Access Control: How to Manage Office Entry on a Daily Basis

Managing Access to Your Offices involves organizing, day by day, who can enter, when access should be granted, adjusted, or revoked, and who is responsible for it. A high-performance access control system alone is not enough: without clear processes, access rights pile up, become obsolete, and eventually create security vulnerabilities.

This is a very real issue: 29% of executives believe that poorly managed access has already caused an internal incident at their company, whether it be loss, theft, or a breach (Source: Sosmaster). The technology you choose matters, but how you manage it on a day-to-day basis matters just as much.

Managing Office Access: A Matter of Process as Much as Technology

Managing office access involves overseeing the entire lifecycle of an access right: its creation, modifications, and revocation. This management relies on the access control system, but it depends primarily on the internal rules that govern it.

A company can have the latest equipment and still experience incidents if no one is responsible for deactivating outdated access credentials or tracking active badges.

Installing an access control system is not the same as managing it on a day-to-day basis

Installing an access control system is a one-time project. Managing it, however, is an ongoing process: it involves tracking arrivals, departures, job changes, and external visitors week after week.

This distinction explains why some companies, despite being well-equipped, remain vulnerable. Break-ins at business premises increased by 5 to 9 percent in France over the last year for which data is available, and 80 percent of these incidents resulted from human error: a door left open, a key card lent to someone else, or access that was not revoked (Source: Culture RH).

Who should be in charge of managing admissions at a company?

Access control is rarely the responsibility of a single person. It generally involves the office manager, human resources, and—for sensitive areas—a security or IT manager. Clarifying these roles in advance helps avoid confusion, particularly when employees leave the company, when no one knows who is responsible for deactivating an employee’s access badge.

Clarifying these roles in advance helps avoid ambiguity, especially when employees leave the company, when no one knows who is responsible for deactivating an employee's access badge.

The Office Manager: The Coordinator of Physical Access

The office manager typically handles day-to-day badge-related tasks: ordering, issuing, replacing lost badges, and tracking visitors. The office manager is also the first point of contact when an employee reports a problem accessing a room or a floor.

HR: Triggers for access each time an employee arrives or leaves

Human Resources holds key information: start dates, end dates, and job changes. Without a direct link between the HR system and the access control system, this information is often shared via email, which carries the risk of delays or oversights.

How should you manage new hires throughout an employee's career?

Every employee goes through three key milestones that should trigger action regarding their access rights: their arrival, any changes in their position, and their departure.

Set up access upon arrival

Upon arrival, access must be set up before the first day of work: an active ID badge, authorized areas defined according to the position, and temporary access if the employment contract has not yet been signed. Delays in setting up access negatively impact both the onboarding experience and security.

Adjusting Rights During the Term of the Contract

A change in position, a transfer to a different team, or a temporary assignment at another location must immediately result in an adjustment to access rights. Retaining old access rights “for the sake of simplicity” is one of the main sources of vulnerabilities identified by security managers.

Revoking access at the outset: a step that is still too often overlooked

Revoking access remains the step most often overlooked in access management. An access card that is not deactivated after an employee leaves remains active, sometimes for several weeks. This step should always be included in the departure procedure, just like returning equipment.

How can we manage visitor and contractor check-ins without increasing the amount of manual work?

Visitors and service providers account for a significant portion of incoming traffic, which is often less closely monitored than that of employees. In fact, 33% of access control incidents involve visitors without temporary badges (Source: Sosmaster).

The temporary badge: a cornerstone of external traffic management

Managing visitor access involves creating access that is limited in time and space and automatically deactivated at the end of the visit. This automation eliminates the need for the reception team to perform an additional manual task for each appointment.

Pre-registration in advance, with the visitor’s badge or QR code sent automatically, further simplifies this process and reduces the time spent at the reception desk.

How do you manage entry when each site uses a different access control system?

A company with multiple locations does not always own its office space. In most cases, it rents a building managed by a real estate company or a property manager, who imposes its own access control system on all occupants.

This situation creates a level of technical heterogeneity that is difficult to manage: the badge, app, or device installed at one location is not necessarily the same as that at another location, even within the same company.

One employee, multiple systems to manage

In practice, an employee can use a badge provided by the landlord to enter the building, and then a second, company-specific identifier to access their own office space. At another location, this would involve a different mobile app, with its own rules for creation and revocation.

For an office manager in charge of multiple locations, this diversity results in a greater number of points of contact, procedures, and processing times: each request for access or revocation depends on the specific system used in each building, without a consolidated overview.

A single management layer over different systems

Managing office entrances spread across multiple buildings therefore involves overlaying a common control layer on top of the various systems mandated by the building owners, rather than creating multiple internal interfaces.

This is the role played by SaaSOffice, which supports both property owners and tenant companies: the platform can integrate with existing access control systems on a site-by-site basis, while providing the office manager with centralized management of access rights, visitors, and revocations, regardless of the building.

Managing access in a sustainable way involves tracking a few simple metrics: the number of active access accounts relative to the actual headcount, the average time it takes to revoke access after an employee leaves, and the number of incidents related to poorly managed access.

Poor access management can result in a loss of several minutes per visit for the teams responsible for manually handling each exception (Source: Sosmaster). When multiplied by the number of employees and visitors, this time represents a significant administrative burden for the office manager.

How do SaaSOffice and the NOVA Assistant simplify day-to-day visitor management?

SaaSOffice integrates access control with space booking and visitor management into a single platform, reducing the need for manual tasks spread across multiple tools. Temporary access, room reservations, and incident reports can all be managed from the same interface.

The voice assistant NOVA allows an office manager to create a visitor badge, check a visit history, or request that access be revoked—all simply by voice. This approach reduces the time spent on repetitive tasks related to the day-to-day management of visitor access.

Conclusion

Managing access to your offices is about more than just choosing an access card or a smart lock. It’s primarily a matter of process: who creates access, who adjusts it, who revokes it, and when. Companies that excel in this area are those that combine reliable technology with clearly defined roles, from the HR department to the office manager. SaaSOffice and its NOVA assistant support this organizational approach by centralizing the management of access, visitors, and spaces within a single platform.

FAQ

Who is responsible for managing access to a company?

Access management generally involves the office manager, who handles access badges on a day-to-day basis, and the human resources department, which creates and revokes access based on employee arrivals and departures. For sensitive areas, a security or IT manager is also involved.

How can you quickly revoke access for an employee who is leaving the company?

To revoke access quickly, this step must be incorporated into the official departure procedure, just like returning equipment. A platform like SaaSOffice allows you to deactivate an access badge in just a few clicks, without having to wait for technical support.

How can we manage visitor check-ins without overburdening the reception team?

Visitor access is managed using temporary badges or QR codes, which are created in advance and automatically deactivated at the end of the visit. This automation minimizes manual tasks and reduces the risk of unregistered visitors on the premises.

What metrics should you track to effectively manage office occupancy?

It is helpful to track the number of active accesses relative to the actual headcount, the average time to revoke access after an employee leaves, and the number of incidents related to poorly managed access. These metrics quickly reveal weaknesses in the access management process.

Is access control alone enough to effectively manage office entry?

No, access control alone is not enough. Without a clear process for creating, adjusting, and revoking access rights, even a modern system can leave outdated access permissions active. Managing office access requires both reliable technology and well-defined internal roles.

How should a company manage visitor check-ins when it rents office space from different property management companies?

When a company is a tenant, access control for each building is often dictated by the landlord, using technology specific to each site. Managing access therefore requires overlaying a common management layer—as SaaSOffice offers—rather than managing each system separately.

How does the NOVA assistant help manage daily check-ins?

The NOVA voice assistant, developed by SaaSOffice, allows users to create visitor badges, view visitor logs, or request that access be revoked using voice commands. It thus simplifies day-to-day access management for office managers.