Estate visitor management checklist

How to use this checklist

Print it, mark each line Yes, Partly or No for your gate today, and start with the first group that has a No. Each group takes a committee decision and a guard briefing, not a purchase.

1. Before the visitor arrives

• Residents can approve a visitor in advance, by a method the guard can check. A name on a list, a code or a QR pass all qualify.
• The approval records the visitor's name and a phone number, plus a vehicle plate if the visitor is driving.
• The approval says when the visit is valid. A pass for the afternoon should not still work next week.
• Residents can make a pass single-entry, so one pass cannot be shared among several people.
• Residents can cancel an approval, and the guard sees the cancellation straight away.
• The estate decides who in a household may approve visitors. Domestic staff and tenants may have different rights from the head of household.
• Residents know how to share an approval with the visitor, for example by sending the pass on WhatsApp.

2. At the gate

• The guard checks the approval before the barrier or gate opens, every time, including for faces the guard knows.
• The guard has a second way to check if the first fails. If a QR will not scan, a short code typed by hand is the usual backup.
• The guard sees whether the approval is valid, expired, cancelled or already used, and the reason, in plain words.
• The check is made against one shared record, so two gates or two guards cannot admit on the same single-entry pass.
• The entry is logged with the time, the visitor, the host unit and the guard.
• The estate has a written rule on identity checks. Take legal advice before you require or copy identity documents.

3. Walk-ins and unannounced visitors

• No approval means no entry until the resident says yes.
• The guard contacts the resident directly and records the answer: who answered, when, and yes or no.
• There is a written rule for when the resident cannot be reached. A common rule is that the visitor waits or leaves. Decide yours and tell residents.
• If a resident approves a lapsed pass at the gate, that approval admits one entry and is logged as such.
• The log marks a walk-in as a walk-in, so you can see how often it happens and which units they visit.

4. Deliveries, riders and parcels

• Residents can tell the gate that a delivery is expected.
• The guard records each parcel at the gate: the courier, the unit and a photo or a description.
• The household is told when its parcel arrives.
• The parcel is released only to the household, and the release is recorded. A returned parcel is recorded too.
• There is a stated rule for how long the gate holds a parcel, and who is responsible for it while it is there.

5. Exits

• Exits are logged as well as entries. Without exits you cannot say who is inside the estate now.
• Leaving does not cancel a multi-entry pass. Only its window and any entry limit end it.
• Vehicles are logged out, so a plate that entered can be matched to one that left.

6. Records and privacy

• The log is written in a form that is not edited. When a mistake is found, a correcting entry is added and the original stays.
• The estate has decided who may read the log: usually the manager and the committee for a stated purpose, and guards for the current shift.
• The estate has decided how long visitor names, phone numbers and plates are kept, and has written it down.
• Residents are told what is recorded about their visitors and how to ask about it.
• Paper logbooks are stored locked, and old books are destroyed on a schedule rather than left in a cupboard.
• You have asked counsel what the Nigeria Data Protection Act means for your visitor logs. Do not assume.

7. Guards and shifts

• Guards are briefed in writing on the steps above, and the briefing is repeated when the rules change.
• Each shift ends with a handover that says who is still inside, what is open, and anything the next guard must watch.
• Guards know who to call and in what order when something goes wrong.
• The committee reviews the log with the security supervisor on a fixed day each month.

8. Incidents and emergencies

• There is a way for a guard to record an incident at the moment it happens: theft, a dispute, damage, fire, medical.
• Residents have a way to raise an emergency that reaches the guards and the manager.
• Every incident is acknowledged by a named person and closed by a manager, with a note on what was done.
• A plan covers the day the network, the power or the phone fails. Paper forms and a torch are part of that plan.

A simple gate log, described

If you keep a paper log, rule columns for these fields and refuse to accept a line that leaves them blank:

• Date and time in
• Visitor's name and phone
• Host unit and who approved (a pass, a call, or a resident's yes)
• Vehicle plate, if any
• Guard's name
• Time out
• Notes (a parcel left, an incident, a refusal)

Number the pages, and start a fresh book on a fixed date so old books can be stored and later destroyed.

Common mistakes

• Letting the guard decide by sight. A familiar face is an easy way to skip the check.
• Passes with no end time.
• A code that works for any number of people.
• A walk-in rule that is written nowhere, so every guard invents one.
• Logging entries and forgetting exits.
• Keeping visitor data forever because nobody decided otherwise.
• Handover by word of mouth.
• Using the log only to catch guards. A log that shows the guard checked a valid pass also protects that guard.

Where software helps

Manorlogic is estate management software that Caramel Cove is building for Nigerian gated estates. It is in development and we are preparing a first pilot estate, so it has no live estate to point to. A resident creates a pass on their phone, with a time window and an optional single-entry setting. The pass carries a QR code and a six-digit code. The guard scans it or types the code, the server refuses a pass that has expired, been cancelled or been used up, and the gate log records entries and exits. If a visitor has no pass, the guard asks the resident to approve or decline on their phone. The gate app needs a connection. Checking passes without one is not built, so your guards need a paper fallback for the days the network drops. See visitor passes and gate security, or request pilot access.