This guide walks you through setting up Visitor Management with Visitors Plus, in the order most teams need it: first turn it on for your offices and create your visit types, then add a default host and a self check-in kiosk, and finally badge printing if you want it. Each step explains what to set up and why, and links to the article with the detailed instructions. When you finish, your employees can pre-register visitors, and visitors can check in at reception or at the kiosk.
- Before you start
- Turn on Visitor Management for your offices
- Create your visit types
- Set a default host for each office
- Set up a Visitors kiosk
- More options: badge printing
- Test your setup and go live
- FAQs
1. Before you start
Every step in this guide is part of Visitors Plus. There are no tiers inside Visitor Management: once your company has Visitors Plus, all visitor features are available. If you are on an older contract, your plan may have a different name but includes the same features. For an overview, see Feature Availability.
- Role: you need the Global Admin role to complete every step. See System roles and permissions.
- Offices: the offices that receive visitors must already exist in deskbird. If you are setting up deskbird for the first time, start with Desks: Basic setup.
- People at each office: who welcomes visitors at reception (visitor receptionists), and who should be notified when a visitor doesn't know their contact person (default host).
- Kinds of visits: the visits you expect, for example interviews, contractors or auditors, and any documents visitors must read or sign, such as an NDA or a safety briefing.
- A tablet (optional): an Android tablet or iPad, or a device with a current Chrome browser, if visitors should check in on their own.
💡 Tip: Start with one office. Turn it on, create one or two visit types and run a test visit (see Test your setup and go live), then repeat for your other offices.
2. Turn on Visitor Management for your offices
Visitor Management works per office. Employees can only create visits for offices that have a Visitors license assigned, so this is the step everything else depends on.
- Go to Admin > Visits: Settings and click Manage licenses. This opens Visitors license settings.
- Turn on the License status toggle for each office that should use Visitor Management.
- Click Save. In the License column, these offices now show Assigned.
The banner at the top of Visitors license settings shows how many licenses are assigned and how many your subscription includes. If you need more, click Request upgrade.
⚠️ Important: Until an office has a license assigned, its ⚙️ gear icon is grayed out, it can't be selected when you pair a kiosk, and employees who choose that office under Visits see Visit creation unavailable instead of the visit list.
Once the office is turned on, click its ⚙️ gear icon to choose its Visitor receptionists (who can view and manage all visits at that office) and, under Visitor data privacy, how long visitor data is kept. Full instructions: Visits: Settings for Visits, Receptionist role and visitor dashboard and Visitor data and privacy (GDPR).
3. Create your visit types
Visit types let you prepare the visitor experience once for each kind of guest. Organizers pick a visit type when they create a visit, and its instructions and documents are applied automatically, so nobody has to retype the Wi-Fi details or arrival guidelines.
- Go to Admin > Visits: Visit types.
- Click Create new, or open an existing visit type to edit it. Give it a Name (up to 16 characters) and a short Description so organizers pick the right one.
- Under Assigned offices, keep Company-wide or choose the offices where it is available.
- Under Instructions for visitors, add what visitors should know for this kind of visit, such as Wi-Fi access or arrival guidelines.
- Optional: under Documents, click Add document to add documents visitors must read or sign before check-in.
- Click Save.
Visit types are available wherever a visit is created: in the web app, at the kiosk and in the Outlook Add-In. Full instructions: Visits: Visit types and Document signing.
4. Set a default host for each office
Walk-in visitors and visitors at the kiosk sometimes don't know who they are visiting. The default host is the person who is notified in that case, so nobody is left waiting at the entrance.
- Go to Admin > Visits: Settings.
- Click the ⚙️ gear icon next to the office.
- Under Default host, choose the person to notify, for example someone at reception or the office manager.
- Save your changes and repeat for each office.
💡 Tip: You can also choose the default host when you pair a Visitors kiosk (step 5). Both places change the same setting for the office, so the latest change applies.
Full instructions: Visits: Settings for Visits. To see what visitors experience, see Register as a walk-in visitor.
5. Set up a Visitors kiosk
A Visitors kiosk is a tablet at the entrance where pre-registered visitors check in with their visitor code, and walk-in visitors register themselves. The host is notified automatically, and visitors can sign required documents on the kiosk screen. This helps most at offices without a staffed reception.
- On the tablet, install the deskbird Kiosk App from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, or open kiosk.deskbird.com in Chrome. The screen shows a QR code and a setup code.
- In the web app, go to Admin > Kiosk & displays > Devices and click + Pair device.
- Enter the setup code from the tablet and choose Visitors kiosk as the display type.
- Give the device a recognizable name, select the Office and choose the Default host, then click Pair.
The default host is notified when a visitor at the kiosk selects I don't know as their host. It is the same setting as the office's default host in Admin > Visits: Settings (see Set a default host for each office): whichever you change last applies to the office.
You can also pair the tablet by scanning its QR code with the deskbird mobile app. Full instructions, device requirements and how to disconnect a kiosk: Kiosk Mode for Visitor Management. What visitors see: Self check-in as a visitor at the kiosk.
6. More options: badge printing
Reception can print a visitor badge that shows who the visitor is, who they are visiting and what kind of visit it is. Badge printing is optional and uses a printer connected to the computer at reception.
- Set up the badge: go to Admin > Visits: Settings > Badge settings. One badge design applies to the whole company. Choose the orientation and the information on the badge, print a test badge, then save. See Badge settings.
- Print badges: receptionists and admins print badges from the Visits page, before the visitor arrives or during check-in. See Printing badges.
7. Test your setup and go live
When the setup is complete, check it end to end before you tell your team:
- Pre-register a test visit yourself at the office you turned on, and use your own email address as the visitor. See Pre-register a visitor.
- Open the invitation email and check the visit type instructions and documents in the Visitor portal.
- If you set up a kiosk, check in with the visitor code from the invitation. Otherwise, check the visitor in from the Visits page. See Check in a visitor on arrival.
- Confirm that the host is notified by Microsoft Teams or email.
- Let your team know they can start inviting visitors, and share Pre-register a visitor with them.
💡 Tip: Hosts are notified by email, and in Microsoft Teams too if they use deskbird in Teams. See Notifications and reminders.
8. FAQs
Turn on the office first. Until an office has a Visitors license assigned, you can't open its settings or pair a kiosk for it, and nobody can create visits there. After that, visit types, the default host and the kiosk can be set up in any order.
- In Admin > Visits: Settings, check that the office shows Assigned in the License column. If it shows Unassigned, turn it on in Manage licenses.
- Check the banner in Visitors license settings. If all licenses are in use, click Request upgrade.
- Ask the employee which office they selected under Visits. Visits can only be created for offices that are turned on.
Only offices with a Visitors license assigned can be selected. Turn the office on first (see Turn on Visitor Management for your offices), then pair the kiosk again.
No. Hosts and receptionists can check visitors in and out from the Visits page in the web app. A kiosk is useful when visitors should check in on their own, for example at an office without a staffed reception. See Check in a visitor on arrival.
Visitor receptionists can view and manage all visits at their office, check visitors in and out, and print badges. The default host is the person notified when a visitor doesn't know who they are visiting. Both are set per office via the ⚙️ gear icon in Admin > Visits: Settings, and one person can be both. You can also choose the default host when you pair a kiosk. This updates the office's default host, so the latest change applies.
By default without a time limit. You can set a retention period per office, after which deskbird anonymizes the visitor data automatically. See Visitor data and privacy (GDPR).
Yes. With the deskbird Outlook Add-In, employees can create and manage visits without leaving Outlook, using the same visit types. See deskbird Outlook Add-In: Visitor Management.