Require Explicit Check-in and Check-out

By default, anyone who can check a booking out can do it in one click: Check out sends everything on the booking at once, and Quick check-in takes it all back the same way. That is the right default for a small team that trusts its own count.

Some workspaces want the count made with the gear in hand instead. Two settings do that, one for each direction, and they can be switched on for Admins, for Self-service users, or for both.

Settings → Bookings showing the Explicit check-in requirement and Explicit check-out requirement cards, each with a switch for Admins and one for Self Service

Where to find them

Go to Settings ▸ Workspace settings ▸ Bookings. Two cards sit next to each other:

Explicit check-in requirement
Explicit check-out requirement

Each card holds two switches, Require … for Admins and Require … for Self Service. All four start off.

Only the workspace owner can change them. An Administrator can read the cards but not save them, which is the point: a rule about how Admins hand gear out should not be one an Admin can lift.

The Explicit check-out requirement card, with the "Require explicit check-out for Admins" switch called out

What each switch does

Explicit check-out requirement

For a covered role, the one-click hand-out disappears and the server refuses it:

The check-out control on the booking page offers only Scan to check out. The Check out button on a Reserved booking, and Check out remaining on an Ongoing or Overdue one, are not shown.
In the Shelf Companion app, Check Out All Assets is hidden on the booking screen. Select to Check Out stays.
If the request reaches the server anyway, it is refused: "This workspace requires explicit check-out. Scan or select the assets to check them out."

What stays open is everything that already makes the person name the items:

Scan to check out — the progressive check-out scanner on the web.
Actions ▸ Check out selected items — ticking rows on the booking's asset list.
Select to Check Out on the phone.
Fulfil and check out — the scanner that settles a model reservation and checks out what it just assigned, on the web and on the phone.

Explicit check-in requirement

The mirror image, on the way back:

The check-in control becomes a single Check-in button that opens the explicit check-in scanner straight away. There is no dropdown and no quick check-in.
The server refuses a quick check-in from a covered role on the web and on the phone alike.

Which roles are covered

Role	Can the switch reach them?
Owner	Never. The owner is always exempt, on both settings.
Administrator	Yes, with the "for Admins" switch.
Self-service	Yes, with the "for Self Service" switch.
Base	Not covered, and it does not need to be — a Base user cannot check gear out or in at all. See User Roles and Their Permissions.

A person can hold more than one role on a workspace. Shelf judges them by their most privileged role, so someone who is both Self-service and Administrator is treated as an Administrator by both settings — the Admin switch governs them, the Self-service one does not.

The two settings are independent. Requiring explicit check-out says nothing about check-in, and either one can be on for Admins while it is off for Self-service.

What this is good for

Verification at the counter. Gear is scanned as it leaves the cage, so what the booking says went out is what physically went out.
Staggered hand-offs. A custodian collects half their kit in the morning and the rest after lunch. The requirement makes that the only way, so nobody closes the whole booking early by habit.
Audit trails that hold up. Every item carries its own check-out stamp rather than inheriting one from a booking-wide action.

Things worth knowing before you switch it on

Existing bookings are not affected retroactively. The rule applies to the next action someone takes, not to history.
Phones need the current app. The Companion app hides Check Out All Assets from a covered role once it has the update published on 15 September 2026. An older copy still shows the button; tapping it gets the server's refusal and nothing is checked out.
A Reserved booking with nothing left to scan shows no check-out control to a covered role, because the only option left was the one the requirement removes. The owner, who is exempt, can still complete it.
Fulfil-and-check-out narrows under the rule. It assigns the units you scanned and checks out only those, leaving the booking's other assets to be checked out separately. It refuses while a model reservation is still unassigned, and it refuses kits — use Scan to check out for those.