A method configures an installation of a control system within an operational environment, where the control system may include distributed physical access control system. The method may provide options for installing peripheral devices compatible with a controller, and receive selections based on the provided options. The selections may be associated with an operational environment of at least one selected peripheral device. The method may generate instructions to command the controller to specify individual pins from a plurality of pins for connecting the controller to at least one selected peripheral device. The method may subsequently create a report to describe connections between the specified individual pins associated with the controller and wires associated with at least one selected peripheral device. An apparatus can implement the method to configure the installation of the control system in its operational environment.