Security guard time tracking
Security guard time tracking that shows which guard held which post, and for how long.
Security guard time tracking has to show that a client's post was staffed for the hours billed, and by whom. ZeroBadge gives each guard a company-managed badge. Power on starts the shift, each client site is a location drawn from its address, and the record shows each guard's arrival and departure at that site. Relief and handover are visible, and hours by site are ready for the client's invoice. It records time and presence only.
- Presence by client site, by guard
- Relief and handover on one record
- One month or more of battery life*
*Under qualifying operating conditions. Battery life varies with reporting frequency, signal conditions, usage, and configuration.
Same crew · same week · 3 jobsites
A time clock at each site
records the punchRiverside
Time clock
Harbor Yard
Time clock
Northgate
Time clock
Hours exist where a clock was placed and someone used it. The drive between sites is not part of the record.
A record that follows the worker
records the dayRiverside
Harbor Yard
Northgate
Time at each site and the transit between them land in one shift record.
What ZeroBadge does for you
How ZeroBadge helps security guard companies
One company badge per worker covers safety alerts, timekeeping, labor analytics and ZeroBadge AI. Here is what each part does in your line of work.
01
Worker safety
A guard on a night post can press the alert button or SOS, and the dashboard shows which client site it came from. Entering a restricted area raises an alert.
Learn more02
Workforce management
See which guards are at which client sites, and spot a late relief or an empty post before the client calls to ask.
Learn more03
Automated timekeeping
Power on at the post starts the shift and power off ends it, so a 12-hour post and its relief show on one record per guard.
Learn more04
Workforce productivity
Compare hours billed with hours recorded for each client site and see where overtime from covering gaps is building up during the week.
Learn more05
Location analytics
The record shows which client site a guard was at and when, by GPS outdoors and Wi-Fi positioning in lobbies. It answers which site, not which room.
Learn more06
Field logistics
Balance guards and relief across many small sites with the record of who covered which post, so supervisors can see gaps before they become overtime.
Learn more07
AI advisory and analytics
Ask which client sites had a late relief last week and get an answer from your own badge records, with each number linked to the shift behind it.
Learn more
Safety alerts support your safety program. They do not replace supervision or training, ZeroBadge does not monitor alerts or contact 911, and in an emergency workers should call 911.
Where guard-company hours go wrong
The client pays for a post. The company has to show the post was filled.
Guard contracts bill hours per post at a bill rate, and wages come out of the same hours. Margin depends on getting every billed hour covered and no unbilled hour paid.
Late relief
A guard arrives fifteen minutes after the shift starts and the outgoing guard stays to cover. The client is billed the full shift. The gap is a question the office can't answer from the paper log.
Daily logs written after the fact
Post logs are filled in by the guard, often at the end of the shift. They record what the guard says happened, not an independent record of when the guard was at the site.
Hours billed that nobody can support
When a client disputes a week's invoice for a post, the company has a log and a supervisor's memory. A mismatch can mean a credit on the entire line.
Overtime from covering holes
A call-out on one post gets filled by a guard on another post's overtime. Without hours by site, you can't see whether the overtime was billable or absorbed.
Many small sites, few supervisors
A company with forty client sites and four field supervisors can only visit so many. Everything else is trust and a call to the post phone.
A post over 12 hours
One client site, a 6 PM to 6 AM post, two guards and a relief.
Illustrative post for a client billed hourly. The outgoing and incoming guards overlap at each handover.
Post log and a phone call
- 6:00 PMThe night guard writes 6:00 on the log. The day guard's own entry says 5:50 for the same handover.
- 11:00 PMThe night guard steps away for a break. A roving supervisor covers by phone arrangement. Nothing is written down.
- 5:45 AMThe day guard arrives early to relieve. Both guards log the hour differently.
- InvoiceThe client bills 12 hours for the post. The log shows more than 12 hours of guard time, and a call to the client's building manager settles which is right.
Badge record
- 6:00 PMEach guard's badge shows their own arrival at the client site. The overlap at handover is visible, in minutes.
- Through the nightThe site's record shows which guard was at the site during each stretch. A guard who leaves the site for the drive to another post shows as in transit.
- 5:45 AMThe day guard's arrival is recorded at the time it happened, on their own line.
- InvoiceHours by site are the sum of each badge's time at that site. You can support the 12 hours billed, and see the 15 minutes of overlap that was paid but not billed.
Post coverage by site
What the record shows for a client post, and what it doesn't.
ZeroBadge records time and presence. It does not run guard tours, scan checkpoints, write incident reports or tell you what happened on a post.
Hours by client site
Each client site is a location. The weekly record gives hours at that site by guard and by day, which is the figure behind the client's invoice.
Relief and handover
Two badges at the same site at the same time is an overlap, and the record shows how long. Whether the overlap is billed is your contract's call. The record shows how much there was.
Which post at a large site
A campus with several posts is one location, so ZeroBadge can't say which gate a guard stood at. Keep the post assignment on your schedule and use the site and date to line it up.
Garages and basements
Where GPS and Wi-Fi are both weak, the badge falls back to cellular continuity and marks the position as low confidence. Reports it can't send are stored and uploaded when signal returns with their original timestamps.
Licensed posts
Licensing and post requirements sit with you. The badge doesn't know whether the guard is licensed for a post. It records who was there.
Exceptions
A late start or a missing power-off appears in the review list.
The weekly review shows each guard's late starts, early finishes and any shift that never ended. The supervisor sees them at the end of the shift or the week and clears or corrects each one. Corrections keep an audit trail and nothing is silently edited.
Use the list to find a pattern at a certain post: the same relief arriving late each Friday, or a site where hours billed and hours covered differ week after week.
Exceptions
Timesheets
24
Generated
Shifts
120
Recorded
Open items
3
Before payroll
- Corrected
Late start · Hannah P. · Harbor Yard
Mon Oct 5 · Clocked in 7:24 AM; crew start 7:00 AM (24 min after).
- Corrected
Late start · Connor J. · Northgate
Wed Oct 7 · Clocked in 6:52 AM; crew start 6:30 AM (22 min after).
- Needs review
Missing clock-out · Ivan B. · Harbor Yard
Thu Oct 8 · No clock-out recorded. Shift closed at the last badge report (2:55 PM) pending supervisor review.
- Needs review
Late start · Kenji H. · Riverside
Thu Oct 8 · Clocked in 7:18 AM; crew start 7:00 AM (18 min after).
- Needs review
Early finish · Olivia V. · Northgate
Fri Oct 9 · Clocked out 12:15 PM; scheduled finish 1:30 PM (75 min before).
Approved hours go to
- Your payroll provider
- CSVexport
- Excelexport
- PDFexport
Why a phone app or a kiosk doesn't fit a guard post
Post orders keep the phone in a pocket, and the client owns the lobby.
Post orders often restrict phones
Many sites limit guards' phone use while on post. An app that has to be tapped at the start of a shift, and again at relief, puts the guard against the post order.
A kiosk is another client approval
A time clock in a client's lobby needs the client's agreement and a network connection, and it can only tell you a guard tapped it, not that they stayed. Forty client sites would need forty of them.
A tap shows the start, not the duration
A punch is a moment. A guard can punch in and leave. The badge reports about every five minutes through the shift, so the record shows a stretch at the site, not just the start of it.
No client IT involved
Nothing is installed on the client's property. A geofence is drawn in software from the site's address, so adding a new post takes minutes, not a site visit.
Rolling it out
Start with the post you reconcile by hand every week.
- 01
Draw the client sites
Type each site's address. ZeroBadge draws a geofence around it. Add your office and any training location too.Office · first day
- 02
Issue badges
Each guard gets a badge in their name. It clips on the uniform and needs no phone.Office · first week
- 03
Power on at the post
Guards power on when they arrive and off when relieved. Badges are off between shifts.Guards · every shift
- 04
Review and invoice
Review exceptions, approve the week and use hours by site for client invoices. Approved hours are sent to your payroll provider.Office · weekly
Scope
ZeroBadge is a workforce presence verification tool. It does not replace guard-tour, incident-reporting or dispatch software.
Keep those systems for what they do. The badge supplies the hours and presence behind your payroll and your client invoices.
Go deeper
Where guard companies usually look next.
- Industry guideField ServicesService techs on routes: customer stops, drive time and who is where right now.
- Industry guideCommercial cleaningNight crews across client buildings, with proof of presence and badges that hand over in a minute.
- SolutionTime tracking without phonesA company-managed badge instead of an app on a worker's personal phone.
- SolutionJobsite time clock alternativesKiosks, tablets, portable site clocks and foreman punch, compared with a worn badge.
- SolutionMulti-jobsite time trackingSite transfers, transit and supply runs inside one shift record.
- SolutionPayroll integrationApproved hours sent to your payroll provider automatically. Nobody re-keys a timecard.
ZeroBadge AI
Ask ZeroBadge AI about your client posts
ZeroBadge AI is read-only. It answers from your badge records, and your admins control who can use it.
You ask
Which client sites had a late relief last week?
Two: Pier 4 Warehouse on Tuesday, relieved 22 minutes late, and Central Tower on Friday, 14 minutes late. Both link to the shifts on each side of the handover.
You ask
How many hours did each guard record at the Central Tower post?
Four guards recorded 168 hours across 14 shifts, listed by guard and day. Each total opens the power-on and power-off times behind it.
You ask
Which guards finished last week with overtime from covering?
Three guards logged more than 40 hours, with 11, 9 and 6 overtime hours. The extra hours are listed by client site and date.
Answers come only from your company's own records. Every number links to the records behind it. Read-only; admins control access.
How ZeroBadge AI worksQuestions
Questions guard companies ask.
How do you track security guard hours across client sites?
Can it show relief and handover between guards?
Does it tell us what a guard did on post?
Can guards use it if they can't use phones on post?
How precise is the location?
Last updated
Get started
See a 12-hour post and its relief in one week's record.
We'll walk through ZeroBadge with your client sites, your posts and how your invoices are built today.
What we will walk through
- 01How a guard's arrival and departure at a client site are recorded
- 02Relief overlap and gaps between guards
- 03Hours by site for invoicing, and approved hours for payroll