Kindoo Access Control System

[sbradshaw]

If the system does support tablets, it would be interesting to know what specific tablets are supported since only IOS and Android phones are supported. I would assume that the Amazon fire tablet would not.

Amazon Fire tablets run Fire OS, which is a modified version of Android. It's likely that the Android app would work on a Fire tablet, but Kindoo would need to upload their app to the Amazon Appstore in addition to the Google Play Store (maybe they'd be willing to if there's demand, based on swigginton's experience working with them).

It's also possible to install Google Play Store on a Fire tablet and download almost any app, but the process of setting that up is a little hacky and probably not endorsed by Google or Amazon.

[mmacconnell]

In our Area, they are not giving the Building Scheduler access to give rights to Kindoo. So it means that the Building Scheduler needs to coordinate with me anytime someone schedules the building. I have created a Google form that they can fill out to request this access. But just wonder if others have maybe come up with a better solution.

[swigginton]

In our Area, they are not giving the Building Scheduler access to give rights to Kindoo. So it means that the Building Scheduler needs to coordinate with me anytime someone schedules the building. I have created a Google form that they can fill out to request this access. But just wonder if others have maybe come up with a better solution.

You might want to find out if the FM group or your stake president made that decision. If the FM group, your stake president can probably override that and tell the FM to add your building scheduler as a manager. It's important to understand that a Kindoo manager has the ability to manage any user in the stake, so you need to establish some parameters. In our case, our stake building scheduler understands that she only adds temporary users and is responsible to provide documentation and training to them, as needed. Everything else goes through our stake Kindoo manager (Stake STS). It may also depend on how frequently your buildings are used for private events. If very infrequent, your process is probably fine. If frequent, it makes sense to have someone dealing with those.

[jdunbar]

Great content on this thread. Thank you! Our stake is brand new to Kindoo. I have two questions:

1. Who is responsible for issuing Kindoo access to missionaries assigned to the areas in our stake? The stake? The mission?
2. Who determines the amount of licenses allotted to a stake? Can the stake increase it? We were given 25 per ward and 35 for the stake. I read earlier in this thread that other areas are getting 30 and 50 respectively. We're struggling to provide enough access.

Thank you!

J. Dunbar

[swigginton]

1. Who is responsible for issuing Kindoo access to missionaries assigned to the areas in our stake? The stake? The mission?

The stake does that. One license is assigned to each mission area in the stake. The stake issues access using the area email address, not the missionary's individual email address. That way, when transfers happen, the stake doesn't need to do anything. The new missionaries just log in using the area email address and take over that license.

2. Who determines the amount of licenses allotted to a stake? Can the stake increase it? We were given 25 per ward and 35 for the stake. I read earlier in this thread that other areas are getting 30 and 50 respectively. We're struggling to provide enough access.

Currently, the FM folks decide how many licenses to allocate. For our area, it's 50 per stake and 30 per ward. I've heard the Church will be recommending 25 per ward, but I'm guessing it won't be a hard limit, since there are reasonable exceptions. For example, we have a meetinghouse next to a temple in our area that gets scheduled for lots of one-time events, so they have some extra licenses to accommodate those additional temporary users. If you have a valid need, you can request additional licenses from your FM group. However, we've noticed that approximately 20% of the licenses issued to stakes are unused. The leaders receive access, but many don't need it and never use it. For example, a Primary counselor or EQ secretary may never need to unlock the building. You can see which licenses are unused and can pull those back to the stake an assign to others.

[dlpyro1957]

If you have issues a seat for a short time. You can Reuther lic again and again. As for the missionary,in our area all of the missionaries have the app there phones, the email goes to the e mail for the missionary in that unit

[rknelson]

Kindoo was recently implemented in all buildings in our stake. My assignment is the stake Kindoo "Manager". Here are my suggestions for anyone assigned as initial Manager in the stake. Of course your Stake President and FM might have other guidance.

1) Send an early email advising stake / ward leaders about the change and the schedule.

2) FM will purchase licenses based on a certain number for the stake (X licenses) and a certain number for each ward (Y licenses). These licenses are all in the same shared "site" pool, but use those quantities as a rather hard limit for initial setup.

3) Instead of initially requesting a list of users for each unit, start with a basic list for the stake (the stake council) and for wards (the ward council). For now, leave off assistants, organization counselors and secretaries. Work with a stake clerk/executive secretary to generate one report for the stake and another for all wards using the LCR "Create a Report" to find members where "Calling Position Is" those members. Select these columns (in order) "Individual Email", "Unit", "Callings". For the Stake report, leave off "Unit". Select the text in the report "Preview" and paste it into a spreadsheet. Delete extra callings where users have more than one listed. Modify the spreadsheet to get 2 columns and output it as a CSV file:

Email@,Description
john_doe@gmail.com,Mountain Ward-Ward Clerk
mary_smith@yahoo.com,Valley Branch-Relief Society President
juan.jones@xyz.com,Stake-Stake Clerk

Kindoo assumes the first line is a header, so include that in each file. The file needs to be of type ".csv" for Kindoo to accept it.

4) Contact the Missionaries or mission office and get a list of "teaching area email addresses" and the associated unit in your stake. Format them in the same way:
123456789@missionary.org,Mountain Ward-Zion Mission
OR (if missionaries are going to be pulling from the stake license allocation)
987654321@missionary.org,Stake-Zion Mission

Add other initial users like early morning Seminary teachers etc.

Note: A consistent "Unit-Calling" description field is very helpful when managing licenses. In Kindoo after users verify their account, their name will be added automatically. You can export users as a CSV file and sort by description, or search in Kindoo for users based on unit, calling, name, or email.

5) Break the CSV files into a maximum of 50 users per file and make sure to add the header line in each file. You might want to break them up by building so that when you import each file you can give them access to doors in their building or access rules. Stake leaders might be given access to all doors in the stake. You can always change and edit access and user descriptions and add/remove users.

6) Import the CSV files into Kindoo. Then send an email to the list of email's from the spreadsheet, paste the list into an email (use BCC for privacy), and let everyone invited know they should have just received an invite from Kindoo. Attach the document or link to the "User Guide for Ward Members and Guests Designed for_ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (document found in link below) and have them contact you with any questions or problems. Let them know they will authenticate on their phone using their church login account.

7) Export the user list from Kindoo as a CSV file, sort it by description, and send a separate report to the Stake President and each Bishop showing the initial users assigned and inviting them to send you information to add/delete users within the allocated number for their unit. (Our stake is leaving decisions on who will get kindoo licenses to the Stake President and Bishop but within the number purchased by FM for each unit. Over time the Stake President can re-allocate or perhaps negotiate for a few more from FM.)

8) Continue to add/delete users as requested by the Bishop/Stake President and refer others requesting access to them.

A previous post provided a link to several manuals from Kindoo specifically written for the church. These will answer most questions. The manuals are available here (be patient - it's a slow site):
https://mfd.locktronics.com/ApplicationTraining.html

[swigginton]

Kindoo was recently implemented in all buildings in our stake. My assignment is the stake Kindoo "Manager". Here are my suggestions for anyone assigned as initial Manager in the stake. Of course your Stake President and FM might have other guidance.

This is excellent, and is pretty much identical to how we train the Kindoo managers in our FM group. A couple of additional notes:

• You can use the Kindoo website (https://web.kindoo.tech/) to import and export the user lists. You may find that easier than using the app on a phone/tablet.
• When assigning access rights for users, always, ALWAYS use "Access Rules". Don't assign access by entry points. Following this will save you headaches later. Access rules can group multiple entry points into a single rule. If another entry point is added to a meetinghouse, you won't need to edit every user from that meetinghouse to add the new entry point. You just add it to the access rule for the meetinghouse. We also had to shut down a meetinghouse for a major issue. We simply changed the access rules for that meetinghouse to prevent members from entering, but had a separate rule for those who were permitted to enter during the work project. There is an option for Kindoo administrators to require managers to only assign by access rules. We enable that and pre-configure the access rules for each building.
• In the user description, we recommend using the ward abbreviation, rather than the full name, so it leaves space for the calling when displaying on a phone. Longer descriptions may get truncated.
• The Church is currenting creating official documentation for the upcoming LCR release that will include automatic Kindoo assignments based on callings. That will change this process and greatly reduce manager effort. My understanding (and hope) is they will let us link access rules to callings.