Administrator Guide

Admin Setup & Onboarding

Everything you need to stand up a new community in Palmetto Guard — from your organization profile to issuing the first pass at the gate or kiosk. Work through the steps in order; each builds on the last.

Overview

Most configuration lives under Settings, organized into four groups: General, Organization Settings, Hardware, and Administration. This guide follows a recommended setup order rather than the on-screen order.

Backbone

Properties, titles & passcodes

Who sets up

Community administrators

Time

~30–60 min

Settings — Organization Settings section

Settings — Features and Administration section

Recommended setup order

Sign in and secure your account
Set up your organization profile and branding
Invite your team and assign roles
Add properties, titles, and passcodes
Add companies and vendors
Configure pass types
Define gates and locations
Set rental pass pricing
Connect payments (Square)
Add label printers
Set up kiosks
Configure citations (SC traffic tickets)
Issue booking API tokens (optional)
Run the go-live checklist

1 · Sign in and secure your account

You'll receive an invitation email to join your organization. Follow the link to set your password, then sign in.

Use a strong, unique password.
Under Settings → General → User Preferences, set your theme and time format. These are personal and don't affect other users.

2 · Organization profile and branding

Your organization record holds your community's identity and the defaults used across passes and citations.

Name, city, and state — how your community appears throughout the app.
Primary color and logo — used to brand passes and printed materials.
Citation prefix — a short code (e.g. PG) prepended to citation numbers.

Court, county, and jurisdiction defaults are configured later in the citation step — you don't need them here.

3 · Invite your team and assign roles

Go to Settings → Administration → User Management to invite users, assign roles, and manage team access.

Invite users by email; they'll receive a link to set their password.
Assign roles to control what each person can do — viewing, creating, editing, deleting, and which areas they can reach.
A person can belong to more than one community; their role is scoped to each community separately.

Set up roles before inviting large numbers of users, so everyone lands with the right permissions from day one.

4 · Properties, titles, and passcodes

This is the backbone of your community. Almost everything — guest passes, rental passes, vehicles — links back to a property and its title.

Concept	What it is
Property	A physical address or lot in your community.
Title	An ownership/occupancy record on a property, with an Owner Type, Rental Type, and Status (e.g. Current). Rental-managed units reference the responsible rental management company.
Passcode	The owner/unit code on a current title. Staff (and the booking API) use it to look up the correct unit when issuing passes.
Vehicles	Registered vehicles associated with a property/title for entry logging and clearances.

Setup steps:

Add your properties.
Add a title to each property, set its Status to current, and assign the passcode.
For rental-managed units, set the rental management company on the title (add the company first).

Important: Accurate passcodes are essential. Rental pass imports and the booking API both resolve units by passcode — a wrong or missing passcode means a pass can't be created.

Property Details — name, PIN, address, and associated titles

Property Title Details — title name, passcode, rental type, and owner type

Contact Details — resident name, photo, email

5 · Companies and vendors

Add the businesses that operate in your community from your Companies list. Each company has a type:

ContractorVendor HOAManagement Company Rental ManagementLandscaping SecurityUtilities Other

Rental Management companies are special: you bill rental-pass chargebacks to them, assign them to property titles, and issue them booking API tokens.
Add each company's contact email, phone, and address so they appear correctly on reports and communications.

6 · Pass types

Go to Settings → Organization Settings → Pass Type Settings to manage the pass types available at the point of sale.

Define the kinds of passes your community issues and sells (day passes, guest passes, seasonal passes, and so on).
Pass types drive what staff can sell on the Point of Sale screen and at the kiosk.

7 · Gates and locations

Go to Settings → Organization Settings → Location Settings to define named gates and locations for your property.

Create an entry for each gate or notable location.
These are used for entry logging, clearances, and routing throughout Security Operations.

Edit Location — security mode, auto-open gate, and access settings

8 · Rental pass pricing

Go to Settings → Organization Settings → Rental Pass Pricing to configure how rental passes are charged back to rental management companies.

Model	How it charges
Tiered Flat Rate	A flat fee based on total nights, using bracket tiers (e.g. 3–7 nights = $35, 8–14 nights = $50).
Per Week	Each started week is billed at a weekly rate (8 nights rounds up to 2 weeks).

Create a pricing model and choose its type.
Add the tiers (night ranges and prices).
Mark the model Active.

Once active, rental passes calculate their charge automatically when dates are entered — in the app, via CSV import, or through the booking API.

Rental Pass Pricing — empty state with Create Pricing Model button

Create Pricing Model — Tiered Flat Rate selected

9 · Payments (Square) and Point of Sale

Go to Settings → Organization Settings → Square Settings to link your Square account and manage payment terminals.

Link your Square account to accept card payments.
Add terminals and give each a recognizable name (e.g. "Front Gate") so staff can pick the right reader at checkout.
Once connected, the Point of Sale screen can take payment for your configured pass types.
Under Cash Handling, choose whether cash is Off, Optional, or Required at the point of sale.

Linking your Square account

Tap Link Square Account. You'll be redirected to a secure Square login page in your browser — sign in with your Square credentials to authorize Palmetto Guard. Once authorized, you'll return to the app and see Square Connected.

Square Settings — Link Square Account with permissions list

Square OAuth — secure Square login in browser

Square Connected — View Terminals and Add Terminal

Adding terminals

Once connected, tap Add Terminal, give it a name (e.g. "Front Gate"), and tap Generate Code. Enter that code on the Square device to complete pairing. Your registered terminals appear in View Terminals with their availability status.

Add Terminal — terminal name and Generate Code

View Square Terminals — registered terminal showing AVAILABLE

Cash Handling — Off / Optional / Required

10 · Label printers

Go to Settings → Hardware → Printer Settings to manage your label printers.

Add each printer with its name and IP address on your local network.
Printers use ZPL label templates; your organization's template is applied automatically when staff print.
Make sure each printer is reachable on the same network as the devices printing to it.

Printer Settings list — Beach Bar printer with IP address and model

The Hardware section also covers RFID Card Scanners, Card Readers, and Cameras for your access control infrastructure. Each follows the same pattern: give it a name, assign a location, and enter the device-specific details.

Add RFID Reader — Reader URI and pulse settings

Add Card Reader — hostname and relay pulse

Add Camera — Camera ID, location, and description

11 · Kiosk setup

Go to Settings → Hardware → Kiosk Setup to register and configure kiosk devices.

Register each kiosk device for your community.
Kiosks support self-service purchase (guests buy passes themselves) and an attendant mode (staff-assisted).
Pair a kiosk with a printer so passes print on the spot.

Add Kiosk Setup — Kiosk Name, Device ID, Admin PIN, Location, and Printer

12 · Citations — SC traffic tickets

If your community issues South Carolina traffic citations, configure Settings → Organization Settings → SC Traffic Ticket Settings. This sets the defaults stamped on every citation and the credentials used to file electronically.

Jurisdiction, County Name, and SCUTTIES County Code.
Default violation city.
Default court — SCUTTIES Court ID, court name, and address.
Citation prefix and Agency Code / Org ID.
Official agency name and your SCDMV Member Services username and password.

These are South Carolina–specific. If your community doesn't issue SC citations, you can skip this step.

SC Traffic Ticket Settings — Default Ticket Info and Trial Court fields

13 · Booking API tokens (optional)

If rental companies will push reservations from 3rd-party booking software, go to Settings → Organization Settings → Booking API Tokens to issue a token per rental management company.

Each token is shown once — copy it and share it securely with the company.
Tokens can be regenerated (if leaked) or revoked at any time.
Give the company your developer guide so their team can connect.

See the separate Rental Pass API — Integration Guide for the technical details to hand to developers.

14 · Resident ID card settings

Go to Settings → Hardware → ID Card Settings to configure resident digital ID cards and physical card printing.

Printed card validity — the "Valid Thru" date is set to today plus the number of days you configure here (default 365; range 1–3,650).
Default RFID facility code — if your prox cards share one facility code, enable Use a default facility code and enter it. It pre-fills on every new card so staff only need to scan the card number.
Card template — open Template Builder on the web app to brand cards with your own background, logo, and field layout (drag-and-drop, web only). Saved templates apply to all future prints.