3 Benefits of a Sign In and Out Sheet

Have you ever found yourself loaning equipment to someone only to completely forget about allowing someone to borrow it? Or have you ever gone through inventory only to find thousands of dollars’ worth of items have disappeared? There’s nothing wrong with renting or loaning something out, but it’s important to have a template in place to avoid any issues. Something as simple as a sign-in and sign-out sheet can make things that much easier. Here are just some of the benefits of these formats.

1. It’s an inexpensive method.

Having a sign in and out sheet available in your workplace costs people next to nothing. All it takes is formatting a Word or Excel document to include your company’s logo for official purposes, implementing spaces for borrower and equipment details. This allows for sign-off through the person overseeing the rental of equipment based on the date that the piece is being taken. These printables are easy to save on file and print out accordingly.

The last thing you ever want is something to go missing from your toolbox, having no idea where that has gone when you need it the most. By having a clipboard readily accessible, organizations can have control over the rental process. Some companies are even opting for the electronic clipboard through downloading programs for internal use within an organization. This allows for employees to take a weekly sign-out of a certain material and send email notifications within the company to alert to the sign-out occurring or to alert an approaching due date for its return.

2. Sign-in sheets help build a database.

Whether you’re opting for physical printables or printing out records through an electronic database, sign-in and sign-out sheets allow for maintenance of records through a proper database. By keeping track of these records, trends can be monitored. For example, an A/V rental company could notice that more people are relying on the need for a particular type of microphone for their tasks. They may be able to correlate the need for this equipment based on the day of the week, time of year, or even by the organization name listed on the sign-out sheet.

This database can also raise certain alarms as to where issues might be arising. You’ll no longer have to rely on simply telling time to spot where there could be a problem with late rental returns of equipment, misuse of those tools, or improper handling of the return process. By maintaining this information on a spreadsheet and through a proper database, employees can be informed of who not to rent out the pieces to and who can be trusted to return those tools within the best condition and on time.

3. Signing out keeps track of people.

Sometimes, you can be distracted by other tasks, losing tabs on where someone has gone. That’s why sign-in and sign-out sheets have become especially useful for classroom management. More common at the grade school level, teachers turn to sign-out sheets for bathroom passes to monitor usage to keep track of how long a student has been away from the classroom. Past a certain time limit, it raises concerns for teachers and administrators to monitor.

At the high school level, the same sign-out sheets are in place, but more for monitoring for bathroom shenanigans. This could be anything from just gossiping through social studies or having a smoke in the stall. These classroom forms are submitted to administrators as proof of wrongdoing that could warrant punishment. However, these forms also afford a teacher peace of mind, as well as eliminate breaks in their lesson plan by having the student’s name noted to excuse themselves from the room.

These are just some of the benefits of sign-in sheets and how they can be used in different settings.