---
name: security_guard_company_operations
description: "Run a contract security guard company day to day: post orders written so a new guard can work a site cold, license and training files checked before anyone is scheduled, tour and checkpoint proof reviewed daily instead of filed unread, incident reports held to a 22 field standard clients and insurers accept, and schedule gaps found and covered before the client finds them. Use when starting or running a guard company, taking on a new client site, writing post orders, auditing guard files, reviewing patrol proof, fixing incident reports, or building a guard schedule."
---

# Security Guard Company Operations

## Purpose

Run a contract guard company as five linked systems: post orders that carry the site, a license file that gates the schedule, tour proof that gets read every day, one incident report standard, and a schedule built from cover math instead of hope. Guard tour software and scheduling software are sold as separate products, and neither one ships the operating method. Software records scans and shifts. It does not write an order a stranger can follow at 2 am, stop an unlicensed guard reaching a roster, or turn a missed checkpoint into a same shift fix. This skill does.

## Workflow

### 1. Write post orders a new guard can work cold

Post orders are the most important written instructions for the force. Following ASIS International Protection of Assets, they express the policies of the protected enterprise, summarize required officer duties, stop word of mouth instructions, and provide the basis for site specific training. Build them from references/post-orders-outline.md. One post gets one document.

- Walk the site with the client before writing a word. Record access points, patrol route, restricted areas, delivery windows, shift change peaks, alarm and camera positions, and the client concerns that are specific to this site. Generic lines such as monitor activity or patrol the premises fail on the first night because they tell the guard nothing to do.
- Write the header first: site and post name, post hours, client day and night contacts with phone numbers, company supervisor and dispatch numbers, revision date and version, and approval names. A guard who cannot reach a human from page one has no orders worth the name.
- Write actions with times and places: checkpoint list on the site map, tour start times and windows, timed duties, access steps in order, and emergency procedures one per type with the call order stated. One subject per order, split any paragraph that covers two duties.
- State the relief rule in the orders: a guard does not leave a post until properly relieved, and the outgoing guard briefs the incoming guard on anything open before leaving. Put the prohibited actions for this post in a short site specific list, and put the authority limits and use of force boundary for this post in plain words a guard can apply, tied to state law and company policy.
- Run the cold test before the site goes live. Hand the orders and a site map to a guard who has never worked the site. If that guard cannot state where to report, what to check on the first round, who to call at night, and what never to do on this post, rewrite the missing part and test again with a different guard. File the test result with the orders.
- Keep the orders alive. Revise after any incident on the post, after any client change to access, hours, or contacts, and on the scheduled review for that site. Date every version, pull old printed copies off the post the day a new version lands, and keep the superseded version in the company file.

### 2. Check license and training files before anyone is scheduled

Licensing is state law, not company preference, and it changes at the state line. There is no national training hour figure. California requires Power to Arrest training before a guard registration issues, then 32 hours of skills training inside the first six months and 8 hours of continuing training a year. Florida requires 40 hours at a licensed school for an unarmed Class D license. Texas requires a 6 hour Level II course for an unarmed officer. Full detail, with the regulator source for each state, sits in references/license-file-check.md. Start every new state from that state regulator page, saved with a pull date.

- Build one file per guard with the items in references/license-file-check.md, in order: license record with a same day regulator lookup, armed authority and qualification where the post needs it, training certificates themselves rather than notes about them, background record as the law allows, site training record per site, and equipment issue record.
- Apply the pre schedule gate. A supervisor or scheduler who did not hire the guard confirms the license is current on the regulator lookup, the license type matches the post, every deadline in the next 90 days has a booked course or renewal date, and post order training for this site is recorded. Initial the gate in the file. An incomplete file means no shift, with no exception for a hard to fill post. Covering one shift with an unchecked guard risks the client contract, the insurance cover, and the company license, all for one night pay.
- Follow the state rule on pending applications exactly as the regulator states it. California, for example, allows a guard who has been approved to work while carrying a hard copy printout of the Bureau approval plus valid picture identification, under the rule its fact sheet cites. Another state may allow nothing of the kind. The proof the rule requires travels with the guard on duty.
- Run a ten minute roster check every week: every expiry in the next 45 days matched to the coming roster, three files spot checked at random on rotation, armed posts checked separately for current firearm authority and qualification on the day of each shift, and the whole check logged with date, checker, findings, and actions. A check with no log did not happen when an auditor asks.

### 3. Build tours, then review the proof every day

A checkpoint record proves who was at a point, at what time. It does not prove what the guard saw there. Build the tour so the record and the observation arrive together, then read both while the shift pattern can still be fixed.

- Place checkpoints where loss and harm actually happen at this site: dark lot corners, service doors, gates, alarm panels, high value storage, stairwells, and any place the client has already had an incident. Mark every checkpoint on the post order site map, number them, and state the tour route or free order rule, start times, and time window per tour.
- Pick the proof method to fit the site: NFC or QR tags where the client allows tags on walls, GPS or geofenced points for lots, campuses, and mobile stops with nothing to tag, and photo proof at the points where the client needs to see condition, not just presence. At the points that matter, pair the scan with a short observation: door secure yes or no, gate locked, panel normal, plus a photo where the post orders require one.
- Set the exception rule before the first tour. A missed checkpoint or a tour outside its window raises an alert to the supervisor on duty during the shift, not in a report three days later. The supervisor calls the post, records the reason, and either sends the guard back to complete the point or logs why the point could not be completed. Silence is not a reason code.
- Review tour proof daily, by a supervisor or manager who is not the guard who ran the tour. Older watchclock practice held the same line: records were removed and checked daily by a management representative, and guards never removed their own records. The medium changed. The separation did not.
- Score the week with the tool and report tours and checkpoints as two separate lines:

    python3 scripts/guard_ops.py tour --scheduled-tours 56 --completed-tours 53 --scheduled-checkpoints 1120 --completed-checkpoints 1064
    # tour_completion_pct: 94.64%
    # missed_tours: 3
    # checkpoint_completion_pct: 95.00%
    # missed_checkpoints: 56

- Work the misses as patterns, not as blame. Misses at the same checkpoint point to a bad tag, a blocked route, or an order that does not match the building. Misses at the same hour point to a shift change clash or a second duty pulling the guard off the route. Misses by one guard across good sites point to coaching or discipline. Fix the cause the pattern shows, record the fix, and check the next week numbers for that checkpoint or hour.

### 4. Hold every incident report to one standard

Use the single form and the 22 field list in references/incident-report-standard.md, built on the four section shape in the ASIS Protection of Assets sample forms: topline information, incident information, suspect information, and witness information. One standard for every post, every client, every guard.

- Train the standard, do not just hand out the form. New guards write one practice report from the worked rewrite in the reference file before their first solo shift, and a supervisor scores it against the 22 fields. Report writing is a site skill, taught like patrol.
- Enforce the narrative rules on every report: facts the guard saw, heard, and did, in time order, third person, with clock times, specific places, exact quotes where words matter, and no motive claims and no fault conclusions. Other people statements get labeled as statements, with the speaker named or described. Unknown times get written as approximate with a window, never as invented precision.
- Require the report before the end of the shift in which the incident happened, with evidence attached at filing: on scene photos, video references with camera name and time range, and tour or alarm log references. Evidence that stays on a personal phone has not been filed.
- Review before the client sees it. The supervisor checks field completeness, checks that incident, notification, tour, and alarm times tell one story, returns opinion lines to the writer for a rewrite rather than editing the record in silence, opens one listed evidence item to prove it exists, and confirms the follow up field names a real owner and a due time. Score completeness with the tool:

    python3 scripts/guard_ops.py report --filled 19 --required 22
    # completeness_pct: 86.4%
    # missing_fields: 3

- File the report, the evidence, and the review note together under the report number. Set the retention period from the client contract and the insurer requirement for that client, in writing at contract start. Where both are silent, ask in writing and file the answer.

### 5. Build the schedule from cover math, then hunt gaps daily

A post is a promise of hours. Price the promise in people before signing it, and then check every day that the people are still there.

- Run the relief math for every post at contract stage, with the allowance share from your own payroll history:

    python3 scripts/guard_ops.py relief --post-hours-per-week 168 --guard-hours-per-week 40 --allowance-pct 10
    # base_fte: 4.20
    # productive_hours_per_guard: 36.0
    # required_fte: 4.67
    # whole_guards_to_roster: 5

  Read it plainly: one round the clock post needs five guards on the roster once leave, training, and sick time come out, not four guards and a hope. A contract priced on base FTE with no allowance loses money or loses coverage, usually coverage first.
- Build the roster two weeks out, with named guards, not slots. Every named guard passes the file gate in step 2 for that post. Keep a trained floater list per site: guards who hold the license, have worked the post orders on that site before, and can be called in order. A floater who has never been to the site is a new guard problem at the worst hour.
- Apply the wage and hour floor while building, from U.S. Department of Labor Fact Sheet 4 for this industry: overtime at time and one half for hours over 40 in the workweek, calculated per workweek with no averaging across two weeks, hours at more than one post in the same week counted together, and travel time between work sites counted as hours worked. State law can be stricter, so check the state rule for the post before treating the federal floor as the whole rule. Price a week of overtime cover honestly:

    python3 scripts/guard_ops.py hours --hours 52 --rate 18
    # regular_hours: 40.0
    # overtime_hours: 12.0
    # regular_pay: $720.00
    # overtime_pay: $324.00
    # total_pay: $1044.00
    # overtime_premium_cost: $108.00

  The premium line, $108.00 here, is the true extra cost of that cover choice, and it belongs in the margin check for the contract.
- Hunt gaps on a daily check, seven days out, three days out, and on the day. A gap is any post hour with no named, cleared guard, plus any guard working a pattern that breaks a rest, overtime, or client rule if they cover it. Work gaps in this order: trained floater, part time guard who wants the hours, supervisor cover for a short gap, overtime cover with the premium priced, then a direct call to the client contact before the shift if no cover exists. A client told early can adjust. A client who finds an empty post on their own ends contracts.
- Price any gap that does occur, the same day, so the cost is a number and not a feeling:

    python3 scripts/guard_ops.py uncovered --hours 16 --bill-rate 34 --pay-rate 18
    # uncovered_hours: 16.0
    # bill_at_risk: $544.00
    # straight_pay_cost_to_cover: $288.00

  Cover at straight time would have cost $288.00 in pay. The uncovered hours put $544.00 of bill at risk, before any contract penalty. That comparison ends most arguments about calling a floater.
- Protect lone and night posts on purpose. A guard alone still needs a check in method the post orders name, a missed check in response with a time limit and a call order, and a working way to reach help. Federal OSHA has no general rule that bans working alone, and no check in interval is claimed here as a federal rule. The check in system is company policy, written as company policy, and tested like the tour system.
- Log every call off, gap, cover, and uncovered hour in one schedule log per site. The log is the evidence base for the weekly review and for any client dispute about coverage.

### 6. Run the first month on one site, then review weekly

Worked example. One new client site, a logistics warehouse in Florida. Coverage is one gate post and one night roving post, together 168 post hours a week, every week. Bill rate $34.00 an hour, base pay $18.00 an hour. Roster built from the relief math in step 5: 4.67 FTE required at a 10 percent allowance, five full time guards rostered, plus one trained floater. The roving post runs two tours a night, 20 checkpoints a tour. Four week block: 672 post hours, full bill $22,848.00.

- Week 1, post orders and the first gap. The cold test on day one caught two holes: the orders named no after hours client phone, and the delivery gate procedure assumed a second guard who does not exist on nights. Both rewritten and retested before the first night shift. On the first weekend, one guard called off and no floater had yet finished site training, so two night shifts ran uncovered: 16 post hours. The supervisor called the client contact before each shift, logged both gaps, and the company credited $544.00, the bill on those hours. Billed for the block after the credit: $22,304.00. Lesson filed: floater site training finishes before go live, not during week one.
- Week 2, the file gate bites, on purpose. A new hire was ready to work and willing, and his file held no training certificate copy, only a note. He was held off the roster until the certificate arrived and the regulator lookup was pulled. The shift was covered on overtime instead: one guard worked 52 hours that week at $18.00, total pay $1,044.00, premium cost $108.00. The premium was cheaper than the risk the gate exists to stop, and the schedule log says so in those words.
- Week 3, tour proof gets read. Four week tour totals landed at the end of the month, and week three was where the pattern showed: over the block, 53 of 56 tours completed, 94.64 percent, and 1,064 of 1,120 checkpoints, 95.00 percent, with 56 checkpoints missed. Forty one of the 56 misses sat at two checkpoints in one service corridor. The site check found a dead tag and a corridor door now kept locked at night under a client change nobody had passed to the company. Tag replaced, post orders revised to route the tour through the open corridor, and the client change went into the orders revision log. Misses were a site fault, not a guard fault, and only the daily review split the two.
- Week 4, reports reach the standard. Nine incident reports were filed across the month, most of them trespass and gate events. The first supervisor audit scored a typical early report at 19 of 22 fields, 86.4 percent, missing witness handling, evidence references, and follow up owner. After one coaching session built on the worked rewrite in the reference file, the last three reports of the month each scored 22 of 22. The client renewal note for the month carried three facts: coverage after week one was complete, tour completion with the corridor fault named and fixed, and report completeness at standard. No uncovered hour was hidden, and the credit was shown on its own line.

Weekly review, same time each week, for every site, from the logs rather than from memory:

- Coverage: post hours promised, hours covered, hours uncovered with reasons, and the bill credited. Any uncovered hour repeats until its cause is closed.
- People: file gate results, expiries in the next 45 days, floater depth per site, and overtime hours per guard with the premium total. One guard carrying the overtime every week is a hiring problem wearing a schedule costume.
- Proof: tour and checkpoint completion as two lines, misses by checkpoint and by hour, and the fix status for last week misses.
- Reports: count filed, average completeness, any report sent back, and any follow up past its due time.
- Orders: incidents or client changes that need an orders revision, and the revision status. Close the review by naming the owner and date for each open item.

## Output Contract

For a new client site, deliver:

- Post orders for each post, cold tested, with revision date, version, and company and client approval, plus the site map with checkpoints marked.
- A roster file set: one complete license and training file per rostered guard, the signed pre schedule gate for each guard, and the floater list per site with site training dates.
- A tour plan: checkpoint list with locations and observations, tour times and windows, proof method per checkpoint, and the missed checkpoint alert and response rule.
- The incident report form on the 22 field standard, the training record showing each guard has written a scored practice report, and the supervisor review checklist.
- A schedule pack: relief math per post with the allowance share stated, the two week named roster, the gap check cadence, and the schedule log.
- A weekly review sheet per site covering coverage, people, proof, reports, and orders, with owners and dates for open items.

For a running operation, the standing outputs are the daily tour review note, the weekly roster check log, and the weekly review sheet. If any one of the three stops being produced, the operation is running on memory and the next failure is already scheduled.

## Operating Rules

- Never schedule a guard whose file has not passed the gate, for any post, for any reason. Pressure to fill a shift is the normal condition of this business. The gate is what the pressure does not move.
- Never state a training or licensing figure without its state and its regulator source next to it. Hours from one state applied in another state produce unlicensed guards with clean paperwork.
- Never file tour proof, a daily activity report, or an incident report unread. Unread proof is worse than no proof, because it gives the company confidence it has not earned and hides the fixable pattern.
- Never send an incident report to a client under 100 percent on the 22 fields. Complete means filled or marked not applicable with a reason, by the writer or by a dated supervisor addendum.
- Never hide an uncovered post from the client. Call before the shift, log the call, credit as the contract requires, and fix the cause in the weekly review. Clients forgive a called gap far more often than a discovered one.
- Never let one guard become the standing overtime answer. Track premium cost and hours per guard weekly. Repeated overtime for the same name means the roster is short, and the fix is hiring or floater depth, not more hours.
- Keep personal data in guard files to what scheduling and compliance need, limit who can open the files, and keep license verification printouts with their pull dates. A file that cannot show when a check was run cannot prove the check happened.
- This skill is operating method, not legal advice. License, wage, rest, and use of force rules come from the regulator and the law in the state of the post. Where a contract term, a state rule, and this skill disagree, the law governs, then the contract, and the skill gets a note in the weekly review so the method is corrected.