Building manager, property management company and front desk: who does what in the access system

Why a single password is a problem

It's common for dashboard access to be shared: the same password on the building manager's phone, on the front desk computer and at the property management company. That has two consequences. The first is that nobody knows who made each change, so an improper enrollment or a door opened from the dashboard has no author. The second is that when someone leaves, the password has to be changed everywhere, and it rarely is.

Each person with their own user, holding only what they need, solves both. It's more work at the start and less trouble later. And when the dashboard accepts a social login, such as a Google account, everyone signs in with their own account and nobody has to write a password down anywhere.

The roles that usually exist

The split varies from building to building, but almost every condominium has these roles:

• Building manager: approves changes, sees everything, and answers for the system to the residents. Usually an administrator.
• Property management company: does the day-to-day enrollment work, handles staff and contractors, exports reports.
• Front desk: looks up enrollments, creates invitations for visitors and opens doors when there is a reason, with a record.
• Board: looks at the history and the audit log, without changing anything.
• Residents: invite their own visitors and see their own unit's enrollment.

Not every condominium needs all of these roles, and sometimes one person holds two. What matters is that every user has a name and that what they can do has been decided.

The permissions that deserve care

Some actions are more sensitive than others, and it's worth deciding carefully who has them. Opening a door from the dashboard is the main one: it's an opening with no face and no invitation, and it should require its own permission, ask for a reason and be recorded. Enrolling and deleting people is the second: whoever can create an enrollment can give anyone access to the building.

Viewing the access history deserves attention too, because it reveals residents' routines. LGPD, Brazil's data protection law, asks that access to this kind of data be limited to those who need it. A curious board member is not a need.

When the people in charge change

Building managers change, management companies are replaced and front desk employees leave. Each of those changes has to reach the dashboard the same day: the user of whoever left is deactivated, and the newcomer's is created with the role's permissions. If a change of building manager happens with no active administrator in the dashboard, the condominium is left with nobody who can enroll. That's why it pays to always have two administrators.

When the management company changes, the new one should get its own users, not the previous one's password. It's one of the most forgotten items in a handover, and one of the ones that matter most.

What to write in the house rules

It's worth recording, in a simple rule approved by the board or the owners' meeting, who has dashboard access and with which permissions, who can open doors from the dashboard and in which situations, and how often the list of users is reviewed. That document protects the building manager, because it shows that access to the data was decided rather than improvised.

The review of the user list can go with the accounts: at each owners' meeting, the manager presents who has dashboard access and in which role. It's a minute on the agenda that saves a long argument when something goes wrong.

How Abriu handles it

At Abriu, every dashboard user has their own login, with permissions by area: people, invitations, history, audit log, devices, settings. Opening doors from the dashboard requires its own permission, asks for confirmation, accepts a reason and goes into the audit log, including when the attempt fails. The audit log, with who did each action and the result, is visible to administrators only.

Residents can have dashboard access tied to their own unit, to invite their own visitors. Deactivating a user cuts their access immediately, and anyone who has signed in with their password can link their Google account to sign in without a password afterward, with the first access always by password.