Dorm Sign-In & Guest Log Template
Residence hall logs exist mostly for the moment you hope never comes: a fire alarm at 3am, when someone needs a reliable list of who is in the building — including guests who aren't on any roster.
Here's a printable log, plus how it works when the front-desk clipboard becomes a scan.
No sign-up needed to print. Free tier for the digital version — no credit card.
Attendance sheet — Dorms & Residence Halls
Date: ____________________ Location: ____________________
attendpad.com
| Name | Room # | Resident / guest | Host resident | Time in | Time out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The 3am list
Fire-safety roll call is the requirement that justifies the whole process, and it has a specific property: it must be current, not accurate-as-of-last-night. A paper log at a front desk is only as good as the last person who remembered to sign out, which in practice means it overstates occupancy — the dangerous direction of error, because it sends people looking for residents who left hours ago.
Guest registration is the second driver, and it's a different shape from resident attendance: a guest is tied to a host, may be staying overnight, and needs to be accounted for separately in any headcount.
Then there's the duty log — the record that an RA did the rounds, at what time, and what they found. It's the same capture problem, done by staff rather than residents.
The same routine, without the transcribing
Print the sheet above and it works. What it can't do is add itself up. If you're doing this every day, here's what changes when the sheet becomes a QR code on the wall:
Time-in and time-out on one code
One permanent QR code at the entrance handles both directions. Residents scan out as well as in, so the occupancy list reflects now rather than the last time someone remembered the clipboard.
Guests linked to a host
A custom field for the host resident and room number means a guest record is never orphaned, and guests appear distinctly in the occupancy view.
Overnight stays without a midnight reset
An overnight guest's stay carries past midnight and closes when they actually leave, so it reads as one stay rather than two nights.
Live list on a phone during an evacuation
The occupancy view is a web page, so whoever is holding the evacuation list can open it on their own phone at the assembly point rather than fetching a binder from the building being evacuated.
Recommended setup
One Room per building entrance with check-out and overnight stays enabled, plus custom fields for room number and host resident. A second room for the RA duty log keeps the two record types from mixing.
More detail on the mechanics: QR code attendance, daily check-in rooms, and what's free vs Pro.
Frequently asked questions
Can we log guests separately from residents?
Add a resident/guest field plus host resident and room number as custom fields. Guests then appear distinctly in the live view and in exports, tied to the resident responsible for them.
Can we get a current list of who is in the building for a fire drill?
The manage view shows everyone currently checked in and updates as people scan. It's a web page, so it opens on any phone at the assembly point. Accuracy depends on people scanning out, which is why automatic checkout at a set time is worth configuring.
How do overnight guests get recorded?
Enable overnight stays on the room. A stay that begins at 11pm stays open past midnight until check-out, so it's recorded as one visit with real arrival and departure times.
Can RAs record duty rounds with this?
Use a separate room for the duty log with a notes field enabled. Each round is a timestamped check-in with the RA's name and any observations, which gives you a clean chronological record to export.
Templates for other settings
Stop retyping the sheet
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