How to plan permits, licences and inspections before opening on a Gantt chart
Draw licence and permit reviews as waiting time, approvals and inspections as milestone gates, and read the slack each wait has before it moves your opening date. Restaurant example, plus the permit process behind one bar.
Permits, licences and inspections are the waits you control least before an opening. This guide shows how to put them on a Gantt chart as tasks and gates, so you can see how long each one may take before it moves the date.
The short version
- Split each approval into an application task, a review task with a duration, and a milestone for the approval itself.
- Hang every task that needs the approval from the milestone, not from the application.
- Put inspections after the work they inspect and before the opening, as a short task followed by a milestone.
- Read the slack: a wait that finishes well before it is needed can slip that many working days without moving the date.
- Use the Critical path toggle in the View menu to see whether a permit, a licence or the build-out sets the date.
A review is a task, an approval is a gate
Before a restaurant, shop or clinic can open, someone else has to say yes: a licensing authority, a building authority, a fire or health inspector. You decide when to apply, but not how long the review takes, and most of the work on site cannot start, or cannot finish, until the answer comes. That is why these waits so often decide the opening date, and why they belong on the plan rather than in a separate list.
Three things go on the chart for each approval. The application is a short task you do. The review is a task with a duration in working days, taken from the authority's stated time or from your own experience, which is waiting time you do not control. The approval itself is a milestone, a task of length 0, and every piece of work that needs it hangs from that milestone. An inspection works the same way, except that it comes at the end: it waits for the work it inspects, and the opening waits for it.
Once the waits are drawn, the chart answers the question you actually have: does this wait set the date? If a licence is granted well before the soft opening, it has slack, and the chart shows how many working days it could slip before the opening moves. If it is on the critical path, every day of delay moves the opening by a day. Turn on Critical path in the View menu to see which it is.
The example below builds the restaurant opening template. After it, the building permit process shows what happens inside the one bar called "Building permit review": completeness checks, comment rounds and resubmissions, each of which adds time. A flowchart draws those loops; a Gantt chart gives the whole thing one duration. Use the flowchart to agree how many rounds to allow, and the Gantt chart to see what that does to the date.
All durations are illustrative and real review times vary by country, city and authority. A timeline schedules the work; it does not obtain a licence or a permit, or pass an inspection. For the whole opening see /guides/new-location-opening-gantt-chart, and for clinics, where payer credentialing is the long wait, /templates/clinic-opening-gantt-chart.
A restaurant opening with three approvals, built in stages
Twenty-four tasks in five groups. Review times are illustrative working days. Open the spreadsheet panel to see the rows behind each stage.
A licence is an application, a wait and a gate
"Sign lease and confirm concept" (5 working days) leads to "Apply for food business and alcohol licences" (3) and "Licence review" (30), which is time you do not control. "Licences granted" is a milestone of length 0. With these numbers it lands on day 38.
The building permit follows the design
"Design kitchen and dining room" (10) has to exist before you can apply, so "Apply for building and change-of-use permits" (3) follows it and "Building permit review" (15) follows that. The permit review ends on day 33.
The build-out waits for the permit and ends in an inspection
"Carry out build-out" (20) cannot start before the permit, so it runs from day 33 to day 53. "Install kitchen equipment and extraction" (6) starts 12 days into the build-out, after the 25-day "Kitchen equipment lead time". "Build-out complete" leads to "Health and fire safety inspection" (3) and the gate "Inspection passed".
Menu and team fill the waiting time
The menu, suppliers and hiring all start soon after the lease, while the reviews run. "Set up suppliers and accounts" starts 5 days into "Develop and test the menu", and "Hire kitchen and floor staff" starts 8 days into "Recruit head chef and general manager". "Train staff and run kitchen trials" (6) needs a finished kitchen, so it waits for "Build-out complete" and runs alongside the inspection.
Three gates in front of the soft opening
"Friends and family soft opening" (3) waits for the trials, "Inspection passed", "Licences granted" and "Announce the opening and take bookings". The licence was granted on day 38 but is needed on day 59, so it has 21 working days of slack; the building permit and the build-out set the date. "Adjust menu and service" (3) leads to "Opening day" on day 65.
What happens inside the permit review bar
The building permit application process as a flowchart. Each loop it draws is time that the Gantt chart holds in one task.
Zoning comes before the application
"Zoning and land-use approval in place?" decides whether you can apply at all. If a variance or rezoning hearing is needed, that is another wait, and it belongs on the Gantt chart as a task of its own in front of the application.
Prepare, submit and pass the completeness check
Drawings, code analysis and the application form are your work; the intake completeness check is the authority's. "Application complete?" loops back to the form when something is missing, and each round adds days before the real review even starts.
Review, comments and resubmission
The application goes to the review disciplines, and "Review comments to resolve?" sends it back for revised drawings and a written response, which returns to plan review. Agree how many comment rounds to allow, and size "Building permit review" on the Gantt chart for that number.
Fees, conditions and the permit
The authority calculates fees and sets conditions, and the permit is issued only when "Fees paid and conditions met?" says yes. That moment is the milestone the build-out hangs from.
Inspections during the work, then the certificate
Once work starts, inspections at each stage can lead to a correction notice and reinspection before "Final inspection and department sign-offs" and the certificate. On the Gantt chart these sit inside the build-out and the inspection task; allow for at least one reinspection if your contractor expects one.
Building permit application process flowchart (submit to occupancy)
How it works
List every approval you need
Write down each licence, permit, registration and inspection the opening depends on, and who issues it. Check with the issuing authority which ones apply to your premises and activity.
Split each approval into three tasks
Add the application as a short task, the review as a task with the duration you expect in working days, and the approval as a milestone of length 0. Put them in their own group so the waits are easy to find.
Link the work to the approval
In Depends on, make each task that needs the approval depend on its milestone, for example the build-out on the permit. Do not link work to the application; applying is not permission.
Place the inspections
Add each inspection after the work it inspects, as a short task followed by a milestone, and make the opening depend on that milestone. Leave room for a reinspection if one is likely.
Read the slack and the critical path
Turn on Critical path in the View menu. A wait that is not lit can slip until it meets the task that needs it; one that is lit moves the opening day for day. Ask early about the waits that are lit.
Update the review times as you hear back
When an authority gives you a date, change the review task's duration so the approval lands on it. Everything that depends on the approval moves with it, and the critical path shows whether the opening moves too, before the build is booked.
Mistakes to avoid
Linking work to the application
Submitting an application lets nothing start. If the build-out depends on "Apply for building and change-of-use permits", the plan shows building work weeks before you are allowed to do it.
One task for the whole approval
A single bar called "Licence" hides how much of it is waiting. Separate your work from the authority's review, so you can see which part you can speed up.
Forgetting the comment rounds
Reviews often come back with questions. If the review task assumes one pass and two are normal for your authority, the date is wrong from the start. Use the permit flowchart to agree how many rounds to allow.
Reading the chart as approval
A milestone called "Inspection passed" is a plan, not a result. Keep the actual decisions, certificates and conditions in your own records.
Open the restaurant opening Gantt chart
Open the restaurant template, put in the review times your authorities give you, and see which approval sets your opening day.
Related guides
Frequently asked questions
How long does a restaurant licence or building permit take?
It varies widely by country, city, authority and the kind of premises. The template uses illustrative numbers. Ask the issuing authority for its stated review time and put that into the review task.
Should a review be a task or a lag?
A task, when you want to see it and report on it: it has a name, a bar and progress. A lag on a dependency, such as 3FS+15, works too, but the wait is then hidden inside a link.
What happens if a permit arrives later than planned?
Change the duration of the review task to match the new date. Everything that depends on the approval moves, and the critical path shows whether the opening moves too. If you would rather record the day the approval arrived, give the approval milestone a fixed Start on that day: the work before it stays where it is, and everything that waits for it moves.
Does QueryChart remind me when a review is due back?
No. The chart shows when each wait is planned to end. Reminders and correspondence with the authority stay in your own calendar or records.
Does this work for a clinic or a hotel?
Yes. A clinic adds registration and payer credentialing (/templates/clinic-opening-gantt-chart), and a hotel adds occupancy and operating permits after the building handover (/templates/hotel-pre-opening-gantt-chart). The pattern of application, review and gate is the same.