How Hosting and the Desk Work in the Workspace App

This guide explains how it all fits together. For one job at a time, the short articles in this topic have the exact steps.

Hosting: Your Visitors and Bookings

If people visit you, or book time with you, the app has a Hosting tab, whatever your role. Your visitors are there when Receives visitors is on for you (see Invite your team) and your role lets you see visits; your bookings, when your role lets you see bookings. That's the Console's rule, so Hosting is there for hosts and for receptionists, security leads, site admins, Admins and Owners who receive visitors or take bookings themselves. Hosting shows your own visitors and bookings: the visits you lead, the visits you're on with someone else leading, and the visits your team has while nobody has taken them (see Who a visit is for). The front desk's list for a whole site is on Desk.

A number on the tab counts what's waiting for you: visits to approve and booking requests to answer. On an iPhone, a visit or a booking opens on its own screen; on an iPad, it opens beside the list.

Your Visitors

Everything but past visitors is kept on the phone, so it's there with no signal and changes by itself as visitors arrive and leave.

Each visit says who it's for and your part in it: you lead it, you're one of its hosts, the front desk asked you, you're receiving the visitor, or it's with your team and waiting for one of you to take it. The other people on the visit are named beside yours.

On the Free plan, where inviting isn't included, the app says that inviting visitors is part of Starter and above and that your organisation's Owner or an Admin can change the plan. You can still approve and decline.

Approve or Decline, Even Offline

Tap Approve or Decline on the visit, under Waiting for you or on its page. When the visitor is already at reception, the button says Approve and check in. Approving a request to visit before the visitor arrives makes the visit expected and sends them their pass.

Decline asks for a reason, if you'd like to give one. Only staff see it; the visitor is told the visit can't go ahead.

No signal? Answer anyway. The app keeps your answer on the phone, shows the visit as Approved or Declined with a small sending sign, and sends it to Agoo as soon as it's back online. If Agoo can't accept it, for example because reception answered first, the visit shows why, and you can answer again.

Will You See Them?

When the front desk asks you to see a visitor, or a visitor is waiting for your team, the visit shows Will you see them? in place of Approve and Decline, so there's one way to answer:

Another host on the visit, or the person receiving the visitor, gets the same four answers when they may answer. Where only the lead decides, you see the visit and who's on it without the buttons, and a line says the lead answers.

Answering needs a connection. The visitor is standing at the desk and the first answer counts, so the app sends yours at once, and if a colleague answered first, it says so plainly. With no signal, the app says you're offline. Approving or declining a visit you lead still works offline, as above.

Held for Security

A visit that's held for a security review shows Held for security, with no buttons. Your security team decides, and the visit shows what they decided. If you open the app with no signal, it may not know yet that a visit is held: Agoo doesn't accept an approval for a held visit, and the visit tells you so. See Watchlist.

A Visit's Page

Tap any visitor to see their visit: who they are, their company and visitor type, and where the visit stands.

And, as your role allows:

• Let reception know, when your visitor is here: I'm coming, or Ask them to wait about 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes. Reception sees it beside your visitor, and the page says what reception was told. The same buttons are on the arrival notification.
• Check (name) in when you meet your visitor at reception, and Check (name) out when you walk them to the door. Their visit records you did it, and the on-site list stays right. With no signal, the app keeps it and sends it when it's back online.
• Change the time. The visitor is sent the new details.
• Send invitation, or Send again: by SMS, email or both.
• Cancel visit. Add a reason for staff if you like, and leave Tell (name) the visit is cancelled on unless you've told them yourself.
• Give Wi-Fi, on a checked-in visit, if your organisation shares its guest Wi-Fi and your role can give it at the desk. The Guest Wi-Fi card says how it was given so far ("Given at the kiosk, 09:12"); Give Wi-Fi shows the code full screen for the visitor's phone camera, with the network name and password and Copy the password. It needs a connection, and isn't offered while a visit is held for security.

A visitor's pass link goes only to them, so you can't open or forward it from the app. If they've lost it, use Send again.

Invite a Visitor

Inviting needs a connection, and is included on Starter and above. The sheet asks who the visit is for, as the Console does: People (one person or several; the first leads, and any of them can be made the lead) or A team. If you're inviting your own visitor, you stay on the visit as its lead, and can add colleagues or choose a team you're in. If your role checks visitors in for anyone, as reception and security do, you can invite for any host, several hosts or a team, who are told and approve the visitor if your rules ask, or choose No one in particular, and reception receives them on the day. To change a pass's rules for one visit, use the Console.

1. 1

   Who's coming

   Tap Choose from your contacts to pick them from your phone's contacts. Agoo never asks for access to your address book and sees only the person you choose. Or type their name, company, mobile number (024 123 4567 works for a Ghana number) and email.

2. 2

   The visit

   Choose the visitor type, the site (if you work at more than one), the day, the time they arrive and, if you like, when they leave. For someone who comes on several days, such as a contractor or an auditor, turn on Over several days and choose the last day: one pass admits them each day, for up to 92 days, on Starter and above (see Multi-day passes). Add what it's about and, if they're coming by car, Their vehicle: the plate, so the gate knows the car as it arrives (see Vehicles at the gate).

3. 3

   The invitation

   Under Send them an invitation, choose By SMS, By email or both. They get the day, time, place and who they're seeing, and their pass, with its QR code and Add to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. With no mobile number or email, the visit is saved without an invitation.

4. 4

   Their answers

   Answer the visitor type's questions you know now: text, phone numbers, emails, choices, yes or no, dates and numbers. Required questions left empty are asked when they check in, and photos, files, signatures and ID are taken on arrival. The pass follows the visitor type's rules.

5. 5

   Send

   Tap Send. The app confirms who's invited, and Invite someone else starts again.

If you're interrupted, what you've typed is kept on this phone for 7 days and comes back with a note the next time you open Invite a visitor; Start again clears it. Answers your organisation protects are never kept, and the draft is deleted when you sign out or switch organisation (see Unsaved work and drafts).

Your Bookings

Under your visitors, Hosting has two tiles, Your hours and Booking pages, then:

Tap a booking to open it:

• When: the day, time and length, in its time zone.
• Where: In person at the site, a Video call (with Join, and Share for the link; when Agoo makes a Google Meet, Microsoft Teams or Zoom link for it, the booking says which, or that the link is still being made), a Phone call, or Somewhere else with the address.
• Get in touch: Call, WhatsApp and Email.
• For a request, when to answer by: "or it lapses and the time is freed".

And what you can do with it:

Answering a booking needs a connection. With no signal, Hosting shows the bookings the phone has.

Your Hours

Your hours is the same as Console → Bookings → Availability (see Availability and closed days):

• Each week: switch on the days you take bookings and set their hours. Add a second range for a break, and swipe one to remove it.
• Dates that differ: a day you're away (Unavailable all day) or Special hours on one date.
• Meeting link and time zone: your own video link, used on booking types that don't have their own, and the time zone your hours are in.

Tap Save to save them together: "Availability saved. Booking pages show the new times now." Until you set your own hours, you can be booked in your site's opening hours.

Booking Pages

Booking pages lists the booking types you take, with whether each is taking bookings, whether it's By link only (not listed on your organisation's booking page) or Staff only, and whether you confirm each one. For each page:

• Share opens your phone's share sheet with its link, and Copy copies it.
• QR code shows the page's tracked QR code full screen, for someone to scan from your phone, if your role can see QR codes. Its scans are counted with your QR codes. To print it in your brand's style, download it from the Console.

To change a page's times, questions or look, use the Console (see Booking types). A page for bookings made by staff has no public link to share.

Desk: Visitors, Inbox and Safety

If you work the front desk or look after security, the app has a Desk tab: receptionists, guards, security leads, site admins, Admins and Owners get it, by the same permissions as the Console. It shows the sites you work at; if your role is limited to particular sites, only those of them. If it has nothing to show, ask an admin to add you to your site in Console → People.

At the top, Desk says how many people are on site and how many are expected today ("12 on site · 5 expected today"). If you work at more than one site, choose one at the top right, or All sites. Below, the Desk has up to four parts, each shown to the roles that use it: Visitors, Parcels, Inbox and Safety. A number on the tab counts what's waiting in the inbox, and any roll call running.

On an iPhone, a visit or a roll call opens on its own screen; on an iPad, it opens beside the list.

Visitors

Everything but the history and scanning is kept on the phone, so it's there with no signal and changes by itself as people arrive and leave. When a host answers their arrival notification, their visitor's row says so: Host is on the way, or Host asks them to wait 10 min.

Check in, Check out, Approve and Decline work with no signal too. The visit shows your change at once, with a small sending sign, and the app sends it to Agoo as soon as it's back online, at the time you made it. If Agoo can't accept it (for example, a guard checked the visitor out first), the row shows Not done: tap it to see why.

Tap a visitor to open their visit's page, the same as on Hosting, with Check (name) in or Check (name) out, and Approve for the host when the visit waits for them ("You can approve for them").

Needs Someone

A visitor with no one in particular to see, one who came for a team nobody in it has taken yet, and one who asked for someone whose visitors go through their office wait here, as they do in Console → Visitors → Needs someone. Whoever receives the visitor sees them: the front desk at their sites, the person named, and the members of the team that has the visit. With the Desk, you work on them there; if you receive visitors without the Desk, the same list and choices are at the top of Hosting.

The list is kept on the phone, so it's there with no signal. Its count changes by itself, and shows on Visitors and on the Desk's tab too. Open a visit to act on it:

Asking, writing down an answer, taking the visit, handing it over and booking in need a connection: each one tells people and changes who has the visit, and what Agoo answers is what you tell the visitor. With no signal, the app says you're offline. Turn away works like Decline: with no signal, the app keeps it and sends it when it's back online.

Approve and Decline don't show on a visit that needs someone, so there's one way to answer it. What each choice does, and what the person asked can answer, is in Who a visit is for.

Register a Walk-In

1. 1

   Who they are

   Tap Register a walk-in. Tap Choose from your contacts, or type their name, mobile number (024 123 4567 works for a Ghana number), company and email. The mobile number is for their pass and messages.

2. 2

   The visit

   Say who they're here to see: People (search by name, and add one person or several; the first leads), A team, or No one in particular, when reception receives them. Choose the visitor type and, if you work at more than one site, the site. Add what it's about if it helps.

3. 3

   Their answers

   Answer the visitor type's questions you can. Anything left out is asked at the kiosk or on their pass.

4. 4

   Check them in

   Tap Check them in. Agoo checks the watchlist and your site's rules, then says what happened:

   • (name) is checked in. Their host has been told they're here.
   • Waiting for their host. The host has been asked to approve; you'll see the answer on the Desk.
   • Held for security. Security has been told. Ask the visitor to wait while they decide.

   A walk-in for a team, for no one in particular, or for someone whose visitors go through their office joins Needs someone.

   Open the visit shows their visit, and Done goes back to the Desk.

Registering a walk-in needs a connection, because the watchlist and your rules are checked on Agoo. With no signal, the app says so: send the visitor to the kiosk, which checks them in offline.

Parcels

Parcels waiting at your sites, with food and the oldest first, and a search. Tap Log a parcel to photograph the label: the app reads it on the phone and suggests who it's for (and, if your organisation has turned on reading labels with Agoo AI, the AI's suggestions too), then choose who it's for, what it is and where it's kept. Open a parcel for its photos and story, Remind now, Change who it's for, Mark it collected (their code, a signature, or with a reason, as your organisation allows) and Send back or Refused. Logging and handing over work with no signal; Remind now needs a connection. See Deliveries.

Inbox

One list of what's waiting for someone at your organisation to answer. Each part shows only if your role answers it.

Visitors to approve are kept on the phone. Holds, booking requests and clock-ins to review come from Agoo, so answering them needs a connection.

Watchlist Holds

A visit held by a watchlist match shows Held for security to everyone. If your role decides holds, open it from Inbox → Watchlist holds (or Safety → Watchlist holds): the list shows whether they're here or not arrived yet, and which entry they matched and on what (name, phone, ID number or company). On the visit:

• Let them in. Say why, in a few words, for example "a different person: different phone number and company". It's kept in the audit trail. The visit carries on under your site's rules, so their host may still have to approve them.
• Deny entry. Say why. The visit ends, and if they're inside, they're checked out. Your reason stays with security.

Deciding needs a connection. See Watchlist.

Safety

The on-site list is kept on the phone, so it's there in a power or network cut: offline, it says it's the list as it was when the phone last synced. That's the evacuation list to take with you.

Emergency alerts and roll call are included on Starter and above. On Free, Safety says so, and still shows who's on site.

Send an Emergency Alert

Owners, Admins, Site admins and Security leads can always send one. Receptionists and guards can too, unless your organisation has switched that off in Console → Settings → Security (see Roll call).

1. 1

   Tap Emergency alert

   On Safety. If a roll call is already running at your site, its banner is there instead: open it.

2. 2

   Choose the site and the message

   Choose the site, if you work at more than one. Edit the message people will read, or tap one of the ready-made ones, such as "Fire alarm. Leave the building by the nearest exit and go to the assembly point." Keep it short: up to 300 characters, and it may go by SMS.

   If you run roll calls, you can turn on This is a drill: it works the same way, and the record says drill.

3. 3

   Hold to send

   Press and hold Hold to send the alert for two seconds, until the ring fills. Let go early and nothing is sent.

Everyone on the site's list (visitors checked in and staff clocked in) gets your message with an I'm safe link, by SMS or email. Staff with the app get it there first, as an emergency notification with I'm safe on it, and a text follows if it hasn't reached their phone within a minute. Every desk and the Console show the alert at once, and the roll call opens on your phone.

Sending needs a connection, because the messages go from Agoo. With no signal, the sheet says so: raise the alarm on site the way you always would, and use the on-site list on your phone.

A Roll Call In Progress

While a roll call runs, a red banner sits at the top of Home and the Desk ("Emergency at Ridge HQ", how many are safe and how many aren't yet), Safety comes forward, and the Desk's tab shows a beacon. Tap the banner to open the roll call:

• a ring with how many are safe ("41 of 57 safe"), Emergency or Drill, the site, when it started and the message;
• Not yet safe, Safe and All: each person, marked Visitor or Staff, and whether they said they're safe from their link or were marked safe;
• a call button for each person with a phone number;
• Safe and Missing on each person, for marshals: receptionists, guards, security leads, site admins, Admins and Owners.

Marks work with no signal: the app keeps them, shows them at once and sends them when it's back online. The list itself is on the phone, and so are the phone numbers, so the call buttons work without data. The numbers stay only while the roll call runs and are removed when it ends.

If you run roll calls, End the roll call (or End the drill) closes it once everyone is accounted for, or the emergency services take over. The final list is kept, and people who run roll calls see it in the Console. Receptionists and guards can't end a roll call.