Before and After: How a Key Management System Transforms Your Daily Workflow

Wondering how your workflow will change after implementing an electronic key management system? The good news is, you’ll experience the benefits right away. Let’s look at how a key control system can transform your daily operations, with real-life examples from users like you.

Key Storage and Organization

Before: Disorganized Keys

Without a dedicated key control system, keys can become a disorganized mess. Thomas Anderson, community manager for multifamily community The Parker, struggled with this challenge daily: “I put together a makeshift key storage system consisting of keys hanging on thumbtacks on the wall in the mailroom. As anyone could imagine, that was a hectic process.”

After: Secure, Organized Keys

With electronic key control, you can quickly find the keys you need. Anderson said, “Once our KeyTrak system was installed, the process was much more efficient and safe because we had a centralized, locked location to access keys.”

Before: Difficulty Finding Specific Keys

Even if keys are in the right place, finding the right one amid a jumbled mess wastes valuable time. Multifamily Property Manager Nancy Guevara once worked at a property with a standard key cabinet paired with a clipboard key log. “Having to manually look up which of the 375 keys we needed and then find it on its hook in the box was so inefficient,” she said.

After: Easy Key Location

Some systems automatically track each key’s position in the system so you can find specific keys even faster. Guevara now works at a property with an electronic key control system, and the difference in her daily routine is significant: “It’s so quick. All a staff member needs to do to check out a key is scan their individual fob and select the key they need. The correct key slot then lights up, making it easy to locate.”

Quick Key Checkouts and Returns

Before: Inefficient Checkouts

Manual key methods slow down your productivity. Desirée Girón, property manager for 5 West Apartments, said, “If maintenance had to retrieve keys from a manual key cabinet, it could take them 30 minutes to get keys pulled and logged — that wasted time adds up very quickly.”

If you’re responsible for issuing keys to staff or required to obtain keys through another staff member, that creates an even larger bottleneck. That was the case for Retirement Services of Alabama (RSA), where keys weren’t always available to employees who needed them because they could only be obtained through the facility manager.

After: Paperless Checkout

With electronic key management, you’ll log in with your unique credentials, such as a fob, fingerprint, or password. The system automatically records the time, date, and purpose for using the key — without spreadsheets or paper logs.

Girón said this more efficient process “allows the maintenance team to pull the entire property’s keys for a property-wide inspection and later return them without any extra effort. That in itself probably saves half a day.”

This automatic audit trail also means that authorized users don’t have to rely on another person to get keys. At RSA, employees can now securely check keys out as needed, preventing unnecessary delays.

Before: Frustrating Return Process

Returning keys can be equally frustrating. Anyone who’s used basic pegboards — and even some key control systems — knows how important it is to put a key back in exactly the right spot. Girón explained:

I've used another key control system before, and it just didn't compare. When returning a key, you would have to find the slot the key was removed from and place the key back in that exact spot, which took extra time.

After: Simplified Key Returns

When it comes to returning keys, you won’t have to painstakingly search for the right spot. Both Guevara and Girón liked how their KeyTrak systems allow them to place the key in any available slot.

Overdue Keys

Before: Time-Consuming Manual Searches

How much time have you wasted poring over manual logs, searching for missing keys, or waiting for colleagues to return the key you need?

Mayleen Garcia, systems manager for the Bella Group network of dealerships, understands this frustration. Keys would go missing despite employees’ best efforts to keep track of them. “Once, our owner stopped into one of our stores and discovered spare keys inside a desk drawer,” she said.

After: Automated Alerts for Missing Keys

Instead of spending time figuring out which keys are overdue (or remembering to return keys on time!), you can rely on automated alerts and reports. Garcia said most of Bella Group’s dealerships now use system alerts to identify overdue keys:

At 8 p.m., managers receive an alert from KeyTrak notifying them of any keys that have not been returned to the system drawer. At 10 p.m., if keys are still missing, the director of sales, vice president of sales, and the owner also get an alert.

Before: Lack of Accountability

Anthony S. Watson, associate director of facilities, buildings, and grounds for Virginia Tech University, also struggled with searching for overdue keys. He wanted “better accountability for who had been issued keys and how long they had them checked out.”

After: Quick Key History Searches

With comprehensive reports, looking up key activity is faster and more efficient. “The reporting feature lets us identify overdue keys very easily,” said Watson. “We have been able to quickly search issue history for sets of keys that have aided our [police department] with some investigations.”

Reporting

Before: Cumbersome Manual Reporting

Need to look up a specific person’s key use history? Put together a key control report for management? Perform a key audit? You know any of these tasks requires you to block off a significant amount of time if you’re working with paper forms, logbooks, or spreadsheets.

Chris Zangla, manager of the independent living community Claridge House, explained that one of the biggest challenges of relying on manual records is holding users accountable.

After: Instant Access to Key Activity Reports

Reports that once consumed hours of your day are available instantly with electronic key control. Your system provides on-demand insights into key activity, helping you identify potential issues or address complaints.

Zangla now relies on the key control system’s records for communications with residents:

We have all the information at our fingertips, so we’re equipped for any situation. If a resident thinks someone entered their apartment, or if they submitted a work order and don’t think it was completed, KeyTrak reports can quickly tell us the exact dates and times at which keys were retrieved and returned to the system, as well as work order statuses. It’s a breeze.

Reports make audits easier as well, according to Dora Griffin, property manager for 2785 Speer:

Part of our maintenance audit process is double checking that our key policies are being followed. The last time this was completed, KeyTrak’s report feature showed us that our maintenance guy forgot to return a handful of keys. This made tracking them down before the audit much easier for us.

You’ll also be able to have automatic reports emailed directly to management, eliminating the need to manually compile data.

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With electronic key management, your workflow will be free from the frustrations of disorganized keys, time-consuming processes, missing keys, and cumbersome reporting. You’ll spend less time searching for keys and more time focusing on your core responsibilities.