Create an Access Control Holiday Schedule: What Is It & How-To

Holidays create a unique hurdle for your property as you strive to maintain business operations while adhering to security efforts. Fortunately, an access control holiday schedule is a helpful feature that your property will benefit from.

In this blog, you’ll discover what holiday schedules for access control systems are, how they work, and their advantages. In addition, you’ll learn what to consider when setting up holiday schedules and how to set them up when the time comes.

This post covers:

• What is a holiday schedule for access control?
• Benefits of implementing holiday schedules
• Considerations when setting up holiday schedules
• How to set up a holiday schedule for access control
• Does ButterflyMX support holiday schedules?

What is a holiday schedule for access control?

A holiday schedule for access control is a feature that allows you to manage your property’s access permissions for a holiday. In other words, you can adjust who can and can’t access the property or parts of the property based on the holiday occurring.

For instance, let’s say you manage an industrial plant. Office staff are off on New Year’s Eve and Day, but facility workers aren’t. So, you’ll set up a holiday schedule for office staff, preventing them from accessing the office or the facility altogether. Additionally, you may limit facility workers’ access to certain areas because the office is closed.

Conversely, if your property completely ceases all operations during a holiday, you can prevent all users from accessing the property.

Regardless, the overall objective of a holiday schedule is to optimize and maintain security protocols when traditional business operations change.

Benefits of implementing holiday schedules

Holiday schedules are an essential feature for access control systems because of the benefits they offer. If you aren’t utilizing this helpful feature, consider implementing it for the next holiday season.

The advantages of setting up a holiday schedule for your access control system include:

• Boosted security. On a holiday where your property is mainly empty, the chances of a security breach increase, because there’s no one on-site to maintain order. Suppose your property’s operations are limited or completely stopped during a holiday. In that case, you should implement a holiday schedule to reduce the chance of someone using their access privileges for malicious intent. That way, you can spend more time enjoying the holidays and less about how your property is holding up.
• Greater convenience. Implementing an access control schedule for the holidays is easy because your system gives you many options for implementation. For example, you can choose an annual schedule to follow or manually set holidays and times based on your property’s needs. Not to mention, when you have a cloud-based access control system, all of these changes can be made remotely, saving you time.
• Simplified security. Get the most out of your access control system by automating your holiday schedules. Many systems allow you to implement holiday schedules annually, preventing you from manually making schedules. As a result, you’ll feel comfortable knowing your property is secure without having to implement changes yourself.
• Continued operations. Maintain your property’s operations with the implementation of a holiday schedule. Not only can you support your business operations, but you can ensure they remain secure by limiting access to parts of the property or users’ access. Despite how you restrict access, your business can continue to operate without sacrificing security protocols.

Learn how to create access groups for your ButterflyMX:

Considerations when setting up holiday schedules

Holiday schedules for access control are advantageous. However, their implementation will vary drastically depending on your property. So, it’s crucial you consider a few questions before enabling holiday access.

Ask yourself these questions before enabling holiday access control schedules:

• Who will need access during the holidays (if any)? If only parts of your business are going to shut down for the holidays, certain access groups will still need access to their work areas. So, you’ll need to identify these groups of people before enacting a holiday schedule. On the other hand, if your property is pausing operations entirely, you can prevent access to all or select users depending on your preferences.
• Do exempt users need custom dates and times for access? When exempt users are at the property, you may choose to limit their access to certain times of the day. Thus, users can’t access the facility when they aren’t on the clock. What’s more, you could set an access window for individuals you know will need access to the property over the holidays. No matter the situation, the granularity of holiday schedules offers peace of mind.
• Are there any areas where exempt users shouldn’t be allowed? Lastly, consider the areas exempt users can access. For instance, maybe you don’t want employees accessing an area unless you or another manager is on-site. In that case, you can limit their access credentials to certain areas, such as coworking spaces, using a holiday schedule.

How to set up a holiday schedule for access control

The method of setting up holiday schedules will vary depending on your system.

Generally, holiday schedules for access control systems can be set up in two ways:

1. Pre-defined holidays. A set of default holidays has already been established in your system. These often include Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year’s Day. The best systems recognize the numerical change of holidays in subsequent years, preventing the need for manual adjustments. With that said, you must apply the holidays to your system before you can benefit.
2. Custom holidays. If your system doesn’t have the holiday you need or you’re using the feature for a company party or retreat, custom holidays are the solution. In that case, you must manually enter the date ranges in the access control software. For repeat holidays, enable the appropriate setting so you don’t have to adjust it for subsequent years.

Does ButterflyMX support holiday schedules?

Yes, ButterflyMX access control supports holiday schedules.

Our cloud-based access control system offers a wide range of features and settings to customize your property’s access needs, from the front door and elevators to garages and gates.

Installed in more than 15,000 buildings and over one million apartments, ButterflyMX is the best access control system with holiday schedules.