Visitor Check-In replaces the front-desk sign-in sheet with a QR code, a short form on a visitor's own phone, and an admin dashboard that tracks who's on site in real time.

There's nothing for a visitor to install, and facility admins can configure the interface to their specific security requirements.

Feel free to reach out to [email protected] if you have questions about this, or click the blue message icon in the bottom right or left corner to start a conversation with us now.

Overview

Everyone who touches the system falls into one of three roles.

Visitor - Scans the facility's QR code, fills in a short form, gets a badge, and is able to check out when they leave. Visitors are checked out automatically after a 24-hour period if they forget to check-out.
Facility Admin - Signs in with email/password or SSO. Manages one facility: visitors, badges, hosts, NDAs, and settings.
Company Admin - oversees multiple facilities under one company, plus company-wide SSO and security policy.

Checking In as a Visitor

A visitor arrives at the facility, scans the printed QR sign at the entrance (or opens the link directly), and lands on the facility's check-in page.

Tapping Start Check-In opens a short form:

Personal information
1. Full name
2. Company
3. Email
4. Phone
5. Citizenship
Visit details
1. Visitor type (if the facility uses them).
2. Host they're visiting (searchable by name).
3. A photo of their government-issued ID or photo, taken with the phone's camera (if the facility requires it).
Agreement & signature
1. Shown at facilities that require an NDA.
2. The visitor reviews the document, checks a box to agree, and signs with their finger.
3. They can optionally email themselves a signed copy.
4. If you ever need to redo your signature, you can clear it. You can sign again and the drawing will now be preserved correctly.
Returning Visitors
1. If a facility has turned on returning visitor quick check-in, a repeat visitor on the same device sees a "Welcome back" prompt and can check in again with one tap.
2. This is under the Check-In Settings section, under the Settings panel.

When enabled the returning visitors would be able to sign-in with one click.

Completing Check-In

Once submitted, the visitor sees a confirmation screen with their assigned badge number, Wi-Fi details if the facility has shared them, and a copy of their signed NDA if one was required.

They will also see the option to check-out, which can be accessed on the same page.

Checking Out

There are three ways to end a visit — whichever is easiest in the moment:

Self-checkout from the confirmation screen, right after checking in.
Remote checkout from the facility's landing page — tap Check Out, enter the name and email used at check-in, and confirm.
Admin checkout — a facility admin checks the visitor out manually from the Visitors dashboard (see Managing Visitors, below)

🚨 Visitors are automatically checked out at the end of the day to prevent any confusion.

Creating Your Admin Account

Enter an email and password after you receive the sign-up link from GroundControl.
The first time you sign in to the admin panel, you'll be asked to accept our Terms of Service.
Add the facility's address, phone number, and an optional description, if not added already.
Choose all the settings required, including whether an ID photo is Required, Optional, or Disabled for check-in. This can be changed later in Settings.
All the settings can be configured to your requirements, as well as any badge rules and creation of printable badges.

Signing In

🚨 This is a different link than the FAI Generation link.

If logging in with SSO if your organization has it configured, enter your facility code and, optionally, your work email, then select Sign in with SSO.

Forgot your password? Select Forgot your password? on the sign-in screen to receive a reset link by email.

🚨 If your account has an authenticator app enrolled, you'll be asked for a 6-digit code after your password is accepted. Only one authenticator app can be enrolled per account at a time.

The Admin Dashboard

After signing in, you land on Dashboard which is a snapshot of the facility and its current flow of visitors. It shows you visitor activity over the last 24 hours and the last 30 days, so you can get a sense of traffic at a glance.

The left panel will direct you out to management options (Visitors, Hosts, Badges, Visitor Types, Badge Rules, NDA Signatures, Settings), and a Recent Visitors list shows the most recent visitors, with the option to view all visitors.

Company admins managing more than one facility see a Facility picker first, plus an Open Company Dashboard option.

When getting started, we would want to configure our facility settings first.

Facility Settings

Settings is where you have the opportunity to configure the entire process according to your individual facility requirements.

Whenever you make a change, a save bar appears and stays pinned to the bottom of the screen until you save or discard it.

Profile and Branding - logo, display name, contact details, description, brand colors.
1. The information here is displayed on the landing page for your facility.
2. Facility contact details and the staff sign-in option are available near the bottom of the page when the visitor checks in.
Admin Users - add, deactivate, or remove admin access.
Requirements - anonymous check-ins, returning-visitor quick check-in, ID photo requirement, whether visitor type selection is required, sanctions screening.
1. Sanctions Screening is a feature that is disabled by default; please contact [email protected] if you would like it enabled or to learn more.
Visitor Type Settings - default visitor type; manage types of visitors.
Citizenship Options - the list of countries offered in the check-in form. If you are an ITAR-registered facility, you can simply put "US-Person, Non US-Person" as your options.
NDA Settings - enable/require an NDA, its title, description, and PDF document.
Wi-Fi Information - instructions shown to visitors after check-in.
Email Settings - sending address, name, timezone, and templates for NDA and host-notification emails.
Security Policies - whether MFA is required for this facility's admins, SAML or OIDC etc.

💡 Do not forget to click SAVE CHANGES when you want to save your changes.

Managing Visitors

Visitors lists everyone who has checked in, with tabs for All, Checked In, and Checked Out, plus a search box that matches name, company, email, phone, host, or badge number.

Select Check Out next to any checked-in visitor to end their visit manually.
Select View Details to see a visitor's ID photo and full details, if one was captured.
Select Add Note to attach a note to a visitor's record which is useful for flagging something for the next time they visit.
Select Export CSV to download the full visitor log and you can store these in your records.

If sanctions screening is enabled for your facility, each screened visitor shows a status, that can be expanded by clicking into the screening status.

🚨 Sanctions screening can't be turned on or off by facility admins — it's configured by the Ground Control team. Contact [email protected] to enable it.

Managing Badges

Badge Types

Define the categories of badge your facility issues — name, description, and a color pair (badge background and text) with a live preview.

Select Create Badge Type to add one.

Individual Badges

Add a badge number and, optionally, assign it a badge type. From here you can:

Select Generate Print Asset to download a print-ready badge image (3"×4" at 300 DPI).
Delete a badge that's damaged or unused.

Managing Hosts

Hosts are the people visitors are on-site to see. Hosts lets you add them one at a time, or all at once.

Adding a Host Manually

Select Add Host and enter a first name, plus any of last name, email, phone, department, or title.

Importing Hosts in Bulk

Select Import CSV. If you don't already have a file ready, select Download Example CSV for a template with the expected columns.
Upload your .csv file - the tool previews your row and column counts and flags anything that looks off.
Map each column in your file to a field (First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, Department, Title). A single "full name" column can be split automatically.
Confirm the import. You'll get a pass/fail count and a reason for any row that didn't import.

Host Notification Emails

You can have hosts be notified by email when their visitor has checked in, allowing for the process to be more smooth and efficient.

This would be done in the email notification settings.

Visitor Types & Badge Rules

Visitor Types defines the categories a visitor can pick from during check-in, e.g. Visitor, Vendor, Contractor.

They can be customized with their own name, description, and badge coloring.

Toggle a type's Active status to show or hide it from the check-in form.

To control which badge type gets assigned automatically, go to Badge Rules and match a visitor type and citizenship (US / Non-US) to a primary badge type, with an optional fallback and a priority order.

NDA Signatures

NDA Signatures lists every signed agreement, filterable by All Signatures, With PDF, or Pending PDF.

Select Download next to any row to get a copy.

Printing your check-in sign

Every facility would have a physical sign at their entrance. In case you need a paper QR code at any point, you can easily navigate to finding a printable version.

To access the printable, page version - Go to Settings → Check-In Sign:

Review the live preview of your facility's logo, a QR code linking straight to your check-in page, and fallback contact info in case the code won't scan.

Select Copy check-in link to share the URL directly, or Download Sign to get a print-ready image for your entrance.

Security Settings - Setting Up SSO

Go to Settings → Single Sign-On.
Turn on Enable SSO for this facility and choose SAML 2.0 or OIDC.
Fill in your identity provider's details — for SAML, the IdP Entity ID, SSO URL, and certificate; for OIDC, the issuer URL, client ID, and client secret.
Select Save SSO Settings, then share your facility's sign-in link with your team.

Security & Two-Factor Authentication

Enroll an authenticator app under Account. Verify your email first if you haven't already, then select Set Up App, scan the QR code with your authenticator, and enter the current 6-digit code to finish.

We hope this helps you set up and use Visitor Control for all your visitors. Still stuck? Email [email protected] and we'll walk you through it.

Getting Started with Visitor Check-In