A complaint from the facilities manager
The facilities manager at a business park emails the account manager. A tenant's CCTV shows nobody near their unit between midnight and 5am on Tuesday, but the patrol log says the guard did hourly patrols. The log is a paper sheet with times written in the same pen and handwriting all the way down. The account manager rings the guard, who says he did the patrols but might have missed the far end because of the rain.
The client is not accusing anyone yet, but they want proof in future. The contract renewal is in three months. The account manager has nothing to show them except more paper.
Why paper patrol logs do not convince anyone
A handwritten log records what the guard says they did. It cannot show where they went, and there is no way to tell a log written in real time from one written at the end of the shift. Most guards do their job properly, but paper does not let you show that, and it cannot catch the ones who do not.
| Question the client asks | What a paper log can show | What a checkpoint patrol shows |
|---|---|---|
| Did the guard patrol at 2am? | A handwritten time | Checkpoint scans with times |
| Did they reach the far unit? | Nothing | A scan at the far unit's checkpoint |
| How long did the patrol take? | Nothing | Time between first and last scan |
| Was anything wrong? | A note, sometimes | Notes and photos at the checkpoint |
The cost of unprovable patrols
Clients who cannot see patrols start to question the whole contract, and doubts at renewal favour a competitor offering better reporting. Guards who do their patrols properly have no way to prove it and get tarred with the same brush. Insurers and investigators after an incident want to know what was checked and when. And the account manager spends time defending the service with anecdotes rather than records.
Checkpoint patrols with a client view
- Checkpoints are placed around the site at the points your assignment instructions say must be checked: gates, fire exits, plant rooms, the far corner of the car park. Each is an NFC tag or a QR code.
- Patrol routes and times are set up per site from the assignment instructions: which checkpoints, in what order if it matters, and how often.
- The guard uses a phone app to scan each checkpoint. The scan records the checkpoint, time and phone location.
- At a checkpoint, the guard can add a note or photo: a door found unlocked, a light out, a vehicle in the car park.
- Missed checkpoints are shown on the patrol record, and can also raise an alert in your control room while the shift is still running.
- The patrol report for each shift lists every round with checkpoint times, and any notes or photos.
- Clients get a login to see patrol reports for their sites, or a daily summary by email.
- Works on company or personal phones, with your company policy deciding which.
- Scans made with no signal are stored and sent when the phone reconnects.
- Tags are cheap and discreet, and can be moved if the route changes.
What the client sees afterwards
The first week is mostly setup: walking each site with the supervisor to place tags where the assignment instructions say checks must happen, loading the routes, and showing guards how to scan. Guards usually pick it up in a shift. Routes that turn out to be unworkable, such as a checkpoint behind a gate that is locked at night, are adjusted before the client sees any reports.
The next morning, the facilities manager opens the patrol report and sees each round with checkpoint times, including the far unit. The rain note from 3am is there, with a photo of a gate the guard found open and closed. The account manager shows three months of reports at the contract review. Guards who patrol well have proof of it.
If a patrol is missed, it is visible to you first, which is the point. You can deal with it before the client asks.
Does this sound familiar?
- Patrol logs are handwritten.
- Clients have asked for proof of patrols.
- You cannot say whether a guard reached every part of the site.
- Notes about issues found on patrol are lost.
- Contract reviews rely on anecdotes rather than records.