How do I help a resident who can’t find their permit on the portal?

The likely cause differs by product.

SDL Portal (NJ municipalities)

Common reasons:

The town isn’t an SDL client at all.
The town is an SDL client, but hasn’t enabled the portal.
It’s a non-construction permit. Most towns only enable public access for construction permits — for other departments, the resident would need to search for the property record first and navigate to the relevant department, and typically won’t see much detail even then.

Less common, but possible: - The portal is on, but construction permit search visibility specifically is off. - The permit hasn’t been entered into SDL yet. - The permit record is old, imported from a previous system, and has partial, missing, or incorrect information.

There isn’t a great way for a resident to self-diagnose which of these applies. If they try to create or switch to an account for a town that isn’t a client, that town won’t appear in the dropdown; if the town is a client but hasn’t enabled the portal, they’ll land on a page saying the town doesn’t allow public access.

For staff troubleshooting on the admin side, also check:

What’s publicly visible is configured under Portal Admin > Settings and Access > Data Display > Permits and Inspections — some towns limit this.
Whether the Online Permits tool has been activated — the button doesn’t appear by default; the town has to add it.
PortalSync status — portal data reflects the most recent sync. Check the Sync Dashboard at www.sdlportal.com/admin/syncdashboard if a recent permit isn’t showing.
Whether the permit was entered internally by staff — staff-entered permits in Desktop don’t automatically associate with a citizen’s portal account. That link only exists if the applicant submitted through the portal themselves.