Find the person
Search by name or ID number. Somebody who is not in the system yet can be added on the spot with a name and a type, and the rest filled in later.
The platform
ID card management software, end to end
CardOffice is the platform behind every card CardOffice issues. It takes a cardholder from a photograph on their phone to a printed, encoded, registered credential, and to a digital ID in their wallet, without anybody re-keying a name.
Add it to the card office you already run, or make it the whole card office for your business. It works in the browser on a desktop, an iPad or a phone, with nothing for your staff to install and no server to set up.
See for yourself
Inside the platform
Eight screens cover the whole workflow, from first sign-in to the month-end report. Each one is built to be clear at a glance, with the next step in view. Select a screen, then enlarge it to see the detail.
Screenshots are taken from the live platform using a fictional institution. All portraits are stock photographs of models, not real cardholder photos.
Sign in and see what needs doing
The first screen is a to-do list, not a menu. Photographs waiting for a decision, people still without a photograph, orders in production and cards in circulation are all counted, and each count is a link to the place where you deal with it.
On this screen
- Whatever is holding up printing sits at the top, with a button that takes you straight to it.
- Four live counts: cardholders, photographs awaiting review, open orders and cards in circulation.
- Twelve months of cards produced, so the enrolment peaks stop being a surprise.
- Shortcuts to the jobs that are waiting: photographs to review, people to chase, draft orders.
One record per person, for as long as they are with you
Every card, photograph, order and digital pass hangs off a single cardholder record. A student who loses a card in first year and graduates in their fourth has one record, one history and one verification trail, not four unrelated print jobs.
- Connected sources: Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace, a REST API, or a direct SQL Server, PostgreSQL or MySQL connection.
- Spreadsheet import with column mapping and a preview, for day one and one-off cohorts.
- Roles and scope so a faculty administrator sees their people and nobody else's.
- Full audit trail: who changed what, and when.
- Configurable retention for photographs, and cardholder data requests handled in the platform.
On this screen
- Search by name, ID or email, or narrow the list by status and type.
- Import a cohort from a spreadsheet, or export the list.
- See at a glance who has an approved photograph and who still needs one.
Photographs collected and screened before a person sees them
Photo collection is where card projects stall, so there are two ways in. Photograph people at the counter the way a traditional card office does, with a camera or a webcam. Or send an emailed photo invitation and cardholders upload from their own phone, with no queue and no photo day, then operators approve each one. Either way, every image is screened automatically against an ICAO 9303 / ISO portrait model before it reaches your review queue.
- Camera or webcam capture at the counter, for walk-ups and photo days.
- Automated pre-screen: head size and position, background, sharpness, exposure.
- Automatic cropping to a 35×45 portrait with correct headroom.
- Review queue where staff approve or reject, with the reason returned to the cardholder.
- Self-service retry so a rejected photo does not become a phone call.
On this screen
- Every photograph arrives already scored against the portrait rules.
- Anything wrong is said in plain words. This one is black and white.
- Reframe a good photograph yourself, without asking for a retake.
- Approve or reject with one click, or with A and R on the keyboard.
Design once, lock it, print it exactly that way
Build card artwork in the browser and bind fields to cardholder data, so the same design produces a correct card for every person. When an order is submitted the template version is locked, which means a card reprinted in two years comes out identical to the one it replaces.
- Front and back artwork, with bleed handled for CR-80 stock.
- Data binding for names, ID numbers, photographs, barcodes and QR codes.
- Versioning, with submitted orders pinned to the version they were approved against.
- Separate wallet designs for the digital form of the same credential.
On this screen
- Every element on the card in one list. Add text, a photo, an image, a shape, a barcode or a QR code.
- Drag and resize on the card itself, with positions in millimetres.
- Fields fill in from the cardholder record, so one design prints every card.
- Print preview renders the card at 300 dpi before anything reaches a printer.
A print room that knows what it has and what it owes
Release a print run and the print agent beside the card printer claims the work, prints it, and reports back. Cards are produced in batches or one at a time at a counter, and the platform tracks ribbon, card stock and cleaning intervals as it goes.
- Drives any card printer through its installed driver.
- Magnetic stripe encoding as part of the same job.
- Consumables tracking: ribbon remaining, cards remaining, cards since cleaning.
- Counter mode for a walk-up replacement while somebody waits.
- No printer? We can supply one with its supplies, or print your cards at our site and send them by tracked courier.
On this screen
- The print queue by state, from queued to printed, with failures counted on their own.
- Each printer shows whether it is online before you send it work.
- Ribbon remaining and cards since the last clean, counted as you print.
The same credential, on the phone
Issue a digital ID to Apple Wallet and Google Wallet carrying the same serial number and verification code as the printed card. It is not a second credential; it is the same one, in another form, revocable on its own or together with the plastic.
- Apple Wallet and Google Wallet from one issuance.
- Over-the-air updates when details change, without reissuing.
- Remote revocation: a pass is struck through on the device.
- Emailed delivery, so a cardholder with no portal login can still add their ID.
On this screen
- A pass design for each kind of cardholder: students, staff, contractors, visitors.
- Your own colours, or leave them blank and the pass follows your organisation's.
- A preview for Apple Wallet and for Google Wallet that follows your changes.
- Decide whether the pass carries the holder's photograph.
Answering “is this card real?” in a second
Every issued card carries a QR code that resolves to a public verification page. Anyone checking a card at a door, a library desk or a licensed premises gets a plain answer without needing an account or an app.
- Public verification page reached from the card's QR code.
- Expiry respected at the moment of the check, not whenever a sweep last ran.
- Reports the reason a card is not valid, expired, lost, stolen, revoked.
- Shared by both forms, so the printed card and the phone give the same answer.
On this screen
- The photograph on record, to compare with the person in front of you.
- A plain answer, with no account and no app needed to read it.
- The page can show its own QR code for somebody else to scan.
- The same check after a card is reported lost. The answer changes straight away.
The numbers you get asked for, already counted
Cards issued today, this week, this month or this year, split by how they were produced and by who produced them. Nothing has to be exported and added up first.
- Cards by operator, further down the same page.
- Orders by status: draft, submitted, in production, completed.
On this screen
- One switch sets the period, and the whole page follows it.
- Plastic cards and digital IDs counted separately, with reprints kept apart from new cards.
- Counter prints, batch runs and digital IDs, month by month.
How it works
From a photograph on a phone to a finished ID card
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Connect your cardholders
Entra ID and Google Workspace sync automatically over SCIM, straight into the cardholder roster. A new starter appears ready to be photographed, a name or department change flows through on the next provisioning cycle, and a leaver's card deactivates itself. No CSVs, no re-keying.
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Collect photographs
Send a photo invitation by email and the cardholder submits from wherever they are, phone, laptop, tablet, or a dedicated station in the card office. Distance and off-campus students stop being a special case. Automated quality checks catch a bad photograph before it is submitted. How the photo link works.
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Review and approve
Staff approve or reject in a purpose-built queue, with the reason sent back to the cardholder so they can try again without a phone call.
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Order and produce
Release a batch to the print agent, or issue one card at the counter. Ribbon levels, cleaning intervals and card stock are tracked as you go. Ordering finished cards from us instead gives you packing lists, tracking and an invoice per shipment or rolled up monthly.
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Issue, verify, revoke
Every card and wallet pass carries a verification code that checks against the live system, so anyone can confirm an ID is real and current in seconds. A lost or stolen card is revoked instantly, no reprint needed to shut off access.
What the cardholder sees on their own phone. The portrait is a stock photograph of a model.
Photos from anywhere
Send a link. They take the photo. You approve it.
Distance students, remote staff and contractors never need to visit a counter. Email them a link and they photograph themselves on their own phone, wherever they are.
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You send the link
One click from a person's record, or select a whole intake and send them all at once. Anyone with no email address is skipped and counted, so the run does not stop.
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They take the photo
The link opens a page that greets them by name, with no app, no account and no password. It shows what makes a good photo, lines the shot up with a face guide, and stays open for three days.
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It is checked straight away
The photo is screened against the portrait rules as soon as it arrives, so one that is too dark or out of focus is flagged before anyone opens it.
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You approve it
Every photo sent by link is looked at by a person before it can go on a card. Reject one and the reason is emailed back, with a fresh link to try again.
From there the card is printed as usual, or the digital ID is emailed straight to their phone.
On a phone or an iPad
Take the photo and print the card from the device in your hand
CardOffice runs in the browser, so the screens you use at a desk work the same way on a phone or an iPad, with nothing installed on the device. At an enrolment day, a reception desk or a site visit, one person can photograph somebody and send their card to the printer without going back to a PC.
The counter screen at iPad size, and its camera at phone size, shown with a fictional institution. The portrait is a stock photograph of a model.
Take the photo
Use the front or rear camera, with an oval guide to line the face up. The photo is checked against the portrait rules straight away. Staff took it with the person in front of them, so it is accepted without a second review.
Press Print
The card goes to the card printer already set up for your organisation. There is no printer to find, add or choose on the device, and the same press can send a digital ID to the person's phone.
How the card reaches the printer
Your printers are set up once, by an administrator. A small agent on the PC beside each printer collects the job and prints it, so the phone or iPad never talks to the printer, needs no printer driver, and does not have to be on the same network. Staff can only send cards to their own organisation's printers, and a card cannot be printed until its photo is approved.
Underneath
The parts nobody demos, that decide whether you keep it
API & webhooks
Issue, revoke and reconcile from the systems you already run, with delivery retried and recorded.
Audit logging
Every mutation records who did it, to what, and what changed. “Who revoked this card, and when?” has an answer.
Single sign-on
OpenID Connect with Entra ID, Google Workspace or Okta, so staff use the credentials they already have and access ends when their account does.
Two-factor authentication
Time-based one-time codes with backup codes, for the accounts that can issue and revoke credentials.
Retention & privacy
Photo retention periods are configurable per organisation, rejected photos are cleared sooner, and cardholder data requests are handled in the platform.
Backups & uptime
Nightly encrypted backups mirrored off-site, a live status page and a published 99.5% availability SLA, so reliability is something you can check. How it is run.
Common questions
Frequently asked
Is this one system or several?
One. Cardholder records, photo collection and review, card design, ordering, print production, digital ID issuance, verification and billing are all the same platform, sharing one cardholder record and one audit trail.
Can different departments manage their own cardholders?
Yes. Access is scoped by organisation and controlled by role, so a faculty or campus administrator sees their own people and nobody else's, while a central card office sees everything.
What happens when somebody leaves?
Revoke their card, their digital ID, or both. A revoked digital ID is struck through on the phone; a revoked card stops verifying immediately. Their record and history stay intact for audit.
Does it work on a phone or a tablet?
Yes. It runs in the browser, so there is nothing to install. On a phone or an iPad you can find a person, take their photo with the device's camera and send their card to your organisation's card printer. The printer is driven by a small agent on the PC beside it, so the phone or tablet needs no printer driver.
Does it integrate with the systems we already run?
Yes, cardholder records come from wherever your people already live: synchronised from Microsoft Entra ID or Google Workspace, driven through a REST API and webhooks, or read directly from a SQL Server, PostgreSQL or MySQL database by a small on-site sync agent. Spreadsheet import is always available. Single sign-on is supported through OpenID Connect.
See it against your own process
Tell us how you issue cards today and we will show you what this looks like for your institution. No obligation, and no sales script.