Custom VTH software for municipalities, environmental services, provinces, water boards and private certification bodies. An application portal for citizens and businesses, a practical back office for your case handlers, and an inspection app that keeps working offline, connected to your case management system and national standards.
VTH stands for Vergunningverlening (permit granting), Toezicht (supervision) and Handhaving (enforcement) — three processes that follow the same pattern in every municipality, province, environmental service and certification body, but play out differently under each legal framework. The Environment and Planning Act (Omgevingswet) governs the environmental plan, the DSO portal and the RO standards, but permit software covers much more: alcohol and hospitality licences, event permits, APV exemptions, parking permits, operating licences, permits under the Weapons and Ammunition Act, BRL and SCIOS certification processes — and all enforcement files arising from these processes.
We build custom software for organisations that can't get by with the standard packages (Centric Suite4 Omgeving, Pink Roccade Djoin, Squit XO, Decos JOIN-VTH, Open Wave), or that need to run alongside them for a specific flow the package doesn't support. We connect to the ZGW APIs, IMOW, STAM, IMRO and the DSO-LV, and we work just as readily for a municipality, an environmental service, a province or a private certification body with its own permit scheme.
In practice, every permit process comes down to the same core: an applicant submits something, an organisation assesses it against laws and regulations, a decision follows with deadlines and publication obligations, and then supervision steps in to check whether the permit holder complies with the conditions. What differs per permit type is the legal framework, the number of advisory roles, the processing time, the publication requirement and the enforcement powers. Good permit software accommodates that variation without forcing case handlers to adapt their way of working to a rigid package.
Not every client needs the same thing. We distinguish three patterns that we see often, frequently in combination and sometimes on their own.
The front end where applicants enter. DigiD for citizens, eHerkenning for businesses, an application flow that asks only what is needed, status pages, a my-permits overview, and integration with the BAG, KVK and the BSN interface. For private certification bodies, a separate login with its own account structure. We build the application flow as a dynamic decision tree: based on what the applicant enters on the first screen, the system determines which follow-up questions, attachments and supporting documents are needed, rather than putting everyone through the same long standard form.
The working environment in which case handlers take on cases, set internal advice requests, monitor deadlines and record decisions. Role-based: permit officer, legal adviser, enforcement officer, team leader. With workload overviews, advisory rounds, delegation and overrun alerts, connected to your existing case management system via the ZGW APIs. Deadline monitoring is critical here: a permit granted by operation of law because a statutory decision period was missed is immediately a political issue, so the software flags early, escalates automatically and keeps an audit trail of every deadline decision for later Public Records Act (WOO) requests.
An app on the phone or tablet of your supervisors, inspectors and enforcement officers. Offline mode for field checks, photos with GPS coordinates, smart checklists per permit type, and an enforcement flow from observation through warning, penalty payment and administrative enforcement. Everything syncs back to the file in the VTH application. For construction projects, the app works with Building Decree checklists per phase (foundations, structural work, handover); for events, with crowd safety and emergency response checks; for hospitality, with the mandatory control points under the Alcohol and Catering Act. Each is specific to the permit type, not one generic form.
A working permit environment that fits into your IT landscape, plus everything needed to manage it yourself and let it evolve with new laws and regulations.
Four situations in which a standard package does not fit and we are more often at the table together. If you recognise yourself in one of these, we would be happy to talk further.
Your municipality has a specific permit regime (think of a night-time permit, a moorings policy or an events register) that the standard package does not cover. Custom software alongside it, connected via ZGW, avoids endless workarounds.
Your environmental service carries out tasks for several municipalities and a province, each with its own mandates, templates and publication rules. A multi-organisation platform keeps the data separated without case handlers having to work across ten systems.
Provinces work within different frameworks from municipalities (Water Act, Nature Conservation Act, groundwater extraction, indirect discharges). Standard packages are built around the average municipality. Custom software makes statutory deadlines, advisory roles and publication obligations fit.
A trade association or certification body (BRL, SCIOS, SC certification) has no ZGW context but does have exactly the same processes: application, assessment, audit, withdrawal. A private licensing-light solution suits better than a municipal package.
With OneDayBuild, we turn your idea into something tangible in one day for €1,150, so you can see whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we credit the full cost.
Explore OneDayBuild →Permit software does not run in isolation. We work with the national standards the government chain relies on, and with the interfaces your existing IT landscape requires.
The five standardised APIs (Cases, Documents, Catalogues, Decisions, Notifications) to which the Dutch government landscape is aligned. We implement both as a consumer and as a provider, in line with VNG's current Gemma case type catalogue.
Message exchange with the Digital System for the Environment and Planning Act (DSO) for environmental permits. We connect to the STAM interfaces for applicable rules and to IMOW for the environmental plan format.
Retrieve applicants and objects from the correct base register so data does not need to be re-entered. BSN interface via Logius, KVK via API-Maatschappij, BAG queries via Kadaster.
Statutory publications to officielebekendmakingen.nl and lokaalbekendmakingen.nl in the correct publication format, with automatic generation of deadlines, the objection start date and attachments.
A conversation in which we understand which permit types you process, which legal frameworks apply, which systems will be replaced or retained, and how your case handlers work today. We also map which packages and integrations you already have (often Centric, Pink Roccade or Decos JOIN-VTH plus an in-house case system) so the new custom layer fits precisely alongside them rather than over them.
We model the application, assessment, supervision and enforcement flow for each permit type, retrieve the statutory deadlines and advisory roles, and check which standards (ZGW, IMOW, STAM, DSO-LV) apply. For municipalities and environmental services this often includes a workshop in which we work with your legal advisers and case handlers to clarify the division of competences and delegations, which prevents rework during the build phase.
A working build every sprint that your key users and legal advisers can test. We start with the most-used permit flow, then scale out to the less common ones, and build integrations incrementally. We develop the inspection app and back office in parallel: as soon as a permit type can be both applied for and processed, we immediately add the corresponding inspection checklist so an inspector can test the entire chain.
First a pilot with a clearly defined permit type, then a phased rollout across the full range of tasks, training for case handlers and inspectors, and ongoing maintenance for legislative changes, security and functional expansion. For government organisations, this also means periodic penetration tests, DPIA updates and alignment with the VNG information security policy and BIO standards.
What clients in permit projects usually want to know first.
A free, no-obligation half-hour introduction. We listen to your permitting regime, your current package and your pain points, and give direction where it helps you, including if the outcome is that a custom project isn't the smartest choice. We can then complement documents and case flows with workflow automation, or embed them in a broader project software for municipalities.
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