Mission Control

Use Mission Control to find the property and the visitor, call the contacts, open the gate and record each entry.

Mission Control is the dashboard for on-site gate staff in MyWatchtower. On one page you find the property and the person, call the contacts of the property, open the gate and record the entry. This article is for community staff who work the gate.

To open Mission Control, your role needs Gates set to Add & edit. By default, the Admin, Supervisor and Gate Attendant roles have it. Your community can change these permissions.

Open Mission Control

If your role can open gates, MyWatchtower opens Mission Control when you sign in. To open it again, do one of these steps:

Select Dashboard in the navigation.

Select Mission Control in the selector at the top right of the page. On a phone, the selector is at the top of the page and shows Mission.

On the staff dashboard, select the Mission Control card, Manage live gate operations.

The page

The top row shows the title and the selector. The row under it holds the controls of the page:

The step bar, at the left.

Select Access Point: the gate for this entry.

Open gate: shows after you select an access point.

Scan License: reads a driver's license. When your community uses QR codes, the button reads Scan License / QR Code.

Mission Control at step 1 on a computer. The step bar is at the left, and Select Access Point and Scan License are at the right. The list shows the properties of the community first, then the visitors.

The three steps

Mission Control has three steps: Find, Visitor and Entry. After you complete a step, the step bar shows your choice, for example the street of the property.

To go back to a step, select it in the step bar.

To clear a choice, select the X next to it.

To clear all your choices, select Start over.

1. Find: type at least 3 characters of an address or a name, then select the property. If you select a person, MyWatchtower selects the property of that person and opens step 3.

2. Visitor: select the resident, guest or vendor at the property. If the person is not on the list, select New Visitor.

3. Entry: the contacts of the property show at the left, under Contacts for and the street. Call them in the order of Call in priority order. The Record entry card shows at the right.

See *How to Find Properties and Residents in Mission Control* for steps 1 and 2, and *Create a Visitor at the Gate* to add a person.

Step 3 for Priya Raman at 101 Heron Bend Lane. The contacts of the property are at the left. The Record entry card is at the right, with Deny entry and Approve entry.

Record the entry

The Record entry card shows the property and the person. It has the fields License plate and Notes. For a vendor, it also has Driver name. Select a quick note, such as Delivery or Approved by phone call, to add its text to Notes.

To let the visitor in, select Approve entry.

To refuse the entry, type the reason in Notes, then select Deny entry. You cannot deny an entry without a note.

On a phone, the buttons read Approve and Deny and stay at the bottom of the screen.

You can only deny the entry of a restricted visitor. The card turns red and asks you to write the reason in the notes. You cannot approve a QR code that has no uses left.

After you record the entry, MyWatchtower shows a message, for example Entry approved for Priya Raman at 101 Heron Bend Lane. The page then goes back to step 1. See *Record an Entry in Mission Control*.

Choose the gate

1. Select Select Access Point, then select the gate. The first option, No Access Point, records an entry with no gate.

2. Optional: to keep this gate for the next entries on this device, select Set Default. A green Default then shows next to the gate.

After each entry, the selector goes back to the default gate.

When you select Approve entry with a gate selected, MyWatchtower also opens that gate. If the gate does not open, the message tells you that the entry is recorded and that the gate did not open. A denied entry opens no gate.

To open the gate without an entry, select Open gate. On a computer, the gate opens at once. On a phone, the Emergency Gate Access dialog asks you to confirm. Select Open gate in the dialog. Mission Control opens the gates of Brivo and HID systems the same way. See *Open a Gate from Mission Control*.

Row size

The two buttons at the right end of the list change the height of the rows on steps 1 and 2:

Compact shows more rows on the screen. It is the default.

Comfortable shows taller rows with a larger photo. The rows are easier to read from a distance.

MyWatchtower keeps your choice in this browser.

Step 2 for 101 Heron Bend Lane with Comfortable rows. Each row is taller and shows a larger photo.

Visitor photos

When the person has a photo, the Record entry card shows it in place of the initials. Select the photo to make it larger. Compare the photo with the person at the gate.

If your role can add profile photos, a small button shows on the corner of the photo. Its tooltip reads Manage profile photo. Use it to upload, replace or remove the photo. By default, the Admin, Supervisor and Gate Attendant roles can do this.

Scan a license or a QR code

Select Scan License. In the MyWatchtower app on a phone or a tablet, the camera opens. In a web browser, the scan dialog opens. Scan the license with the scanner of the computer, or type the code in the box, then select Continue.

A license scan puts the name on the license in the search field. Select the person in the list.

A QR code scan selects the property and the visitor of the code, and opens step 3. See *How to Scan a QR Code in Mission Control*.

After a scan, a line under the controls shows the name. Select Scanned Data to see the details. For a license, MyWatchtower shows only the first, middle and last name. Select Clear Scanned Data to remove the scan.

If you do not record an entry within 10 minutes of a license scan, MyWatchtower clears the scan and goes back to step 1. Scan the license again when the visitor is ready.

If the person is not in MyWatchtower, select the property, then select New Visitor. The form uses the name from the license. Check the visitor list first, so that you do not add the same person two times.

On a phone or a tablet, the scanner starts the camera again by itself when the camera stops. If the app has no access to the camera, Mission Control tells you and shows Open Settings. Allow the camera, then come back to the app.

Offline mode

When the server does not answer and your community has offline data on this device, offline mode starts by itself. It stops by itself when the server answers again.

Steps 1 and 2 search the data on this device, for the current community only.

Approve entry and Deny entry still work for a person in that data. MyWatchtower keeps the entry on this device and sends it when the server answers again. The Record entry card shows how many entries wait, for example Offline · 2 queued.

You cannot add a visitor, process a QR code, scan a license or open a gate.

See *Using Offline Mode*.

Good practice at the gate

Compare the person at the gate with the ID, the photo or the record on the screen before you approve the entry.

If you are not sure, call the contacts in step 3 in their order.

Record each entry, and each denied entry with its reason, so that the entry history stays complete.

Share the details of a visitor only when your work needs it.