Door scheduling lets you keep a door unlocked during set hours on set days and locked the rest of the time, without anyone having to push a button. You build a weekly schedule for each individual door, choosing which days it should be open and the start and end time for each of those days. Deskie then holds the door unlocked while it is inside a scheduled window and locks it again when the window ends.
Scheduling is configured per door, not per workspace, so you can give each door its own hours. A lobby door might be open 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on weekdays while an interior suite stays on a different schedule or has none at all.
This article covers how weekly schedules work for both Deskie Access doors and Kisi locks. For the broader picture of how access integrations fit together, see Door access overview and Deskie Access.
How a weekly schedule is structured
Every schedule is built around the seven days of the week: Monday through Sunday. Each day has two parts:
- An on/off toggle that decides whether the door follows a schedule on that day at all. If a day is toggled off, the door is never held open by the schedule on that day.
- A start time and an end time that define the window the door stays unlocked. Times are chosen from a list in 30 minute steps across the full 24 hour day.
When you create a new schedule, every day starts toggled off, with a default window of 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM ready to use once you enable the day. Days you never enable simply stay locked.
The end time must be later than the start time on any day you enable. Deskie validates this when you save: if an enabled day has a start time that is the same as or later than its end time, the save is rejected with a message naming the day to fix. The time picker also helps here by only offering end times that come after the start time you picked.
Setting a schedule for a Deskie Access door
Each physical relay on a Deskie Access device is a numbered channel that maps to one door. To set that door's schedule:
- Open the door's detail page from your access area.
- Switch to the Schedule tab.
- For each day you want the door to open automatically, flip the day's switch on.
- Pick the start time and end time for that day. The door will be unlocked during that window and locked outside it.
- Click Save.
You only need to enable the days you want. Leaving a day switched off means the schedule takes no action on that day. Saving updates the schedule for that one channel only; other doors are untouched.
Setting a schedule for a Kisi lock
Kisi locks are scheduled the same way from the lock's detail page: switch to the Schedule tab, enable the days you want, set the start and end times for each, and save. The day and time validation is identical to Deskie Access doors.
There is one important difference in how Kisi schedules are carried out. When you save a Kisi lock schedule, Deskie stores the weekly pattern and then pushes matching unlock schedules directly into Kisi using Kisi's own scheduling system. For each enabled day, Deskie creates dated unlock events in Kisi for the next four weeks, then relies on Kisi to keep the lock open during those windows. Saving again rebuilds these events: Deskie removes the unlock events it previously created for that lock (they are named with a Deskie: prefix so it only touches its own) and creates a fresh four week set from your updated schedule.
Because Kisi schedules are written four weeks ahead, you should revisit and re-save a Kisi lock's schedule periodically so the next weeks stay populated. Each save extends the schedule another four weeks out from the day you save.
Saving a Kisi schedule requires a connected Kisi API key. If the key is not configured, Deskie saves the weekly pattern locally but reports that it could not sync to Kisi, because without the key it cannot create the unlock events that actually hold the lock open.
How and when Deskie Access doors lock and unlock
For Deskie Access doors, a background job runs on a recurring cycle and is responsible for putting each scheduled door into the right state. On every cycle it works out the current day of the week and the current time in your workspace's time zone, then for each scheduled channel it decides what the door should be doing right now:
- If the current day is enabled and the current time is at or after the start time and before the end time, the door should be unlocked.
- Otherwise the door should be locked.
The job reads the actual state of each door from your Deskie Access device. Channels that should be unlocked are sent an unlock command. To decide what to lock, the job tracks which channels it was holding open on the previous cycle; any of those that no longer have a reason to stay open are locked, and a channel that is already locked is skipped rather than sent a redundant lock command.
Because this comparison happens on every cycle, your workspace time zone matters: the start and end times you set are interpreted in your workspace's local time. If no time zone is configured, the job falls back to UTC.
Schedules and booking based unlocks together
Scheduled hours are not the only thing that can hold a Deskie Access door open. A resource that has auto unlock enabled can also open its mapped door channels while a confirmed booking is in progress. The background job handles both at once.
When the job runs, any channel that has an in progress booking on an auto unlock resource is forced to the unlocked state, on top of whatever the weekly schedule says. In other words, an active booking can open a door even outside its scheduled window. When neither the schedule nor an active booking has a reason to keep a channel open, the job locks it again. To learn more about opening doors for bookings, see Bookings, billing and access.
What gets recorded
Scheduled lock and unlock actions on Deskie Access doors are written to the door's activity log so you have a record of what the schedule did and when. A scheduled unlock is attributed to System (Schedule), and when the schedule later closes the door the lock event is recorded as well. When a door was opened for a booking rather than the plain schedule, the activity entry carries the member's name and booking details instead, so you can tell the two reasons apart on the door's Activity tab.
Who can change a schedule
Editing a door or lock schedule requires workspace management permission. Operators with that permission can open the Schedule tab, change days and times, and save. People without it cannot save schedule changes. For how roles map to permissions, see Roles and permissions.
Tips for reliable scheduling
- Confirm your workspace time zone. Schedule windows are evaluated in your workspace's local time, so an incorrect time zone will shift every door's open and close times. See Workspace settings.
- Only enable the days you need. A day left toggled off is simply ignored by the schedule, which is the right choice for days you want the door to stay locked.
- Re-save Kisi schedules periodically. Kisi unlock events are written four weeks ahead, so saving again keeps future weeks covered.
- Use bookings for one off openings. If you only need a door open for a specific reservation rather than every week, an auto unlock resource booking can open it without changing the recurring schedule.