What's new
Changelog
Every change that makes CrossBeam better for the cities and builders who use it, written up the night it ships.
Thursday, October 8, 2026
PreCheck flags out-of-area plan sets and skips billing
When the drawings name a property in another city, the PreCheck round is not billed to the city. The review reads the printed address and checks the parcel's jurisdiction, and the usage page shows the round grayed out as "Not billed · Outside" the city.
Wednesday, October 7, 2026
PreCheck brief thumbnails recover from expired links
Step thumbnails on a PreCheck brief left open for a while now reload their sheet when the image link expires, instead of showing a broken image. Clicking one shows a spinner, then the close-up fades in once, already framed on the spot, with no slide or blank frame.
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
PreCheck assistant explains pin colors correctly
Asked what the pins on a sheet mean, the assistant now gives the same answer every time: red is a correction, orange needs review, green passes, coral marks an unreadable result and grey is not applicable. Four help pages that listed a nonexistent purple pin now match the sheet viewer.
PreCheck queue shows submit time and applicant email
Each row on the staff PreCheck tab now shows when its latest round was submitted in Pacific time ("Submitted Oct 5, 2:14 PM", or "Started" for an unfinished upload) and the applicant's email on its own line. Search matches the email too.
PreCheck assistant shows only the answer
Applicants no longer see a stray "I need to look up..." line above an answer. Any text written before a help-page lookup is held back and dropped from the stream, so only the final answer appears; short direct answers now arrive all at once.
PreCheck assistant stops guessing at FastPass timing
The PreCheck page assistant no longer announces that it is looking something up, and no longer invents reasons for FastPass turnaround. It now says FastPass is priority review with no set timeline and sends timing questions to the Building Division.
PreCheck assistant answers questions about the whole flow
Applicants on a city's PreCheck page get real answers about submitting, rounds, re-checks, corrections and FastPass instead of "I don't have information". The assistant draws on a built-in guide to the PreCheck flow and opens the relevant help-library page when it needs more detail.
Monday, October 5, 2026
Change permit type hidden when the router decides
On runs where the AI review names the permit from the documents, such as every Buena Park PreCheck, the Change permit type button is gone. Before, it opened an empty dropdown and restarted the run without changing the permit.
Re-checks grade the step as the applicant read it
A brief step now passes when the sentence the applicant read is done, and the re-check searches related sheets before calling a step open. Brief cards show why each comment matters under its title and drop the who, time estimate and step count.
Brief runs show only Your brief and Findings
On a PreCheck run with an applicant brief, City staff now see the same two tabs as the applicant, Your brief and Findings. Empty builder tabs such as Action Items no longer appear. Runs without a brief keep their usual tabs.
Sunday, October 4, 2026
FastPass at half or more of the brief's steps
A PreCheck re-check now grades each step of the round 1 brief with the same sheet verifier Backcheck uses. FastPass is earned when half or more of the steps are done, with half credit for a partly done step. Anything missing from the upload counts as open.
PreCheck re-checks grade only the requested fixes
A round 2 PreCheck grades only the items the applicant was told to fix: fixed, partly fixed, still open, or not in this upload. The counts are computed once, so the email, FastPass and results card agree. Re-dropping the same address offers "Re-check my fixed plans".
Brief results open without a flash of other tabs
Opening a brief from the results email no longer shows the default PreCheck tabs and counts for about two seconds before switching. The loading skeleton holds until the brief's tabs are ready, and the brief draws once.
No permit-type picker when uploading a corrections letter
Applicants who upload a corrections letter no longer pick a permit type, and "Not sure" no longer defaults to an ADU. The AI review reads the letter and plans, names the permit kind, and runs and prices the corrections read as that kind.
Saturday, October 3, 2026
City staff see PreCheck corrections runs
Corrections-letter runs now appear in the City's PreCheck queue, staff summary and weekly digest, with a Corrections pill and the round at that address. Applicants are told each read uses a free round, and the results email points them to the open questions.
Resubmittal briefs keep round 1 comment numbers
On a resubmittal, the brief keeps the first round's comment numbers, marks each comment Still open or New this round, and lists cleared comments under their old numbers. The re-check card reads, for example, "3 of 4 previous comments cleared".
Redesigned PreCheck results and re-check emails
The round 1 email now opens with the brief's summary, lists what already works, and shows the steps in work order, with no red to-do counter. The re-check email leads with the FastPass result: the certificate and code if issued, or how many items remain.
No false slow-run email after a review is re-finished
Applicants no longer get a "Your PreCheck is taking longer than usual" email when only the final step of a finished review is re-run. The stuck-run check now looks at the newest run, including re-finishes, and skips them.
PreCheck results now arrive as a short applicant brief
Buena Park PreCheck applicants get a short, ordered brief instead of a list of roughly 300 worksheet checks. It groups the failed and flagged findings into steps in work order, and each step cites the findings behind it.
Address suggestions span the full field on phones
The address suggestion list on the PreCheck form now matches the full width of the address field, including the city tag, at every screen size instead of running short on phones.
PreCheck landing and staff board fit phones
On phones the PreCheck upload box now appears on the first screen and reads Tap to choose your plans. On the city staff board, project rows keep their names and addresses, badges wrap instead of clipping, tabs scroll on one row, and the PreCheck queue shows whole addresses.
Friday, October 2, 2026
PreCheck results work on phones
On phones, result tabs scroll on one line, the findings toolbar keeps search and Assistant in reach, and Assistant opens as a bottom sheet. An opened finding shows its full title and a Show on sheet button, the plan sheet drawer opens at 75% of the screen, and wide tables scroll in their own box.
Email typo check, round numbers and a Re-check button
The PreCheck form now suggests a fix for near-miss email domains like gmial.com, and the Terms step fits phones with the checkbox in a sticky footer. Receipts, status pages and emails show Round 2 of 3 for this address, and results have a Re-check your revised plans button showing free rounds left.
PreCheck receipt updates live until results are ready
The page shown after submitting now tracks the run's stages and changes to Your results are ready when it finishes. The emailed status page also checks status on a timer, so it switches to results even if the live connection drops.
One consistent PreCheck time estimate
Every applicant screen and email now says results take 30 to 90 minutes, including the intake page, receipt, live status ticker, FAQ and receipt email. The range comes from completed reviews on real plan sets, which took about 35 to 70 minutes.
PreCheck retries never fall back to round one
When a retried PreCheck cannot confirm which round it belongs to, the retry is now stopped and flagged for follow-up before anything starts, instead of assuming round one and recording the review against the wrong round.
Daily limit on the PreCheck results chat
The chat on the PreCheck results page now follows the same per-user daily usage limit as every other chat, and shows a Chat paused notice instead of silently dropping a message. City staff accounts are no longer mistaken for applicants and keep Job Sites, Drive and the general chat.
Focused PreCheck accounts and slow-run notices
Applicants with only city-paid PreChecks now see just Projects and their city's Ask AI assistant, without Job Sites or Drive. If a run is still going at 90 minutes, the applicant gets one email saying results are taking longer than usual and will arrive by email.
PreCheck email link opens a live receipt
The link in the PreCheck receipt email now opens the same receipt card applicants saw after submitting, with live stages (Extract, Research, Review, PreCheck Report), a progress bar and elapsed time. City artwork on the receipt now crossfades slowly instead of popping.
Thursday, October 1, 2026
PreCheck billing months follow Pacific time
The usage dashboard, invoices and month picker now follow the Pacific calendar month, so a run on the evening of the last day of the month counts toward that month instead of the next.
Help article for reading applicant PreChecks
City staff in a PreCheck program now find a PreCheck category in Help, with an article on finding the PreCheck tab, searching by address, what each status means and what the staff summary shows. Only staff who can see the tab see the article.
Abandoned PreCheck uploads are cleaned up
An upload left unfinished for 24 hours, for example after the applicant closed the tab, is now removed along with its stored files. The PreCheck FAQ assistant now says phone photos in JPG, PNG or HEIC are accepted and that a PDF plan set reviews best.
PreCheck tab on the city staff board
City staff in a PreCheck program get a PreCheck tab under Plan Reviews, with one searchable row per address showing round, free rounds used, permit kind and true status. Opening a row shows a staff view that labels failed runs Needs attention and links to the other rounds at that address.
iPhone HEIC photos accepted and read
HEIC and HEIF photos from iPhones are now decoded to full-resolution JPEG, stored upright, with camera and date read from the photo's metadata. Decoding runs off the main request path so large photos do not slow other work, and a photo that cannot be read gets the same clear per-file message as any bad image.
TIFF scans accepted for review
Applicants can upload TIFF scans on every intake flow. Each multi-page TIFF is converted to a PDF page by page and reviewed like any other plan set, and the file picker and upload copy now list PDF, JPG, PNG or TIFF.
PreCheck intake skips empty files and fits phones
A 0-byte file is now left out as it is added, with a message naming it, so the rest of the plan set submits instead of failing at the upload check. On phones the form fields start on screen, and the page now passes accessibility checks for landmarks, headings and the address list.
Clearer PreCheck results page and emails
City-paid PreCheck applicants no longer see the builder welcome tour, and a visitor signed in to the wrong account gets a plain explanation instead of a database error. Clear-cut corrections use a neutral bullet instead of a green check, the stats pill fits on phones, and failed emails are no longer dropped silently.
Slow server start no longer locks a PreCheck address
When the review server is slow to start, applicants now see "We've got your plans" instead of an error. Within minutes an automatic retry either starts the review or releases the address and sends a retry link, so resubmitting is never refused.
PreCheck checks every file as you add it
Each uploaded file is now checked the moment it is added: unreadable files get a red marker and a specific fix, such as plotting DWG drawings to PDF. A summary offers to remove unsupported files, and Submit stays disabled until they are gone.
PreCheck states it may miss requirements
Before starting, applicants now confirm that PreCheck may not catch every code requirement and that City staff may find more corrections in plan review. The terms add a matching "Not a Complete Review" section, so every applicant re-accepts the updated terms.
Share PreCheck results without forwarding email
The PreCheck results page now has a Share button that gives designers revocable, read-only access after they sign in with Google or Microsoft. Opening an emailed results link in a browser signed in as someone else no longer switches that session.
Free PreCheck rounds count per unit, not per address
Each condo, apartment or suite at one street address now gets its own free PreCheck rounds instead of sharing them. Unit spellings like "#A", "Unit A", "Apt A" and "Suite A" are normalized to the same unit, and addresses without a unit work as before.
PreCheck applicants never see a failed review
For city-program PreCheck, a run that hits an error keeps showing the processing view while support reruns it, and after an hour the estimate switches to a high-volume notice. Program applicants no longer see error text, retry or refund prompts, the paywall, Cancel review, or an unusable credits row.
Failed PreCheck runs no longer email applicants
When a city-program PreCheck run fails, only CrossBeam support is alerted and reruns it; the applicant no longer receives a "needs another try" email. Runs that produced no output are flagged in the alert so they are rerun first.
Buy another PreCheck round after the free ones
After an address uses its city-paid PreCheck rounds, the applicant can upload the next version and pay by card in the resubmit dialog; payment grants the credits and starts the review. Emails for that round drop the city-sponsored wording.
Large PreCheck uploads resume where they stopped
Large plan sets on the public PreCheck intake now upload in 6 MB resumable chunks, so going offline, a hung request or switching apps on a phone resumes from the last confirmed chunk instead of restarting the file.
PreCheck uploads survive stalls and dropped connections
A stalled upload is aborted and retried with backoff once the device is back online, closing the tab mid-upload asks for confirmation, and a failed upload offers Try again, which re-sends only unfinished files to the same project instead of creating a duplicate.
PreCheck applicants see a progress bar while reviewing
City-sponsored PreCheck runs now show phase markers and an animated progress bar that advances with the review, in place of the raw activity log. The bar respects reduced-motion settings and other contractor runs are unchanged.
Resend link opens the review that is running
When an applicant submits twice at the same address while the first review is still running, the 'send my link again' email now opens the active review instead of the second submission that was refused.
Applicants now see the PreCheck name and new terms
Every applicant-facing email, results page, certificate PDF and terms page now uses the PreCheck name, and the terms move to a new version that applicants accept once on their next submittal.
Used-up PreCheck addresses see the next-round option
Once an address has used its free PreCheck rounds, the results page replaces the next-version button with a notice showing the price of the next round, and the resubmit dialog explains the refusal in the same words.
PreCheck refuses addresses outside city limits
The intake now checks a geocoded address against the city's incorporated boundary before anything is created. An address in a neighboring city is refused right away, naming that city, and the applicant gets an email pointing to a regular paid pre-check instead.
Plain-language PreCheck errors and refreshed terms
Every error the PreCheck intake, retry and resubmit dialogs can return now shows written guidance instead of a raw error code, round-limit messages show the actual limit, and an applicant whose terms page went stale is prompted to read and accept the current version.
Expired PreCheck sign-in links lead to a fresh link
An applicant who opens an expired or already-used emailed sign-in link now lands on their city's PreCheck intake page with the resend form open, instead of a password login they never set up. If the browser is already signed in, they go straight to their results.
Long PreCheck reviews keep their billing hold
A PreCheck review still processing, or paused waiting on applicant answers, past 24 hours now keeps its address hold and billing record, so it completes and is charged correctly. Only submittals that never started are released by the daily cleanup.
One PreCheck receipt for every submittal round
Resubmitting revised plans for round 2 or 3 now sends its own submission receipt email. Each round is tracked separately, so a retry within the same round still never sends a duplicate.
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
PermitReady FastPass certificate for strong re-checks
Buena Park pre-check applicants who resolve more than half of the prior round's Fix items on a re-check earn a printable FastPass certificate to attach to their plan check submittal. City staff can confirm it on a public verify page; it does not promise faster review.