Rostering software for security companies
Different site, different night, and half the roster is awake when the office is not. The week is built site by site, and the hardest part is knowing that the person rostered to a gate at eleven actually arrived at it.
| Who | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jonah K.Depot | 6–6 | 6–6 | 6–6 | off | off | off |
| Sam T.Depot | 6pm–6am | 6pm–6am | 6pm–6am | 6pm–6am | off | off |
| Hana Y.Site 2 | off | off | 6–6 | 6–6 | 6–6 | 6–6 |
| Lucas P.Venue | off | off | off | 8pm–2am | 8pm–3am | 8pm–3am |
| Kirra D.Events | off | off | off | off | off | 10–6 |
The depot is covered day and night. The venue and event shifts are their own sites, rostered as separate venues.
What makes a security company hard to roster
Four things that come up in every one of these weeks, and what happens here instead.
What changes once it is running
What security companies get back, in the terms this trade measures it in.
A week in a security company
What it is used for in a security company
Specific things people in this trade do with it, rather than a list of modules.
- Each site as a venue with its own address and its own clock in radius
- Twelve hour day and night shifts, with the night counted as one shift across midnight
- An event crew built for one Saturday and never rostered again
- Reminders before a shift, for people starting when the office is closed
- Attendance read the next morning: who started late, and which shift was never clocked
- Guards who work several sites in a fortnight, kept as one person with one timesheet
The Saturday an event asked for four more at six
Nine static sites, a casual list of 30, and an event booking that grows.
| When | What happens | What you do here |
|---|---|---|
| Friday 3pm | The event client asks for four more guards from six on Saturday. | The event address is already a venue, so the four shifts take a minute to place. |
| Friday 3:20pm | Three of the four are already on a site that night. | The clash shows as each shift is placed, so the fourth is found before anybody is promised. |
| Saturday 5:50pm | Reminders went out an hour before. Three of four have clocked in at the gate. | The fourth has not, and the attendance view says so while there is still time to ring. |
| Saturday 6:15pm | He clocks in 400 metres away, in the car park across the road. | The distance is on the record. A supervisor can accept it or ask, and the answer is kept. |
| Sunday | The night shifts that ran to six in the morning are on the timesheet. | Each counts as one twelve hour shift, and the event hours sit against the event venue. |
Four extra guards found in twenty minutes, and a night that can be invoiced from real hours.
The jobs that stop being jobs
Where the hours in a week like this go. No stopwatch: the left column is what the work takes without it, and the right is what is left of the same task.
| The job | Usually | Here |
|---|---|---|
| Standing up a crew for an event | Calling thirty people and writing names on a pad | Shifts against the event venue, with clashes flagged as you place them |
| Knowing a guard reached the gate | A call at the start of every shift, if somebody remembers to make it | A clock in with its distance, and an unclocked shift on the attendance view |
| Counting a 6pm to 6am shift | Two lines, two dates and a total nobody trusts | One shift, twelve hours, compared with the clock in and out |
| Working out which site somebody was on | A roster that lists people, not places | A venue per site, with the hours reported against it |
What the record shows, and what stays yours
Roster Flow keeps the record. Meeting the obligation is still the workplace's job, and these are the parts of it nothing here decides for you.
- Which site or event each shift belonged to, for a guard who works several
- The distance from the site at every clock in, and a photo where required
- Shifts with no clock in at all, visible while the shift is still running
- Night shifts counted as one shift rather than split at midnight
- Corrections, who made them, and the reason recorded at the time
- Security licences and any check a client or a regulator requires
- What a night, a public holiday or a call out is paid at
- Fatigue rules between two twelve hour shifts
- What the client is invoiced, which this does not calculate
What has to be kept, and for how long, is set out by the Fair Work Ombudsman. Nothing here interprets an award or certifies that a workplace complies with one.
Who is usually on the team
Ten to sixty guards, mostly casual, across static sites, events and patrols, with one or two people building the week.
What drives the wage cost
Nights, weekends and public holidays at the rates you set, on shifts long enough that one extra guard is a real number. The estimate totals the week as you build it.
Questions people in security companies ask
Does it hold licence numbers or expiry dates?
No. Licences and any check required to work stay where you keep them. Nothing here verifies a licence or warns when one lapses.
Does the clock in prove a guard was on site?
It records the distance from the site at the moment they clocked in, and a photo if you require one. That is evidence to look at, not proof, and a manager can accept or query it.
Can we roster one-off event crews?
Yes. Add the address as a venue, roster the crew to it, and the hours come back like any other shift.
A guard does not turn up at a gate at eleven at night. What happens?
You are told rather than finding out from the client. A late start is flagged as it happens and, once it is late enough to count as a no show, you get a shortlist of guards who are free and usually on time to ring.
Can I roster a twelve hour night shift that crosses midnight?
Yes. A 6pm to 6am shift is one shift of twelve hours, not two days, and somebody clocking in at five past six is five minutes late rather than nearly a day early.
Event crews are one-off and often twenty people. Is that a lot of setup?
Adding people is an invitation each, or an import from Xero, and the event site is a venue with its own radius. When the event is over, deactivate whoever has moved on and they stop counting towards your plan that day.