How to Guide

Business owners can use My Business Dashboard to manage their transactions with the City of New York.

To get started:

• Create an NYC.gov account, or log in to an existing one.
• Go to My Business Dashboard and create a Business Profile for your business.There are detailed instructions for the Create Business Profile page here.
• Search our database of business transactions, and then add those transactions to your profile for easy reference. There are detailed instructions for the Search page here.
• Use My Business Dashboard to pay for tickets or violations, to renew licenses or certificates, or to otherwise keep track of your business transactions as required.        
• The Potential Matches page. This will appear after you have created a Business Profile, and when the system finds transactions which might match your profile. You will receive alerts at the top of My Business Dashboard when Potential Matches are available for review:
• The Edit Business Profile page, where you can make changes to existing profiles, locations, and agency connections.
• The Business Profile page  can allow other MyCity Business users to access your Business Profiles.
• The Communication Preferences page is used to manage how you will be notified by the system, and what types of events will trigger notifications.
• Our Eventbrite page contains courses, seminars, and other events for business owners in New York City.

• Go to the Create Business Profile page to begin this process.
• The first page asks for basic information about your business: your legal business name, your DBA (if necessary), and your Tax ID number, which is either an Employer Identification Number, or a Social Security Number. If you get a warning message that your EIN or SSN is already in use, check to see if one of your co-workers or employees has already created a profile for your business. If you need help with a disputed tax ID, contact the MyCity Business Team via the Contact Us page.
• Click the Continue button to move on to the next form: Add Business Locations.

Remember: your profile is not saved until you have complete all three forms on the Create Business Profile page.

• Business Locations are the shops, offices, or other places where you do business. You will need to add at least one location to complete your profile.
• The first question on the form requires that you add a nickname for your location. This will help you keep track of various locations and provide a quick way to refer to the location on your my profile?. Some good nicknames include: "headquarters", "downtown office", or "Brooklyn warehouse".
• The form also requires that you add a valid street address for your location.
• You can also use this form to add a location-specific email address, phone number, or mobile number, if that is useful for you.
• Look for green help icon throughout the site if you need help as you fill out the forms.
• Click continue to move on to the final form: Connect to NYC Agencies.

Remember: your profile is not saved until you have complete all three forms on the Create Business Profile page.

• Agency connections are the account numbers that you have with various City agencies, or the identifying numbers for specific transacations, like license numbers, or violation numbers.
• By adding agency connections to your profile, you will enable the system to automatically add relevant transactions to My Business Dashboard.
• Select the relevant city agency from the list, and then the relevant type. Add your number to the next field, which will be labeled according to your selections.

While not required, we highly recommended that you use the Note field to add a quick description of this agency connection, which will help you identify this agency connection throughout My Business Dashboard. a good Note would be: "my CAMIS id", or "SBS Account Number".

• Add as many agency connections as you wish, and then click the Finish button at the bottom of the page.
• Your Business Profile is now complete, and you will be able to review it on My Business Dashboard. Remember: you can always update your profile later with the Edit a Business Profile page.

• The Search Transactions page enables you to find your business transactions with the City, so that you can add them to My Business Dashboard.
• Start by selecting a search type: either Search by Transaction Number, or Search by Address. Some transactions can only be found with one of the search types. For example: Food Service Establishment Violations can only be found by transaction number, while MWBE Certifications can only be found by address.
• To search by transaction number, Select an agency and a transaction type, then type in your number and click Search.
• Results will appear below, sorted by type. You can un-check the boxes next to any results that are not relevant to your current search.
• To examine an individual transaction in the search results, click Show Details.
• To add the transaction to your profile, click the plus sign in the Save button.
• To search by address, type the appropriate address into the form and click the Search button.
• Results will appear as they did on Search by Transaction Number, and can be added to My Business Dashboard in the same way.

Transactions are your various interactions with the City of New York, including:

• Business Licenses and Permits
• Complaints
• Violations
• Inspections and Gas Authorizations
• Building Construction and Maintenance Permits
• Taxes
• M/WBE, LBE, and EBE Certifications

On My Business Dashboard, transactions are sorted into boxes based on type. Click each box to open or close it. Your options for interacting with transactions include:

Pay and Renew

You can use My Business Dashboard to pay for Violations, and to renew applicable Licenses and Permits. When applicable, you will find a Pay or Renew button at the bottom of your transaction, which will take you to the page of the appropriate City agency.

Delete

Click Delete to remove a transaction from My Business Dashboard. Keep in mind that the transaction will still exist in the database, and if you want to re-add it later, you will be able to do so using the Search Transactions page, or the Connect to Agencies page.

Move

If you have a complex My Business Dashboard with several profiles and locations, the Move feature can change where your transaction is saved on My Business Dashboard.

• Our database of transactions is updated daily. When a new transaction matches the name and/or address of a business that belongs to you, we add it directly to your profile.
• When transactions match some portions of your profile but do not contain a matching name and address, that transaction is added to the Potential Matches page.
• You will see an alert on My Business Dashboard when new Potential Matches exist. Click the Review Now button to view your matches.
• To add a transaction to your profile, use the Save button. To dismiss a transaction from this list, click the X in the upper right-hand corner.
• If you dismiss a transaction in error you can find it again using the Search Transactions page.
• You can also receive notifications via email or text when you have new Potential Matches. Check the appropriate box beside Transaction Matches on the Communication Preferences page to opt-in.

• Use the Share Business Profile page to grant read and write access to anyone with an MyCity Business account.
• Enter the recipient's email address and click the Check button. The system will confirm that the MyCity Business account exists, and notify your recipient.
• Next you will see a checkbox for each of your Business Profiles. Check each one that you would like to share, and click Add.
• From now on, the Share Business Profile page will contain a list of the shares that you have initiated. You can use this screen to remove active shares at any time.

To receive notifications when your profile is updated, use the Communication Preferences page.

There are three types of notifications:

• Select Alert Notifications to receive notifications when your business has received a violation or non-311 complaint, or when one of your licenses or permits needs renewal.
• Select 311 Complaints to be notified when a complaint is filed against your business via 311. Note that there is a delay of at least 48 hours between the filing of a complaint 311 and its listing on MyCity Business.
• Select Transaction Matches for notifications when new transactions are added to My Business Dashboard, or your Potential Matches page. New transactions are added to My Business Dashboard when they match both the name and address of your business, or to Potential Matches when they match in some other way.

By selecting the various check boxes, you can determine whether you'll receive email and/or text message notifications.

Contact the MyCity Business team on the Contact Us page.

You can also try the MyCity Chatbot. For more information on it read the MyCity Business Site FAQ.