What does a visitor management system do?
A visitor management system (VMS) does six jobs that a paper book does badly, or not at all:
- Records who arrives. Name, company, who they are visiting and the time, written once and legibly.
- Asks the right questions. A contractor can be shown a health and safety briefing, a prospect an NDA, and every visitor can be offered a photo they are free to skip.
- Tells the host. The person being visited hears about it without reception having to ring round.
- Shows who is on site now. In an emergency the list that matters is everyone in the building at that moment, not yesterday’s pages.
- Keeps a record you can search and delete. You can find a visit by name or date, and remove records when your retention period ends.
- Supports the fire roll call. Wardens can see who was signed in when the alarm sounded.
What types of visitor management are there?
There are three, from simplest to most capable: a paper book, a spreadsheet that reception fills in, and software on a tablet at the front desk with a cloud service behind it. The difference that matters most is not the screen. It is whether the record is live, private and easy to delete.
| Topic | Paper book | Tablet and cloud system |
|---|---|---|
| Who is on site now | Read down the page and guess who has left | A live list, updated as people sign in and out |
| Telling the host | Reception rings or emails | The system tells the host |
| Privacy | The next visitor can read earlier entries | Each visitor sees only their own sign-in |
| Finding and deleting a record | Turn the pages, then redact by hand | Search by name or date, and delete on a schedule |
Who needs a visitor management system?
Any workplace that has to know who is in the building. A small office with a few visitors a week can manage with a paper book, if it is kept out of sight and cleared on a schedule. The case for software grows with:
- More than one entrance or site, so one record is easier than several books.
- Contractors, who may need a briefing or approval before they start work.
- A shared building, where each tenant should see only their own visitors.
- A duty to run fire roll calls, where the list of who is on site has to be right at the moment the alarm sounds.
What does UK law say about visitor records?
Three areas of UK law shape how you keep a visitor record. None of them tells you which system to buy.
Fire safety. In England and Wales the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 puts a duty on the “responsible person” to set up procedures for emergencies, including practice drills, and to name enough competent people to carry out the evacuation. The Home Office guidance for offices and shops says a roll call should be carried out as soon as possible at the assembly point, and that anyone unaccounted for is reported to the fire and rescue service. A roll call is only as good as its list, and that list needs visitors and contractors on it. Our guide to where a fire roll call should be carried out goes through it step by step.
Data protection. A visitor’s name, employer and arrival time are personal data. The ICO’s seven principles apply to them, from lawfulness and transparency to data minimisation, storage limitation and security. Our guide to visitor books and UK GDPR covers what that means at a front desk.
Martyn’s Law. The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 is not yet in force, and its duties will start no sooner than 24 months after Royal Assent on 3 April 2025. For premises in scope that can have 200 or more people present at the same time, the person responsible will have to consider which procedures, such as evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication, are appropriate. A visitor record helps you know who is on site. It does not meet those duties by itself, so read the Home Office statutory guidance for your own premises.
How much does a visitor management system cost in the UK?
UK visitor management systems are usually sold as a subscription, by the month or by the year. Check what each price is for, whether that is a site, a tablet or a user, and compare the same unit before you compare the totals. ReceptionOS costs £595 per site per year, ex VAT, with unlimited visitors, hosts and tablets. Single sign-on and directory sync are priced separately, per organisation, at £2,400 per organisation per year. Our pricing page sets out what we charge and, with the date we checked each one, what other UK providers publish.
How do you choose a visitor management system?
Put these questions to any supplier, including us:
- Where are the records stored? Ask for the answer in writing, with the supplier’s list of sub-processors.
- What happens when the wifi drops? Ask what the tablet can still do, and what it cannot.
- Can wardens use it in an evacuation? Ask to see a roll call on a phone, including one that loses its signal part-way through.
- Who sees which visitors in a shared building? Ask to see a tenant’s view.
- How long is data kept, and how is it deleted? Look for a retention period you set, and a way to remove one person’s records.
- Is there an audit trail? Ask whether changes to settings and records are logged, and whether you can check the log has not been altered.
- What does single sign-on cost? Some suppliers put it in a higher tier, so ask whether it is in the price you were quoted.
- What is not built yet? A supplier that says “everything” is a supplier to question. Ours is below.
- Which independent certifications does the supplier hold, and what do they cover? Our security page says what we hold and what we do not.
