Set up access control
This is the path for a building owner or site manager who wants working access control without using the Organization resources tables or the HTTP API. After you finish, residents and guests use Home and access portals — they do not manage integrations.
For the developer path (API key, Virtual Demo Devices, SDK), see Getting started.
What you will create
Section titled “What you will create”The wizard creates a Virtual Access site and walks you through the pieces people actually use, in this order:
- Organization (Set up a company or property only) — a named org that will own the site. Free allows one company org under your personal workspace; more orgs need a paid plan on that workspace. Try OpenApp skips this step and creates a sample site in your personal workspace.
- Site — the place residents recognize (name and optional address).
- Openers — on Try OpenApp, a demo opener you can try immediately. On Set up a company or property, attach hardware you already connected or add openers later.
- Doors — each entrance, with a public portal QR so guests can be invited. Classify the opening and complete commissioning attestation before production use (Life safety and egress).
- Listings — the entries of the visitor directory, typed in one at a time (number, optional name and floor).
- People — residents and managers, optionally assigned to a listing (invite by email or phone if they don’t have an account yet).
- Policies — an optional invitation curfew.
- Done — Open site or Invite a guest.
Groups aren’t a wizard step. After setup, group people on People → Groups, then use Generate from groups on Virtual intercom to build or refresh listings from those groups (People and groups).
Skip optional steps and come back later. Skip for now (on Openers, People, and Policies) marks that item done on the site checklist; add people or policies later from the site cards. The checklist stays on the site page until every remaining item is done or skipped. Core pieces are the site, directory, at least one door, and at least one listing.
Sign in
Section titled “Sign in”- Open the dashboard and choose Create account or Sign in.
- Complete any verification the flow asks for.
- You land on Home. If you have no listings, invitations, or sites yet, Home asks how you want to start. The top nav is hidden while that question is on screen — Activity stays in the user menu (avatar) if you need it, and Organization resources is always there for platform operators. Access returns to the top nav when you have a site, more than one organization, or Home is no longer that chooser.
If you belong to more than one organization, Access stays in the top nav after the chooser so you can confirm the org switcher shows the org that should own the site. Personal workspaces are labeled Personal. The chooser itself has no org switcher — Set up a company or property creates an organization, and Try OpenApp uses your personal workspace.
Run the setup wizard
Section titled “Run the setup wizard”- On Home (or Access, once it is in the nav) pick a path:
- Set up a company or property — name the organization (or pick an existing one), then create the first site under it.
- Try OpenApp — create a sample site without a dedicated organization.
- I was invited — stay on Home until listings, invitations, or a household appear. Someone who already accepted a household invitation skips this chooser and lands on that household.
- Site — enter a name residents will recognize (for example
12 Oak Street). Address is optional.
- Openers — pick one:
- Use demo openers (Try OpenApp only) to try the full flow without hardware. Company/property sites stay persistent and do not offer demo hardware.
- Use an opener I already have if you already connected a lock or gate integration.
- Add openers later to define doors first and attach hardware afterward.
- Doors — add each entrance (front door, garage, pedestrian gate). Choose the life-safety class (default ingress only) and complete the installer attestation (independent exit, OpenApp is not the fire-alarm interface, installer name). Every door also gets a public portal so you can invite guests.
- Listings — add each directory entry: Listing number, and optionally Name and Floor.
- People — choose someone already in the organization, or invite them by email or phone, and optionally assign them to a listing as a household member or as the person who manages that listing. They accept the invitation before access is active; share the invitation link if they don’t have an OpenApp account yet. Add an optional Name when you invite by email or phone: it greets them in the invitation, labels the pending invitation in the apartment’s Members tab so you can tell the numbers apart, and is offered back to them to confirm when they register, wherever they land after accepting (an account that already has a name keeps it).
- Policies — optionally set an invitation curfew with Curfew starts and Curfew ends (hours when guest invitations can’t be used), then Save policy. The curfew is evaluated in the organization timezone, which you set in Settings → Organization policies → Organization timezone (UTC if left empty). Guest invitations show “Subject to curfew HH–HH”. Organization admins can mark a specific invitation Exempt from invitation curfew in an emergency; those invitations skip the hint. Skip if you don’t need this yet.
Your site is ready offers Open site and Invite a guest. Open site opens the site overview: one set of cards for site settings, devices, doors, people (with groups), portals, virtual intercom, policies, and invitations.
Resource cards show counts and Add buttons that open the same wizards one resource at a time. After you open a section, the section tiles at the top are in-page navigation — they’re hidden on the site overview so the same modules aren’t listed twice. The site name at the top of a section returns to this overview.
Day-to-day after setup
Section titled “Day-to-day after setup”| Task | Where |
|---|---|
| Add another door or gate | Site overview → Add door or gate, or Doors |
| Add a directory listing | Add listing or Virtual intercom |
| Build listings from groups | Virtual intercom → Generate from groups |
| Invite a resident or manager | People or Invite person |
| Group people into households or teams | People → Groups |
| Invite a guest to a door | Create invitation or Invitations |
| Hold a door open or closed | Door page → Hold |
| Check the hardware behind a door | Site overview → Devices |
| Print or share a lobby QR | Portals |
| Change site name, defaults, photo, or location | Site settings |
The existing table and form views stay available on each section. Wizards are the primary create path; tables remain for browse and edit.
Who sees what
Section titled “Who sees what”The dashboard shows a complete Home for each persona — not a stripped-down admin console.
- Residents and guests see Home: the listings they belong to and invitations they received. They do not see Organization resources, Store, or integration management. If they later need access control for their own site, the Home chooser (or Access once it is in the nav) starts the same wizard.
- Site managers see Home plus Access. They manage directory listings, people, groups, invitations, and policies for one or more sites.
- Integration owners use the same Access wizards to add openers, doors, and devices. Store and Organization resources (integrations, devices, and other platform tables) live under Settings → More (Store and Organization resources) so they are available without dominating the main nav.
- Platform operators keep Activity in the primary nav and open Organization resources from the user menu (avatar).
Configuration readiness
Section titled “Configuration readiness”The dashboard shows whether a site can actually be used, not only whether the wizard checklist is complete.
- Can’t be used (blocking) — nothing in that area works. A site needs at least one opener, one door that uses that opener, and one portal linked to that door. Examples: no doors at all, no door with a working opener, no portal that can open a door, or no virtual intercom directory.
- Partially usable — the area works, but some of its resources don’t. One door without an opener among ten, or one portal whose door was deleted, takes only that resource out of service; the rest of the site keeps opening.
- Setup incomplete — the site can open, but recommended pieces are missing (for example a listing with no members, or no people on the site). Policies are optional; a site with no policies is still ready.
Cards on the site page, section nav, and resource lists show a badge when that area has issues. A door, portal, or listing badge shows that resource’s own state, so a door that can’t be used still reads Can’t be used even while the Doors area is only Partially usable. Open the resource to see what to fix. Skipping People in the wizard hides the people warning; it never hides a blocking problem such as a door with no opener.
- Access portals — QR codes, directories, and guest links.
- Site devices — the openers, lights, and cameras that serve each door.
- Mobile intercom app — native calls for residents.
- Policies — how limits layer on top of roles.
- People and groups — households and teams, and generating listings from them.
- Getting started — API key, HTTP, and SDK after the site works in the UI.