There are a lot of complexities involved in running an office-based workplace, but one of the problems, which comes up all of the time, is how to manage visitors?

Whether it is for security reasons, or so that facilities know who is in the building in the event of a fire, or for contact tracing purposes, most offices need to have some sort of visitor management system in place.

We are going to show you how to build a simple visitor sign-in system using OfficeMaps, Zapier, and Google Forms. To follow along, you can use the written instructions below, or watch the Gifs as you scroll down the page.

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How to create a visitor sign-in system for your workplace:

Creating the Visitor Sign-in Form

To create a google form you will need a google account. You can create one with your work email address or use a gmail account, either way it should be free to signup.

Create a Google Form for Visitor Sign-Ins.

Visit docs.google.com/forms and click on "Blank" under "Start a New Form".
Give your form a title.
Use the plus sign on the right to add fields for First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Company Name, and Phone Number. Make sure that you pick "Short Answer" as the question type, and mark these questions as "required".

Setting up the responses Spreadsheet for your Google Form

Click on the "Responses" tab at the top of the screen and click on the Green Spreadsheet button in the top right. Select "Create New Spreadsheet".

Sharing your Google Form with Visitor's so that they can sign in

Copy the link for the form by clicking share in the top right-hand corner, navigating to the Link section, and clicking copy.
Paste the link into a browser on the device you will be using as a sign-in kiosk. You could also convert this link to a QR code and display it at your reception for a "Zero Contact" sign-in process.

Fill in the form with some example data. You will need this further down.

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Use a Google Form to trigger a Zapier workflow

If you do not have a Zapier account or have not linked it to your OfficeMaps account, you can read about creating one here.

If you do not have an OfficeMaps account, you can create a free account here.

Setting up your visitor sign-in trigger in Zapier

Log in to Zapier and select make a zap.
(Optional) Give your Zap a title.
Select Google Forms as your App Event.
Select "New Response in Spreadsheet" as your Trigger Event.
Select your spreadsheet in the Spreadsheet dropdown.
Select your worksheet (spreadsheet tab) from the worksheet dropdown.
Click "Test Trigger". When the response is returned, click "Continue". If nothing was returned here, try filling in the form again, then repeat this section.

Create a Visitor in OfficeMaps

This will set up a user account in OfficeMaps for the person who fills in the form. By creating a user account for them, you can allow them to book resources, as well as usage reports and contact tracing reports.

Select OfficeMaps from the list of applications.
Select Create User from the list of Action Events and click Continue.
Select your OfficeMaps instance from the dropdown (you will probably only have one) and click Continue.
In this step, we provide the fields required to create the temporary OfficeMaps user. make sure to add each of the required fields (Email, User Name, First Name, and Last Name).
Click continue. Then click "Test and Continue". OfficeMaps should respond with the PersonID of your new user.

Create a 24-Hour Delay for your Zap

Because our visitor is only a temporary guest, we don't want to provide them with a permanent account. So we are going to set a 24-hour delay and then disable their account.

Create a 24 Hour delay so that you can disable your visitor's access later.

Create another step in the zap and select Delay from the right-hand menu.
Select Delay For and click continue.
Under "Time Delayed For (value)" write 24, and under "Time Delayed for (unit)" select Hours.
Click Continue then Test and Continue.

This should work instantly while we are setting things up, however when the Zap is activated, this step will wait for the specified time.

Disable the Visitor's Access

In this step, we are going to disable the visitor's access. This will keep the user count of your OfficeMaps system down, and prevent the visitor from having unauthorised access at a later date.

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Disabling a visitor's access to your workplace.

Select the plus sign to create an additional step on the zap.
Search for and select OfficeMaps from the list of applications.
As our Action Event, we are going to select "Update User". Click continue.
Select your OfficeMaps account (again, you will probably only have one available) and click continue.
In the "Set up action" section you will need to start by identifying the visitor who needs to be disabled. To do this click into the person ID field and select the PersonID that was returned in Step 2 of the Zap.
Scroll down to the User Type field, and put a 0 in the field.
Click continue then Test and Continue.
If Zapier returns a green bar and the PersonID then your zap has run correctly and disabled your visitor's account.

That's it. Your Zap is setup. Just click the On/Off toggle in the top left to turn the Zap on.

Your visitors can now sign themselves into your company by filling in the Google Form.

If you would prefer to use a paper based visitor sign-in system, you can use our free visitor sign-in sheet template here.

Think your team could benefit from a tool that makes hot desk booking efficient and easy to use across all teams? You can start your free trial today.