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Making Keys

A key holds a door or group of doors and can be assigned to one or more people, giving them access to all the doors in that Key. Property management can also apply certain settings to keys, such as Key Schedules. When you make a change to a key, the changes will apply to everyone with that Key. 

Here are the steps to create a key:

1. In Latch Mission Control, navigate to 'Access' > 'Keys.'

2. On the right-hand side, select 'Actions' and choose 'Make Key' and add a name for your key. For example, you might name your key '101,' 'All Parking Gates,' 'Resident Amenity Key,' 'Property Management Amenity Key,' or 'Building Entrances.'

Screen

3. Unless you're creating an Elevator, ensure 'Door' is selected under Type. From there, go to 'Doors' and tap 'Select Doors.' 

4. Choose the door or door you'd like to include in the key. Choose whether you'd like to enable doorcodes for each door you add. Enabling doorcodes will provide the users who have access to this key with a unique doorcode to open this door. You may also put a Key Schedule in place, which will determine the hours when users assigned this key may perform an unlock at that door. For example, if you add a schedule to the 'Pool Door' for Monday-Friday 9 AM to 5 PM, users assigned this key will only be able to use their Latch App to open the 'Pool Door' during those times. 

5. Once complete, choose 'Select Doors' and, on the next screen, choose 'Make Key.' 

6. Your key is now created, to assign it to a user - follow the steps in this article.

Strategies for setting up your Keys

When setting up your Keys, consider creating the fewest number of Keys possible. This will make it easier to manage everyone's access. Ask yourself which groups of people need to unlock the same set of doors during the same hours and which groups may share the same set of doors.

Example: Keys for a residential complex

1800 Main St is a property with 200 apartments and 20 amenities with different types of people who need access: 

  • Vendors that work only during business hours, may generally only access entrances, some amenities and all service areas. They must not be able to share their key with guests. 
  • Employees that only work during business hours but must access certain show apartments as well as the amenities and offices.
  • Other employees, such as the maintenance team, must be able to access all entry doors, service spaces and amenities 24/7. 
  • Generally, employees should not share their key with guests.
  • Residents that must be able to access all entry doors and their apartment 24/7, but only access amenities during certain hours. Additionally, residents may have guests but must escort them to amenities. 

Keys:

  • Apartment Keys for each of the 200 units, such as "Unit 205C", given to each of their respective resident leaseholders with 'May share Key' turned on. 
  • "Amenities" Key with all amenity doors given to residents with 'May share Key' turned off
  • "Employee All Access 24/7" Key with all doors, except for occupied apartments, given to employees that need to access the entire building 24/7, with 'May share key' turned off.  
  • "Employee Business hours" Key with all doors, except occupied apartments, with door schedules set to 8:00 am to 6:00 pm and given with 'May share Key' turned off. 
  • "Residences" Key with all entry doors given to residents with 'May share Key' turned on. 
  • "Tour" Key with all unoccupied apartment doors, given to all employees when giving a tour with 'May share Key' turned on so they can demo functionality to prospective residents. 
  • "Vendors" Key with all the entrances, service spaces, and amenities, each with 8:00 am to 6:00 pm door schedules and given with 'May share Key' turned off. 

By creating Keys based on different groups' needs, you can provide access to the right doors at the right times while maintaining security and ease of management.

 

Key Schedules

When making a Key, you can set doors in that Key to be available on certain days at certain hours for anyone that you give that Key to. In one step, everyone gets the same schedule for the same doors.

Adding a Key Schedule to a new key

  1. Make a Key
  2. Select the days and time that you want each door to be accessible using this Key
  3. Update the relevant doors if necessary

Editing a Key Schedule

To change a schedule:

  1. Select the Key in the 'Keys' menu
  2. Select 'Doors'
  3. Edit the schedule for the relevant doors

I can't set a Key Schedule for a door

If Schedules isn't available for a door, you may need to upgrade the firmware on the Latch device. Contact support@latch.com for further guidance.

 

Restricting features: May Share Key and Doorcodes

Property managers can use Latch Mission Control to disable doorcodes and access sharing to restrict guests from entering certain amenity spaces. Spaces where doorcodes and access sharing are disabled will still allow residents to use their Latch App or keycard to unlock these spaces, but will prevent them from inviting guests or receiving a doorcode for doors with this setting. We do not recommend restricting these features for residence doors.

Turn off "May Share Key"

When inviting a resident in Latch Mission Control, you can disable the “May Share Key” feature for certain amenity spaces. 

To disable this feature, navigate to the resident’s detail page.

  1. Select “Keys”
  2. Select the Key that you would like to turn off access sharing for
  3. Select “Edit”
  4. Turn off “May Share Key” 
  5. Save your changes

Once changes are saved, residents will no longer be able to share access with guests for designated doors. 

How to disable doorcodes

Property managers can disable doorcodes to prevent residents from sharing their personal doorcodes with guests to access certain amenity spaces. 

When disabling this feature, this will deactivate doorcode access for any selected doors in a Key and affect all keyholders. It’s important to ensure that doors are not selected that residents should have doorcode access to such as the building entrance or their individual unit as their doorcode serves as a backup entry option that doesn't require their phone. 

To disable this feature: 

  1. When creating a new Key, ensure that “Provide Doorcodes” is turned off for any doors that should not have a doorcode provided to key holders. 
  2. For existing Keys, simply navigate to the desired Key, go to the doors section, and tap “Edit” to make changes to each door as desired before saving the changes at the bottom. Note that you can 'bulk' disable doorcodes by selecting 'Disable All Doorcodes' on the top right-hand side. 

How do I give someone a new Key without changing their doorcodes?

If you revoke someone's Key, their doorcodes for that Key's doors will be permanently deleted. To avoid this, make sure to give them the new Key with the same doors before revoking the old Key.

For example, Tracy has Key A with Door 1 and Door 2. To move Tracy to Key B (also with Door 1 and Door 2), give Tracy Key B first and then revoke Key A. Their doorcodes will remain the same. 

Instructions

  1. Add the person to the new Key
  2. Remove them from the old Key