Sign in sheet
Record who arrived, when they left and how to reach them — legibly, and without the previous forty names sitting on a clipboard for everyone to read.
Free, no account needed, 100 replies a month.
Or download the printable PDF. Free, no email address, ready to print and pin up.
The form people fill in, and the list you get back
You can reword any of these questions, or add your own, after you create it.
| 3 Feb, 14:20 | Grace Amponsah | Interview | Ray Osei | 14:18 | 15:05 | (628) 555-0192 | g.amponsah@example.com | V-106 | ||
| 3 Feb, 10:02 | Daniel Whitfield | Whitfield & Cole | Meeting | Ana Petrova | 10:00 | 11:15 | (415) 555-0177 | dw@example.com | V-105 | |
| 3 Feb, 08:57 | Halina Nowak | Meridian Facilities | Contractor or maintenance | Ray Osei | 08:55 | 12:40 | (415) 555-0148 | h.nowak@example.com | V-104 | 8XZK221 |
Scroll sideways for the rest of the 11 answers, and press any heading to sort by it. In your own form you can search the answers as well, and download them as a spreadsheet at any time.
The reason to keep one is usually the fire register
A sign in sheet looks like an administrative habit until there is an evacuation, at which point it is the only list of who is inside the building. That is the job it has to do well, and it is the job most sheets do badly.
It fails on one field: time out. A sheet that records arrivals and not departures tells you who came in today, not who is still here, and those are different lists by mid-afternoon. Whoever is standing at the assembly point needs the second one.
A clipboard puts every previous name on display
The eleventh visitor of the day reads the ten names above theirs: who came, which company they were from, who they were visiting and when. On a busy reception that is a competitor's client list left face-up on a desk.
Nobody designed it that way; it is just what a shared sheet of paper does. A link cannot do it, because each arrival fills in their own and the list goes to whoever runs the desk rather than to the next person in the queue.
Handwriting defeats the purpose more often than anything else
The two fields that matter most, a name and a phone number, are the two that get written fastest by somebody standing up with a bag in one hand. A register nobody can read is a register that cannot be used for the thing it was kept for.
This is the unglamorous reason organisations move sign-in to a tablet or a QR code on the desk. It is not the reporting; it is that a typed name is a name.
Ask why they are here, and keep the answer short
A reason for visiting turns a list of names into something you can actually use: how many contractors were on site last month, whether the deliveries all arrived, who was interviewed and by whom. As free text it is unusable, because forty people will write forty versions of "meeting".
A short fixed list of reasons and one name for who they are seeing covers almost every arrival, and both are one tap rather than a sentence.
Collect what you need and stop there
A visitor register is personal data, and the questions on it should be the ones you would be comfortable explaining. Name, organisation, who they are visiting and times in and out cover the fire register and the audit trail. A vehicle registration is worth asking for only where parking is genuinely limited.
Decide how long you keep the records before you start collecting them, and delete on that schedule rather than accumulating a filing cabinet of old sheets nobody has a reason to hold.
Questions people ask
What should be on a sign in sheet?
Full name, organisation, who they are visiting, the reason, and both time in and time out. Time out is the field most sheets omit and the one an evacuation depends on. Add a contact number, and a badge number if you issue them.
What is the difference between a sign in sheet and a sign up sheet?
A sign in sheet records people arriving — visitors, meeting attendance, a class register — so it captures names and times. A sign up sheet claims something in advance, like a dish for a potluck or a shift, so it captures who is taking which slot.
Is a paper visitor sign in sheet a data protection problem?
It can be, because a shared sheet shows earlier entries to whoever signs next — names, companies and who they were visiting. Collect only what you need, decide in advance how long you keep it, and delete on that schedule. A form each arrival fills in separately avoids the display problem entirely.
Is this sign in sheet free to download?
Yes. The PDF downloads with no account and no email address. The shareable online version is free as well.
Ready to send it out?
Every question above is already written. Make it a form, get your link, and send it. Reword anything first if your group asks it differently.
Free, no account needed to start, and the printable PDF stays one click away.
Already have your own version of this form?
You build nothing. Drop the PDF here, or photograph the printed copy, and the questions are read off it: no canvas, no dragging a box onto each field, no mapping step. The wording your organisation already approved stays exactly as it is, and you get a link that collects the answers back as a spreadsheet — and as the original document, filled in.
Related templates
- Registration form templateEvents, classes and memberships in one list.
- Client intake formContact, scope, budget and timeline before the first call.
- Permission slip templateSchools, clubs and youth groups. Signed on paper or by phone.
- Employment application formWork history, availability and references, in one list you can sort.
- Open house sign in sheetVisitors, their agent status and their feedback, in one list.
All free form templates · Business and clients