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New Account Resources

Getting Started and Navigating The Receptionist for iPad

Rain Hyneman avatar
Written by Rain Hyneman
Updated over a week ago

Welcome! 🎉 We know that any new system can be a challenge to learn, so we’ve compiled some resources and training materials designed to get you started. You can sign up for a free 14-day trial to test out the features as you follow along!

Once logged in, you can follow the guide below or click here to launch an interactive onboarding checklist to walk through these steps (and more!).


Using the Web Portal

Once logged into your account on a computer, the web portal is where you can view your visitors, change how your iPad is configured, choose billing plans, and much more!

Different Users have different access levels, but the first User on a new account will automatically be an Account Owner, who has full access to everything the web portal offers.

The Visit Log

You can view your Visit Log here. This log tracks who has used your system to check-in/out. What information displays on your Visit Log will depend on your check-in flow, but you can always view visitor names and their check-in dates.

You can also export the Visit Log, either manually or automatically. Automatic Visit Log exports can be set to occur daily, weekly or monthly. This article will walk you through exporting your visitor log.


Changing Home Screen & Buttons

Account and Location Owner Users have a great deal of control over how The Receptionist will look on your iPad!

Home Screen

The home screen is the first screen visitors will see when they walk in! Most people start by customizing the home screen to match their company’s branding. Once visitors have passed the home screen, they’ll be brought to the Buttons screen.

Buttons

You can have up to 6 active buttons at a time. Buttons are how visitors, employees, delivery people, or other types of visitor check-ins!

Buttons come in all sorts; check-in buttons, delivery buttons, and more! For example, you may need a button for walk-in visitors, another for appointments, and another for delivery drivers. This article explains the types of buttons and how to tailor them to the visitors you expect to see.

Button Editing

Most buttons can have Visitor Fields, which are questions you can ask incoming visitors. These can be anything from the visitor’s name to their temperature; it’s truly customizable. This article explains more about Visitor Fields.

You can also enable some buttons to print badges for visitors to wear once they check in; this article explains how to configure your badge layouts.

Contacts

Contacts are people, usually employees, who can be notified when a visitor checks in using one of the buttons you've set up. In addition, if your employees will be using The Receptionist to clock employees in and out, those employees will need to be Contacts.

Notifying Contacts

Contacts can be notified via email, text message, Slack, and/or MS Teams when visitors check in to see them, depending on their individual preferences! You can determine how a contact will be notified via messaging rules, and can even set back-up notifications, so if your contact is unavailable, someone else will be notified of a visitor instead.

Adding Contacts

If you have additional Contacts that need to be added, you can add your Contacts manually one at a time or via a CSV import. This article walks you through how to add Contacts.

Users

Unlike Contacts, who are notified when a visitor checks in, Users are administrators with the ability to monitor the visit log, configure your account, or change billing. If you've just made an account, you, too, are a User!

You may need to add new Users to the account if you want to allow others to view the visit log or make changes; this article shows you how.

Billing

Account Owners can go here to change their plan, update credit card information, and more.


Looking for More?

Looking to really dig in? Our Absolutely Everything article is a landing page for almost every single thing that our system can do!

If you're really after all the info, you can visit our Support Site Home Page and spelunk through all support documents in each category. The search field at the top of the page is also pretty handy for finding documents specific to keywords!

And, of course, feel free to click on the orange chatbox in the corner to talk to a member of the team! We'd be more than happy to answer any questions you might have.

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