Licenses and permits
Keep every license, permit and certificate your business holds in one list, with its document, and get a reminder before each one expires. A lapsed retail food license can stop you selling; nobody should learn about it from an inspector.
You'll find it in Settings → Licenses & permits. If your business has a compliance add-on (HACCP, FDA Acidified Foods or Cottage Food), the Compliance section of the sidebar links to the same page.
Licenses and permits are part of every plan, Free included.
What to add
Start with your state retail food license (or food establishment permit) if you sell food. It's usually issued by the state Department of Agriculture, sometimes by the county health department, and it's the one that stops sales when it lapses. If you cater, do meal prep, or sell food in person, Iris's plan on your dashboard asks for it with Add your retail food license until one is in the list.
Then add the rest. Each entry has a kind:
| Kind | What it is |
|---|---|
| Retail food license | The state retail food license or food establishment permit |
| Food processing license | A manufactured food or food processor license, for food sold wholesale or shipped |
| Mobile food unit permit | The permit for a food truck, trailer or cart |
| Health permit | A county or city health department permit |
| Cottage food registration | A state cottage food registration or permit, for food made in a home kitchen |
| Food manager certificate | A certified food protection manager certificate. It belongs to a person |
| Food handler card | A food handler card or certificate for a member of staff. It belongs to a person |
| Business license | The general business license from your city or county |
| Sales tax permit | The state permit that lets you collect sales tax |
| Alcohol license | A license to sell or serve beer, wine or spirits |
| Other | Anything else. Give it a name you'll recognize |
Not a food business? The list works the same for a business license, a sales tax permit or anything else that expires.
Adding a license or permit
Click Add license or permit. A panel opens on the right.
- Kind comes first, because it decides what else the form asks. A known kind names the entry after itself until you type your own name ("Retail food license, Main St kitchen"). Other asks you for the name.
- Location or Holder:
- For most kinds, pick the location it covers: one of your warehouses (a kitchen, a shop, a food truck), or Whole business.
- For a food manager certificate or a food handler card, the form asks for the holder instead: the person's name. They don't need to be an Iraca user, and a person's certificate has no location.
- Number, Issued on and Expires on. Most licenses expire: leave the expiry empty only if this one never does, because without it there are no reminders.
- Issuing agency, State and County or city, so you know who to call when it's time to renew.
- Document: the license itself (see Documents).
- Notes: conditions, renewal steps, who to call.
Click Save. Owners and admins can add and change licenses. On a team with roles, it's anyone whose role has the compliance permission Manage plans, processes and inspection packets (the Compliance Officer role has it); anyone with View compliance records can see the list and download documents.
The list
Each row shows the name, the kind, the location (or the holder, for a person's certificate), the number and the expiry date with its status:
- Valid: more than 60 days left.
- Expiring in 23 days: 60 days or fewer left. Expires today on the last day.
- Expired: the expiry date has passed.
- No expiry: no expiry date entered.
A file icon means a document is on file. The soonest to expire comes first.
Use the filters at the top to narrow the list by status, kind or location. Needs attention shows the licenses that are expiring or expired: it's where the dashboard's attention card takes you. Archived and Previous versions show the licenses you've put away and the ones you've renewed.
Click a license to open it: its details, its document, Renew, Edit, Archive and its Previous versions.
Reminders
Iraca reminds the owners and admins of your business by email when a license reaches:
- 60 days before it expires,
- 30 days before,
- 7 days before,
- and on the day it expires.
All the licenses that reach a reminder on the same day go in one email, in your business's document language. Each reminder is sent once per license. If you add a license that's already close to expiring, you only get the latest reminder it has reached (a license added 20 days out gets the 30-day email, then the 7-day one, then the last one).
Expiring and expired licenses also appear in What needs you on the dashboard, the sidebar badge and the morning digest (see What needs you), until you renew or archive them.
Changing a license's expiry date starts its reminders again from the new date. Archived licenses and previous versions never remind.
Renewing
When the new license arrives, open the current one and click Renew. Enter the new number, dates and document; the kind, name, location, holder and agency carry over.
Renewing doesn't overwrite anything. The license you renewed is kept, with its document, under Previous versions: an inspector can ask to see last year's license. A previous version is read-only, but you can still download its document.
Renewed by mistake? Delete the new license: the previous version becomes the current one again.
Documents
Attach the license itself, a scan or a photo: PDF, JPEG or PNG, up to 10 MB. You can attach it when you add the license, or later from the license's panel (Upload document, or Replace document if one is already there).
Documents are private. They have no public link; only people on your team who can view compliance can download them. Licenses often carry your business's identifiers and sometimes an owner's home address, so they're kept like resale certificates.
Replacing a document deletes the old file. To keep last year's document, renew the license instead of replacing its document.
Locations
A license can cover one of your locations: a warehouse in Iraca is any place with its own stock, such as a kitchen, a shop or a food truck. A license with no location covers the whole business.
Each warehouse in Inventory → Warehouses shows a short Licenses list with a link to the full page, filtered to that location, so a business with several sites sees each site's permits where it manages the site.
If you delete a warehouse, its licenses aren't deleted: they move to Whole business, and the license's history notes it.
Archiving and deleting
- Archive a license you no longer need (a site that closed, a staff member who left). It leaves the list and never reminds. Find it under the Archived filter and click Restore to bring it back.
- Delete is for a license entered by mistake. It deletes the document too. A previous version can't be deleted.
Related
- FDA facility registration: the FDA registration is still recorded on its own page.
- Before you start: what to have to hand when setting up.
- Team management: roles and the compliance permissions.