

What this means is that you will no longer see the environmental information questions in new or amended applications in Permits Online; however the questions pertaining to water quality remain.

We plan to continue to evaluate what information we need in order to make determinations about eligibility for TTB permits, registrations, and notices and will make further changes in the future.

Please note: Any draft applications for amendments you are working on (records you saved but haven't submitted - those with "TMP" in the tracking number) must be submitted by July 17th and any draft applications for new permits/registrations/notices must be submitted by July 25th.  They will no longer be available after those dates.