Free printable visitor sign-in sheet and log

A visitor sign-in sheet is the page at the front desk where people who do not work in the building write their name, who they came to see and when they arrived. Our free printable has a daily sign-in sheet, a visitor log page for a longer record and a sign for the desk, in US Letter and A4.

What is in the download

Visitor sign-in sheet. Columns: name, company, who they are visiting, time in, time out, badge number. It has 18 numbered lines and a header for the building, the date and whoever is on the front desk.
Visitor log. Columns: date, name, company, purpose of visit, host, in, out, badge. It has 20 lines with the date on each one, so a single page can last a week or a month.
A sign that reads “Visitors, please sign in” with “at the front desk” underneath and a line asking people to sign out when they leave. It is 8 by 10 inches with crop marks, so it fits a standard frame.

Both record the same visits. The sign-in sheet is one page per day: you start a fresh sheet each morning and file it at night, which suits a reception desk with a steady stream of people. The visitor log runs on until the page is full, which suits a small office, a workshop or a school office that sees a few visitors a week.

A bound visitor log book from an office supply store works like the log page. Loose pages in a binder have one advantage: you can take the full ones out and store them away from the desk. If you need a sheet for a meeting or a class instead, our sign-in sheet templates have layouts for both.

What to ask visitors

Each column on the sheet has a job:

Name and company say who the person is.
Visiting tells the front desk who to call, and who looks after the visitor while they are in.
Time in and time out show who is still in the building at any moment.
The badge number ties a person to the badge they were handed, so you can see which badges have not come back.

Leave out what you do not need. Every visitor can read the lines above their own, so a phone number or a home address on a shared sheet is open to everyone who signs after. Some sites add a license plate column for the parking lot, or a signature to show the visitor has read the site rules.

Why signing out matters

The time out column is the one people skip, and it is the one that counts in an emergency. In its guide to evacuation plans, the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration describes employers who have all visitors and contractors sign in, then use this list “when accounting for all persons in the assembly area.” The same page tells employers to take a head count after an evacuation.

A line with a time in and no time out tells whoever does that head count that the visitor may still be inside. So ask people to sign out, and put the sign where they pass on the way out as well as on the way in. If everyone has to leave the building, take the day’s sheet with you to the assembly point.

Visitor badges

If you hand out visitor badges, number them and write the number on the sheet. When the desk closes, a line with a badge number and no time out means a badge is still out, or a visitor left without signing out. Either way, you know whom to ask.

Keeping the log private

A shared sheet shows every earlier name to the next person who signs. A few habits limit that:

Have the person on the front desk write the details while the visitor waits, so the sheet stays behind the desk.
Lay a blank sheet of paper over the filled lines and slide it down as the page fills.
Start a fresh page each day, and keep full pages in a folder or a locked drawer.
Decide how long you keep old pages, then shred them. Your workplace may have rules about records, so check them before you pick a date.

Where a visitor’s name is private in itself, such as at a clinic, a card per visitor that goes straight into a box keeps the names apart. The cards that come with our open house sign-in sheet work that way, and you can use them as they are.

Word, Google Docs or PDF?

Many people look for a visitor sign-in sheet in Word so they can change the columns. Ours is a PDF made to print and fill in by hand. If you want to type each visit instead, use a spreadsheet with the same columns, which is also easier to search when you need to find one visit months later.

Setting up the front desk

Clip the sheet to a board and leave it on the desk with a pen that works.
Fill in the building and the date before the first visitor arrives, and number the pages as they fill.
Frame the sign or stand it on the desk, and put a second copy by any other entrance people use.
Keep a spare sheet under the first one, so nobody waits when a page runs out.

When a guest book fits better

A sign-in sheet is a record for the people who run the building. If you want visitors to tell you about their visit, at a gallery, a show home or a small hotel, you need a guest book instead. Our hotel guest book guide explains how the two differ for a B&B. An online guest book lets people write from their own phones by scanning a QR code, and ours are free, as how it works shows. Messages there are meant to be read by everyone, so keep visitor details on paper.

Quick answers

What is a visitor log book? A record of everyone who visits a building but does not work there: the date, their name, who they came to see and when they arrived and left. It can be a bound book or loose pages in a binder.

What should a visitor sign-in sheet include? The visitor’s name and company, who they are visiting, the time in and the time out. Add a badge number if you hand out badges.

How long should I keep visitor sign-in sheets? It depends on your workplace and where you are, so there is no single answer. Pick a period, keep old pages locked away until then and shred them after.

Can a school or a church use it? Yes, the columns suit any front desk. A church that wants to welcome first-time guests rather than log them may prefer our church visitor cards.

Is it free? Yes. Print and copy as many pages as you need.