Signals explained

A signal is one dated, evidence-backed thing that happened to one business — not an opinion about it. Each signal keeps the record that produced it, so every claim on a profile can be traced back to a licence or permit row in the City of Calgary’s open data. Signals are generated once a day after the day’s import.

Signals also carry ranked service needs: the kinds of B2B service that type of business typically buys when this happens. Those are matched from the business’s category, not inferred from anything the business told us.

New business

A new licence appears in the data. This is the core lead signal — a newly licensed business, which may not yet have set up insurance, bookkeeping, a POS system or signage.

We check every new licence against earlier City records. One with exactly the same name and address as an older licence is treated as a re-issue and filtered out before this signal is emitted. Where the name is close but not identical, or the older licence is at another address, the signal stays and the profile is marked “Previously licensed”. The check has limits: a licence with no issue date cannot be checked, and a changed name can fall below the match.

Permit activity

Building or development permit activity at a business’s address — a renovation, an expansion, a change of use. It says money is being spent on the premises. A permit at an address does not always belong to the business currently licensed there, so verify the relationship before acting on it.

Each one says what the permit is for— a change of use, interior work, signage — which is the difference between “the space is being repurposed” and “the sign is going up”. You can filter the signals feed by permit purpose.

Contact check

We found public contact details for a business we had none for. It is not an event in the business’s life — it is an event in ours, and it is here because “this lead is now reachable” is worth knowing. Where the details came from is on the contact data page.

Category growth

A sector-level trend rather than a business: notably more new licences in one category than the preceding period. There is no business attached and no contact to act on — it is context for deciding which sector to prospect.

Possible closure

Not switched on yet

A licence cancellation or expiry. The detection is built and tested, but it is not running in production yet, so you will not see closure signals on the site today. When it is enabled, closures will appear alongside the other types and in the exports.

When a business that is opening is the third-or-later address of an operator already licensed in Calgary, its chip reads New location instead of New business, and its profile carries a Chain badge. Those signals are hidden by default on the lead-facing lists, because a franchise’s eleventh outlet usually buys insurance, bookkeeping and POS centrally. Tick Show chain locations (or add ?chains=1 to the URL) to include them; the service needs shown for a chain location are narrowed to what is bought locally — signage, cleaning, waste, local marketing.