Short answer: Vendors, cleaning crews and contractors often have permanent keys or alarm codes that work at any hour and never expire. When something goes missing, there is no way to tell which outside person was in the building. The fix is to give each vendor their own credential and alarm code, limit it to the doors and hours they actually need, and turn it off the day the work ends.
Who has access you forgot about
Make a list and it usually runs longer than expected:
- Janitorial crews, who often have a key and the alarm code, and whose staff change often.
- HVAC, plumbing and electrical contractors who came for a project and kept the code.
- Equipment service techs for copiers, refrigeration, forklifts or medical equipment.
- IT vendors with access to the server closet.
- Landscapers and snow removal with gate codes.
- Delivery drivers who have been given the back door code to save time.
- Former tenants' vendors, in buildings that changed hands.
Each of those is a person or company you trust. The issue is not trust. It is that you cannot tell whether a crew member who quit last spring still knows the code, and you have no record of when any of them came and went.
Where vendor access goes wrong
One code for the whole crew
A cleaning company with rotating staff gets one alarm code. The company changes employees every few months. Your code goes with every one of them.
Access with no time limit
A crew that cleans Tuesday and Friday nights can get in Sunday at noon. A contractor who finished in March can still get in in October.
No record of who was there
If a laptop is gone Monday, you cannot check whether the crew was in at their normal time or at 3 a.m.
Too many doors
A vendor who needs the mechanical room should not also be able to open the stockroom or the records room.
How to set up vendor access properly
- List every outside party with a key, code or credential. Ask managers and the landlord. Check the alarm user list for codes you do not recognize.
- Move vendors to individual credentials. With commercial access control, each vendor gets a card, fob or phone credential tied to their name or company.
- Limit doors. The cleaning crew gets the entry and the areas they clean. The HVAC tech gets the mechanical room.
- Limit hours. Schedule credentials to the days and times the vendor actually works. Project contractors get an end date.
- Separate alarm codes per vendor. So arming and disarming show which company did it.
- Put cameras on the doors vendors use. Security cameras on service entrances and loading doors let you match an entry in the access log to the person on video.
- Make offboarding part of the contract. When a vendor relationship or project ends, their access ends the same day. Ask vendors to tell you when their staff change.
Questions to ask your vendors
- Who on your crew will be in our building, and how will you tell us when that changes?
- What hours do you need access, and on which days?
- Which doors and rooms do you actually need?
- Do your employees share codes or keys with each other?
How Turner Security handles this
We set up access control so vendor credentials can be scheduled, limited to certain doors and shut off from a phone or computer. Entry history shows who came in and when. For property managers with several buildings and many vendors, one system can manage access across properties; see our page for property managers. Our offices are in Smyrna and Chattanooga, our help desk handles most changes remotely, and we do not require long-term contracts on security or monitoring.
Mistakes to avoid
- Changing the vendor's code only after an incident.
- Giving a contractor a master key "just for the project."
- Letting a vendor's credential cover every door because it was quicker to set up.
- Forgetting gate codes and lockboxes when you clean up vendor access.
Frequently asked questions
Can we give a vendor temporary access for one visit?
Yes. With access control, a credential can be set to work only on specific days and hours, and turned off as soon as the visit is done.
What if our cleaning company won't give us individual names?
At minimum, give the company its own credential and alarm code that only works during the cleaning window, and change it whenever their crew changes. Individual credentials are better if you can get them.
Do we need cameras if we have access logs?
The log shows which credential opened a door. A camera shows who was actually holding it. Together they answer the question.
Get vendor access under control
Tell us how many vendors and doors you are dealing with and we will recommend a starting point.
To request a quote, call our Smyrna office at (615) 223-9600 for Nashville and Middle Tennessee, or our Chattanooga office at (423) 344-3787. If you can, pull your alarm user list before you call. It usually shows a few codes nobody can explain.
