Getting Started
This page takes an administrator from a freshly enabled module to a working eBOSS office: turn the module on, grant the right offices their access, configure your LGU, load starter reference data, and walk one business through to an issued permit in a training tenant. Do every step below in a test/training environment first — real permits are legal documents.
Prerequisites
- An ERPat tenant you can administer, with Settings access.
- Your LGU's Citizen's Charter, current Revenue Code / fee ordinances, and the list of requirements per business type — approved by your Legal Office and BPLO. eBOSS is a container for these; it does not supply legal content.
- The list of reviewing offices (Zoning, Sanitary/Health, Environment, Engineering/Building, Barangay, BFP liaison) and who signs the Mayor's/Business Permit.
- ERPat Departments set up for those offices, and the staff users who work in them.
Step 1 — Enable the module & run migrations
-
Turn on Business Licensing (eBOSS)
Go to Settings → Manage Modules and enable Business Licensing (eBOSS). This sets the
module_bploflag; the sidebar group and allbplo/…screens appear only while it is on. -
Create the eBOSS tables & starter reference data
Run the module migrations:
php erpat migrate:modules. This creates thebplo_*tables and installs a working starter set — an active default requirement rule set, an active default fee rule set, clearance types, inspection types, a requirement catalog, default Citizen's Charter services, and a violation-code catalog. On a multi-tenant install, run this for each tenant that will use eBOSS. Migrations are idempotent — safe to re-run. -
Confirm the menu appears
Reload ERPat. A Business Licensing (eBOSS) group should appear in the left sidebar with the Command Center and its sibling workspaces. If it does not, re-check Step 1 and that your role has the base
bplopermission (Step 2).
Step 2 — Grant eBOSS roles to your offices
Access is controlled by ERPat Roles (Settings → Roles). eBOSS adds its own permission group (category eBOSS and sub-categories such as eBOSS: Registry, eBOSS: Applications, eBOSS: Clearances, eBOSS: Inspections, eBOSS: Assessment, eBOSS: Payments, eBOSS: Issuance, eBOSS: Compliance, eBOSS: Governance, eBOSS: Reports, eBOSS: Portal, eBOSS: Privacy, eBOSS: Administration). The single most important key is the base Business Licensing (eBOSS) permission — without it, the whole group is hidden. Grant the rest by office. The full matrix is on Administration → Permissions; here are sensible starting presets:
| Office / role | Grant these eBOSS permissions |
|---|---|
| eBOSS Administrator | Everything, including bplo_settings, bplo_rules_activate, bplo_permits_revoke. Usually the chief/IT admin. |
| Receiving Officer | Registry (create/update), Parties, Applications (create/update/review), Documents verify. |
| Evaluator | Applications (review, assign, hold), Documents verify, Requirements decision. |
| Reviewing office (Zoning, Health, Environment, Engineering, Barangay, BFP liaison) | bplo_clearances_review, plus bplo_inspections_perform for offices that inspect. |
| Assessment Officer | bplo_assessments_prepare; a supervisor also gets bplo_assessments_approve (keep these two people separate). |
| Treasury / Cashier | bplo_payments_manage, bplo_payments_reconcile. |
| Issuance Officer | bplo_permits_issue; the Signatory gets bplo_permits_sign. |
| Rules Governance | bplo_rules_manage (draft) — and a different person holds bplo_rules_activate (four-eyes activation). |
| Compliance Officer | bplo_compliance, bplo_compliance_manage. |
| Read-only Executive / Auditor | Base bplo + bplo_reports only. |
_manage/_prepare keys to one role and _activate/
_approve keys to another. Admins bypass permission checks entirely, so keep
the admin role small.
Step 3 — Configure your LGU (Settings)
Open Business Licensing (eBOSS) → Settings (bplo/settings). This is
where the module learns who you are and how you number and time your permits. Set, at
minimum:
City/municipality name, address, and the label that prints on permits and shows in public verification.
The current permit/fiscal year that new applications default to and that numbering rolls over on.
The format and running series for application references and permit numbers, reserved atomically at issuance so numbers are never reused.
The processing-time clock behaviour used to track each application against your Citizen's Charter (RA 11032).
Exact setting keys and every field are listed on
Administration → Module settings. Every change
here is written to the audit trail (updated:bplo_settings).
Step 4 — Review & replace the starter reference data
eBOSS ships no hard-coded national checklist or fee table on purpose — different LGUs have different ordinances. Instead, Step 1's migration installs a generic example set that gets you running immediately and that you then review and replace with your approved ordinance values. That starter set lives in the governance workspaces:
- Requirement catalog & rule sets — in Permit Adviser & Rules
(
bplo/rules): the requirements a business can be asked for and the versioned rules that decide when each applies. A default rule set arrives active; when you build your replacement version it starts as a draft and needs a separate person to activate it (four-eyes). - Clearance types — the reviewing-office clearances (Barangay, Zoning, Sanitary,
Environment, Fire, Building/Occupancy) managed under Clearances & Inspections
(
bplo/clearances). The seeded Fire type is marked external (BFP) and verify-only — see the authority note below. - Inspection types & checklists — under Clearances & Inspections
(
bplo/inspections). - Fee rule sets — under Assessment & Billing
(
bplo/assessments). A default fee set arrives active; replace its rates with your Revenue Code values (each with the right accounting code). - Citizen's Charter services & violation codes — under Citizen's Charter
(
bplo/charter-admin) and Compliance (bplo/compliance). Publish the charter to make the public page live.
php erpat db:seed BploDemo, or the Bulk Database Seeder in the
Tenants tools) to add a couple of example businesses, owners, and in-flight applications
you can click through — separate from the functional reference data above. It is
reversible via the seeder's Remove seed data option. Exact names are on
Reference → Seeders & reference data.
Step 5 — Your first end-to-end permit (training run)
Walk one imaginary business all the way through so every office sees its part. From the registry to a released permit:
Register the business & its owner
Business Registry → add a business, a branch/location, and its activity; Owners & Representatives → add the owner and link them to the business.
Create a new application & run the Permit Adviser
Applications → new application for that business; answer the adviser so eBOSS materialises the exact requirement list, then submit.
Verify documents & clear any deficiency
Upload the required documents, verify each, and if something is missing issue the single consolidated deficiency notice and resolve it.
Run clearances & an inspection
Have each reviewing office review its clearance; schedule and perform an inspection, record a finding, and pass the re-inspection.
Assess & collect
Prepare the assessment, have a supervisor approve it, record the owner's payment, reconcile it, and post it to Finance.
Gate-check, issue & release
Open Issuance, run the gate check (it lists every unmet condition), then generate → sign → issue → release the permit.
Verify in public
Scan the permit's QR (or open
bplo/verify) and confirm it returns a valid status with only public-safe facts.
The click-by-click detail for each of these is on Daily Operations. Once your training run works cleanly and your reference data reflects your real ordinances, you are ready to onboard real businesses.