The company said that its new GovOS Business Licensing and GovOS Tax Filing products use automation and other features to bring more accuracy and efficiencies to those basic tasks of local governments.
More specifically, the tools allow for what the company called more data-driven insights into local markets, dynamic workflows, customized registration requirements, online guidance for the permitting process, the availability of multiple tax forms at once and auto-calculations designed to reduce math errors and the time spent on staff review.
“On a local government’s journey to digital transformation, the collection of taxes and the issuance of business licenses are vital functions that bridge online civic services and community engagement,” said GovOS President Kevin Lafeber in a press release. “Together with our Application Studio platform and Short-Term Rental Solution, local governments have the ways and means to keep business running as usual, no matter what curveballs get thrown at them.”
Texas-based GovOS said that some 30 clients already are using the tools.
That includes the city of Wheat Ridge, Colo., which has deployed both business licensing and tax filing.
“When the city adopted a short-term rental ordinance in early 2021 with a rollout in May 2021, we knew we needed a platform that we could implement and use with relative ease,” said Mark Colvin, the city’s finance manager, in the statement. “The GovOS Business Licensing platform is user-friendly and straightforward to apply for licenses and remit taxes, and it has allowed our team to streamline workflows for approving and issuing licenses.”
In August, GovOS said it was buying MUNIRevs, a Colorado-based firm that automates business tax collection, licensing and permitting for local governments. This new product launch builds off that deal.
MUNIRevs, which stylizes its name as MUNIRevs | LODGINGRevs, also sells technology that helps local governments keep closer tabs on short-term rentals via licensing and citizen complaints about those operations.
MUNIRevs, founded in 2011, has 150,000 users across nearly 200,000 businesses, and its technology has taken part in the collection of $1.55 billion in online tax payments and fees, according to GovOS.
Before that, in February, software provider Kofile announced it was launching GovOS as a subsidiary to take advantage of the ongoing move in government from paper to digital processes and services.