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Charter

Your GM shouldn't have to remember all of it.

Charter is not a replacement for the person running your location. It is the system behind them — one that reads every ordinance, never forgets a renewal, and knows about the requirement that has simply never come up before.

The permits operators miss most.

Not the health permit — everyone has the health permit. It is the grease interceptor on a kitchen that was remodelled, the assembly permit after the patio pushed occupant load past the threshold, the backflow test that lapsed when the plumber retired.

These are the findings that arrive as a notice rather than a reminder, and they are the ones Charter is built to surface first.

Washington DC restaurant · seeded obligation set

  • Basic Business License — Food services

    DC Code § 47-2851.02(a)

  • Sales and Use Tax Registration

    DC Code § 47-2026(a)

  • Certificate of Occupancy

    DCMR 12-A § 110.3

  • Food Establishment License

    DCMR 25-A § 4300.1

  • Certified Food Protection Manager

    DCMR 25-A § 203.1

  • Retailer's License Class C/Restaurant

    DC Code § 25-113(b)(3)(A)(i)

  • ABC Manager's License

    DC Code § 25-701(a)

  • Sidewalk Cafe Endorsement

    DC Code § 25-113.01(c)(1)

  • Hood Fire-Suppression System

    DCMR 12-A § 904.2.2

  • Assembly Occupancy Classification (Group A-2)

    DCMR 12-A § 303.1.1

  • Automatic Sprinkler System

    DCMR 12-A § 903.2.1.2

  • Grease Abatement System

    DCMR 21 § 1502.16

One location or ninety.

A single operator gets the same determination engine a ninety-unit group gets. What changes at scale is the view: obligations roll up by region, by brand, and by exposure, so an area director can see which four locations are carrying a gap without opening four dashboards.

Opening a new store.

Charter runs pre-lease feasibility against the address and returns the sequenced critical path — because a certificate of occupancy gates the health permit, which gates the liquor licence.

  1. Zoning verification

    Confirms the use is permitted before the lease is signed.

  2. Certificate of occupancy

    Gates everything downstream. Start here.

  3. Plan check approval

    Kitchen layout and finishes, reviewed before build-out.

  4. Health permit

    Cannot issue without the certificate of occupancy.

  5. Fire and hood sign-off

    Inspection scheduling is the usual critical-path risk.

  6. Alcohol licence

    Longest lead time. Posting and protest periods apply.

Run an audit on your busiest location.

It takes an address and about a minute. Start with the one you would least like to lose.

Run a free audit