Blog · Access control
Event entry control: the day-of checklist
What we check before opening doors at any event: list closed, scanners tested, duplicate policy decided, and a plan for the four incidents that ALWAYS happen.
Entry control at an event is not improvised at the doors: it is decided the day before. This is the checklist we use ourselves — born from real events and their real scares — so that opening is a formality and not an adventure.
The day before
1. The list, closed and singular. Imports done, the registration form with its capacity set, and not one parallel spreadsheet circulating on WhatsApp. If "a last-minute list" arrives at 11pm, it gets imported that night — not carried to the door on paper.
2. Scanners created and tested. One scanner account per door person — not the organiser's password shared in a group chat. Each one logs into the app the night before and scans the test QR. Thirty people logging in at 8:59 on the day is the avoidable classic.
3. The duplicate policy, DECIDED. A QR that already entered shows up again? There are two configurations — warn and let the door staff decide, or reject outright — and both are right for different events. What is wrong is not having decided: the door is no place for debates. If your event has exits and re-entries, enable them and the "how many are inside" counter will be real.
4. Offline mode, tested ON SITE. Walk to the physical door with the phone, switch on airplane mode, scan. If it validates, you are ready for the basement, the marquee or the saturated network. The app works offline and syncs on its own; your job is to have SEEN it work at YOUR door, not in the office.
5. Scanner count sized for the peak, not the total. Eight hundred attendees over two hours and eight hundred in twenty minutes are two different events. The numbers are measured; do the maths and add one charged spare phone.
Day D: the four incidents that ALWAYS happen
"My QR never arrived." Search by name in the dashboard and re-send it on the spot — or scan it straight off the dashboard screen. Thirty seconds if you have done it once; panic if it is your first time.
The duplicate QR. The expected warning appears and yesterday's policy gets applied. Half the time it is a parent showing their child's QR from their own phone; the other half, someone trying their luck. That is why an informed human decides, not a screen alone.
The "I'm with someone" guest. No code, no entry — and the answer is not an argument: it is the express sign-up. Register them right there (public form or dashboard), their QR arrives, and they come in through the normal circuit. Legal, logged, and no dangerous precedents.
The growing queue. One more phone at the door (two minutes), and if the cause is coverage, you were already validating locally from point 4. Real queues are almost never the scanner's fault: they are people digging their QR out of their inbox — a sign at the approach ("have your QR ready") is worth more than an extra scanner.
At close
Export the log to Excel that same night: attendance, times, warnings. It is the report the client expects tomorrow and the memory that will tell you, at the next event, how many scanners to bring and when your real peak arrives. The dashboard keeps it all; the habit of reading it is what turns every event into the rehearsal for the next one.