NFC visitor sign-in

NFC stands for near-field communication. It is the same short-range radio your phone uses to pay at a checkout: two devices exchange a small amount of information when they are held a few centimetres apart, and nothing happens at any greater distance.

An NFC tag is the simplest possible version of that. It is a thin sticker or disc with a tiny chip and an antenna inside, and it has no battery. When a phone comes close, the phone’s own field powers the tag for a moment and reads what is stored on it. In Entrica’s case that is a single web link, and nothing else: no names, no personal information, nothing that identifies your organisation or site.

Most modern smartphones can read NFC tags. On recent iPhones it works without opening any app first; on some Android phones NFC has to be switched on in settings. That is why we suggest keeping a QR code beside the tag, as the next section explains.

1. The visitor holds their phone to the tag. The phone reads the link and offers to open it.
2. The sign-in form opens in their browser. It is exactly the same form as the QR code sign-in: their phone number, whatever else you have asked for, and the person they are here to see.
3. They confirm, and the host is told. The host gets an email on arrival (included in Core), and the visitor appears on the live on-site list until they sign out.

Because the tag opens a web page rather than an app, there is nothing to download at any point. The only thing the visitor needs is a phone with a data connection, which is also what the form needs to reach Entrica.

The tag and the QR code for a location lead to the same place, so a sign with both on it covers everyone: people tap if their phone reads NFC, and scan if it does not. Either way, the visitor goes through the same checks. A duplicate visit guard stops the same person being signed in twice, a number on your blacklist (a Professional-plan feature) is refused, and while an emergency event is open the emergency sign-in block refuses new sign-ins from the tag just as it does from the code. If your site uses company policies or a digital signature (Professional-plan features), the visitor accepts or signs them in the same form.

A QR code asks the visitor to open the camera, frame the square and wait for it to focus. A tag asks them to touch their phone to a spot. That difference is small on a bright morning and large everywhere else:

• Poor light. A gate at 6am, a dim loading dock or a car park at night, where a camera struggles to read a code.
• Weather and wear. A printed code that has faded in the sun, curled in the rain or been scuffed no longer scans. A tag behind a clear cover still reads.
• Hands full. A courier with a parcel, or a contractor in gloves, can tap a phone against a tag more easily than they can line up a camera.
• It looks deliberate. A branded tag by the door reads as the way in, not as another sticker on the glass.

The honest trade-off: not every phone reads NFC, and some visitors will not know to try. That is why the QR code stays alongside it rather than being replaced by it.

We supply the tags and link them for you.Each Entrica tag carries a short code printed on it. When you are ready, the Entrica team links that code to your location, and from then on a tap opens that location’s sign-in form. A tag that has not been linked yet opens a neutral “This tag isn’t set up yet” page rather than anything belonging to someone else.

The link on the tag never changes.The tag holds a fixed short link on Entrica’s own domain, and we control where it points. If you ever regenerate the QR code for a location (after a code has been photographed and shared, for example), the tags are re-pointed at the same time and keep working. Nobody has to climb a ladder to replace a sticker.

One location, as many tags as you need. Every tag for a location carries the same link, so a front door and a side door can share one location. If you want each entrance recorded separately, set them up as their own locations and each gets its own link. Multi-location support is part of the Professional plan; the full split by plan is on the features page, and what drives the cost is on pricing.

The point of making sign-in quick is that more people do it, and everyone who signs in is on the evacuation list. That list is live, it opens in a browser on any phone or laptop signed in to Entrica, and when an emergency event starts, the alert sent by text or email carries a link for people on the roll call to mark themselves safe. The evacuation list, emergency alerts, mark safe / self-safe, the emergency PDF and the emergency sign-in block are all in the Core plan.

The duties behind that roll call, and what the privacy law expects of the records it keeps, are written up for New Zealand and for Australia. How visitor records are secured once they are in Entrica is on our security page.

NFC and QR are two ways into the same sign-in, and most sites use them together. If you have a staffed reception and want a screen that greets people and can take a signature with a finger, read about tablet kiosk sign-in. If another product is on your shortlist, our comparisons with other visitor management systems are sourced and dated.