Keyless Entry for Offices: Keypads, Key Cards, Fobs or Master Keys?

Small office or single suite

A keypad on the suite door, plus one on a records or supply room if needed, usually covers it. Give everyone their own code; a shared code can't tell you who used it.

Multi-tenant building

Shared doors like the lobby and side entrances are where a card or fob system earns its keep: tenants get credentials for the doors they need, the lobby unlocks on a schedule, and a departing tenant's credentials are cancelled in one place. Inside, each suite keeps its own lock, and a master key system gives the property manager one key instead of a ring.

Medical or dental office

Medical suites have zones: a waiting room, treatment rooms, and rooms for records, medication or supplies that fewer people should open. A card or fob system can limit those doors to the staff who need them and record entries. Ask how fast a lost card can be shut off and how entry records are kept and exported.

Retail store

Storefronts usually pair a keyed front entrance, often an aluminum-and-glass door with its own hardware, with a keypad or fob on the back door or stockroom so staff aren't handed keys. When staff change often, per-person codes and fobs pay off. Exits with panic bars must still open from the inside in one motion, so access control never gets in the way of the exit.

An audit trail is the system's record of which credential opened which door, and when: who came in after hours, which door was used the night inventory went missing, whether anyone used the back door on a Sunday. Key card and fob systems are built around it. Most basic standalone keypads don't keep a usable record, though some higher-end models do. If you need to know who went where, plan on cards or fobs, and tell staff that entries are recorded.

• How many doors need control, and how many people need in? Those two numbers decide most of it.
• Who will add and remove users, and how? Routine changes should be something your office can do itself.
• Are there monthly or yearly software fees? Standalone keypads have none; many cloud-managed systems do.
• Does it keep entry records, and can you get them out when you need them?
• What happens in a power or internet outage? Ask whether each door stays locked or unlocks when power is lost (fail-secure or fail-safe) and how backup batteries are handled. During hurricane season, that answer matters.
• Is there a key override, and who holds that key?
• Is the door itself in good shape? A reader can't fix a door that drags, a strike that's out of line, or a closer that doesn't pull the door shut.
• Who services it when a keypad dies or a fob stops working, including on a system someone else installed?

The door question is easy to skip. Tampa's humidity and summer storms pull doors out of alignment, and a working credential is no help if the door never latches. We check the latch, strike and closer before mounting anything, and fix the door first if it needs it.

Do it the same day, and cover every kind of access the person had:

• Keypad locks: delete their personal code at each lock they used. If a code was shared, change it and give the new one to everyone else.
• Cards and fobs: cancel the credential in the system. It stops working even if it's never returned.
• Phone access and admin accounts: remove the person from the app and change any admin passwords they knew. If the person who managed the system is the one leaving, we can re-program it.
• Keys: rekey the cylinders their key opened. On a documented master key system, that's targeted work: only the locks under that key, not the whole building.

If keys keep walking out the door, restricted keys whose blanks copy shops don't carry stop unauthorized copies. We're a Mul-T-Lock authorized dealer; see master key systems for how they work.

Almost always, some. Keyed cylinders stay on as overrides, on interior doors, and on mechanical rooms and cabinets that will never get a reader. Adding access control is a good moment to rekey whatever stays keyed, so old copies stop working the day the new system goes live.

As a locksmith in Tampa, we install and service keypads, card and fob readers and the door hardware under them, including systems we didn't install. See commercial access control, keyless entry for homes and businesses, and commercial locksmith services for storefront doors, panic bars and closers.