Setting Up Your School Visitor Management System for Remote-Links

Best practices and recommendations on creating and editing visitor management stations for use with Remote-Links.

Last revised on January 14th,2021

COVID-19 has changed the way many people work, including school personnel. Many school districts have delayed the return of classes for safety and health concerns and are looking for virtual tools and services to assist in continuing lessons and data collection. 

Since our IVM software tracks more staff check-ins than visitors, our management and development teams reviewed our software for ways it could contribute to our customers’ new needs. As a result, our developers worked quickly to create a new IVM feature called Remote-Links that allows the creation of secure, shareable links to track people/tasks/items remotely on a phone, tablet, PC, etc. This new feature is now available to all V4 customers.

School administrators can create stations specifically for staff and volunteers to keep track of activities while working from home (or anywhere). Some uses for Remote-Links include:

• Staff Time Logging

Many school customers use IVM for tracking work hours at school, why not while at home too? Being able to “log in and out” of virtual classrooms or administrative work can now be quickly done remotely by creating a remote station, emailing the link to it, and having staff save the link on their phone or desktop.

•Volunteers Time Logging

Schools with volunteers helping out delivering lunches, remote tutoring, preparing materials, etc. can now also have their time logged remotely. Creating a station for volunteers (like staff), to save on their phone, makes logging time a breeze. The school administrator can also automatically tabulate and report hours just like when they volunteered at the school. This feature will also be useful for future field trips or any volunteer effort away from school.

•Record distribution of free lunches

Many districts are struggling and reacting to their students’ needs and how they will continue to feed children daily. Therefore, lunch distribution sites can use IVM to log the lunches passed out and to who. Each record logs the number of lunches sent and which families are utilizing this.

•Tracking of school/district hardware

Currently, with students and staff having to work at home, districts have to lend equipment, like PCs or tablets. IVM can track hardware check-in/outs, just like visitors or staff.

Having your iVisitor Management stations set up correctly will make using Remote-Links much easier. Editing your stations is an easy, straightforward process that you can complete in just a few minutes. We’re also going to share with you our recommendations for best practices.

How does Remote-Links Work?

Before we begin creating and editing your station(s), let’s cover how Remote-Links works. When you create and share a Remote-Links URL, you’re sharing one specific sign-in station. With iVisitor Management, you can create as many different stations as you need, at no extra cost. You can also share multiple stations at the same time. It’s essential to review the settings for your check-in badges and additional fields of information before you share a station. The shared stations will be for check-in or check-out only. There will be no access to any settings.

Creating your Remote-Links URL

When we released Remote-Links, we made it available to all customers using the latest version of our software, regardless of licensing level, for no added cost. Creating your Remote-Links URL is extremely easy. To begin, log in to your iVisitor Management client.

Next, open up the settings tab.

Scroll down to the bottom of the settings to the “Station Settings” section. Click the “Share Station” button.

The URL for Remote-Links is already populated. You can quickly copy the URL and edit the expiration time for your station. You can extend the expiration date if needed. If you feel you need to take it down immediately or change the URL, you will have the option to do so. Security is still our #1 priority.

How to edit your stations for Remote-Links

Before you share your visitor management station, you may need to edit your badges and additional fields of information. For example, you may need to have all visitors, staff, and volunteers answer a wellness screening questionnaire before entering the campus and signing-in. You can also edit your settings at any time after sharing your stations. The following steps will help you create and edit any check-in button settings.

Create Check-in Buttons for Wellness Screening with iVisitor Management

Creating new buttons in iVisitor Management is very easy. We’re going to share with you the exact steps to create wellness screening buttons for your school.

• Access your Web Manager by visiting www.school.ccssvm.com.
• Click “Settings” in the navigation pane on the left side of the screen.
• Click “Badge Settings.”
• Click “Add New Badge.”

• Click on the new badge labeled “Title” to adjust settings. This step is essential. You will be able to edit the new button’s name, the questions and additional information asked when checking-in, create answer options to these questions, and more. By default, new badges are disabled in the Web Client. Navigate to your School’s Check-In station/Web Client, or create a new station dedicated to wellness screenings.
• In the Check-In station/Web Client, access your settings menu.
• Click on “Badge Settings.”
• Click on the newly created badge for wellness screenings.
• Scroll down to “Badge Display” and set to Admin or Kiosk modes
• Click “Save.”

How to edit additional information fields of information

• Access your school’s Web Manager by visiting www.school.ccssvm.com.
• Click “Settings” in the navigation pane.
• Click “Badge Settings.”
• Click the badge title that you want to edit the additional information fields.

• Additional information fields 1-4 are listed. To edit a field, click the title to adjust the settings. 
• We recommend having the input format set to “Text or Button” and marking these fields required and displayed. The “Freeform Entry” should be off, so a selection from a predefined answer list create is required. Click “Save” when finished. 
• Examples for titles may be “Are you experiencing any of the following symptoms?” or “What is your logged temperature?” 
• Click the “Answers” button to create a list of answers for your wellness screening questions. Answer examples may include “Yes/No” or symptoms to be selected.
• We recommend that you disable any additional information field not being

How to edit your school’s message board for wellness screenings in iVisitor Management.

• Access your school’s Web Manager by visiting www.school.ccssvm.com.
• Click “Settings” in the navigation pane.
• Click “Badge Settings.”
• Select the badge for which you want to edit the message board.
• Click “Display.” The message board is on the right side of the screen. You can choose the input type “Text/Plain” or “Text/Markdown.” If you switch to “Text/Markdown,” it allows for more formatting of the text and the ability to add photos to the message board
• Type the message you would like to have displayed.
• Click “Save” at the bottom when finished.

How to create multiple check-in stations for Remote-Links

With iVisitor Management, you’re allowed to create an unlimited number of check-in stations, allowing you to create as many stations intended to share through Remote-Links as you need. We recommend making a station explicitly designed for the type of user you will be sharing—for example, one station intended for staff, one for parents, and one for volunteers.

To begin, log in to your iVisitor Management client.

Next, open up the settings tab.

Scroll down to the bottom of the settings to the “Station Settings” section. Click the “Station Reset” button.

The beginning page of the client setup process will load. Once you click the “Get Started” button, you’ll choose from the options for setup. We recommend that you clone the check-in station that has the buttons and settings you want to share.

When creating your new station, make sure you give it a unique name that makes it easy to identify. For example, if you’re creating a station dedicated to checking-in just for volunteers, you would name it “[Your School Name] – Volunteers.”

Once you’ve finished creating the new station, disable any buttons that do not pertain to the users who will be using it. 

How to switch between school check-in stations

You can create and edit all the stations you need from one computer or mobile device. Let’s say that you accidentally forgot to enable your visitor check-in badge. How would you switch back to that station to edit your badge settings?

To begin, log in to your iVisitor Management client.

Next, open up the settings tab.

Scroll down to the bottom of the settings to the “Station Settings” section. Click the “Station Reset” button.

You will be presented with the beginning page of the client setup process. Once you click the “Get Started” button, you’ll choose from the options for setup. Since we don’t want to create a new station, we will not select the “Clone” option. Instead, you would choose “Replacement.”

Finally, select the station you want to edit from the dropdown and click “Replace.” After your station has loaded, you can edit the badge settings as needed.

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