Buyer’s checklist
Visitor management with permit to work: nine questions to ask before you buy
You chose a visitor management tool. It signs people in, it prints a badge, it runs the fire roll call. Then a contractor arrived for hot work and the permit was still on a pad in the office, or on a second system with its own login. Now you are looking for one system that does both.
Sign in on a demonstration kiosk, then open the fire roll call on your phone. Do not enter real details: everything typed is deleted within the hour. Badge printing and Permit to Work are not in the demonstration.
What one system means
One record, one contract, one person to ring
One system means one record. The contractor who signed in at the kiosk is the same contractor whose permit was authorised, whose RAMS was read and whose name is on the roll call. One contract, one data processing agreement, and one person to ring when the form needs changing. Not a visitor product and a permit product that have been introduced to each other.
The nine questions below are the ones to put to any supplier, Noon Elite included. Each says why it matters and how we answer it. Where our answer is not a yes, it says so.
Nine questions
Ask every supplier these, and ask us too
Is the permit native to the system, or a partner product?
A partner product means two contracts, two data processing agreements and two support desks. It also means an integration between the two, and the integration is the third thing to break. When a permit does not appear against a sign in, each desk will tell you to ring the other.
Noon Elite. The Permit to Work module runs on the same kiosk and in the same record as visitor sign in and the fire roll call. One contract, one data processing agreement, and one person who wrote both halves.
Is a contractor on a permit on the fire roll call from the second they sign in at the kiosk?
The roll call is the reason the kiosk is at the door. If a contractor under permit is tracked on a separate system, the marshal at the assembly point holds a list that does not include the person in the plant room with a cutting torch.
Noon Elite. Yes. The roll call reads visitor sign ins and permit sessions. A contractor who arrives at the kiosk with their permit code is on the live list from that moment until they sign out.
Is the RAMS read on the contractor’s own phone, to the end, before they can sign?
A tick box that says the RAMS has been read is a tick box. What you want to show afterwards is that the document was in front of the person who signed, on the day, and that they reached the end of it before a signature was possible.
Noon Elite. Yes. A QR code at the kiosk opens the permit on the contractor’s own phone, with no app to install. They read the RAMS to the end before the workface checks and the signature are offered.
Is it your permit form, your sub-permits and your statements, or a generic one?
Your permit form exists because of your site: your isolations, your fire watch periods, the statement your insurer asked for after the last claim. A generic permit with a free text box loses that, and whoever defends the record later will be defending somebody else’s form.
Noon Elite. Yours. The module is driven by a form definition, so your permit, your sub-permits and your statements go in as they are, configured with you during setup.
Can a member of your staff accept a contractor before they walk to the job?
Signing in is not the same as being allowed through. On a manufacturing site the difference is a named person deciding, at the moment of arrival, that this contractor is expected and can go to the workface.
Noon Elite. That is the approval step of the Secure Badge and Approval module. The host is told, enters a PIN on the kiosk to authorise the visit, and until they do there is no badge. On a permit, the manager’s authorisation before the day is the first gate and the code at the kiosk is the second.
On a multi-day permit, is there a quick daily sign in and out?
A permit for a week of work should not mean the full arrival flow every morning. Ask to see what day two looks like, on screen, rather than being told it is handled.
Noon Elite. On the roadmap, and we would rather say that than yes. If a supplier says yes, ask them to show it.
Where is the permit data processed, and under whose data processing agreement?
A permit carries names, signatures, insurance documents and sometimes a photograph of an isolation. If the permit product is a partner’s, that data is processed under a second agreement in a second place, and the supplier assurance form your customer sends will ask about both.
Noon Elite. In the European Union, in Ireland, on ISO 27001 certified infrastructure, with a data processing agreement supplied as standard. The security page lists every sub-processor and where each one is.
What is the all-in figure for one site over three years, including hardware, setup and the permit module?
A monthly price is easy to compare and easy to hide behind. Hardware, setup, a label printer, a per user licence and the permit module are where the difference between two quotes usually lives. Ask for the three year figure with everything in it.
Noon Elite. Every price is published. The platform is £150 a month plus VAT, the Permit to Work module £150, Secure Badge and Approval £150, and setup from £599, with the iPad and stand included and replaced if they fail. Platform and permit module for one site over three years is £599 plus 36 months at £300, which is £11,399 before VAT. The badge module’s setup is quoted separately because it includes the printer.
How many working days from acceptance to live, and who changes the form in month four?
The second half of that question is the one to watch. Every supplier can install. Fewer can tell you who picks up the phone when your permit needs a new isolation statement in month four, and whether that is a change request, a ticket or a person.
Noon Elite. Fifteen working days from your network being ready. The person who changes the form in month four is the engineer who built it, because Noon Elite is one engineer.
The permit to work moduleContractor sign in, RAMS and site rulesEvery price, in publicThree years, the terms and the risks, on one pageWhere the data lives, and who touches it
How it works at Noon Elite
The permit path, in six steps
Two people log in, the manager and the contractor’s office. The engineer on the day needs a six digit code and their own phone.
- 1
The job is raised
The manager raises the job.
- 2
The office does the paperwork
The contractor’s office completes the RAMS review and uploads insurance, accreditations and method statements before the day.
- 3
The manager authorises
The manager authorises and a six digit code goes to the office.
- 4
The engineer arrives
The engineer arrives at the kiosk with the code and is on the roll call from that moment.
- 5
The RAMS is read and the permit signed
A QR code opens the permit on their own phone, where they read the RAMS to the end before answering the workface checks and signing.
- 6
Sign out and close out
Sign out at the kiosk, close out on the dashboard, and a PDF with every signature.
See it work
A contractor permit, raised to signed off, in ten minutes
One job, from the manager raising it to nobody being able to invoice until the fire watch has been signed. The contractor’s office does the RAMS from a link in an email, and the engineer signs in with a six digit code.
Recorded end to end against a demonstration site: every name, company, document and reading in it is fictional. The player loads from YouTube only when you press play. What happens when you do.
Before you ask
Three questions people ask us about permit to work software
Does Envoy do permit to work?
Not at any tier as of 26 September 2026, according to Envoy’s published plans. Its Visitors product lists Basic, Premium and Enterprise, and none of the three mentions a permit to work. Check their current pricing page, linked under these questions, because that can change.
Can I use my own permit form?
Yes. The module is driven by a form definition, so your permit and your sub-permits go in as they are, statements included. Which permit types you switch on is configured with you during setup and does not change the monthly price.
Is the permit module live?
It is built and demonstrated, and it is in early access. The walkthrough on this page is the real module, recorded end to end against a demonstration site. The first production site is being onboarded, and the price is the published early access rate of £150 a month plus VAT.
Envoy’s pricing page, read on 26 September 2026Free permit to work templatePermit to work, explained plainly
Next step
Bring your permit form to the call
Fifteen minutes on the phone. Bring your permit, tell us how contractors arrive today, and we will tell you straight which of the nine we answer with a yes and which with a date.
Book a 15 minute callNo site visit needed and nothing to install. If it is not a fit we will say so on the call.
Would rather email? [email protected]
Not the person who signs it off? Send them the one page business case
The platform reference is JK Powell, a Derbyshire metal packaging site running the kiosk without the permit module.