Want a second pair of eyes on certain sign ins? With sign in approvals, you decide which visitors need a quick check, based on the answers they give.
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The visitor is not stopped from signing in, but when a sign in is on hold for approval, a visitor's badge only prints once an approver gives the go-ahead.

Sign in approvals are set per group. For example, a Contractors group can require approval while a Visitors group does not. The settings are available in Portal 2.0 only, and approvals apply to sign ins, not pre-registrations or expected visits.

Sign in approvals are available on the Enhanced plan and above.

Go to Manage › Visitor groups › select group › Advanced in and out › Additional security settings › Sign in approval and tick Enable sign in approvals for this group. An Enabled sign appears on the row once it is on.

A sign in will initially display as pending approval and a badge will print when approved by a Site approver.

Conditions decide which visitors pass straight through and which are held. A rule is made of an Action, a Match type, and one row for each condition, made up of a Field, an Operator and a Value.
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It reads as: [Action] if [Match] of these conditions are met.

Click +Add conditions and set your conditions below:

Action: Choose Automatically approve to let matching visitors through, or Hold for approval to hold matching visitors. The default is Automatically approve.

Match type: Choose All if every condition must be met, or Any if one is enough. The default is All.

Field: You can use any fields assigned to the group except Signature or notify list fields.

In the below example, I have set approval conditions for this group so a sign-in will automatically approve if the Company Name equals Sign In App, and Do you have a photo ID? equals Yes:

Once you have added conditions, a summary reads the rule back in plain English, for example: Automatically approve when the following conditions are met. Everyone else is held for approval.

The operators you can choose depend on the type of field.

Capital letters are ignored for Equals, Contains and Starts with. Spaces inside an answer still count, so "Smith " does not equal "Smith".

We recommend Automatically approve. If a field is later deleted, or is not asked at a particular site, it counts as unanswered. Under Automatically approve, an unanswered field means the visit is held. Under Hold for approval, the same deletion means everyone is approved automatically.

The panel shows a notice if a condition uses a field that is no longer available. The wording depends on how your rule is written:

Tick Allow hosts to approve visits to notify the visitor's host as well as the site approvers. The host is notified in addition to the site approvers, not instead of them. This is off by default. A visitor who names themselves as their own host cannot approve their own sign in.

To choose the site approvers, see Site approvers.

A held visitor completes sign in as normal. They appear on the evacuation list and are recorded as present, with a pending status. No badge prints.

The kiosk shows the normal welcome screen and says nothing about approval. The only place to tell visitors is the group's sign in message, which is shown to everyone in that group whether they are held or not. You could adapt something like this:

Welcome! Your sign in may need to be approved. If your badge does not print, please wait nearby and your host will be in touch.

For what happens after a sign in is held, see Approving or declining a sign in.

Approvers are set per site, not per group. You turn sign in approvals on for a group, but the people who approve are chosen for each site. For example, a contractor signing in at the factory is approved by the factory's approvers.

Go to Manage › Advanced notifications › Site approvers.
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Select Add site approvers, where you can then choose a site and add the people who should approve sign ins there. You can have multiple approvers per site, and one person can be an approver for several sites.

You can add or remove approvers for a site at any time, by clicking on the line you wish to edit:

This will open the editor where you can add or remove site approvers as needed:

Click Save once you have finished editing.

Approvers are chosen from people already part of a group that is available at that site, and they need an email address on file. You cannot type in a new email address. They do not need to be a portal user.

If someone is deactivated, they stop being an approver automatically.

Sign ins sit as pending and nobody is told. If a site has no approvers, sign ins for that group stay pending, no badge prints and nobody is notified. Check this first if approvals do not seem to be working.

To turn sign in approvals on for a group, see Sign in approvals. To see what an approver receives, see Approving or declining a sign in.

You have been named as an approver for a site. When a visitor's answers need checking, you get an email and decide whether to approve or decline. You can do it from the email, which needs no login, or from the portal.

The email will come from [email protected] has a Review request button:

The link opens a review page and never approves on its own. The page shows the visitor's photo, name, the sign-in time, the site and the group. It also shows which check needs attention, with the visitor's answer next to the condition. Choose Approve or Decline:

If you are a portal user, go to Activity › Visit timeline. The Pending count shows how many sign ins are waiting, and held visits have an amber marker on the row and visit timeline. You can either:

You need the Approve sign-ins user permission to approve via the portal. It is on by default for administrators and super administrators. The drawer shows This visit is pending approval. If no approver responds by [time], it will be declined automatically.

You must give a reason, whether you decline in the portal or on the review page. It can be up to 255 characters. When you decline, the visitor is signed out, the held badge is deleted and it cannot be reprinted.

Nothing at the kiosk tells the visitor, so someone will need to speak to them. A declined sign in will show as red on the visit timeline, with 'Declined sign in' listed under the Signed in column and the visitor will be signed out:

Every approver gets their own link, so each decision is attributed to a person. If you open your link after someone else has acted, the page shows who decided and when. The buttons are gone.

After one hour, the sign in is declined automatically and the visitor is signed out. The one hour limit cannot be changed. The record shows it as Declined automatically rather than a person's decision.

The visit record shows who approved or declined and when, for example Approved by [name] at [date]. The Checks at sign-in panel also carries this note: These checks ran when the visitor signed in at [time]. Editing the visit will not run them again.

To find out how someone becomes an approver, see Site approvers.

Quick answers for common questions about sign in approvals.

This is expected if their sign in is held. Check Activity for a pending status. The badge prints when the sign in is approved.

Check that the site has approvers, that they have email addresses and that they are active. A site with nobody configured fails silently. See Site approvers.

This usually means no conditions are set, which holds everything. Otherwise, check for an Automatically approve rule that nothing satisfies, or a condition on a field the group no longer asks. The panel shows a notice for that.

Capital letters do not matter for text conditions, but extra spaces inside an answer do. Check the field is still assigned to the group.

Held sign ins are declined automatically after one hour. The record shows Declined automatically.

Nothing on the kiosk mentions approval. However you can use the group's sign in message to inform visitors.

Not at the moment. Approval status cannot be filtered, exported or reported on.

The settings are in Portal 2.0 only. Approvals work whichever group and field versions your account uses.

We hope you have found this guide useful! If you need any more help, please contact the Sign In App support team using the in-app chat.