What actually happens when the clerk clicks a button.
Each council gets two web addresses: a private one where the clerk and councillors work, and a public one residents see. Below: the everyday things a clerk does, and what Council Works does automatically in response. One action by the clerk, several things handled by the platform, no manual chasing in between.
Publishes a meeting
The clerk builds the agenda, attaches the papers, and clicks Publish. Council Works handles the statutory notice, the email chain to councillors, and the public listing on its own.
Once. From the clerk's workspace.
Statutory notice period checked: 3 clear days for ordinary meetings, 7 for the annual meeting.
Notice + agenda pack emailed to all councillors, branded as your council.
Appears in each councillor's portal as the next meeting they need to attend.
Pre-read reminder queued to send 48 hours before the meeting.
Agenda pack archived in the Documents library, versioned.
Meeting listed on yourcouncil-pc.gov.uk so residents can see it.
Uploads a document
Upload once, pick who should see it, and Council Works puts it in the right place. There are three visibility levels: Private (clerk only), Council (clerk and councillors in the portal), and Public (residents, on the public site).
Picks Private, Council, or Public.
Sorted into the right Transparency Code category so you meet your publication duties without thinking about them.
Council or Public docs appear in the councillor portal alongside the meeting they relate to.
If marked Public, published to your site instantly; switch it back and it disappears just as fast.
If you've connected your council's OneDrive or SharePoint, a copy is mirrored there too.
Versioned, with who uploaded what and when, in the audit history.
Raises an approval
Any decision that needs sign-off: a cheque, a bank payment, a grant award, a policy adoption, a planning response, an FOI reply. The clerk raises it, and the right councillors sign from the portal. Approvals never get stuck in an inbox.
e.g. cheque, grant, policy, payment.
Required signatories fixed at raise-time. Later changes to standing orders never affect an approval in flight.
Each signatory emailed a link; they sign or reject in the portal with a note.
Pending approvals appear in each signatory's portal alongside their other tasks.
Signed record produced with who signed, when, and any note attached.
For payments, a payment instruction is generated and the approval is marked paid.
Tags a planning application
Planning applications come in automatically from PlanIt (or the clerk enters one by hand). Tagging an application for a meeting builds the agenda for you and, if you want, publishes a public notice residents can comment on.
From the PlanIt feed or entered by hand.
Added to the tagged meeting's agenda automatically, in the right section. The agenda builds itself.
Optional public notice on the planning page so residents can follow the application.
Councillors discuss the application inside the portal. The public never sees it.
Residents get a one-click link straight to the planning authority's official comment form.
Conflict-of-interest flag if the application matches a councillor's declared interest.
Signs in
No passwords to remember, lose, or rotate. The user enters their email and Council Works sends a single-use link that signs them in to the right place for their role.
At the private-site sign-in page.
A one-time sign-in link is emailed. Links expire within 30 minutes; the longest-lived ones live 14 days.
Click signs them in: the clerk lands in the workspace, councillors land in the portal.
Recorded in the security log with timestamp and IP, kept for 12 months.
Part ways
Switching supplier should be easy and end cleanly. Every council gets a fair export window and a clean exit on the published schedule. No leverage, no surprises.
In writing to legal@.
Service stays active during a 14-day export window so nothing rushes.
The council exports any data they want: documents, minutes, councillor records, audit history.
Tenant schema dropped at day 30 unless a longer handover is agreed in writing.
Purged from backups within the rolling 30-day backup window by natural rotation.
Below the surface
UK records, EU files
Your council's records and audit trail sit in the UK. Document files sit in the EU, with encrypted backups. Both are within UK data-protection rules.
Tenants kept apart
Each council's data sits in its own database schema. A user signed in to one council can never reach another council's data, by design.
Audit log, append-only
Every published meeting, signed minute, granted approval, and uploaded document is recorded with who and when. Nothing is silently edited away.
Want to see it on a live tenant?
Email us and we'll set up a 30-minute walk-through on a real council site, with your data shape, your standing orders, and your questions.