Glossary

The words we use in Keyhive, in plain English. If a term shows up in another article, it’s defined here.

Asset

The real-world thing your keys open: often a property, but equally a vehicle, a cabinet, or a completely custom item you define. An asset has a name, a description, and one or more key sets.

See also: Asset type, Key set

Asset type

The category an asset falls into. We start you off with Property and Vehicle, but you can rename those and add your own, including storage units, safes, cupboards or individual rooms, to match how your business works.

Why it matters: Asset types keep your list organised. The type shows under an asset’s name, so you can tell at a glance which kind of thing you’re looking at.

See also: Asset, How to manage asset types

Checkout

The record of a key set leaving the office in someone’s care, and what eventually happened to it. A checkout is either open (the key is out) or closed (it’s been resolved). Our checkouts come in two flavours: long-term and short-term.

Contact

An external person you deal with: a contractor, a client, a visitor, or anyone else you hand keys to. Contacts are not your staff (those are Staff).

Why it matters: When you check a key out to someone outside the office, you check it out to a contact.

Fob

The electronic tag you scan to identify a key set. A fob is attached (“assigned”) to one key set at a time. If you no longer need a fob on a key set, you can unassign it and reuse it on another.

Why it matters: Scanning a fob is the fastest way to pull up the right key set. A key set without a fob shows as Untagged and needs one before it can be checked out.

Hive

Our name for the kiosk: a tabletop Android unit that runs Keyhive’s kiosk software, kept wherever you manage keys: a reception, a key room, someone’s desk. Staff use it to check out, transfer and return keys from one central place. You can have more than one Hive, and they all share a single Hive password.

Why it matters: The Hive is where most day-to-day key movements happen. It’s signed in with a shared Hive username and password, not a personal staff login.

Key / hook number

Also called a hook number. The labelled hook, peg, drawer or slot where a key set physically hangs. It’s an optional reusable identifier: you assign it to an asset, and that asset’s key sets inherit it. When the asset is archived, the number is freed for the next one.

Why it matters: Key numbers tell you where in the office a key physically lives, which makes finding it quick. It also allows you to quickly find available key numbers for new assets.

Key set

A bunch of physical keys that opens one asset. This is the thing you check out, return, and attach a fob to. Its name is usually its key number plus an individual key set identifier, e.g. 52A or 624 Office.

Why it matters: In Keyhive you manage key sets, not individual keys. When we say “a key”, we almost always mean a key set.

Key store

Key stores are locations where keys can be checked out from, returned to, and held at: an office, a safe, a vehicle, or somewhere else you define. Keys are checked out from a store; you never check a key out to one. A key sitting in a store is available and ready to go out.

Why it matters: Stores let you keep keys in more than one place (say, an office and a van) and still track exactly where each one is. Most accounts have a single store (their office) and never need another.

Long-term checkout

A checkout with no return date: for keys that are out indefinitely (for example, handed to someone for the foreseeable future). Long-term checkouts are never flagged as overdue because there’s no due date to miss.

The fob is removed when a key set goes out long-term, freeing it for reuse. Because there’s no fob left to scan, you return a long-term key set by assigning it a fob again, which marks the checkout as returned at the same time.

See also: Checkout, Short-term checkout, Fob

Overdue

A short-term checkout that’s past its return date and still open. Long-term checkouts are never overdue.

Why it matters: Overdue is your prompt to chase a key that should have come back by now.

See also: Checkout, Short-term checkout

Pass on

Handing a checked-out key set straight to the next person without it coming back to you in between. The first person’s checkout closes and the new person’s begins in one step, so responsibility for the keys never lapses. Only possible on the mobile app, where the screens call it Exchange keys.

Why it matters: It saves a trip. Keys can change hands wherever the two people meet, and the record still shows exactly who has them.

Return

Bringing a checked-out key set back into the office and closing its checkout as “returned”. The key becomes available again and, by default, goes back to its key store.

See also: Checkout, Won’t be returned, Pass on

Short-term checkout

A checkout with a return date: for keys expected back soon (a short visit, a job on site). If it isn’t returned by that date, it becomes overdue.

See also: Checkout, Long-term checkout, Overdue

Staff

The people in your business who use Keyhive: your team members. Staff are different from contacts (who are external). Staff are invited by email and have a role that controls what they can do:

Staff. Everyday use: checking keys out, returning them, creating and editing assets, key sets and contacts, and seeing what’s out.
Manager. Everything staff can do, plus managing staff, changing your settings, and archiving or deleting records.
Admin. Everything a manager can do, across every branch in your business.

A staff member has one login, and can be given access to more than one branch. Their role applies wherever they sign in. Nobody can change their own role.

Transfer

Moving a key set from one key store to another, for example from the office to a safe, or between locations. A transfer is recorded but isn’t treated as the key going out to someone; the key stays available.

A transfer moves keys between places; passing keys on moves them between people.

Untagged

A key set that has no fob attached. It’s sitting safely in the office but needs a fob assigned before it can be checked out.

Why it matters: If a key set won’t let you check it out, being untagged is the usual reason. Assign a fob first.

Won’t be returned

How you close a checkout for a key that isn’t coming back. You pick a reason: lost, handed over, decommissioned (retired or destroyed), or other. This removes the key set and frees its fob, while keeping the history.

Why it matters: It closes out a key you’ll never see again, so your available-key list stays accurate.