How We Build Contractor Profiles
Five steps from raw government records to the contractor profile you see on this site. No black boxes, no secret sauce — just public data, cleaned up and connected.
155,000+
Licensed Contractors
75M+
Building Permits
8390+
Permit Jurisdictions
Daily
License Sync
License Import
DailyEvery morning, we pull the full DBPR licensee data extract. This gives us current license status, expiration dates, trade categories, disciplinary actions, and qualifying business relationships for every contractor license the state has on file. We compare the incoming extract against what we already have and update any records that changed since yesterday.
The DBPR covers 22+ contractor license types, from Certified General Contractors (CGC) to Registered Plumbing Contractors (RP), across a database of 155,000+ license records. Every daily import adds newly issued licenses and refreshes any record the state changed.
Permit Collection
OngoingFlorida has no statewide permit database. Building permits live on individual county and city portals, and each one uses different software, different data formats, and different publication schedules. We collect records from 8390+ of these jurisdictions on an ongoing basis, keeping every region refreshed.
Every portal publishes differently, so each one requires its own integration. Some publish permits in near-real time; others batch updates weekly or monthly, which is why freshness varies by jurisdiction.
Data Normalization
Immediately after collectionRaw permit data from different portals is messy. One county formats a roofing permit as "Roof - Residential Re-Roof," another uses "RR-REPL," and a third writes "REROOF TILE TO SHINGLE." Contractor names show up as "SMITH JOHN" in one system and "John Smith d/b/a Smith Roofing Inc." in another. Date formats, address formats, and permit type codes all vary by jurisdiction.
Our normalization pipeline standardizes all of this into a single, uniform format. Permit types get mapped to canonical categories. Contractor names get cleaned and parsed. Addresses get geocoded. Dates get converted to a consistent format. The goal is that a search for "roofing permits in Miami-Dade" returns relevant results regardless of how the originating portal chose to label them.
Permit-to-License Matching
During normalizationThis is the hard part. A building permit names the contractor who pulled it, and we need to connect that permit to the right contractor profile in our DBPR-sourced database. Simple in theory, complicated in practice because of data quality issues on both sides.
We use a multi-strategy matching system that prioritizes the most reliable signals first — a verified license number on the permit itself — and only falls back to name and business-entity matching when built-in safeguards confirm it. Every match is confidence-scored, and anything that does not clear our threshold is held for review rather than shown on a profile. The result is project history you can trust, without false attributions.
Profile Assembly
ContinuousOnce a permit is matched to a license, it shows up on that contractor's profile as part of their verified project history. The profile combines everything we know: license status and type from DBPR, building permits from county and city portals, corporate standing from Sunbiz, and any reviews or photos added by homeowners or the contractor.
Profiles update as new data flows in. A contractor who pulls a new permit today will see it on their profile once that jurisdiction's next update is collected and the permit passes through normalization and matching. For high-volume counties like Miami-Dade and Broward, that typically means within a few days.
We match building permits to contractor licenses using a multi-strategy system that prioritizes verified license numbers first and applies built-in safeguards before accepting any name-based match. Every match is confidence-scored, and low-confidence matches are held for review rather than published — so the project history on a profile reflects real, verified work.
Source: FloridaContractorCheck permit-matching pipeline
Frequently Asked Questions
How does FloridaContractorCheck match permits to contractors?▼
Matching is the hard part, and we take accuracy seriously. We prioritize the most reliable signals first — a verified license number on the permit — and only fall back to name and business-entity matching when built-in safeguards confirm it. Every match is confidence-scored, and low-confidence matches are held for review rather than displayed, so the project history on a profile reflects real, verified work.
How many permit portals does FloridaContractorCheck index?▼
We index 8390+ county and municipal permit jurisdictions across Florida, covering the major metros and a growing list of smaller jurisdictions. Every region gets refreshed on an ongoing basis, and new jurisdictions are added regularly.
What is data normalization and why does it matter?▼
Every county and city uses different software, different permit codes, different name formats, and different date conventions. Data normalization is the process of converting all of these inconsistent formats into a single standard so that searching and matching work correctly across jurisdictions. Without it, a search for "roofing contractor" would miss permits labeled "RR-REPL" or "REROOF TILE."
What happens when a permit cannot be matched to a contractor?▼
Permits that cannot be confidently matched to a DBPR license are tagged as unmatched. They still appear on jurisdiction and county pages for transparency, but they are not attributed to any contractor profile. This usually happens because the source portal published the permit without a license number or with a name too generic to match safely. We would rather leave a permit unattributed than risk pinning it on the wrong contractor.
How current is the permit data?▼
It depends on the jurisdiction. Some county portals publish permits within hours of issuance; others batch-update weekly or monthly, and we refresh each source on an ongoing basis. The "last updated" date on a contractor profile reflects when we last received new data from that jurisdiction.
Can I trust this data for legal or financial decisions?▼
FloridaContractorCheck is a research tool, not a legal authority. Our data is sourced from public government records and we work to keep it current, but license statuses can change at any time. For contracts, insurance claims, or legal proceedings, always verify directly with the DBPR at myfloridalicense.com and with the relevant county building department.
See It for Yourself
Search any Florida contractor and see the pipeline in action: license status from DBPR, permit history from county portals, corporate standing from Sunbiz.