Is this car allowed here — and have we seen it before?
For HOA, apartment and property-patrol contracts, parking is half the job. Watchbill keeps the vehicle registry per property, lets the guard read a plate with the phone camera, answers in one card, and records every warning, citation and tow with photos and a GPS stamp — the record the property manager asks for and the tow company needs.
Free 30-day trial with no card required. $7/guard per month, everything included.
Plate lookup on patrol
Type the plate or point the camera at it — the app reads it on the phone, no service, no per-read cost — and the answer is one card: registered at this property or not, permit type and whether it's valid, unit and owner, and the vehicle's history across every property you patrol: how many violations in the tow window, the last one, and a red tow eligible line when it has reached the client's threshold.
From the card: record a violation, or register the car if the property just issued a permit at the gate.
Violations with photos, not stories
Plate and state, the violation (no permit, expired permit, fire lane, handicap space, reserved space, blocking access, abandoned, visitor overstay), the action taken (warning, citation, tow requested, towed, notice only), a citation or tow reference, where in the lot, notes — and photos of the plate, the windshield and the car's position. Location is stamped automatically. A tow request notifies your supervisors and owners the moment it's recorded.
The office can update the action later — tow requested becomes towed with the tow ticket — add the citation number, or delete a mistaken entry. Every change is audited.
A registry the property maintains itself
One record per plate per property: vehicle, owner or resident, unit, assigned space, permit type and number, valid dates. Expired and not-yet-valid permits are flagged everywhere they appear. Property managers with a client-portal login keep their own resident list up to date, so a new tenant's permit doesn't wait on your office.
- Plates are matched without spaces or dashes — ABC-1234 and ABC 1234 are the same car
- Tow policy per client: "tow eligible after 3 violations in 90 days", or whatever the contract says
- Repeat-offender list: plates with two or more violations in the window, with tows and where they were last seen
Clients see the enforcement they pay for
Violations at their properties appear on their portal, and the activity digest email says it in one line: "Parking: 4 violations, 1 tow." That is the difference between a contract renewed and a contract questioned.
Questions owners ask
How good is the plate reading?
It is on-device text recognition, not a licence-plate camera system: very good on a straight, lit plate, weaker at sharp angles or in glare. The guard always confirms the number before anything is saved, so a misread costs one tap.
Does it print citations or tow notices?
Not yet. The record and its photos are the evidence; the citation field holds whatever reference your paper or third-party process uses.
Can residents request guest passes themselves?
Not in this version. The property manager or the guard at the gate registers a guest vehicle with a valid-to date.
Does it work offline?
The lookup needs a connection, since the answer comes from the registry and history. Recording a violation does too, because the photos attach to the server record.
Run one property's parking through it
Free 30-day trial with no card required. Start with one site and add the rest when you're ready.
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