How to secure commercial building entry points, door by door
How to secure multiple entry points in a commercial building: give each door a job, then match its lock, its monitoring and its schedule to that job. Worked through one eight-door flex building, from the front door to the roof hatch.
Technical figures checked against the standards listed at the end.
Swipe the plan sideways to see every door. Tap a number to pick that door.
The public front door.
Visitors and staff. Unlocked 8 AM to 6 PM on weekdays. At other hours staff use a card and visitors call on the intercom.
Controls on this doorReportsScheduled unlock and relock, every card, every intercom unlock, forced open at any hour, held open after hours.
To secure a commercial building's entry points, give every door a job, then match the control and the monitoring to that job. Every exterior door gets at least a door position contact, so the system knows each time it opens. The doors people use every day get card readers and cameras; exit-only doors get alarms and monitoring but never a lock that traps people inside; and every door runs on a schedule that says when an opening is normal and when it is an alarm.
Buildings with several entrances are often secured one door at a time: a keypad here, a camera there, a chain on the back door. The gaps sit between those decisions. This guide works through one example building with eight entry points and shows what each one gets, and why.
Every figure shows the same building: a one-story flex building, 160 ft wide and 120 ft deep, the kind found in industrial parks across northern New Jersey and the outer boroughs. Offices and a reception area fill the front; a warehouse with racking and two truck docks fills the rest. It has eight entry points: the main entrance, an employee entrance from the staff lot, two loading docks, a drive-in roll-up door, two exit-only doors and a roof hatch. It is an example, not a client's building.
01How to secure commercial building entry points: give every door a job
Walk the outside of the building and number every opening a person could get through: doors, overhead doors, hatches, and any door that has been painted shut or blocked by racking. Then write one line for each: what the door is for, who uses it, and when. That line is the door's job, and the job decides the rest.
Almost every door falls into one of five jobs:
- The front door. The public way in during business hours, and the place visitors call from after hours.
- The staff door. Credential only, at every hour, for the people who work there.
- Operational doors. Loading docks and roll-up doors, opened from inside for trucks and equipment during a shift.
- Exit-only doors. A way out in an emergency, never a way in.
- Service openings. Roof hatches and similar openings used a few times a year by contractors.
Figure 1 shows the eight doors of the example building and what each one gets. Notice how few need a card reader: two of eight, plus an optional one on a post at the roll-up door. Readers belong where people need to get in. Monitoring belongs on every door.
The inventory also turns up doors with no clear owner. The door between the offices and the warehouse is a good example: if the warehouse runs a night shift and the offices do not, that interior door decides whether a night worker can walk into the offices, and it may need a reader of its own.
02Monitor every door with a door position contact
A door position contact is a magnet on the door and a switch in the frame. When the door opens, the switch changes state and the access control system logs it. On a steel door it is usually recessed into the top of the frame, where nobody sees it or can tape over it. On an overhead or roll-up door it is a heavy-duty contact at the floor, built for a door that rattles and does not stop in the same spot every time.
On its own a contact says only open or closed. Paired with the controller, it answers the question that matters: was this opening expected? The controller knows whether a card was just granted, whether the exit sensor saw someone leaving, and how long the door has been open. Figure 2 runs that logic at the employee entrance.
Swipe the drawing sideways to see the door and its logic.
7:58:00Closed and locked. The contact reports closed. Someone walks up with a card.
Result: waiting
The two alarms that matter: forced open and held open
Forced open means the contact opened with no card granted and no exit request: someone pried or pulled the door open from outside, or the latch did not catch and the door was pushed open. Held open means the opening was legitimate but the door stayed open past its timer, which is how a propped door shows up. The timer is set per door. A short time suits a staff door; a longer one suits a door where people carry things through. Many controllers can also sound a warning at the door a few seconds before the alarm, which often gets the door closed before anyone has to be called.
Why the exit sensor matters
On a door with an electric strike, people leave by turning the handle; nothing electric has to happen for them to get out. The exit sensor above the door does not release anything for them. It tells the controller that the next opening is someone leaving, so the system logs an exit instead of a forced door. Without it, every exit looks like a break-in, and people learn to ignore the alarms.
Propped doors and fire doors
A propped door produces a held-open alarm, because the system sees the time, not the wedge. If a door really has to stand open for part of the day, put that in its schedule instead of switching the alarm off. Fire-rated doors are different. Under NFPA 80, a fire door may be held open only by a device that lets it close on its own when smoke or a fire alarm calls for it, never by a wedge. That release ties into the building's fire alarm, so it is planned with whoever maintains that system.
03Commercial building access control: readers where people come in
Card readers go on the doors people need to come in through: in the example, the main entrance and the employee entrance. A reader, the lock it releases, the contact, the exit sensor and a controller make one controlled door. The controller holds the rules, which cards open which doors at which hours, and the log of every attempt. When a card is lost or someone leaves, the credential is removed once and every reader refuses it from then on. Our guide to how access control works covers the parts, and what a commercial access control installation involves follows a project from the survey to the handoff.
The lock on each door
We pick the lock for each door around its use and the building's fire and life safety requirements. On the employee entrance, an electric strike in the frame releases the latch when a card is granted, and the inside handle always opens the door. A magnetic lock on the header holds the door with a magnet and has no handle of its own. A magnetic lock needs a free way out from inside at all times: usually an exit sensor that cuts its power as someone walks up, a push button beside the door, and release by the fire alarm where the building's requirements call for it. Our glossary compares electric strikes and magnetic locks and explains the request-to-exit sensor.
Locks also differ in what happens when the power fails. A fail-secure strike stays locked from outside but still lets people out with the handle; a magnetic lock releases. The lock power supply carries a battery so controlled doors keep working through a short outage, and the circuit that feeds it is coordinated with the electrician.
The main entrance: unlocked on a schedule, intercom after hours
The front door is unlocked during business hours so visitors can walk in, and locked the rest of the time. Two settings help. A first-person-in rule holds the scheduled unlock until a staff card has been used that morning, so on a snow day the front door stays locked. Holidays go into the schedule as exceptions. After hours, a video intercom at the door lets a visitor call whoever is on duty, who sees them before unlocking; see how video and audio-only intercoms compare and our intercom installation page.
The employee entrance: card only, every time
The staff door is never unlocked by schedule. Each card belongs to an access group with its own hours: in the example, warehouse shifts from 5 AM to 11 PM, Monday to Saturday, and managers at any hour. The camera inside faces the door, so each card read has a face to go with it. Which credential to issue is its own decision; see key fobs, key cards and mobile credentials compared. For readers, locks, programming and handoff on doors like these, see our commercial access control work and the wider access control services page.
04Loading docks, roll-up doors and the roof hatch
Operational doors are opened from inside by staff, usually with a motor operator, so a reader outside adds little. What they need is to be watched and to have hours. In the example, the two dock doors are expected to open during receiving: 6 AM to 3 PM on weekdays, plus Saturday morning for dock 1. Outside those hours their contacts are armed, and any opening is an alarm.
Each dock door gets a heavy-duty contact at the floor. A camera on the rear wall covers the truck court: trailers, plates and who stands on the dock. A second camera inside covers the dock floor, which is where goods leave. A dock door left open on a cold afternoon with no truck at it is a held-open event like any other, and the schedule decides whether it is reported.
The drive-in roll-up door gets the same kind of contact and an inside camera. If drivers need to open it from outside, a reader on a post can call the door operator. That connection is made at the operator's controls, worked out with the overhead door company, and it leaves the operator's own safety devices, such as its photo eyes, in place.
The roof hatch is the easiest entry point to leave off the list. Roofers and mechanical contractors open it a few times a year, by arrangement. How it is secured follows the building's requirements; at a minimum it gets a contact, so every opening is reported, whether from the roof or from the ladder. Our page on access control for warehouses covers docks, yards and shift schedules in more detail.
05Exit-only doors: monitor them, never trap people
Exit-only doors are where security and life safety meet, and life safety wins. The model codes, NFPA 101 and the International Building Code, require egress doors to be openable from the egress side without a key, a tool, or special knowledge or effort. The code in force where the building stands, and the building's own requirements, set the details. This is general information, not legal advice.
So an exit door is secured against the outside, never against the people inside:
- No outside hardware. No handle, no keyway, nothing to grab. The door opens from inside only.
- An exit device, or push bar, where one is required, so one push opens it.
- A door contact, so every opening is logged, with a switch in the push bar that tells an exit from a forced door.
- An exit alarm at the door that sounds when it opens, so people keep using the main doors.
Chains, padlocks, slide bolts and bars across an exit door have no place while the building is occupied. Neither does a magnetic lock on an exit without the free way out it needs.
Some buildings need more than an alarm, for example when goods leave through an exit. Delayed egress hardware holds the door for a short delay after someone pushes, 15 seconds in the model codes or 30 where the authority having jurisdiction approves, while an alarm sounds at the door; it releases at once when the fire alarm or sprinkler system activates or the power fails. Whether it is allowed on a given door depends on the code in force, the occupancy and the building's fire protection, so it is settled with the building and that authority before anything is ordered.
06Door schedules: when each entry point is open, locked or armed
A schedule turns the door list into rules: when each door is unlocked, when it opens by card only, when an opening is expected, and when any opening is an alarm. Figure 3 is the example building's week. Pick a day, drag through the hours or play the week, and the plan shows each door's state at that moment.
5 days × 10 h = 50 h; 50 ÷ 168 = 29.8 percent of the week
Two numbers come out of this schedule. The front door is unlocked 50 hours a week, Monday to Friday from 8 AM to 6 PM, which is about 30 percent of the week; for the other 118 hours it opens only by card or intercom. The docks are expected to open 50 and 45 hours; outside those hours any opening is an alarm. A Monday holiday, entered once as an exception, takes 10 hours off the front door and 9 off each dock.
Review the schedule when business hours change, when a tenant moves in or out, and at least once a year. A schedule left over from the previous occupant keeps unlocking doors at hours nobody remembers choosing.
07Cameras at entry points, and what they show about tailgating
A camera at an entry point has two jobs: show who came through, and show what the door event alone cannot. For faces, mount it inside, facing the door, a little above head height and close enough that a face fills enough pixels. IEC 62676-4 uses 250 pixels per meter, about 76 per foot, for identifying a person. A camera 2,560 pixels wide reaches that only if its view across the doorway is no wider than about 33.6 ft (2,560 ÷ 76.2). Our article on how far a security camera can see runs that math for other cameras and lenses.
Tailgating is the clearest case of what a door log cannot show. One person badges in and a second walks in behind before the door closes. The access log records one card and one opening, and it is right. The camera records two people. Figure 4 steps through it.
A presents a card at 7:58:02. Access granted, the strike releases. B is a few steps behind.
Clip bookmarked at the card read. One person at the door.
When each card read bookmarks the clip from the door camera, reviewing tailgating means opening that door's entries and looking. Some buildings add hardware: a vestibule with two interlocked doors, an optical turnstile, or a sensor over the doorway that counts people and flags more people than cards. Each costs space, slows the door and produces its own false alerts, and none of them replaces staff who let the door close behind them. A short held-open time and a well-adjusted door closer help too.
Outdoor cameras at the docks and the roll-up door face weather, glare and trucks backing up; see indoor and outdoor cameras compared and the best places to mount cameras in a commercial building. Our commercial security camera work starts from a list of views like this one, and the security camera installation page covers recording and storage.
08Putting it together: one security system for a commercial building
Commercial building security works when the doors, the cameras and the intercom write to one record. When the employee door is forced at 11:42 PM, the access system logs the event, the camera facing the door has the clip, and a notification with that clip goes to the people you have chosen. Decide who gets which alerts. A forced door at night should reach someone; a dock door open during receiving should not, or people learn to ignore every alert.
Write the plan down as a door schedule, one row per entry point. This is the example building's:
Then test it. Once a quarter, open each door, present a card, walk out past each exit sensor and hold one door open past its timer, and check that every event appears with the right time and clip. A contact that has worked loose from its frame reports nothing at all, and only a test finds it.
09Questions to ask any installer about your entry points
Bring these to every walk-through and every proposal, including ours.
- Will you give us a door schedule with every entry point, its job, its hardware and its hours?
- For each locked door, how do people get out from inside, and what releases the lock in a fire alarm or a power failure?
- Does every door get a contact, including the overhead doors and the roof hatch, and what kind?
- What held-open time will each door have, and does the door warn before it alarms?
- Which camera covers each door, and can it identify a face at that door?
- Does each card read and each alarm link to the clip from that door's camera?
- How will the schedule handle holidays, and can the front door wait for the first staff card?
- Who gets each kind of alert, and can we change that list ourselves?
- Who owns the admin accounts and passwords at handoff?
Put the door schedule in writing
Whether a permit applies depends on the scope and the building. We check during the site visit and say what applies before work is scheduled. Contact Seneca Security to set up a site visit, and we will walk every entry point with you and write the door schedule.
Frequently asked questions
How do you secure the entry points of a commercial building?
Give each door a job, then match its controls to that job. Put a door position contact on every exterior door, card readers and cameras on the doors people use, and exit alarms on exit-only doors, which must always open freely from inside. Then give each door a schedule so the system knows when an opening is normal and when it is an alarm.
What does a commercial building access control system include?
Card readers, the electric locks they release, door contacts, exit sensors, a lock power supply with a battery, and a controller or cloud service that holds the rules and the log. Credentials can be cards, fobs, phones or PINs. A good system also links each door event to the clip from the camera at that door.
What should a security system for a commercial building include?
At a minimum: a contact on every exterior door, access control on the doors people come in through, cameras at each entrance and dock, and an intercom at the front door if visitors arrive after hours. All of it should write to one record, with alerts going to people you name. The right mix depends on how each door is used, not on a package.
Can you lock an emergency exit door?
You can make an exit door impossible to open from outside by leaving off the outside hardware, but it must stay free to open from inside. The model codes require egress doors to open from the egress side without a key, a tool, or special knowledge or effort. Exit alarms and, where the code and the building allow it, delayed egress hardware add control without trapping anyone. This is general information, not legal advice.
What do held-open and forced-open alarms mean?
A forced-open alarm means the door opened with no card granted and no exit request, so someone pushed or pried it open. A held-open alarm means the door opened normally but stayed open past its timer, which is how a propped door shows up. Both come from the door contact, which is why every door needs one.
Do loading docks need card readers?
Usually not. Dock and roll-up doors are opened from inside by staff, so what they need is a contact, cameras inside and out, and a schedule that arms them outside receiving hours. A reader on a post helps when drivers or staff must open a roll-up door from outside.
Sources and standards
- NFPA 101, Life Safety CodeSection 7.2.1.5.3: locks on egress doors may not require a key, a tool, or special knowledge or effort to operate from the egress side. Also covers delayed egress locking systems.
- International Building Code, Section 1010Doors in the means of egress: egress doors readily openable from the egress side, and the conditions for delayed egress locking systems, including the 15 second delay (30 where approved) and release on fire alarm, sprinkler activation or loss of power.
- NFPA 80Standard for fire doors and other opening protectives: fire doors held open only by devices that release them to close on alarm.
- ANSI/BHMA A156 seriesA156.3 exit devices; A156.31 electric strikes and frame mounted actuators; A156.23 electromagnetic locks; A156.24 delayed egress locks.
- UL 294Access control system units, the safety and performance standard for access control equipment.
- IEC 62676-4Video surveillance systems, application guidelines. Source of the 250 pixels per meter used for identifying a person.
Have a project in mind?
Send us the address and the doors you want to cover. We walk the building, then send a written door schedule and scope. Same-day quotes when we can. Licensed and insured.