ACCUS Licensing — Your Guide

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What the site does for you, in one minute.

1. Applications arrive by themselves.
   When someone applies on Red Podium (ACCUS's form, USAC's FIA form or SRO's form), or a series uploads its drivers, the application appears in Approvals within minutes, with their headshot and medical attached. You don't download anything.
2. You check it and press Approve.
   That is the only thing that issues a license. Nothing goes to a driver until you approve.
3. The driver gets their license by email straight away.
   The email has their digital license, buttons to add it to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, and a PDF. If they reply, the reply comes to your inbox.
4. If they ordered a printed card, it goes on your print list.
   You print a batch on your card printer, put each in the envelope with its cover letter, and mark them mailed.

1 Signing in

1. Go to accuslicensing.com/admin
   Bookmark it. Sign in with your work email and the password you chose.
   Open the site
2. You stay signed in while you work.
   If you leave it for 12 hours, or after a week, it asks for your password again. That's on purpose; it keeps drivers' details safe.
3. Forgot your password?
   Ask Dylan for a new sign-in link. After 5 wrong passwords the site pauses for 15 minutes; the new link fixes that too.

2 The menu on the left

3 Approving licenses — your everyday job

Approvals has five tabs across the top. Work from left to right.

Ready to approve — everything is in, waiting for you

1. Look over each one.
   You'll see their photo, name, series, license type and grade, and their license number if they've had one before. Click Open to see their whole record (medical, past seasons).
2. Press Approve on one, or tick several and press Approve selected.
   Drivers are grouped by series. Approve all approves a whole series' list in one go.
3. New drivers: their number is already filled in for you to check.
   Returning drivers keep the number they already have; you don't type anything. For someone brand new, the next number from your list is filled in, with their series' letter on the end (for example D9081-U for a USAC driver), and under it: "Next on your list — check it". If it's right, just approve. If not, type over it. Nothing is given out until you approve, and the next new driver is offered the number after it. Numbers someone already holds are skipped.
   A driver who has held a license before but whose number we don't have shows "Number needed" with an empty box. Type their number in it.
   The letter on the end always follows the club they applied through this year: a returning driver who was D4878-U and now applies through IMSA becomes D4878-I. Their older cards still check.
4. That's it.
   The license is created, the email goes to the driver, and if they paid for a printed card it's added to Hard cards.

Missing info — something still needs to arrive

1. Red notes, "Waiting on INDYCAR for: …"
   A series sent a driver but left something out (a birthday, a photo, a medical). You don't need to chase it. When the series sends it, the application moves to Ready to approve by itself.
2. Yellow notes are things you asked for yourself.
   When it arrives (say, by email), add it on their record, then press Received.

Waiting on club — their member club hasn't said yes yet

On Red Podium, drivers pick their member club, and the club approves them. These move to Ready to approve by themselves once the club approves. Nothing to do unless one sits too long.

Check duplicates — "is this someone we already have?"

1. Read the blue note.
   For example: "Same name as John Smith on file (no birthday on file) — check it's them."
2. Press See the record on file.
   It opens the person we already have: their photo, number and past seasons.
3. Press Same person or Different person.
   Same person: the application joins their existing record, and they keep their number. When you approve, their new headshot goes on their card, and the email and address they just gave replace the old ones (the old ones stay in their history). Different person: they get their own new record.

Done

Everything approved or declined this season, for looking back.

Two buttons you'll see on every row

Adding an application yourself

For one that came by email, on paper or from a club: press Add an application at the top of Approvals, fill in what you have, and save. It then appears in the tabs like any other.

4 Looking someone up

1. Go to Drivers and type in the search box.
   A name, a license number or an email all work. Click a person to open their record on the right.
   Open Drivers
2. Use the switch at the top to narrow it down.
   Everyone · Drivers · Entrants & teams · Officials. For example, team managers who hold an Entrant license (not drivers) are under Entrants & teams.

What's on a person's record (top to bottom)

5 Getting the records in order — the first few weeks

We brought in your licensing records (about 5,400 people back to 2012), every past Red Podium application, and your headshots folder. Most of it matched up by itself. These tabs on the Drivers page hold what's left. You don't need to work through them all: the people who matter are the ones who apply for 2027, and Approvals flags them when something needs your eye. Use these tabs when you have spare time, or when you're looking for someone.

Do these in this order

1. Possible duplicates — one person with two records
   Two records side by side; differences are in red. The most likely ones are at the top. If they're the same person, press Keep the left record or Keep the right record (keep the one with more history). Everything from the other record moves across, and if the two have different numbers, it asks which one stays. If they're different people (often a parent and child with the same name), press Different people and the pair won't come back.
   Open Possible duplicates
2. License number to check — numbers that weren't clear-cut
   Open each person; the note on their record says what's unclear (for example, two people in your records gave the same number, or someone had two numbers). If you know their number, type it in the License numbers box and press Save. They drop off this list by themselves. If they don't need a number (never coming back), press Remove.
   Open License number to check
3. Photos to place — headshots that couldn't be matched by name
   First press Match again (it re-checks every photo). Then press Set aside the ones with no possible driver to clear the photos whose names match nobody. For the rest, each photo shows the site's best guesses as buttons. Click the right person, or search for them. Set aside any that aren't needed.
   Open Photos to place
4. No photo — drivers licensed since 2022 with no headshot
   No rush. Most will send a photo with their 2027 application, which fills this in by itself.

6 Letters — No Objection and authorization letters

Your four letters, word for word, on ACCUS letterhead with your signature. You fill in a few blanks; the site does the rest and keeps a copy.

1. Someone already in the records? Open their record → Letters → Make a letter.
   Someone who isn't (an SCCA worker, say): on the Drivers page press New letter and type their name. The site adds them and goes straight to the letter.
2. Pick the letter and the season (the year of the FIA calendar it covers).
3. Fill in the blanks.
   Their name (and birthday, license number and grade, where the site has them) is already filled in. Type the rest, for example the membership number and their licenses, one per line, just as in their request.
4. The finished letter opens in a new tab.
   Press Print or save as PDF. To print on your letterhead paper, press Text only (letterhead paper) first. A copy stays on their record under Letters; open it again any time.

7 Printed cards

Only drivers who asked (and paid) for a printed card are on this list. Everyone else just gets the digital license.

1. To print — press Print new cards.
   It opens the print sheet for your card printer (one card per page, card-sized) and downloads the envelope list with their mailing addresses. The cards move to At the printer.
2. At the printer — print, then mark them printed.
   The Batch … print sheet button opens the sheet again if you need it. Cover letters prints the letter that goes in each envelope (your Driver letter or Entrants letter, whichever fits, in the same order as the cards), ready for your letterhead paper. If a card jams, tick it and put it back in the queue.
3. Printed — once they're in the post, press Mark all mailed.

8 The series

Each series (INDYCAR, IMSA, NASCAR, SCCA, NHRA…) gets its own sign-in to an upload page, where they can send whatever they have: a spreadsheet, a PDF, photos, even a photo of a handwritten form, and even just one driver.

1. Their drivers arrive in Approvals as already approved by their series.
   Anything missing shows in red in Missing info and clears itself when they send it. Approve them like any other; Approve all does a whole series at once.
2. Files they couldn't put in a list (a scanned form, a photo of paperwork) wait for you at the top of Approvals, under "Files from series to enter by hand" (Today shows a note when there are some). Open the file, enter the driver with Add an application, then press Done.
3. Who pays for their printed cards is set per series on the Series page: billed to the series, included, or the driver pays.

9 Emails to drivers

1. Sent from [email protected], ending with your signature.
   When a driver replies, the reply goes straight to your work inbox.
2. A driver says they never got it?
   Check their email address on their record (fix it with Edit details if needed), then on this year's license press Send email again. Ask them to check their junk folder too; the address is new, so some email services are still getting to know it.
3. Their license page works without the email.
   Every license has its own private page with the card, the wallet buttons and the PDF. Officials at the track can scan the QR code on the card to check it's valid.

10 If something looks wrong

1. Look at the person's Change history (bottom of their record). It shows what happened and who did it.
2. Removed someone by mistake? Drivers → Removed → Restore.
3. Anything else, email Dylan with the person's name and what you expected to see. A screenshot helps.