Keys & transponders
Who has which key? Answered in three seconds.
PixKey replaces the Excel handover sheet. Issuing a key or transponder means: photograph the number, pick the recipient, sign on the display. Returns, deadlines and the monthly record then run by themselves. In the browser, and soon as an app for iPhone, iPad and Android.
Create your company without payment details. You book directly in PixKey and pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay through Stripe.
Try it first, then book
The demo installation is open to anyone. Email and password are printed on the sign-in page and already filled in, so one click on “Sign in” is enough. Every name, key number and signature is made up, and the whole thing is reset every hour. So create, change and delete as much as you like; you cannot break anything.
Access: demo@pixagentur.com · Password: pixkey-demo
Plans, booking and all the details are on the product site: pixkey.de
The starting point
The key list is an Excel file. And it is never quite right.
Almost every company keeps a handover record for keys and transponders. Almost everywhere that is a spreadsheet, next to a folder of signed slips. It works fine until somebody asks. The moment somebody does ask (the insurer after a break-in, an auditor, a manager after somebody resigns), the hunt begins. The spreadsheet was not kept badly. It simply cannot do what is being asked of it.
The folder of slips is the more honest half, by the way: at least it has signatures. It just cannot be filtered, counted or evaluated.
- The file sits on a drive only the office can reach. The key, though, is handed over at reception, in the warehouse or on site.
- Two people open it at the same time, one saves last. The other entry is quietly gone.
- The signature is on a slip in a folder, the row is in the spreadsheet. Later nobody finds both together.
- Whether something is overdue is only visible to whoever walks the “return due” column by hand. Which is to say: nobody.
- When an employee leaves, someone has to reconstruct from memory what is still out there.
- The record for the insurer is only produced once it is needed, by hand and in hindsight.
How a handover works
Four steps on a tablet or phone. The assistant asks in exactly the order things happen at the counter anyway. You can go back at any time, and nothing is saved until the signature.
Who?
Search for the employee by name or personnel number. If the person is new, they are created in the same screen without leaving the handover.
What?
Type the number, pick it from stock or photograph the fob. Unknown numbers are added to the stock in the same step. If a key is already out, PixKey rejects a second handover.
When?
The handover time is already filled in. You pick the return deadline from quick options: one week, one month, half a year, one year or open-ended.
Signature
The recipient signs with a finger or stylus on the display. Only then is the handover created. The signature later prints next to the row it belongs to.
A return is the same path backwards: open the handover, have it countersigned, done. The key is immediately available in stock again.
Process automation instead of spreadsheet upkeep
What used to be manual work now happens on the side
The real gain is not that handing a key over is faster, since that only ever took a minute. The gain is everything that comes afterwards and that somebody would have to keep up by hand in a spreadsheet.
Stock keeps itself current
Every handover sets the key to “issued”, every return to “available”, a loss report to “lost”. There is no second list to keep in sync: stock and handovers are the same truth.
Deadlines run in the background
PixKey keeps checking which handovers have passed their planned return date and marks them overdue, and back again if the date changes. “Somebody forgot at some point” becomes a state you can see.
Reminders without a chase list
Once a day one collected email goes to the address on file: which keys are overdue, with whom and since when. At most every seven days per handover, so the mail does not become noise people click away.
The system assigns the number
Every handover gets a running number per company. No gaps, no duplicates, even with three devices issuing keys at once. Two tablets without a network never assign the same number.
The monthly record is one click
Pick a period, then the print view or the Excel workbook. Signatures sit in the row as an image, the workbook comes with a frozen header row, autofilter and print setup done. What used to be half a day of assembling is now one call.
Retention runs automatically
You set how long closed handovers stay personal, from 365 days. After that PixKey anonymises them overnight: the figures for statistics stay, the name goes.
The record
The list that replaces the Excel file, and the printout it could never produce
The handover record shows every issue and return, filterable by period, status and person, with full-text search across names, personnel numbers, identifiers and remarks. One click on a row opens the details, both signatures included. And because a record belongs on paper the moment somebody really asks for it, there is the print view: A4 landscape, every row with its signature beside it, header repeated on every page.
Excel workbook (.xlsx)
Two sheets: the handover record with real date and number values, plus an analysis sheet with the key figures for the period. Frozen header row, autofilter, A4 landscape set up.
Print view (PDF)
Save as PDF through the browser’s print function. With your logo, the period and the creation date in the header, and the signatures as images in the rows.
CSV
Semicolon-separated and UTF-8 marked, so Excel shows accented characters properly instead of turning “Krüger” into “Krüger”.
What PixKey does
Built for daily life at the counter, not for a feature list in a brochure.
Photo recognition of the number
The camera reads the number from the fob, on the device and without a cloud. The Plus plan adds an AI that also reads engravings and handwriting. Read wrongly? Tap the field and fix it.
Signature on the display
With a finger, a stylus or a mouse. It belongs to the handover for good and is only served to signed-in users of your own company. The files sit outside the public directory.
Returns with countersignature
On return the recipient signs a second time. That documents both: that they received it, and that they gave it back.
Overdue & loss reporting
Overdue handovers sit at the top of the overview. For a loss you must enter when and where the key was last seen. The handover stays as a record, and the stock is free again.
Kiosk mode for a tablet
After a period of inactivity the tablet at reception jumps back to the start, with the last ten seconds as a countdown. No half-finished handover with a name on it stays on the display.
Master data instead of free text
Departments, key types and access areas are pick lists. Cylinder keys, transponders and padlocks run through the same flow, and the server room is called the same thing in every analysis.
Users with roles
Owner, admin and handover. Whoever only issues keys sees only the handover screen, not even through a direct address.
Your logo inside the program
Upload a company logo for light and dark backgrounds. It then appears in the panel, in the printout and in the Excel workbook.
Several items, one handover
Three transponders from the same batch under one number? They go out in a single handover, up to 20 items, with one signature.
App for iPhone, iPad and Android
The tablet at the handover desk, even without a network
A tablet at reception belongs to no one person. So PixKey does not treat it like a user: it is paired, not signed in. The app for this has been submitted to Apple and Google and will be available soon.
Pair by QR code
The administrator shows a QR code on their phone, and the tablet scans it. It needs no account of its own. If it gets lost, you block it in the device list.
Handover without a network
In the basement or the warehouse there is often no signal. The app stores the handover and signature on the device and syncs as soon as a connection is back. Until then it shows “Number to follow”.
Your own server, your own app
If you run the purchase version, you connect the app to your own server. Your data then stays fully in-house. That requires active maintenance.
Until the app is in the stores, PixKey runs in the browser on PC, tablet and phone. The account stays the same.
Who this pays off for
Anywhere keys leave the building
The threshold is lower than most people think. As soon as more than a handful of keys are out there and more than one person hands them over, the spreadsheet is the weakest link. Typically:
- Property management and facility management with building and master keys
- Production and logistics: warehouses, gates, vehicle fleet, locker keys
- Trade businesses whose crews take customer keys with them
- Care services with the flat keys of their clients
- Car dealerships and workshops with vehicle and demo-car keys
- Schools, day-care centres and clubs with room and building keys
- Practices, law firms and offices with transponders and locking systems
- Developers and construction firms with site and show-home keys
Prices without small print
Tiered by keys, users and paired tablets, not by the number of handovers. So you do not pay more because you issue a lot.
For trying it out and for the small key cabinet.
- Up to 15 keys/transponders
- 1 user
- 1 paired tablet
- Handover & return with signature
- Record, export and print view
- No AI recognition, no kiosk mode
- With ads in the app, after the 14 trial days
For a company with a reception or a warehouse counter.
- Up to 250 keys/transponders
- 10 users
- 3 paired tablets
- Kiosk mode with automatic return to start
- Ad-free
- Everything in Free
- 290 € a year, two months free
For several sites and hard-to-read engravings.
- Unlimited keys, users and tablets
- AI recognition for engravings and handwriting
- NFC and several sites (in preparation)
- Ad-free
- Everything in Basis
- 590 € a year, two months free
All prices plus statutory VAT. For 14 days you try every feature free of charge and without payment details. After that you book Basis or Plus directly in PixKey, monthly or yearly, paid by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay through Stripe. If you book nothing, Free keeps running. PixKey is aimed at companies and organisations, not at consumers.
Rather run it yourself
Purchase version: €1,490 one-off
Some companies would rather not have their key data on somebody else’s server, and some already have a server of their own. For them there is PixKey as a purchase: installed on your server, under your address, with your logo. The first 12 months of updates are included in the price.
It needs a server with PHP 8.3 and MariaDB or MySQL. If you do not have one, we will set one up with you, and hosting is then a separate item.
Purchase version on pixkey.de- Installed on your server
- Full scope of Plus, without volume limits
- Operations manual for your administrator
- 12 months of updates included
- App connection to your own server with active maintenance
- Ad-free
After that, optional: maintenance for €290 a year plus VAT, with updates and security fixes. Without active maintenance the web application keeps running, but the app connection pauses.
Where the data sits and who sees it
A key list says who gets in where and when. Add signatures, which point especially clearly at one person. Neither belongs on just any server.
Data in Germany
Employees, keys, handovers and signatures sit with IONOS in Germany. PixKey serves its own fonts, with no connection to Google Fonts.
Companies strictly separated
Every query stays limited to your own company. A log records who issued, took back or changed what, and when. An Excel file cannot do that by design.
Access requests and erasure
A GDPR Art. 15 data report as a single file, anonymisation at the press of a button, an automatic retention period. You conclude the data processing agreement at registration.
Four exceptions, named openly
AI recognition in the Plus plan: the photo goes to Anthropic. The app’s push notifications run through Expo, without names. Payment runs through Stripe. In the Free plan the app shows non-personalised ads from Google AdMob, without key or employee data.
Frequently asked questions about key management
How do I book PixKey?
You create your company on pixkey.de and try all features for 14 days, without payment details. After that you pick Basis or Plus in the admin area, monthly or yearly. You pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay through Stripe, and the invoice arrives electronically. If you book nothing, the free Free plan keeps running. You need no quote or call for this.
Is there a PixKey app?
Yes, for iPhone, iPad and Android. The app has been submitted to Apple and Google and will be available soon. With it you pair a tablet by QR code and issue keys even without a network. Until then PixKey runs in the browser, with the same account.
Is a digital signature on a tablet legally sufficient?
For a key receipt, yes. It documents internally that somebody received a key and later returned it. There is no prescribed form for that, what counts is evidential value. PixKey stores the signature together with the timestamp, the issuing user and the running number, and prints it in the row. That is more than a loose slip in a folder achieves. It does not replace a qualified electronic signature for contracts with a statutory written form, but that is not what this is about.
How reliably does the camera read the key number?
Printed, high-contrast digits are read well by the camera on the device. Engravings on metal, handwriting and poor light are harder, which is what the AI recognition in the Plus plan is for. In both cases the result is a suggestion: the field can always be edited by hand, and nobody has to take a photo if typing is faster.
Are the photos stored?
No. Only the recognised number is stored, and the image is discarded after recognition. Recognition on the device uploads nothing. Only with the AI recognition in the Plus plan does the photo go to Anthropic for analysis, and it does not run in Free and Basis.
What happens when a key is lost?
You report it as lost in the handover and enter when and where it was last seen. It then no longer blocks the stock but stays in the history, with the signature of the person who received it. If it turns up again you note that with one click.
Do we need new devices for this?
No. PixKey runs in the browser: on the PC at reception, on a tablet you already have, on a work phone. For kiosk mode a cheap tablet of about 10 inches or more is enough, kept permanently at the desk.
What does it cost as we grow?
You switch plan, that is all. The limits are keys, users and paired tablets, not handovers, so it does not get more expensive just because a lot is issued. In the Plus plan and the purchase version there is no volume limit.
How is PixKey different from an electronic locking system?
An electronic locking system replaces the key. PixKey manages it. Companies that moved to transponders still keep a list of who has which transponder, and anyone with a mechanical locking system will not replace it soon, for cost reasons. The two do not exclude each other: PixKey manages keys and transponders in the same list.
Can we use the demo without worrying?
Yes, that is exactly what it is for. The demo contains nothing but invented data, and every hour it is reset to its starting state. Create employees, issue keys, sign, export and delete everything if you like. An hour later at the latest it is all back.
The demo first, then 14 days in your own company
See in the demo how a handover works. If it fits, create your company and test for two weeks with your real keys. After that you book directly in PixKey.