How Visitors Work in Agoo

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

How Visits Work

Walk-ins and invited guests, visitor types, approvals, check-out and the statuses a visit moves through.

A visit is one person coming to one of your sites, usually to see a host. It can also be for several people, for a team, or for no one in particular, when reception receives them (see Who a visit is for). Every visit in Agoo, whether it started on the kiosk, from an invitation or from a booking, follows the same lifecycle and ends up in the same place: Console → Visitors.

Two Ways a Visit Starts

Invited visitors are quicker at the desk and give reception a list of who to expect. Walk-ins are normal too, and Agoo handles them without fuss. Returning visitors are recognised by their phone number, so their name and company fill in for them.

Visit Statuses

Every change is recorded on the visit's timeline, with who did it, when, and on which device: invited, pass sent, arrived at the Lobby, approved by Kwame Mensah, badge printed, checked out at the Main gate. Open any visit in Console → Visitors to see it.

Visitor Types

Each visit has a visitor type. Every organisation starts with six built-in types: Meeting, Interview, Delivery, Contractor, Event and Other. You can rename them, turn off the ones you don't use, and add your own, such as Parent pickup at a school, Vendor at a bank or Service at a church. Each type has its own:

• form: the questions the visitor answers, and whether you capture a photo or ID,
• documents: your privacy notice, and any NDA, waiver or site rules they sign (Documents to sign),
• rules: whether the host must approve, who visitors may say they're here to see (Who a visit is for), and its passes' default days, hours and gates (Pass rules),
• badge: what's printed on it.

A type that's turned off can't be chosen for new visits; visits already recorded keep it. Built-in types can be renamed or turned off, but not deleted.

Visitors can choose a type when they pre-register only if you've opened it for pre-registration; it's off by default. They then answer only the questions asked of the visitor, never the fields your staff fill in.

The built-in types never count towards your plan's custom-forms limit. Each type you add counts as one custom form (Starter 3, Growth 15, Pro and Enterprise unlimited; Free has the built-in types only), and turning a type off frees its place.

You set up visitor types and their forms in Console → Settings → Visitor forms. See Forms and fields.

Approvals

When a visitor arrives, Agoo tells the host by a notification in the Workspace app first, then by WhatsApp, SMS or email, in the order you choose, if the notification doesn't reach their phone in time. If approval is needed, the host can Approve or Decline from the notification's buttons, from the link in a message without signing in, in the Console, or in the Workspace app on their iPhone, iPad or Android phone or tablet, even offline. From the arrival notification, the host can also tell reception I'm coming or Ask them to wait. If they don't answer in time, reception is shown.

When a visit is for several people, everyone on it is told, and the visitor type says whether anyone may answer or only the lead. A visit for a team is answered by whichever member takes it first. A visitor nobody has taken yet waits under Needs someone, where the front desk asks someone, takes the visit, books the visitor in for another time or turns them away. See Who a visit is for.

You decide when approval is needed, per site, in Console → Settings → Sites → (site) → Check-in rules. A watchlist match always holds the check-in for security, whatever the rules say. See Host approvals.

Check-Out

Visitors can check out at the kiosk, with a guard, at reception, with I've left on their pass or visit page, or automatically at the end of the day. Accurate check-outs matter: the live register and the roll-call list are only as good as them. See Check-out.

Where to Manage Visits

• Kiosk check-in: The visitor's journey, screen by screen.
• Self check-in from posters: Visitors check in on their own phone.
• Invitations and passes: Invite guests and send a QR pass.
• Request a visit: Let people ask to visit from your page.
• Host approvals: Approve, ask to wait or decline, from anywhere.
• Who a visit is for: Several hosts, a team, or no one in particular.
• Front desk and guard mode: Manual check-in, the live register and the gate.
• Details and documents before the visit: Answers, the privacy notice and signed documents on the pass.
• Signed passes and offline checks: Passes a kiosk checks with no network.
• Guest and staff Wi-Fi: Give visitors your Wi-Fi while they're checked in.
• WhatsApp replies from visitors: Answer visitors' messages in the Console and the app.
• Home and reports: Today at a glance, any period's visits, and exports.

Details and Documents Before the Visit

Visitors answer your questions and accept or sign your documents on their pass before they arrive, so the desk only has to say hello.

A visitor's pass isn't only a QR code. Before they arrive, they can use it to answer the questions their visitor type asks and to accept or sign the documents you need, on their own phone, in their own time. Reception sees what's done, and a guest who's done everything walks straight in.

This works for every pass: invitations, requests to visit once the host approves, and in-person bookings. Nothing needs turning on: the pass asks for whatever the visitor type needs.

What the Visitor Sees On Their Pass

Below the QR code, the pass lists what's still to do, in order:

Each finished item shows a tick and the time it was done. After agreeing, the visitor can download a PDF copy of the document; for a document they signed (not ticked), Agoo also emails them the copy if you have their email address. See Documents to sign.

Your details

• The questions are the ones your form asks of the visitor, at that visit's site. Fields your staff fill in, and photos, files, signature fields and ID documents, are left to the desk or the kiosk.
• The visitor can change their answers until they arrive. After that, reception helps.
• Answers your admins marked sensitive or masked show only as "Answered" on the pass: they're never read back, even to the visitor. Leaving one empty when changing other answers keeps what they gave before.
• Answers your staff gave stay as they are.

Documents

• The pass asks for the live version of each document the visit needs: your privacy notice and documents for every visitor type, plus the ones this visitor type asks for.
• A document the visitor already agreed to, under its re-sign rule, shows as done. Someone else's signature never counts: a visitor who hasn't been matched to their earlier visits signs again.
• Documents can be signed while the pass is in use: before they arrive, while they're waiting or on site, and on a multi-day pass between days.

What Reception and Hosts See

Open the visit in Console → Visitors:

• Answers shows what the visitor gave, with the questions still empty. The timeline notes that they gave their details from their pass, and the audit trail records it as the visitor's.
• Documents lists each document the visit asks for: done (with the version, when and how) or still to do. Download a signed copy, or record a document signed on paper or agreed at the desk. See Documents to sign.

If something's still to do when the visitor arrives, the desk sees it at check-in and can sort it out there.

Tell Visitors What to Expect

The pass itself lists what's to do, so there's no separate form to send. Adding your own line to the invitation, such as "Please sign the NDA on your pass before Thursday", comes later.

• Documents to sign: Privacy notice, NDAs, waivers and site rules.
• Invitations and passes: Everything else the pass does.
• Forms and fields: The questions each visitor type asks.
• Multi-day passes and pass rules: When and where a pass admits.

Invitations and Passes

Invite guests ahead of time from the Console or the Workspace app, and send them a QR pass by SMS, WhatsApp or email.

An invitation creates an expected visit and sends the guest a link to their pass: a page with a QR code, the date and time, the host, directions and a calendar file. The guest shows the pass at reception, the kiosk or the gate and is checked in in seconds, and can tell their host they're running late, ask for another time or cancel from the same page. Reception sees everyone who is expected today before they arrive.

Invitations and QR passes are included on Starter, Growth, Pro and Enterprise.

Passes open on your organisation's own Agoo address, such as voltabank.agoohq.com, or on your own domain, with your name, your logo from Starter and your brand colour from Growth. Guests need no app and no account.

9:02

VB

VoltaBank

Text message · Today 9:02 am

Hello Ama, Kwame Mensah invited you to Volta Bank, Ridge HQ on Tue 30 Sep at 10:30 am. Show this pass at reception: voltabank.agoohq.com/p/AG7K2Q9M

Text message

Who Can Invite

Invite from the Console

1. 1

   Start an invitation

   Go to Console → Visitors and select Invite visitor.

2. 2

   Enter the guest's details

   Field	Notes
   Name	"Ama Owusu".
   Mobile number	Needed for SMS and WhatsApp. Ghanaian numbers can be typed locally: 024 123 4567.
   Email	Optional. Many visitors don't have, or don't check, email; the phone number is enough.
   Company	Optional: "Coastline Consult".
   Visitor type	Meeting, Contractor or a type you've added. Decides the form, documents and badge.

3. 3

   Choose who it's for, the place and the time

   Under Coming to see, choose who the visit is for:

   • People: one person, or several. The first is the lead, whose name is on the pass; everyone named is told.
   • A team: the whole team is told, and the first of them to say yes becomes the host.
   • No one in particular: reception receives them on the day, or whoever the visitor type names.

   If you're a host inviting your own guest, you stay on the visit as its lead, and can add colleagues who'll be there too or invite for a team you're in. See Who a visit is for.

   Then choose the site, and the day and time. Add when they'll leave if the visit is long, and what it's about if it helps reception and the host. For a visit over several days, set when they'll leave on a later day: one multi-day pass covers them all (Starter and above). Choosing a gate and adding a note to the guest come later.

4. 4

   Answer what you know

   The visitor type decides the questions, such as a work order number for a contractor. Answer what you know now. Required questions left empty are asked when the guest checks in, at the desk or on the kiosk. See Forms and fields.

5. 5

   Choose how to send it

   Choose SMS, email or both: SMS needs a mobile number, email an email address. You can also save the visit without sending anything. WhatsApp invitations come later. Whatever you leave unanswered, the guest can answer on their pass before they arrive, and sign your documents there too (see Details and documents before the visit).

6. 6

   Send

   Select Send invitation. The visit appears in Console → Visitors → Expected on the day, and the invitation goes out straight away.

   If the connection drops or the power goes before you send, what you typed is kept on your computer for 7 days and is back in the form when you return (see Unsaved work and drafts).

Invite from the Workspace App

Hosts can invite from their phone or tablet in the Workspace app, on iPhone, iPad and Android. On Hosting, tap Invite a visitor, tap Choose from your contacts or type their details, choose the visitor type, site, day and times (or Over several days), choose By SMS, By email or both, answer what you know and tap Send. The guest gets the same pass.

The app sees only the contact you choose, never your address book. It asks who the visit is for, as the Console does: People (one or several; the first leads) or A team. Inviting your own guest, 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. To change the pass's rules for one visit, use the Console. Inviting from the app needs a connection, and what you type is kept on the phone for 7 days if you're interrupted.

Other Ways Visits Are Created

See Booking pages and Request a visit.

What the Guest Receives

The message is short and comes from your SMS sender ID, from Agoo's WhatsApp number with your organisation's name in the message, or by email, so the guest knows who it's from. It links to the pass, which shows:

• a QR code to show at reception, the kiosk or the gate,
• the date, time, site and gate (if you chose one), the visitor type and who they're there to see: the host ("Meeting Kwame Mensah"), the hosts, the team ("Here for Treasury"), or "Ask at reception",
• Directions: opens the site's map pin in the guest's own maps app,
• Add to calendar: a calendar file for any calendar app,
• Your details and Documents: the questions and documents still to do before they arrive,
• When it admits: its days, daily hours and gates, for a multi-day pass or a pass with rules.

Add to Apple Wallet and Add to Google Wallet put the pass in the guest's phone's Wallet, with the same QR code, on every plan. On an iPhone it can appear on the lock screen near the site around the time of the visit, and it updates itself if the visit changes. See Wallet passes.

Every pass carries a code signed with your organisation's own key, so a kiosk or guard can check it even when the network is down; a pass waiting for its host's approval is signed once they approve (see Signed passes). An SMS pass works on any phone that can open a link; on a phone without internet, the guest can give their name at reception instead. Reception can also scan a pass in the Console to open the visit: see Front desk and guard mode.

What the Guest Can Do from the Pass

When the guest arrives and waits to be let in, for the host's approval or a security review, the pass says "Please wait a moment. Reception will let you in shortly." and updates by itself when they're in. Guests who booked through a booking page use their booking's own link instead: see Reminders and no-shows.

Every action is recorded on the visit's timeline, such as "Said they're running about 15 minutes late" or "Cancelled from their visit page".

Answer a Request for Another Time

When a guest asks for another time, the host gets an alert, "Your visitor asked for another time", on the channels they chose in Account → Notifications.

1. Open the visit in Console → Visitors. The request shows the time the guest asked for and their note.
2. Choose Move the visit to accept it, or Keep its time to decline. Add a note for the guest if you like.
3. The guest is told either way: "Your visit has moved" or "Your visit stays at its time".

A moved visit keeps its length, and the same pass keeps working at the new time. Hosts can also answer it on the visit in the Workspace app, with Move it or Keep the time, or ask reception, who answer for them.

Lobby iPad · Ridge HQ

Visitor arrivedOn site

AO

Ama Owusu has arrived

Lobby iPad · 10:42 am

To see Kwame Mensah · Treasury, Level 4

Routing for Kwame Mensah

• Push to Workspace appFirst
• WhatsApp and email copyAt once
• SMS if push not openedAfter 60 s
• Quiet hours9 pm–6 am

Push

Workspace app · iPhone

Agoo Workspacenow

Ama Owusu has arrived

Coastline Consult · waiting in the lobby

To Kwame Mensah · 10:42 amFree

Push not opened in 60 s → SMS

SMSStandby

Hubtel · sender ID VoltaBank

VoltaBank

Ama Owusu (Coastline Consult) is at Ridge HQ reception, 10:42 am. Let her in: agoo.link/a/7KQ2

024 123 4567 · 1 partGH₵0.03

WhatsApp

Approved business template

Your visitor has arrived

Ama Owusu from Coastline Consult is at reception.

10:42 am

Let her inOn my way

To Kwame Mensah · 10:42 amPer template

Email

Copy to Kwame and his assistant

Volta Bank via Agoo

Ama Owusu has arrived

View visit

2 recipients · 10:42 amFree

Each message logged with cost · GH₵0.03 SMS

Which channel to use

If a WhatsApp message can't be delivered, Agoo falls back to SMS. See Notifications.

Group, Recurring and Multi-Day Passes

Pass Rules

On Growth and above, a pass can carry rules, so it only works where and when it should:

• Entry window: valid only from some minutes before the expected time to some minutes after, for example 30 before and 60 after.
• Single use: one entry (one a day, on a multi-day pass).
• Gates: valid only at certain gates, for example the Loading bay.

Default rules for each visitor type are set in Console → Settings → Visitor forms; you can change them for a single invitation. At the desk, a pass that doesn't admit now can still be let in, and the override is recorded. See Multi-day passes and pass rules.

Change, Resend or Cancel an Invitation

Open the visit in Console → Visitors → Expected and choose:

• Change: the day, time, host or visitor type. Tick Send them the new details to tell the guest.
• Add a host, Make lead or take someone off, under Hosts on the visit's page. The front desk and the visit's lead host can.
• Send again: by SMS, email or both.
• Cancel visit: the guest is told the visit is cancelled (untick it if you've told them yourself), and any pass stops working.

In the Workspace app, open the visit on Hosting: Change the time (the guest is sent the new details), Send invitation or Send again, and Cancel visit, with a switch to tell the guest. Hosts never see or forward a guest's pass link themselves: it goes only to the guest, so use Send again if they've lost it. A guest's request for another time is answered on the same page, with Move it or Keep the time.

• Host approvals: What happens when your guest arrives.
• Booking pages: Let people book a time with you instead.
• Notifications: Channel order, fallback and reminders.
• SMS sender ID: Send from your own name, not a number.

Request a Visit

Let people ask to visit from your own page or a QR poster, confirmed by a code to their phone or email, with the host approving before any pass is sent.

Not every visitor knows someone who will invite them. A supplier, a job applicant or a member of the public can ask to visit from your request page: they confirm their phone number or email with a code, say why they're coming and who they'd like to see, and choose a time. Nothing is sent until the host says yes, and then the visitor gets their pass like any invited guest.

The request page is included on Starter, Growth, Pro and Enterprise. It's off until you turn it on for a site. Each request counts towards your plan's visitors a month, like an invitation.

Turn It On for a Site

1. 1

   Open the site's check-in rules

   Go to Console → Settings → Sites, choose the site, then Check-in rules.

2. 2

   Take visit requests at a site

   Turn on Take visit requests and save. Do the same for every site that should take requests. Only people who can change settings for the site can do this, and the change is recorded in the audit trail.

3. 3

   Open the visitor types people can choose

   A request offers the visitor types you've opened for pre-registration in Console → Settings → Visitor forms, with the questions each asks of the visitor. Open the ones that suit a request, such as Meeting or Interview, and leave the rest closed.

4. 4

   Share the page

   Your request page is at your organisation's Agoo address followed by /r, such as voltabank.agoohq.com/r, or on your own domain, such as visit.voltabank.example/r. Put the link on your website or in your email signature, or print a request poster (below). Try it yourself with a colleague as the host.

When no site takes requests, the page tells visitors you're not taking requests online and to contact you directly.

What the Visitor Does

The page uses your name, your logo from Starter and your brand colour from Growth, and works on any phone with a browser, in light and dark mode. No app or account is needed.

They select Ask to visit, and the page tells them their request has gone to the host and that the answer will come to the phone or email they confirmed.

If their connection drops or they close the page part-way, their phone keeps what they'd typed for 24 hours and offers it back (see Unsaved work and drafts).

About the codes

• Codes come from Agoo itself, in a short SMS or a plain email that names your organisation. They don't use your SMS allowance.
• Agoo keeps only scrambled forms of the code and of the phone number or email it went to, and deletes them within a day.
• A few wrong tries, or a code that's run out, and the visitor asks for a new one. Agoo limits how many codes go to one phone or email, and how many your page sends in a day, so the page can't be used to send messages at will. A visitor who reaches a limit is asked to wait, or to use their other contact.
• The phone or email they confirm must be the one on their request.

What Happens Next

A request is a visit that's Awaiting approval, always, whatever your site's approval rules say:

1. The watchlist is checked, as for any visit. A match holds the request for your security team, and the host isn't asked until security decides. The visitor sees the same "waiting" message either way.
2. The host is asked on the channels they chose in Account → Notifications, and can approve or decline from the link in their message, without signing in, in the Console or in the Workspace app. See Host approvals.
3. If the host approves, the visit becomes Expected and the visitor gets their pass on the phone or email they confirmed. From the pass they answer anything still missing and sign your other documents, as an invited guest does, and can add it to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet.
4. If the host declines, the visitor is told politely, on the same phone or email.

A request for several people goes to everyone named, and one for a team to its members; a request for no one in particular, or for someone whose visitors go through their office, waits with whoever receives it, under Needs someone. Whoever takes it answers as a host does. See Who a visit is for.

Requests show in Console → Visitors with the other visits, and the visit's timeline shows it came from a request and how the visitor confirmed it.

A visitor who asks to visit is treated as unverified until reception knows them, as with self check-in: typing someone else's phone number never shows, or fills in, that person's details. Agoo matches them with their earlier visits afterwards.

If your plan's visitors for the month have run out, the page tells the visitor you can't take more requests this month and to contact you directly.

Request Posters

A Request a visit QR code opens your request page when it's scanned. Make one in Console → QR codes → New QR code → Request a visit, for one site (the page opens with that site chosen) or for your whole organisation. Add a line for visitors if you like, such as "Scan to ask for a meeting with our procurement team".

Request codes are always tracked, so you can see how often they're scanned. While the site, or your organisation, isn't taking requests, scanning one opens a page that says so politely, with your line, and asks the visitor to contact you directly. Turning requests back on brings the poster back to life: nothing to reprint.

Plans and Limits

• Host approvals: How hosts answer a waiting request.
• Details and documents before the visit: What the visitor does on their pass.
• Forms and fields: Open visitor types for pre-registration.
• Codes for people and places: Posters for your sites.

Host Approvals

How hosts approve, decline or tell reception they're coming from a push on their lock screen, WhatsApp, an SMS link or email, and how timeouts keep nobody stuck at reception.

When a visitor arrives, their host hears about it straight away, wherever they are. If your rules say the host must approve, the host answers from the alert itself: no app to open, no phone call to reception.

A visit isn't always for one person. When it is for several people or a team, everyone it is for is told, and a visitor with no one in particular to see is received by reception. This page is about a host's answer; Who a visit is for covers teams, the front desk's Needs someone list and visitors for senior people.

When Approval Is Needed

You decide, per site, in Console → Settings → Sites → (site) → Check-in rules:

Requests from your request page always need the host's approval before a pass is sent, whatever these rules say. Approving a request before the visitor arrives doesn't check anyone in: the visit becomes expected, the visitor gets their pass with the news, and when they arrive the host isn't asked again. Approving a visitor who is already at reception checks them in.

A watchlist match always holds the check-in for your security team, never the host, whatever the rules say. Your site's security leads get an alert in the Workspace app first, then by WhatsApp, SMS or email; the host isn't told about the match. See Watchlist.

What the Host Receives

Hosts with the Agoo Workspace app get the alert there first, as a notification. If it hasn't reached their phone in time (5 minutes, or the time you set for the alert), Agoo moves on to the channels you set in Console → Settings → Notifications, in order. Hosts without the app start with those channels.

Approvals by message use a link, not a text reply, so they work on every network and every phone with a browser, without signing in. Each link is unique to that visit and that host, works once, and stops working after 24 hours or as soon as the visit is answered another way. The answer is recorded in the host's name.

Answer from the Link

The link opens a page on your organisation's Agoo address with the visitor's name and company, when and where, and who they're there to see.

• I'll see them (or Approve, for a request before the visitor arrives) answers yes. Reception sends the visitor your way, or, for a request, the visitor gets their pass.
• Ask them to wait, once the visitor has arrived: choose 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes. Reception tells the visitor, who keeps their seat, and you let them in from the same link when you're ready.
• Not today tells reception you can't see them today, so they can book the visitor in for another time. It doesn't decline the visit.
• I won't see them asks you to confirm, with a reason if you like. For your own visitor, the visit is declined and the visitor is told it can't go ahead. If the front desk asked you, or the visitor came for your team, your no goes back to reception and the visitor keeps waiting for someone else. Your reason stays with reception and the visit's record.

If someone has already answered another way, the page says so and there's nothing more to do. After 24 hours the link stops working: answer in Console → Visitors or the Workspace app, or tell reception.

Answer In the Workspace App

Hosts with the Agoo Workspace app on their iPhone, iPad or Android phone or tablet see visits waiting for them under Waiting for you on Hosting, with a number on the tab. Tap Approve (Approve and check in when the visitor is at reception) or Decline, with a reason for staff if you like.

It works with no signal: the app keeps the answer on the phone and sends it as soon as it's back online, and if someone answered first, the visit shows that. A visit held for a security review shows Held for security, with no buttons.

Hosting also shows the visits you're on with someone else leading, and the visits your team has while nobody has taken them, each with your part and who else is on it. When the front desk asks you to see a visitor, or a visitor waits for your team, the visit shows Will you see them? in place of Approve and Decline, with the four answers: I'll see them, Ask them to wait (5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes), Not today or I won't see them (with a note for the front desk if you like). That answer needs a connection: the visitor is standing at the desk and the first answer counts, so the app sends it at once and tells you plainly if someone else answered first. Where only the lead decides, the others see the visit without the buttons, with a line saying the lead answers.

Answer from the Notification

On an iPhone or iPad with the Workspace app, press and hold the notification for its buttons. The phone asks for Face ID, Touch ID or the passcode first. On Android, pull the notification down for its buttons; the phone asks for your fingerprint, face unlock or screen lock first, and "Your visitor is here" offers I'm coming, Wait 5 min and Wait 15 min.

• A visit needs your answer: Approve or Decline. With no signal, the app keeps the answer and sends it as soon as it's back online.
• Your visitor is here: I'm coming, or Ask them to wait 5, 10 or 15 minutes. Reception sees your answer beside the visitor, in the Console and on the Desk in the app (for example, "Host asks them to wait 10 min"), and the visit's timeline records it. The same buttons are on the visit's page in the app, under Let reception know.
• Reception asks if you'll see a visitor, or a visitor needs someone on your team: no buttons on the notification. Tap it to open the visit and answer under Will you see them?

If your organisation leaves names out of the app's notifications, they say "A visit needs your answer" or "Your visitor is here", and you see the name when you open Agoo.

The Host's Answer

Whoever answers, the decision is recorded on the visit's timeline and in the audit trail: who, when, and on which channel.

Several Hosts, or a Team

• Several people: everyone on the visit gets the alert. The visitor type says who may answer: Anyone on the visit, where the first answer counts and the others are told, or Only the lead, where the others are told without a link that can decide. Set it in the visitor type's rules.
• A team: every member is told, "Ama Owusu would like to visit Treasury". The first to say yes becomes the host, and the others hear it's been taken. A member's no goes back to reception, and the visitor keeps waiting.
• If someone else answered first, your link says so: "Someone has already said yes to Ama Owusu." The Workspace app says so too.
• Someone you're asked about by the front desk is answered the same way, with the same four answers, from the link or under Will you see them? in the Workspace app or the Console. See When you are asked.

Someone Else Approving for a Host

Only the host answers their own visitors. When they don't answer in time, reception approves for them, in the receptionist's own name. A director's walk-ins can go to their assistant or their office first: see Senior people.

When Nobody Answers

If the host doesn't answer within the wait time, the visit goes to reception. In Console → Visitors → On site, visits awaiting approval are shown at the top with how long the visitor has waited, and flagged Host hasn't answered. The receptionist can:

• call or WhatsApp the host from the visit,
• approve on the host's behalf (recorded in the receptionist's name), in the Console or in the Workspace app, where Desk → Inbox → Visitors to approve lists every visit waiting at their sites, offline too,
• decline, if the visitor can't be seen today.

A visitor nobody has taken at all (one for a team, or with no one in particular to see) waits under Needs someone instead, in the Console and on the Desk in the Workspace app, where the desk can also ask someone else, book the visitor in for another time or hand them over. See Needs someone.

Nobody is left standing at the desk without someone knowing.

Arrival Notes from the Visitor

Visitors with a pass can tell their host from it that they're running late, ask for another time, or say they can't make it. The host gets an alert on the channels they chose in Account → Notifications:

The notes also show on the visit's timeline in the Console. See Invitations and passes.

Phases

• Front desk and guard mode: What reception sees while a visitor waits.
• Notifications: Set the channel order and quiet hours.
• Watchlist: Discreet alerts to security on a match.

Who a Visit Is For

Visits for several people, a team or no one in particular, the Needs someone list at the front desk, and visitors for senior people who go through their office.

Not every visitor comes to see one person. A parent comes for Admissions, an auditor for three people in Treasury, and someone asks for the managing director without an appointment. In Agoo a visit can be for one person, several people, a team, or no one in particular, and a visitor nobody has taken yet waits in one list, Needs someone, where the front desk finds who will see them.

All of it is on every plan, Free included, and counts against nothing.

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Visitors

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Visitors

Who is expected, who is on site now, who is waiting for someone to take them, and every visit before.

Scan a pass Check in walk-in Invite visitor

Needs someone3Expected14On site9History

• AOAma OwusuWaiting 4 minVolta Bank · MeetingEDAsked for Esi DarkoWith Managing Partner’s OfficeNobody has been asked yet.Find someone
• SASelorm AgbekoWaiting 2 minRidge Academy · Other“Fees for the training day”Here for AccountsThe team’s members have been toldNobody in the team has taken it yet.Open
• ABAdwoa BonsuWaiting 11 minKorle Gardens Estate · Other“About hiring the training room”No one in particularWith receptionYaw Adjei can’t see them today. Book them in for another time, or ask someone else.YAYaw AdjeiNot todayOpen

Four Kinds of Visit

A visit is for 10 people at most. For more than that, make it for their team.

Teams

A team is a group visitors come to see, or that looks after visitors together: Admissions, Accounts, Treasury, the Head Teacher's Office. Teams live in Console → People → Teams, and whoever manages your directory (Owners, Admins and Site admins) makes them. A person's department stays what it is, a word on their profile; a team is the group that is told when a visitor comes.

1. 1

   Add a team

   Select New team and give it a name, as a visitor would say it. Choose its site, or Every site: a team at one site is offered there only.

2. 2

   Add its members

   Search for people by name, job or department and add them. Everyone in the team is told when a visitor comes for it. Choose Make lead beside one of them if the team has a lead.

3. 3

   Decide whether visitors may choose it

   Turn on Visitors may choose this team for a team visitors ask for by name, such as Admissions. Left off, the team shows Staff only: your staff can make a visit for it or pass a waiting visitor to it, and visitors never see it.

Make teams from departments. If your people already have departments on their profiles, select From departments. Agoo lists each department in use and how many people are in it; nothing is ticked for you. Tick the ones that should be teams, choose whether visitors may choose them, and confirm. Each new team gets its department's active people as members, and people's departments stay as they are.

Archive a team you no longer use. It takes no new visits and leaves the pickers, its past visits keep its name, and you can bring it back. A team with nobody in it can't receive visitors.

Say Who a Visit Is For

When your staff invite a visitor or check in a walk-in, the form asks who the visit is for, with three choices:

• Invite visitor asks it as Coming to see. See Invitations and passes.
• Check in walk-in asks it as Who are they here to see?. See Front desk.
• In the Workspace app, Invite a visitor on Hosting and Register a walk-in on the Desk offer the same three choices. See The Agoo Workspace app.

A host inviting their own visitor stays on the visit as its lead. They can add colleagues who'll be there too, or invite for a team they're in. No one in particular is for the front desk.

Your own staff can always make a visit for anyone. What visitors may choose is decided by each visitor type, below.

What Visitors Are Asked

Each visitor type has its own rules for the question "Who are you here to see?". Owners and Admins set them in Console → Settings → Visitor forms → (visitor type), in the Who are you here to see? panel above the form.

A type nobody has changed asks for one person, as every type did before. A school's Parent pickup type might never ask; a Delivery type might send everyone to reception; a Meeting type might offer a person, several people or a team.

These rules apply wherever a visitor answers for themselves: at the kiosk, with or without a connection, and on your visitor pages.

Needs Someone

Console → Visitors → Needs someone lists every visitor waiting for someone to take them, longest waiting first. The count on the tab turns amber while anyone waits. Three kinds of visitor wait here:

• one with no one in particular to see,
• one who came for a team nobody in it has taken yet,
• one who asked for someone whose visitors go through their office (see Senior people).

Reception, security and admins see the visitors waiting at their sites. The person named to receive a visitor, and the members of the team that has it, see theirs.

Each row says who the visitor asked for, who is receiving them, who has been asked and what they answered, and what to do next, such as "Kwame Mensah asked them to wait 10 minutes. Let the visitor know." Open the visit to act on it. Whoever receives the visitor has six choices:

You can ask anyone active in your directory, including people who don't usually receive visitors. Every question, answer, hand-over and turning away is on the visit's timeline and in the audit trail, with who did it.

On your phone

The Workspace app has the same list. Needs someone comes first on the Desk, with its count, for whoever receives the visitor: the front desk at their sites, the person named, and the members of the team that has the visit. Someone who receives visitors without working the Desk, such as an assistant or a member of the Head Teacher's Office, has it at the top of Hosting instead, with the same choices. The list is kept on the phone, so it's there with no signal and changes by itself as visitors arrive and are taken.

Open a visit for the same six choices. Asking a person or a team, writing down an answer, taking the visit, handing it over and booking the visitor in for another time need a connection: each one tells people and changes who has the visit, and what Agoo answers is what you tell the visitor. Turn away takes a reason if you'd like to give one and, like Decline in the app, works with no signal. See The Agoo Workspace app.

When You Are Asked

When the front desk asks you to see a visitor, or a visitor is waiting for your team, you're told in the Workspace app, then by SMS or email, as you chose in Account → Notifications. Answer from the link in the message, without signing in, or on the visit in the Workspace app or the Console, under Will you see them?

• Asking them to wait is offered once the visitor has arrived.
• If someone else answers first, your link or the app says so and there's nothing more to do.
• In the Workspace app, the visit is on Hosting, and tapping the notification opens it. Answering there needs a connection, because the first answer counts and the app tells you at once if a colleague got there first.
• Once you say no, you're off the visit and stop seeing it.
• A note for the front desk is never sent to the visitor.

Answering a visit you host, or an arrival you're told about, works as it always did: see Host approvals.

Several Hosts On One Visit

A visit's page lists everyone it is for under Hosts, with the Lead marked and each person's answer. The front desk at the visit's site and the lead host can:

• Add a host: they're told, and the visit shows among theirs.
• Make lead: change who leads.
• Take someone off: they stop being told about the visit and can't see it any more.

Whether anyone on the visit may approve, decline or answer an arrival, or only the lead, is the visitor type's rule. Where only the lead decides, the others are told without a link that can decide.

In the Workspace app, Hosting shows the visits you lead, the visits you're on with someone else leading, and the visits your team has while nobody has taken them. Each says your part and who else is on it. Where only the lead decides, the others see the visit without the buttons, with a line saying the lead answers.

Senior People: Visitors Through Their Office

Some people are asked for at the door all day: a head teacher, a director, a doctor. Open them in Console → People and find Visitors go through their office. Whoever manages your directory changes it; the person sees their own setting.

The visit waits under Needs someone, saying who the visitor asked for. The visitor isn't told why they wait. If the assistant leaves or the team is archived, reception receives these visitors instead.

Only walk-ins go through their office: at the kiosk, from a check-in poster, at the front desk, or asking to visit from your visitor pages. A visitor the person invited, or who booked a time with them, is expected and comes straight through.

Show them to visitors on the kiosk is a separate switch. Turned off, the person is left out of the names visitors can find at the kiosk and on your visitor pages; visitors choose their office or "No one in particular" instead, and your staff can still invite for them. Being left out hides nobody from colleagues.

When a visitor names several people and one of them is seen through their office, the whole visit waits with that office, and the others stay on it, so nobody is reached around their office.

What the Visitor Sees

At the kiosk and on your visitor pages (self check-in and request a visit), the question follows the visitor type's rules. On the visitor pages:

• A name: they type three letters of a name and choose, as before. There is never a list of your staff.
• A team: where the type offers teams, typing three letters also finds teams you've marked for visitors at that site, labelled Team.
• Several people: where the type offers it, they add another name after the first, up to five. The first person named is told first, and the others too.
• No one in particular: "I don't have an appointment, or I'm not sure who to ask for. Reception will help."
• A type that never asks skips the step.

While they wait, the page says what it always said: "Please wait a moment. Reception will let you in shortly." It doesn't say who has been asked or what they answered.

Their pass says who the visit is for: "Meeting Kwame Mensah", "Meeting Kwame Mensah and Esi Darko", "Here for Treasury", or "Ask at reception".

At the kiosk, the question comes after "What brings you in?", and works with no connection. The visitor types three letters of a name and taps it, adds up to five names where the type offers several people, taps a team from the teams you've marked for visitors at that site, or chooses "No one in particular". A type that never asks skips the step. The screen at the end says who the visit is for in the pass's words (a name, "Here for Treasury" or "Ask at reception"), and a visitor who waits is asked to take a seat, never told why. See Kiosk check-in.

Alerts

Five alerts keep everyone in step. Each goes to the Workspace app first, then by SMS or email as each person chose; they don't use WhatsApp.

In the Workspace app, the five are in Account → Notifications with your other alerts, and tapping one opens the visit it's about: on the Desk's Needs someone for whoever receives the visitor (on Hosting for a team member who doesn't work the desk), with Will you see them? for the person asked, on the Desk for an answer, and on Hosting for a visitor booked in to see you. The two that ask for an answer have no buttons on the lock screen: open the visit to answer.

Set what people start with in Console → Settings → Notifications. See Notifications.

Reports and Exports

Console → Reports has By team: visitors who came to see a team, or whom a team received. The visits export has Visit for, All hosts and Team beside Host and Department, and searching Visitors finds a visit by any of its hosts or by its team. A visit nobody took is named for its team, or "Reception". See Home and reports.

Privacy

• Who sees a visit follows who it is for. A host sees the visits they are on, a team's members see a visit while it is with their team, and whoever receives a waiting visitor sees it. Nobody else gains anything, and someone who declines stops seeing the visit.
• Visitors never see a staff list. They find people and teams by typing three letters, five matches at most, without anyone you've left out and with only the teams you've marked for them.
• Staff notes stay with staff. A reason for turning someone away, a note for the front desk and a line added when asking are never sent to the visitor.
• Everything is recorded. Who asked, who answered, an answer written down for someone else, every hand-over and every turning away, on the visit's timeline and in the audit trail.

What Works Now

These are in the current version of Agoo Kiosk and Agoo Workspace, from the apps page. A copy of an app from before it keeps working: a kiosk asks for one person, a walk-in there for someone whose visitors go through their office still goes to their office, someone left out of the visitors' search isn't offered, and a visit nobody has taken shows as for "Reception".

• Front desk and guard mode: The lists reception works from.
• Host approvals: Answering an arrival or an approval.
• Forms and fields: Visitor types and their rules.
• Invite your team: Add the people your teams are made of.

Multi-Day Passes and Pass Rules

One pass for several days with daily hours and re-entry, and rules for when and where a pass admits, with defaults per visitor type and an override at the desk.

A pass says when and where it lets a visitor in. Most passes are for one visit on one day. A multi-day pass covers an auditor for a fortnight or a contractor crew for a whole job, with daily hours and no new invitation each morning. Pass rules tighten a pass further: one entry only, a window around the expected time, or only certain gates.

Multi-Day Passes

Invite the visitor as usual, and set when they'll leave on a later day: from Monday 8:00 to Friday 17:00, for example. One pass covers every day in between, up to 92 days, counted in the site's time zone.

Add daily hours, such as 08:00 to 17:00, and the pass admits only during those hours on each of its days. Without daily hours it admits all day on each of its days.

The visitor gets one pass and uses it every day. If they add it to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, one Wallet pass covers every day too. Each time they come in, Agoo records a new entry on the pass, so the visit's timeline, the on-site register and your reports show every day they were there.

Back in on the same pass

When a visitor on a multi-day pass leaves, their pass shows when it next admits, such as tomorrow from 08:00. The next time they come:

• At the desk: open their visit in Console → Visitors (or scan their pass) and select Let them back in. The watchlist is checked again and their host is told, as for any check-in.
• At the kiosk or gate (the Kiosk app, on iPad, iPhone and Android): they scan their pass.

A one-day pass works the same way: a visitor who stepped out can be let back in the same day while their pass admits, unless it's single use.

Visitors with a multi-day pass can't use Another time on it; ask the host to change the dates instead.

Pass Rules

A pass without rules admits on its days, at any gate, as many times as needed, and the desk can check its visitor in early or late, as before.

Defaults for each visitor type

Set a visitor type's default pass rules and daily hours in Console → Settings → Visitor forms, on the type's settings: single use for Interview, the Loading bay only for Delivery, 07:00 to 17:00 for Contractor. Every new visit of that type takes them, unless whoever invites sets its own. Defaults include only what your plan allows, and only the gates at the visit's site, so a default never stops an invitation going out.

Rules for one invitation

When you invite, you can change the rules for that pass: in the invitation, or later from the visit while it's still expected. Clearing them leaves the pass with no rules.

At the Desk: When a Pass Doesn't Admit

If a visitor's pass doesn't admit them now, the desk is told why when checking them in:

Reception can choose Let them in anyway, for example for a contractor who arrived ten minutes early. The override is noted on the visit's timeline with the reason the pass gave, and recorded in the audit trail with who did it. A pass for a cancelled, declined or missed visit can never be overridden.

Guards and kiosks check the same rules from the pass itself, even when they're offline: see Signed passes.

If Your Plan Changes

Rules are checked against your plan when a visit is made or its pass changes. Moving to a lower plan never changes passes already sent: they keep their days and rules until they end.

• Invitations and passes: Invite guests and send them a pass.
• Signed passes: How kiosks check passes with no network.
• Front desk: Check-in, re-entry and overrides.
• Contractors: Passes for a whole job.

Signed Passes and Offline Checks

Every pass carries a code signed with your organisation's own key, so a kiosk or guard can check it with no network. How it works, and how to replace the key.

Dumsor doesn't wait for visitors to finish arriving. So that a gate keeps working when the network doesn't, the QR code on every pass, on every plan, carries a code digitally signed with your organisation's own pass key. A kiosk or guard device can check that code on its own: that the pass is genuine and unaltered, and that it admits now, at this gate.

What a Signed Pass Holds

and the signature over all of it. Changing anything in the code breaks the signature, so a pass with its dates or gates edited is refused. Your organisation isn't written in the code either: a device checks a pass against its own organisation's keys, so a pass from another organisation never passes.

See Multi-day passes and pass rules for days, hours, single use and gates.

Passes that aren't signed

• A pass waiting for its host's approval isn't signed: its QR code holds the pass's link instead, so nobody can be let in offline before someone has said yes. Once the host approves, the pass is signed the next time the visitor opens it.
• A walk-in's visit page (after self check-in) is for the visit already under way, so it isn't signed.

A Wallet pass carries exactly the same code as the pass page, signed or not, so kiosks and guards check it the same way, offline included.

Unsigned codes still work: reception can scan them, and kiosks check them online or against the expected visits they synced.

How Devices Check a Pass

Kiosks and guard devices (the Kiosk app, on iPad, iPhone and Android) keep your organisation's public pass keys and a list of the passes at their site that stopped working early: cancelled, declined or missed visits, and passes replaced when one was sent again. When someone scans a pass, the device checks:

1. the signature, with your organisation's key;
2. that the pass isn't on the list of passes that stopped early;
3. its days, daily hours and gates, against the device's own clock and gate;
4. for a single-use pass, the device's own entries.

A pass that fails is refused with a polite message to see reception, which can let them in anyway if that's right. A pass cancelled after the device lost its connection can't be on its list yet: the device accepts it, and the visit is flagged for reception to review when the device syncs. See Offline mode.

In the Console, Scan a pass reads signed codes and links alike. See Front desk.

Your Pass Key

Each organisation has its own pass key, made the first time a pass is signed. Agoo stores only its public half, which devices use to check passes; the private half is never stored anywhere and can't be downloaded.

Replace the key

Owners and Admins can replace the key in Console → Settings → Security, under the pass key, by selecting Rotate key. Do it if you believe your key has been misused, or as part of your own security routine.

• The old key stops being used at once, and the change is recorded in the audit trail.
• Each pass is signed with the new key the next time it's opened. Passes shown before then carry the old key's signature: devices check those online, or against their synced list of expected visits, until the visitor opens their pass again.
• Nothing needs reprinting or resending.

• Multi-day passes and pass rules: When and where a pass admits.
• Offline mode: What keeps working during cuts.
• Invitations and passes: Send a pass.
• Audit trail: Overrides and key changes on record.

Wallet Passes

Visitors add their pass to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet with one tap, on every plan. It carries the same QR code, shows on the lock screen near your site and keeps itself up to date.

A visitor's pass is a web page with a QR code. Most people find it again by scrolling back through their messages, at the gate, in the sun, with a queue behind them. A Wallet pass keeps it where their phone keeps boarding passes and tickets: Apple Wallet on an iPhone, Google Wallet on Android. One tap on the pass page adds it.

Wallet passes are on every plan, Free included, wherever a visitor has a pass. Admins have nothing to set up or turn on.

9:03

voltabank.agoohq.com

VBVolta Bank

Visitor pass

Ama Owusu

Meeting Kwame Mensah

AG7K-2Q9M

Date

Tue, 30 Sep

Time

10:30 am

Location

Ridge HQ · Level 4

Valid

Today only

Add to Apple WalletAdd to Google Wallet

DirectionsRunning late

Where Visitors Get One

The pass page offers it wherever a visitor has a pass:

Add It to Wallet

1. 1

   Open the pass

   The visitor opens the link in their invitation, approval or booking confirmation.

2. 2

   Choose Add to Apple Wallet or Add to Google Wallet

   Under the QR code, the pass page shows Add to Apple Wallet and Add to Google Wallet. The visitor chooses the one for their phone. Only the buttons that can be used for this pass are shown.

3. 3

   Confirm on the phone

   The phone shows the Wallet pass and asks them to add it. That's all: no app to install from Agoo and no account.

The buttons aren't shown while the visit is waiting for someone's approval, and they go once the visit has ended, been cancelled, or the visitor has left. The pass page itself keeps working on any phone, with or without Wallet.

What's On the Wallet Pass

The QR code is the same code as on the pass page. When the pass admits without anyone's approval, that's the digitally signed code that kiosks and guards check even with no network; otherwise it's the pass page's link. Reception and the kiosk scan it exactly as they scan the pass page. See Signed passes.

If you share your guest Wi-Fi with the visitor, it's added when they check in and taken away when they check out: Apple Wallet offers to join the network, with its name and password on the back of the pass, and Google Wallet shows the details on the pass.

Everything the visitor does with their visit, such as Running late, Another time, Can't make it? and I've left, stays on the pass page: Your pass, on the back of the Wallet pass, opens it.

On the Lock Screen

Around the time of the visit, when the visitor is near the site, Apple Wallet can show the pass on the iPhone's lock screen with "Show this pass at reception", so it's one tap away at the gate. In Google Wallet it sits with the visitor's other passes, ready to open. The phone decides exactly when to show it.

It Keeps Itself Up to Date

The Wallet pass follows the visit. Visitors don't need to add it again.

Updates reach the phone through Apple or Google while it's online, or as soon as it's next online. Whatever a Wallet pass shows, kiosks and reception check the code itself, so a Wallet copy of a cancelled pass is refused exactly as the pass page's code would be.

Sharing the pass from Wallet is turned off: a pass is for one visitor.

Your Branding On the Pass

The Wallet pass follows your plan's branding, like the pass page:

Change your logo or colour in Console → Settings → Branding, and Wallet passes added from then on use it.

Privacy

• The visitor chooses. Apple or Google receives the pass's details only when the visitor adds it to their Wallet, and handles them under the visitor's own terms with Apple or Google. Nothing goes to Apple or Google for visitors who don't add it.
• Updates travel the same way. When the visit changes, the update reaches the phone through Apple or Google.
• Only what's needed. The Wallet pass carries the visit's details listed above, never the visitor's phone number, email address or ID details.
• The visitor can remove the pass from their Wallet at any time. The pass page keeps working.

Mention Wallet passes in your privacy notice if you'd like visitors to know before they choose. See Data protection.

Questions

Does it cost anything?

No. Wallet passes are on every plan and use no messages or credits.

Does it work without a connection?

Yes. The QR code is stored on the phone, and a signed code is checked by kiosks and guards with no network. Updates arrive when the phone is next online.

A visitor doesn't see the buttons.

They aren't shown while the visit waits for approval, or after it has ended, been cancelled or the visitor has left. On a phone without Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, the visitor uses the pass page, which does everything the Wallet pass does.

The Wallet pass shows an old time.

The phone hasn't received the update yet, usually because it's offline. The pass page always has the current details and code: the visitor opens it with Your pass on the back of the Wallet pass, or from their message.

Can a host or reception add the pass for a visitor?

The buttons are on the visitor's own pass page, so the visitor adds it on their phone. Hosts and reception have nothing to do.

• Invitations and passes: What the guest receives and can do from the pass.
• Signed passes: The code that kiosks check offline.
• Multi-day passes: One pass for several days.
• Branding: Your logo and colour on passes.