Giving a vendor access: keys, codes and sign-in rules

Give each vendor a code of their own where the door allows one, name the person who holds it, and keep a log of when it is used. Use a physical key only where a code is not possible, and write the expiry date down on the day you issue either one. Those four points settle most of the risk, and the rest of this article is the detail behind them.

The reason to be strict is simple. A maintenance vendor who works after hours is alone in your building, usually with access to the back of house, the electrical room and the stock. Most vendors are careful. The arrangement still needs to survive the day somebody is not.

Key, code or lockbox

A mechanical key is the oldest option and the hardest to control. It can be copied at any hardware counter unless the keyway is restricted, it cannot be switched off, and when it goes missing the only remedy is to change the lock. If a vendor must have a key, use a restricted keyway, number each copy, and record who signed for it.

A keypad or card credential is better because each one can be issued to a person. A unique code has a name against it, can be given an end date and can be deleted on its own without touching anyone else. Where the reader keeps an audit trail, you also learn when the door was opened. Our article on choosing commercial access control covers the hardware decision, so this one stays with the rules that sit around it.

A lockbox sits in between. It suits one door and a short engagement, because the box holds a single key behind a single shared code. Everyone who knows the code is the same person as far as your records are concerned. If you use one, change the code on a schedule and every time the vendor changes.

Name a holder

Access goes to a person, and the company stands behind that person. Ask the vendor for the name of whoever will carry the code or key, and for a second name as cover. Write both into the agreement or a one-page access schedule.

Shared codes are the usual failure here. A code given to the company ends up on a van whiteboard, in a text thread and in the head of a subcontractor you have never met. When the code is tied to a named technician, you know whose it is, and you know when to remove it.

Sign-in and a log

Daytime visits can use the front desk or a sign-in sheet. After-hours visits need something to replace the receptionist. Options are an access log from the reader, an email or text to a named person at the building when the vendor arrives and leaves, or a photo of the completed work sent at the end of the visit.

Pick one and write it down. The log is useful when something goes missing, but its larger value is that people behave differently when entry is recorded. It also feeds the paperwork a good vendor produces anyway. A job that closes with photographs and a time in and out needs very little chasing afterward.

Expiry and review

Every credential gets an end date when it is issued. For a standing contract, the end date follows the term, and the code is reviewed at each renewal. For a project, it ends with the project. Nobody needs to remember to switch it off, because the date is already on the schedule.

Keep a short register of what each vendor holds: keys by serial number, codes by name and expiry, cards by number. Review it quarterly alongside the other items on your walk of the property. Credentials issued for a job that finished last spring are the ones that turn up in an incident report.

When the vendor changes

The day a vendor leaves, everything they held comes back or is canceled. Keys are returned and counted against the register. Codes are deleted. Shared codes and lockbox codes are changed, and if a key is missing, the doors it opened are rekeyed. The process is the same one used when an employee leaves, which we set out in key control after a termination, and the other items to collect are listed in changing maintenance vendors.

It helps that the register exists before you need it. Without one, rekeying is a guess about what has gone out of the building.

What the agreement should say

Access terms belong in the service agreement itself, because a verbal arrangement is gone when the account manager is. Cover these points:

• Who holds access, by name, and who covers for them.
• That keys are not copied and codes are not shared outside the named people.
• The log or notification the vendor will provide for after-hours entries.
• Immediate reporting of a lost key, a lost card or a staff departure.
• Return or cancellation of everything on termination, and who bears the cost of rekeying after a loss.

If you are weighing a standing contract against ad hoc calls, the access terms are one of the practical differences, and annual agreement or call by call sets out the rest.

Who does the work

Setting up a vendor's access means rekeying, fitting a restricted cylinder, installing a keypad lock or programming a reader. All of it is performed directly by our own technicians, on our payroll and background checked, and TrionX carries general liability and workers' compensation. It sits within doors and hardware and locks and access control, so the same company can fit the hardware, issue the codes and keep the record.

Where a door is electrified or powered, the supply and control wiring are electrical. Florida requires a licensed electrical contractor for that at any job size, and it is carried out by licensed contractors, coordinated and documented by TrionX.