How to make a sign in sheet

To make a sign in sheet, list what you need to know about each arrival (who they are, when they arrived, who they came to see, and that they saw the site rules), turn it into a short form, and put it behind a QR code or on a tablet at the door. A form keeps each person’s details private, which a paper sheet on a clipboard cannot.

What a sign in sheet is for

A sign in sheet does three jobs. It tells you who is on site if there is an emergency, it records that each visitor was shown the rules, and it lets a host know their visitor has arrived. Australia’s work health and safety laws put duties on the person running a workplace towards everyone on site, visitors included, and a record of who was there is one practical way to meet them. The sheet is not a guest book; every field should serve one of those jobs.

Step 1: choose the type

A visitor sheet, a contractor sheet and a training attendance sheet record different things. The table under this article sets them side by side. Visitors need a host and the rules; contractors need the job, a supervisor and proof of induction; a training sheet needs little more than names and the session. One form can serve visitors and contractors with an “I am a” question first.

Step 2: write the fields

The visitor sign in form on this site, built for a food production site, shows a complete set in fourteen fields:

• I am a: visitor, contractor, delivery driver, auditor or inspector.
• Name, company and mobile.
• Who are you here to see, as a list of departments, with “Reception will find them” for people who do not know.
• Vehicle registration if parked on site, optional.
• Site rules, five single tick boxes: wear the lanyard, stay with the host, no production floor without a hair net and coat, follow the evacuation signs, no photographs.
• Food safety declaration, two tick boxes about illness and nuts, because it is a food site.
• Signature.

It promises one minute on the welcome screen, which is about right for tick boxes.

Step 3: protect the details

On a paper sheet, the twelfth visitor of the day can read eleven names and phone numbers. For an organisation covered by the Privacy Act, that is personal information it collected and has to keep secure; Australian Privacy Principle 11 requires reasonable steps to protect it from unauthorised access, and to destroy or de-identify it when it is no longer needed. Principle 5 requires telling people what you collect and why. A form filled in on the visitor’s own phone, or on a tablet that clears after each entry, keeps every record out of sight, and one line at the top can say what the details are for and how long they are kept.

Ask for health information only where it is genuinely required, such as illness on a food site, because it is sensitive information with stricter rules.

Step 4: paper, tablet or QR code

Paper is cheap and needs no setup, but exposes everyone’s details, is often illegible and has to be retyped.

A tablet at reception keeps records private if it resets after each entry, but someone has to keep it charged and logged in.

A QR code at the door opens the form on the visitor’s own phone, which is the simplest and most private option. The free QR code generator makes one from the form’s link. Keep a backup for visitors without a phone.

Step 5: use the record

Check the list in an evacuation, follow up on anyone who did not sign out, and set a date to delete old entries. If an incident happens, the sign in record joins the incident report; how to write an incident report covers that, and the hazard report form is the companion form for hazards found on site. For sign ups made in advance rather than on arrival, see how to create a sign up sheet. The form privacy notice checklist covers the line at the top, and collecting signatures on a form covers the signature.

Signing out

A sign in record is only half the evacuation count unless people also sign out. Three approaches work. A second short form, “I am leaving”, with name and time, gives a clean record but relies on people remembering. A host who confirms their visitor has left, in a quick note at reception, works well for small sites. And a printed visitor pass returned at reception doubles as the sign out: an unreturned pass at the end of the day tells you who to follow up.

Whichever you choose, check the list at the end of each day. A visitor who appears to still be on site at closing time is either a missing sign out or a person still on site, and both are worth a phone call. In an evacuation, the warden takes the day’s sign in list to the assembly point and checks names against it, so the list must be easy to reach on a phone or printed quickly. Test that once before you rely on it.

In the product

A sign in sheet is a classic form with single choice, short text, checkbox and signature fields; the inline signature is drawn or typed by the person filling the form and prints in the response PDF. Each response is time stamped on submit and appears in the responses table, which exports to CSV with a Submitted At column first. On a classic form, instructions belong in a paragraph above the fields, because field descriptions only show on upload fields. The form with a signature field page shows the signature, and the guide to the form builder components lists the rest.