Access control systems rarely fail at the hardware. They fail in the permission table — a hundred one-off exceptions nobody remembers granting. A tiered structure set up on day one survives staff turnover, office moves and audits.
Tier the doors, not the people
Group doors into rings: perimeter, general interior, restricted rooms, critical infrastructure. Most sites need only four. Every door belongs to exactly one ring, which keeps the table readable years later.
Grant roles, not favours
Define a handful of roles — staff, facilities, IT, management, visitor — and map each role to the rings it may enter and when. New hires get a role, not a door list. Exceptions become new roles, visible and reviewable.
Let schedules do the quiet work
The same badge that opens the office at 9:00 should not open it at 3:00 in the morning without a reason on file. Time profiles per role cost nothing at setup and answer most audit questions before they are asked.
Review twice a year
Put a thirty-minute permission review on the calendar. Remove leavers, collapse stale exceptions, and export the table for the file. The system stays as clean as the day it was commissioned.
