Integrate Kisi with Recess

Recess is an all-in-one management platform for fitness and wellness businesses, covering scheduling, memberships, payments, marketing, and a branded member app for boutique studios, martial arts schools, CrossFit boxes, gyms, and multi-location franchises. Connect Recess with Kisi to automatically grant and revoke door access based on membership status, and let members unlock doors directly from the studio's branded Recess app.

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This is a partner-built integration, maintained and supported by the partner.

Prerequisites

• Kisi organization administrator rights
• A Recess account with a staff role that can manage locations
• A Recess location with an address set (required for in-app unlock)

Generate a Kisi API key

You need to have organization administrator or organization owner rights to create an API key. We recommend creating API keys from the organization owner's account, to avoid the API key becoming invalid when an organization admin loses their admin rights.

1. Sign in to Kisi
2. On the top right corner, click on your name and click on My Account
3. Next, select the API tab and click on Add API Key
4. Enter the name for the API key and your Kisi password and click Add
5. Copy the API key shown on the screen and click Close

Create a Kisi access group

1. Sign in to Kisi
2. Create a group that you want to sync with Recess
3. Configure the group by adding the required doors and setting access schedules

Once connected, Recess loads available doors and groups from your Kisi account automatically.

Set up the Recess integration

Door access is enabled once for the business, then connected per location.

1. Sign in to Recess and open your dashboard
2. Go to Settings > Integrations > Door Access and turn on Kisi Door Access
3. Go to Settings > Locations and open the location you want to connect
4. Select Kisi Access in the left-hand menu
5. Under Step 1, Kisi account, paste your Kisi API key and click Connect. Recess validates the key and loads the doors and access groups on that Kisi account.
6. Under Step 2, Doors and access, select the door members unlock from the Recess app and the Kisi access group Recess syncs members into
7. Click Save

Repeat steps 3 to 7 for each location. Each location connects its own Kisi account, door, and access group.

Configure which memberships grant access

Access is driven by memberships and packages, not by individual members.

1. Go to Products > Memberships (or Packages) and open the product you want to edit, or create a new one
2. Turn on Grants gym/door access
3. Save the product

Anyone with an active subscription to that product is added to the connected location's Kisi access group. Location-limited memberships grant access only at the locations they cover; all-access memberships apply to every connected location. Products without this toggle, such as class credits, video on demand, or retail items, never grant door access.

Set door access hours

1. Open the location's settings and select Door access hours
2. Set your weekly open hours. Split windows within a day are supported.
3. Use Date overrides and recurring for one-off closures and repeating exceptions, and Holidays for US federal holidays

Changes save automatically and are pushed to Kisi. Recess writes these hours to the connected Kisi access group as a recurring schedule named recess:open_hours, so the reader refuses entry outside open hours. Any schedules you created yourself in the Kisi dashboard are left untouched. If you set no door hours, access is unrestricted by time and governed by membership status alone.

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Schedule precedence, highest first: date override, holiday, recurring exception, weekly hours. All hours resolve in the location's own timezone and are daylight saving safe.

Set a payment grace period

In your business settings, set a door access grace period in days. A member with a failed membership payment keeps door access for that many days from their first failed payment before being locked out. Set it to 0 for no grace period.

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Only membership subscription charges count toward the grace period. Late-cancel fees or one-off class charges do not affect door access.

Require a profile photo (optional)

If your business requires members to have a profile photo, members without one are refused door access until they add one.

How access works

Access is granted or revoked immediately when a membership is purchased, cancelled, terminated, paused, or refunded. In addition, Recess runs a reconciliation job every 15 minutes that compares desired access against actual Kisi group membership per location and corrects any drift.

Reconciliation fails safe: if Recess cannot read a location's group from Kisi, it skips that location rather than revoking everyone's access.

When you first turn door access on, staff can trigger a full backfill for the business rather than waiting for the next reconciliation cycle.

When access is revoked

A member loses access when they have no remaining active subscription to a door-granting product at that location, whether after cancellation, expiry, pause, refund, or an unresolved failed payment past the grace period. Members are removed from the Kisi access group, but their Kisi user record is retained.

In-app unlock

Members can unlock from the Recess app. Each unlock attempt is verified server-side and requires all of the following:

• Door access is enabled for the business
• The member has a membership that covers that specific location
• The current time falls within the location's door hours
• The member is physically within 150 ft of the location (distance is configurable)

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A location with no coordinates set cannot unlock from the app.

Members are not invited to Kisi

Recess adds members to your access group without sending a Kisi invitation email, so members are not prompted to install the Kisi app. They unlock from the branded Recess app instead.

Existing Kisi credentials still work

Recess manages only Kisi group membership and the recess:open_hours schedule it creates. Any credential you have configured in Kisi, such as a card, fob, or the Kisi app, continues to work for members in that group according to your Kisi settings.

View entries and refusals in Recess

Successful Kisi unlocks appear in Classes > Check-in History, tagged as door entries, with the membership that authorized them. Refused in-app unlock attempts are recorded there too, with a reason: past due balance, no door membership, no profile photo, wrong location, outside door hours, too far from door, or door not set up.

Limitations

• One door and one access group per Recess location. Multi-door locations are not yet supported.
• Recess manages only the access group and the schedule it creates. It does not import or modify Kisi users, places, or other groups, and it does not provision hardware, readers, or credentials.
• Access is driven by memberships and packages only. Recess does not sync waivers, class attendance, or product details into Kisi.