How the portal works

Every card follows the same journey, whichever way your organisation works. This page is the map; each step links to the guide that covers it in full.

The life of a card

1. A person is added. Imported in bulk, created by staff, or created on the spot at the front desk. See Everyday tasks.
2. They get a photo. Taken by staff, or uploaded by the person themselves through an emailed invite link.
3. The photo is approved. Automatically when your policy allows, or by a person in the review queue. See Photos and review.
4. A card is requested. Either printed at once at the desk (walk-up printing) or gathered into an order and submitted.
5. The card is produced. The artwork is drawn from your card design, the job enters the print queue, and the print agent on the PC beside your printer prints it.
6. The card is issued. It becomes a live credential. Digital IDs go to the person’s phone wallet, and sites with door access encode the chip at the encoder station.

Who does what

Menus are built from permissions, so what you see depends on your role.

Role	What they do
Company admin	Everything for one organisation: people, photos, orders, production, templates, reports, settings, and inviting other users
Company user	The day-to-day staff role: manage card holders, take and review photos, build and submit orders. No production screens, no settings
Print operator	The print room: sees the queue, produces cards, marks spoils and reprints. Can read people and orders but not change them, and does not review photos
Card holder	Never signs in. People interact only through emailed links: a photo invite or a wallet pass

The two ways of working

Your organisation is set to one of these under Settings → Printing, and it changes which screens matter.

• Batch. Build an order, submit it, and the print room produces the run. Most of your time is spent in Card holders, Orders and Ready to produce.
• Walk-up. Someone arrives at the desk and their card is printed while they wait. The Walk-up screen appears at the top of the menu and the day is spent there. Behind the scenes, each day’s cards are grouped into one order for billing.

The two agents

Two small programs run outside the portal, on the PCs in your card office:

• The print agent, on the PC beside each card printer.
• The encoder agent, at the door-access encoding station, if your site encodes cards.

If something behaves strangely and these guides do not answer it, contact support. In the portal, Support sends a request with your organisation’s details attached, so you do not have to explain who you are.