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.
The demo is open to everyone, credentials are on the sign-in page. 30 days of the full package to try out.
Try it first, ask afterwards
The demo installation is open to anyone. Email and password are printed on the sign-in page and already filled in — 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
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, 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 — and offers pick lists instead of empty text fields wherever it can.
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 — or photograph it. The camera reads the stamping on the fob, you confirm or correct it. Unknown numbers are added to the stock in the same step.
When?
The handover time is already filled in; the return deadline comes from fixed options: one week, one month, open-ended or a date of your own.
Signature
The recipient signs with a finger on the display. The signature belongs to the handover for good and 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 — 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
Every hour PixKey checks 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, assigned atomically. No gaps, no duplicates, even with three devices issuing keys at once.
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. 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 stamped key number. In the browser for free, without any image leaving the company; on request a noticeably more accurate AI recognition for difficult stampings. You can always correct it by hand.
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 web 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. A lost key is reported as lost, with a remark — and no longer shows up as “issued” in stock.
Kiosk mode for a tablet
One tablet at reception, permanently in the handover assistant, resetting itself after every handover. Nobody has to sign in to issue a key.
Master data instead of free text
Departments, key types and access areas are curated pick lists. That is why the server room is called the same thing everywhere in the analysis instead of three different things.
Users with roles
Administration sees and changes everything. The handover role may issue and take back keys but cannot touch master data, records or settings.
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. From the outside it looks like your program.
Access requests & erasure built in
For any person you can print what is stored about them at the press of a button, and anonymise it the same way. A GDPR access request becomes a minute of work instead of an afternoon.
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 scope, not by headcount. Your whole team works in every plan; you do not pay per user.
To settle in: the complete workflow, only limited in volume.
- Up to 25 keys/transponders
- 2 users
- Handover & return with signature
- Record, export and print view
- No term, nothing to cancel
The normal case for a company with a reception or a warehouse counter.
- Up to 250 keys/transponders
- 10 users
- Kiosk mode for the tablet at reception
- Photo recognition in the browser
- Reminder emails for overdue keys
- Cancellable monthly
For several sites and hard-to-read stampings.
- Unlimited keys and users
- Everything in Basis
- AI photo recognition for difficult numbers
- Your logo in panel, printout and workbook
- Priority support
- Cancellable monthly
All prices plus statutory VAT. Every plan starts with 30 days of the full package to try out. We will migrate an existing Excel list for you on request.
Rather run it yourself
Purchase with installation — €599 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 that case we install PixKey once at your place: on your server, under your address, with your logo. After that the installation is yours, and nothing recurring is due.
It needs a server with PHP 8 and MariaDB or MySQL. If you do not have one, we will set one up — hosting is then a separate item.
Request an installation- We set up the server, database and encryption and install PixKey
- We create your master data together — departments, key types, access areas
- On request we import your existing Excel list as the starting stock
- Full scope with no volume limits
- Handover with an operations manual, no running costs afterwards
- Maintenance and updates available as a separate agreement
Where the data sits and who sees it
A key list says who gets in where and when. That is not a data set to leave lying about.
German servers
Operated on servers in Germany, without a detour through services outside the EU. No fonts or scripts pulled from third parties — even the typefaces are served from our own server.
Companies strictly separated
Every query is bound to your own company. Signatures are only served after sign-in and only for your own company; the files sit outside the directory reachable over the network.
A log, not trust
Who issued, took back, changed or deleted what, and when, is in the log. That is the part an Excel file cannot do by design.
Access requests and erasure
For any person at the press of a button: a report of everything stored, anonymisation, an automatic retention period. A data processing agreement is part of the contract.
Frequently asked questions about key management
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.
Can we bring our existing Excel list across?
Yes. Send us the file and we will transfer employees, key stock and open handovers into the starting stock. Old handovers that were closed long ago we usually leave out — they stay in your file, and a clean start is worth more than a complete history carrying five years of inaccuracies.
How reliably does the camera read the key number?
With cleanly stamped or engraved numbers, well. With worn fobs, poor light or handwriting it gets harder — which is what the AI recognition in the Plus plan is for, and it hits noticeably more often. Important: recognition is a suggestion, never a decision. The field can always be edited by hand, and nobody has to take a photo if typing is faster.
Do the photos leave the company?
With browser recognition, no — it runs entirely on the device and the image is never uploaded. The AI recognition in the Plus plan sends the cropped image to a provider for analysis; that is why it can be switched off and is not active at all in the lower plans. In both cases only the recognised number is stored, not the picture.
What happens when a key is lost?
You report it as lost in the handover, with a remark. It disappears from available stock but stays in the history — with the signature of the person who received it. If it turns up again you release it with one click. For any claim it is then documented who had it last and since when.
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. Kiosk mode only needs a cheap tablet that stays at the desk. Nobody has to install an app.
How long does introduction take?
Access is there the same day. Realistically the effort is recording the stock: how many keys and transponders are there, which access areas, which departments. For a mid-sized company that is half a day, and then it runs. Send us the list and we will take that part off your hands.
What does it cost as we grow?
You switch plan, that is all. The limits are keys and users, not handovers — so it does not get more expensive just because a lot is issued. With the purchase-and-installation option there is no volume limit at all.
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, the conversation after
Take your time to see how a handover works. If it fits, a short call is enough to work out how many keys you have and whether renting or buying suits you better.