As the hectic holiday season approaches, it’s easy for access control management to be pushed to the back burner, getting swept up with all the festivities. The holidays are a time of joy, celebration, and leisure for most people. But for offices and other facilities, it usually means adjusting their daily operations, including security measures and access permissions. Managing these adjustments can be challenging, but not with ProdataKey. Before those busy months arrive, set your holiday schedules now and rest easy knowing your buildings remain secure.
What are Holiday Schedules?
A holiday schedule, or an Auto-Open Deny rule, is used when a location will be closed for a holiday, or any other reason, and the auto-open schedule needs to be overridden. It allows users to pause specific access rules and deny entry on selected dates or within specific hours. You can set a holiday schedule for a specific group of people, which will not allow that group to access the building on a particular day.
PDK holiday schedules bring enhanced security. During the holidays, businesses often experience staffing and hours changes, leaving security vulnerabilities if not managed effectively. If your building is automatically unlocked during usual business hours, you will not want the auto-open schedule to be active on a holiday or when the office is closed. A deny rule will always take precedence when overlapping an allow rule.
Holidays aren’t the only days where auto-open deny rules are helpful.
“It’s really valuable in any situation. Schools really benefit because they can set up an auto-open schedule around their bell schedule. And they make one auto open-deny schedule that covers the whole day,”
Jeromy Stokes, Support Manager at PDK
Easy Holiday Schedule Set-Up
PDK makes it remarkably simple to manage these rules. Instead of manually setting rules for each door or user, administrators now have the flexibility to automatically customize rules based on the organization’s needs. Whether you need to completely close the build or make simple modifications to specific doors, PDK can tailor the settings for anything.
“It can be any day. If your business is going on lunch, you can set up an auto-open deny schedule and just deny that time frame. And the auto-open schedule will just turn on again once you’re all back,” explains Stokes.
A holiday schedule can be created in the Auto Open section of pdk.io, either on the ProdataKey mobile app or a browser.
Forget to set up the new schedule before leaving for holiday vacation? No stress. Stokes points out, “You can set an auto-open deny rule from your phone. You don’t have to be at your building to do it. You don’t even have to be in proximity to set up the rule. If you forget, you can go in and make the rule really quick on your phone.” PDK’s cloud-based mobile platform allows users to manage holiday schedules and other permission rules remotely.
Whether you need to make last-minute changes or monitor activity in real time, you can do that from a computer or smart device, ensuring your building stays secure, even when you’re away. Enjoy peace of mind over the holidays with PDK.
How to Create a Holiday Schedule or Auto-Open Deny Rule:
1. Select the Auto Open button from the Cloud Node home page in pdk.io.
2. Select the plus icon in the Auto Open screen in the lower right.
3. Assign a descriptive name to your holiday schedule, such as New Year’s Day. Selecting a Partition for a holiday schedule is not likely necessary since partitions are generally used to divide a business into department segments.
4. In the Action section, toggle the option to Deny.
5. In the Schedule section, select the option for Single Date.
NOTE: If there will be multiple days to set for the holiday (such as Christmas Eve and Christmas Day), each day must be entered separately.
6. Below the Single Date field, select the Start Time and Stop Time, and then you can enter the date in the format DD/MM/YYYY (Day/Month/Year) or click/tap on the calendar icon for a calendar view and select the date.
7. In the Devices section, select the plus icon and click/tap the Devices you want to override the Auto-Open for or SELECT ALL to override Auto-Open schedules for all available devices, then click/tap SELECT.
8. Save.
Listen in to the conversation with Jeromy Stokes, as we talk about how companies can keep their property secure during a changing holiday schedule.