Visitors and guest passes at reception

Every office has a visitors' book. Someone writes a name, a phone number and a time, often in handwriting nobody can read. The guard waves them through, and nobody is quite sure when they left. Vaurse Workplace is building a calmer way to welcome guests, with the same cards that open your doors.

Doors, visitors and guest passes are on our roadmap as "Building". We're making them now. This guide explains how they are designed to work.

Book a visitor before they arrive

A member of your team books their visitor ahead of time. There are two ways to book someone:

• By Voscard. If your visitor already has a Voscard, you book them with it.
• By mobile number. If they don't, you book them with their mobile number.

Booking by mobile number means a guest who has never heard of Vaurse can still be expected at your desk. If they'd like a card of their own later, a digital Voscard is free in the Vaurse app, and people without a smartphone can get one by text.

A texted code, checked at the desk

When a visitor is booked, a code is sent to them by text. When they arrive, the desk checks that code. That's it: no long form, and no copying an ID number into a book.

The person at the desk doesn't have to guess or make phone calls around the building. The guest was booked by someone on your team, and the code shows they are the person who was expected.

If your business connects its own systems through the developer platform, a visitor arriving can be one of the changes you're told about at once, through a webhook.

Which doors, and until when

With Vaurse, you choose who opens which door, and when. The same goes for guests. A visitor gets a pass that ends when their visit does. So a guest who came for a morning meeting doesn't still have a working pass that evening.

For your own staff, the card is the door key. Guards see a photo and a tick. If a staff card is lost, it can be frozen in one tap and the doors stop accepting it. Doors that are online stop at once; doors that are offline stop within 30 minutes.

What it replaces

One staff Voscard replaces the staff ID, business cards, door cards and visitor badges. For reception, that means:

• No visitor badges to print, lose or chase.
• No open book of names and phone numbers sitting on the desk.
• A pass for each guest that stops working when the visit ends.

Schools on Vaurse Campus get the same idea: visitors and contractors get passes that end when their visit does.

Getting your team ready

Staff who greet visitors will find short, free lessons in the Training Center, including "Open doors and sign in visitors". Admins have their own path for setting up doors, branches and attendance.

If a door system ever goes down, status.vaurse.com shows whether anything is down, and our 24/7 line is there for a lost card, a scam or a door system that has stopped working. Our Help Center has step-by-step articles for staff cards and doors.

The number of doors you can manage depends on your plan, from one door on the Free plan to unlimited doors on Business. Every plan is on our prices page.

You don't have to wait to start. Set up your business, add your branches and team, and begin with digital staff cards today.