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DO YOU NEED A PERMIT TO INSTALL A BUSINESS SIGN? WHAT FASTSIGNS SAYS YOU SHOULD KNOW

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The nation’s leading sign and graphic center franchise shares what every business owner should know about permits, timelines and compliance before a new sign goes up

CARROLLTON, Texas, Aug. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Many business owners assume that once a sign is designed and built, it can simply go up. In reality, most municipalities require a permit before any exterior sign is installed, and skipping this step can result in costly fines, forced removal of the sign or legal liability.

That’s why FASTSIGNS®, a global leader in custom sign and visual graphics solutions, offers comprehensive guidance to help business owners understand the sign permitting process before they invest in new signage. 

“At FASTSIGNS, we want to set business owners up for success with expert advice that helps them navigate the complexities of sign surveying and permitting,” said FASTSIGNS Vice President of Marketing Theron Andrews. “Our goal is to ensure a business’s exterior signage is structurally sound, strategically positioned for maximum traffic impact and fully compliant with local zoning laws before a single sign goes up. Handling the regulatory side upfront means a business owner can focus on running their business instead of navigating city code enforcement.”

Key Takeaways

Most cities require a permit before installing an exterior business sign.Skipping permitting can mean fines, forced removal or legal liability.Permitting timelines range from a few business days to several weeks depending on sign complexity and jurisdiction.FASTSIGNS manages surveying, permitting and installation from start to finish.

Why It Matters
Failing to conduct a professional site survey or skipping the permitting stage can result in hefty fines, forced signage removal or legal liability. Most cities require permits before installing exterior signs because they can affect public safety and aesthetics, so permitting ensures a sign follows all municipal rules related to size, location and lighting before it ever goes up, preventing legal complications later on.

What Happens If a Sign Isn’t Permitted
An unpermitted sign can be flagged during a routine city inspection or after a complaint, leading to fines, a forced takedown or costly redesign to meet code. Liability exposure is also a real risk: if a property lacks proper, compliant signage and an accident occurs on the premises, such as a customer being struck in a parking lot without correct traffic signage, the property owner can be held responsible. Addressing permitting before installation is almost always faster and less expensive than resolving a violation after the fact.

Which Properties Need to Pay Close Attention
All commercial, public and multifamily housing properties must adhere to local signage laws, structural building codes and accessibility standards, but compliance is especially critical for:

Hospitality and medical facilities: hotels and hospitals that require clear emergency routing and visible code-enforcement signageMulti-family housing: apartment complexes and condominium communities that need compliant property boundary and traffic control markersRetail and dining establishments: shopping centers, strip malls and restaurants that must balance brand visibility with municipal size limits

How Long Permitting Takes
The timeline to secure a business sign permit varies significantly depending on local jurisdiction, zoning district restrictions and the complexity of the design. For example, basic wall or window signage takes approximately three to five business days to permit, while large-format, illuminated or freestanding monument sign permit requirements and zoning board review can take four to eight weeks. Cities may also require separate digital sign permit requirements for illuminated or electronic displays, given added regulations around brightness, motion and hours of operation.

Sign Variances
In some cases, a proposed sign may not fit within a city’s standard size, height or placement rules, requiring a formal sign variance application process. This typically involves petitioning the local zoning board for an exception, providing supporting documentation and, in many jurisdictions, attending a public hearing before approval is granted.

How Much Does a Business Sign Permit Cost?
Permit fees vary widely by city and sign type, often ranging from modest flat fees for small wall signs to several hundred dollars for large, illuminated or freestanding installations. FASTSIGNS’ upfront surveying and permitting process helps business owners understand these costs before committing to a design.

How FASTSIGNS Helps
FASTSIGNS manages the entire regulatory lifecycle of a sign project. Local experts conduct detailed on-site surveys, take precise structural measurements, analyze setback requirements and cross-reference sign concepts with current municipal codes. The FASTSIGNS project management team then compiles the necessary engineering documents, completes the paperwork and files for the exact zoning permits a property requires, actively managing interactions with zoning boards or other government agencies along the way, from initial blueprint auditing through final installation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a sign surveying and permitting service? Sign surveying and permitting services include mapping out the best spot for a sign installation, evaluating local regulations and obtaining essential permits to make sure the installed signage meets all city codes or regulations.

Why does a business need a permit for its sign? A business needs a permit for its sign because most cities require permits before installing exterior signs since they can affect public safety and aesthetics. Permitting ensures signage follows municipal rules related to size, location and lighting, preventing legal complications later on.

How much does a business sign permit cost?
The cost of a sign permit varies depending on the city, sign type, size and local requirements. Permit fees can range from minimal application fees to higher costs for larger or more complex signage. FASTSIGNS helps businesses understand local requirements and navigate the permitting process.

How long does it take to get a sign permit? The timeline to get a sign permit varies based on local requirements and can range from a few days to several weeks, depending on the sign type and jurisdiction.

What documents are required for a city sign permit application? Requirements vary by municipality, but most applications call for site plans, structural drawings, property or landlord authorization and proof that the design meets local zoning codes. FASTSIGNS compiles and files this documentation on the business owner’s behalf.

Who handles sign permitting for businesses? FASTSIGNS handles sign permitting for businesses from start to finish, including site surveys, code research, application filing and coordination with local zoning boards.

What happens if a business skips the permitting process? Skipping the sign permitting process can result in hefty city fines, forced signage removal or legal liability, along with potential owner liability if an accident occurs on a property due to missing or noncompliant signage.

Can FASTSIGNS handle the permitting process for a business? FASTSIGNS can handle the permitting process for a business by surveying the property, evaluating local regulations and obtaining the necessary permits, so signage meets all applicable city codes.

Where can a business start the survey and permitting process? Businesses can start the sign survey and permitting process through FASTSIGNS, which offers surveying and permitting alongside content development, graphic design, installation and project management. Find a local FASTSIGNS center at fastsigns.com/locations.

Do I need a permit for a temporary or banner sign? Many cities require permits for temporary and banner signage, particularly for size, duration and placement restrictions, so it’s best to confirm with local code before installation.

Who is responsible if a business sign violates code: the landlord or the business owner? Responsibility for business sign code violations varies by lease agreement and local ordinance, but business owners are frequently held liable for code violations regardless of property ownership, making it important to clarify responsibility before signage goes up.

Can FASTSIGNS help if my sign permit application is rejected? Yes. FASTSIGNS can revise designs, gather additional documentation and work directly with local zoning boards to resolve permit rejections and secure approval.

About FASTSIGNS®:
FASTSIGNS® is the leader in the custom signs and visual solutions industry. With over 40 years of experience, FASTSIGNS helps customers bring their vision to life and achieve more than they ever thought possible. As the largest service-oriented business within the Propelled Brands® family, FASTSIGNS spans over 790 independently owned and operated centers across the United States, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, the United Kingdom, Canada, Chile, Grand Cayman, Malta and Australia (where centers operate as SIGNWAVE®). FASTSIGNS is frequently recognized for franchisee satisfaction and for awards that include being ranked No. 1 in its category on ENTREPRENEUR’s highly competitive Franchise 500® List in 2026 for the tenth consecutive year, and continuous recognition from Franchise Business Review in categories such as Top Franchises for Culture, Women, Veterans and more. For more information or to learn about opportunities, visit fastsigns.com or contact Mark Jameson at mark.jameson@propelledbrands.com or call 214-346-5679.

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Lumos Launches MCP Governance to Provide Agent Runtime Security

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Security and IT teams get visibility and control over MCP usage and agent tool calls, starting with Claude Code and Codex.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Lumos, the identity management platform for the agentic era, is releasing MCP Governance for Claude Code and Codex. MCP Governance checks an AI agent’s permissions at the moment it acts, and blocks the action if policy does not allow it.

Enterprises are rolling out AI coworkers faster than they can govern them. An agent inherits the permissions of the person who launched it, and then works at machine speed. A single employee might delete one Salesforce record by mistake, but their agent can delete a thousand in seconds.

“We spent twenty years learning to govern humans, and we still have not finished,” said Andrej Safundzic, CEO and co-founder of Lumos. “Now we have agents doing the same work ten times faster. Just here at Lumos, with fewer than 200 employees, we measured over 450,000 agent actions in a single week. That kind of scale is impossible to track with old methods.”

The industry has answered this problem with inventory, but registering every agent only tells a security team that an agent exists. It does not tell them what that agent can reach, and it does not tell them what it did.

Lumos is taking a different position. Permissions set the upper bound of what an agent is allowed to do. What the agent actually does happens at runtime, and until now identity teams have had no way to govern that moment. MCP Governance moves the decision to the point of action.

“The teams I talk to are not trying to slow AI down. They are trying to say yes,” said Safundzic. “One customer would not turn on an integration for their marketing team because too many people had access to the underlying tool. That decision cost them pipeline. Governance at the moment of action is how you turn that no into a yes.”

“Identity has always governed what someone is allowed to do,” said Leo Mehr, co-founder of Lumos. “It has never governed what they actually did, because humans move slowly enough that review after the fact was good enough. Agents changed that. By the time you review an agent’s activity, it has already made a few thousand decisions. The only place left to govern is the moment before the action runs.”

MCP Governance extends the work Lumos has already done on non-human identity. Lumos maps every identity and permission across human, machine, and AI identities. MCP Governance covers the other half of the problem, which is control over what those identities do.

MCP Governance is available today for teams running Claude Code and Codex, with support for more agents to follow.

Learn more about MCP Governance by scheduling a demo today.

About Lumos

Lumos is the first identity platform built around autonomous agents, not manual workflows. Security teams use Lumos to give every human, machine, and AI agent a living control layer that watches and governs access in real time. Traditional identity governance was built for human workflows and periodic reviews. AI makes the problem bigger, messier, and faster: more identities to protect, more permissions to govern, and less time to catch abuse. Lumos helps teams at companies like Mars, Netskope, Assurant, and GitLab move faster, reduce risk, and prove compliance, all while keeping humans in control.

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Ande Raises $52M Seed and Series A to Launch The First Entertainment Operating System For Enterprises

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Ande brings corporate entertainment into a single platform and gives venues a direct channel to enterprise bookings.

NEW YORK, Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Ande, the AI-native network for corporate entertainment, emerges from stealth with more than $52 million in seed and Series A funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Duration Ventures, and Sierra Ventures, with participation from Bain Capital Ventures.

Enterprises spend an estimated $325 billion a year on entertainment from client dinners and team outings to catering, sporting events, and gifting. Yet the booking and expense management behind it is fragmented across credit cards, AP systems, and consumer apps creating an extremely manual reconciliation process for finance teams.

Ande brings structure to one of the last unmanaged categories of enterprise spend by giving teams a single platform to book entertainment effortlessly, while finance and legal teams keep full visibility and control over every dollar spent.

Ande’s agentic workflows surface venue availability, book experiences, route approvals, execute contracts, and reconcile expenses automatically. Executive assistants, office managers, field marketers, GTM teams, and their managers all work together in a single, multiplayer workspace in order to book team offsites and deal-closing dinners, while the agents move each request through approval, signing, and payment.

More than 60 enterprises already run their entertainment on Ande, reporting savings of 12 to 15 percent. Customers like Cloudflare, Salesforce, McGraw Hill, Netskope, Navan, Sigma Computing, Monday.com, Workato, Semgrep, Checkout, Rillet, and many more contribute to over $400 million in entertainment spend flowing through the platform annually.

“Entertainment is one of the most important things a company does. It builds culture, closes deals and deepens the relationships that matter most. Yet the infrastructure to manage it is broken on both sides of every transaction,” said Lohit Sarma, CEO and co-founder of Ande.

“Ande is the first enterprise channel between corporate buyers and the world’s best entertainment vendors. Part of the reason this is such a hard problem to solve is that venues and entertainment providers don’t have a centralized distribution system to plug into. We had to build it. We’ve spent two and half years working with venues to digitize their data, and train models and agents for these workflows that are unique to enterprises,” continued Sarma.

For venues on the other side of the transaction, Ande is the corporate sales and marketing channel that never existed. Venues have historically had no pipeline into the corporate market. Ande gives them a platform to market to, engage with, and transact with corporate buyers at scale. Among the current partners are 1,600 hospitality venues including some of the largest and most decorated hospitality groups like Altamarea Group, Che Fico, Gracious Hospitality, JKS, The Mina Group, MML, Nobu, Riviera Dining Group, Tao Group Hospitality, Unapologetic Foods, Bacchus Management Group, Wish You Were Here, and Wolfgang Puck. Over 93,000 entertainment venues are on Ande’s network today.

“Our programs are high stakes and high visibility, with our executive leadership team and key customers at the core of each event we host,” said Vicky Chung, Director of Corporate Events at Netskope. “My team and I trust Ande’s platform, and especially the team behind it. I have real-time visibility into what’s happening across every event, and when I need something done right, I know it will be. My team is now focused on reaching the executives that matter and scaling the program vs. worrying about the logistics.”

“Entertainment is every enterprise’s biggest expense line that is not yet well managed. For that reason, there are financial inefficiencies and a poor experience,” notes Arif Janmohamed, Venture Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners and Co-Founder of Duration Ventures. “Ande is the connective tissue, the perfect handshake between corporations and venues. Lohit is an exceptional founder, and the size of the market opportunity is largely unbounded.”

Redpoint Ventures Managing Director Alex Bard notes, “Particularly when we invest in an early-stage company, our confidence has everything to do with the founder and their ambition. Lohit has both startup DNA and the enterprise experience to solve this problem. His vision for Ande is bold and ambitious.”

About Ande

Ande is the AI-native network for corporate entertainment. Over 60 enterprises, including Cloudflare, Salesforce, and McGraw Hill already book, manage, and measure every experience through Ande, moving more than $400 million a year through a network of 93,000 entertainment providers across 90+ cities. For the vendors on the other side of the transaction, Ande is the dedicated corporate channel that’s never existed. Learn more at ande.ai.

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Ascensus Appoints John Shapiro as Chief Product Officer

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Experienced product leader to help strengthen client-centered innovation and advance the company’s next phase of growth

DRESHER, Pa., Sept. 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Ascensus, the engine at the center of America’s savings ecosystem, today announced that John Shapiro has joined the company as Chief Product Officer and a member of the executive leadership team. Reporting directly to CEO Nick Good, Shapiro will shape Ascensus’ enterprise-wide product vision and strengthen how the company develops and delivers products, makes decisions, and sets priorities across the business.

As Ascensus continues to enhance the client experience and position the company for its next phase of growth, strong product leadership will play an increasingly important role in helping connect client insights, business priorities, and technology to create more integrated solutions and better outcomes. Shapiro will lead the Product organization and help foster unified, client-focused, and outcome-oriented approaches to product development across the enterprise.

“Ascensus has tremendous momentum, and we’re investing in the capabilities that will help drive our next phase of growth,” said Nick Good, CEO of Ascensus. “Delivering an exceptional client experience is central to that strategy. We want to make it easier for clients and partners to do business with us while creating more connected solutions and better outcomes. John brings a powerful combination of client focus, product leadership, and business acumen, and I’m excited about the impact he will have as we continue to grow and evolve.”

“Ascensus stands out for its clear purpose, talented team, and unique position in the market,” said John Shapiro. “I’m thrilled to join the company at such an important time and help build on its strong foundation by creating solutions and experiences that deliver greater value for clients, partners, and savers.”

Shapiro joins Ascensus from Lightspeed Commerce, where he served as Chief Product Officer. Earlier in his career, he held product leadership roles at Wayfair, Intuit, and Adobe Systems. Throughout his career, he has built and led large-scale product organizations, bringing new ideas to market and helping businesses serving millions of users accelerate growth.

Shapiro earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Stanford University.

About Ascensus
Ascensus is the engine at the center of America’s savings ecosystem. The company makes saving easier by bringing together intuitive technology, AI, and high-touch service to support better financial outcomes for savers, small- to mid-sized businesses, state governments, and leading corporations and financial institutions. Ascensus offers comprehensive qualified and nonqualified retirement plan solutions, third-party retirement plan administration, 529 education and ABLE savings program administration, corporate- and bank-owned life insurance solutions, as well as fiduciary and total rewards services. The company supports over 16 million savers1 and oversees more than $1.3 trillion in assets under administration2 as of August 3, 2026. For more information, visit ascensus.com.

1 Figure includes American Trust Retirement recordkeeping participants
2 Figure includes AmericanTCS AUA

Contact:
Greg Winter, SVP of Communications, Ascensus
gregory.winter@ascensus.com

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