Using Checkie: General advice

To allow your visitors and staff to sign in and out, log in using the login button on the top-right of the homepage. Then click the icon on the top-left to go to the Checkie sign in home screen.

After logging into Checkie on your visitor device, make sure that you sign out of the admin dashboard to protect your settings and visitor information. You can do this by clicking the icon on the top-right of the admin dashboard.

If you need to return to the admin dashboard from your visitor device, tap the footer text at the bottom of the screen five times in quick succession. Alternatively, you can access the admin dashboard by logging in on any other device and going to checkie.co.uk/admin.

If you see a red icon on the top-right of the Checkie home screen, Checkie has lost connection to the Checkie server. Please ensure that your visitor device has a functioning internet connection, and the relevant proxy or firewall allow list entries have been added (just make sure checkie.co.uk on port 443 will work).

When visitors check-in and out, they can optionally choose to have Checkie remember their details. To disable this function for your Checkie system, login to the admin dashboard and uncheck the 'Allow Remember Visitors' checkbox.

Checkie also supports QR codes! You can enable this option from the admin dashboard, with the 'Allow QR Code Check-in/out' checkbox. You will then have a QR code appear on the Checkie home screen. When the QR code is scanned - the user will be taken to a 'Check-in/Check-out' page where they can complete the Check-in/out process from the comfort of their own device.

If a visitor or staff member forgets to check-out when leaving, Checkie will automatically check them out at the midnight. Their carriage also turns into a pumpkin.

Checkie is flexible! If you want to remove your disclaimer page for visitors at sign-in, simply remove all of the text in the 'Disclaimer Text' box in your admin dashboard. If you don't require Staff sign-in, just make sure you have no staff members added on the 'Staff' tab. If you'd like your own custom background colours or image, or you want to change your logo or the colour of the primary font, you can do all of this from the 'Settings' tab.

If you want to remove Checkie from a device, login to the admin dashboard and choose 'Clear Device' from the bottom of the 'Settings' tab, this will log you out of Checkie completely and remove all locally cached data.

Using Checkie: Get Started on a Windows 10 Tablet

You can get started with Checkie on a modern Windows 10 tablet - just create a shortcut on the desktop (right-click > new > shortcut) and paste the following text in as the target:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe" --kiosk checkie.co.uk --edge-kiosk-type=fullscreen --no-first-run

You'll then have the Checkie homepage on screen without any other Windows in the way. To get back to the desktop again, just swipe your finger in from the left hand side of the screen (starting with your finger off the screen), this should then minimize Checkie and allow you to close it.

If you want to prevent visitors and staff from doing this, you will need to disable 'Edge Swipe' by adding the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Window\EdgeUI

Then a new DWORD (32-bit) value in this key named 'AllowEdgeSwipe', leaving it's data value as 0.

You can also follow the instructions provided here for single-app Kiosk mode.

Setting up Checkie with an iPad - Page 1 of 6

Checkie recommends an official Apple 30W power adapter for use with an always on iPad. With the standard 5W adapter, some iPad's will draw too much power with the display left on, even whilst plugged in, which will eventually drain the battery flat.

When using Checkie with an iPad, you will need to make a few Settings changes on the device to allow Checkie to function normally.

First, open up the Safari browser and head to checkie.co.uk

Tap the 'Share' icon and then tap 'Add to Home Screen'. After confirming, you will then have a Checkie icon on your home screen with which you can launch Checkie.

Setting up Checkie with an iPad - Page 2 of 6

Tap the iPad 'Settings' icon and then go to 'General' and 'Keyboard'.

Make sure your settings look exactly like the below.

Setting up Checkie with an iPad - Page 3 of 6

Tap the iPad 'Settings' icon and then go to 'Accessibility' and then 'Guided Access'.

Enable 'Guided Access' mode so that you can lock the screen when using the Checkie system.

Make sure to change the 'Display Auto-lock' setting to 'Never' so that the iPad screen does not go to sleep.

Setting up Checkie with an iPad - Page 4 of 6

Tap the iPad 'Settings' icon and then go to 'Display & Brightness'.

Make sure that your 'Brightness' setting is set all the way to the right hand side so that Checkie is clearly visible, even on a sunny day!

Setting up Checkie with an iPad - Page 5 of 6

Head to your home screen and locate your Checkie launch icon, created earlier. Tap the icon to open Checkie.

Setting up Checkie with an iPad - Page 6 of 6

With the Checkie home page on display, tap the 'Login' button and proceed to login.

Checkie will not be able to take visitor pictures if the camera permission is denied. Immediately after logging in (whilst viewing the admin dashboard), it's a good idea to tap the little 'AA' button next to the web address and then 'Website Settings' and make sure that the camera permission is set to 'Allow' and not 'Ask' or 'Deny'. If it's set to 'Ask' instead of 'Allow', the user will be prompted onscreen to allow the Camera whenever Checkie refreshes- if they refuse, the picture taking functionality will not work.

After ensuring that the camera permission is allowed, close Checkie and remove it from memory by double-tapping the Home button and then 'swiping' it away.

Re-launch Checkie and look for the red 'camera' icon next to the battery indicator along with the small green dot - if you don't see this, close and re-launch Checkie again, it may take multiple tries if the camera has previously run into a problem.

With the Checkie home screen in view, press the iPad 'Home' button 3 times in quick succession.

This will enable 'Guided Access' mode and allow you to set a PIN to protect the iPad and prevent users from navigating away from Checkie.

Before you tap 'Start' on the top-right, tap 'Options' on the bottom-left, and make sure that only 'Keyboards' and 'Touch' are selected. De-select all other options.

Congrats! Your iPad is all setup and Checkie is now ready to be used for sign-in!

Setting up Badge printing using the Checkie local server application

If you've enabled 'Badge Printing' from the Checkie Admin Dashboard, you will need to download and install the 'Checkie Local Server' application to a Windows machine hosting your designated badge printing device.

Sign in to your admin dashboard and make sure that both 'Visitor Pictures' and 'Badge Printing' are checked on the 'Settings' tab. You can then follow the link to download the application.

Double-click the installer and follow the instructions to complete setup.

Checkie has been tested thoroughly with the Brother QL-810W printer using a DK-22251 badge reel. To successfully print using this printer and reel, you must make sure that the Paper Size is set to 62mm in the Printing Preferences and that the correct Paper Type has been selected ('Black/Red').

Enabling Staff automatic check-in and out using the Checkie local server application

You will need to download and install the 'Checkie Local Server' application to a Windows machine which is connected to the same network as both your Checkie visitor device and the mobile devices that are carried by your staff.

During this installation you will be prompted to specify the IP range that DHCP gives out addresses for, e.g. 192.168.1.10-192.168.200

Sign in to your admin dashboard and make sure that each member of staff listed in your 'Staff' tab has been edited to include the MAC address of the mobile device that they use, and that this mobile device is set to connect to your network via WiFi.

The Checkie local server application will then monitor your network for these staff devices, and use this information to automatically check each member of staff in and out.

When a staff device is detected on your network for the first time that day, the associated staff member will be automatically checked in.

At midnight, Checkie will look to see when each staff members device was last detected, and use this approximate time as that staff members time of departure.

If a staff member does not have an associated device, and has also forgotten to manually check-out- they will be automatically departed by Checkie at midnight (even if they are stuck in a cupboard somewhere!).

Please note that some modern smart phones now randomise their MAC address, so you may need to disable this feature first before the device can be used with automatic check-in.

Enabling Third-party access to Bromcom MIS for staff & student synchronisation

Login to Bromcom as an administrator user.

Go to Modules > Setup > System Security > System Users.

Click on New to create a new account.

Select the Create a New User radio button and type ‘Checkie’ into First Name, ‘Ltd’ into Last Name, ‘checkie’ into Username and then a long random password in the password field. Note the password somewhere, as this will also need to be entered into Checkie. Also, ensure that the ‘Third-party’ tick box is checked under Roles.

Press the Save button to create the new user and confirm that the message ‘User Details Saved’ is received in top right of screen.

Go to Modules > Setup > System Security > Third Party Access Permissions & Logs to maintain third party accounts access Read Only Permissions for the APIs.

Select the ‘checkie’ account in the dropdown to see and manage permissions for Checkie. Checkie only requires the 'Staff', 'Students' and 'Attendances' entities to be selected. On the same page, you can also view the access logs of Checkie's account. Logs are kept for 3 months.

It will now be possible to synchronise your staff with Checkie. Login to Checkie and open the admin panel, then click the Staff or Student tab.

Click the MIS Sync button at the top, select 'Bromcom' from the MIS list and then enter the details for your Bromcom account as per the above.

Click "Save & Sync" to synchronise your staff & student users. Checkie will now automatically synchronise new changes overnight, or you can manually synchronise again by repeating the above step. It will also synchronise your student attendances for the day for fire report purposes.

If you would like to stop synchronising, open the same dialog, select 'Bromcom' again and then click "Stop Sync". Checkie will stop synchronising with Bromcom. Student information will be removed but any previously synchronised staff will remain.