Security patrols you can prove, stop by stop
A security guard tour QR code gives you something a logbook cannot: a timed record of each stop, made at the stop. The usual record of a patrol is a line in a daily report saying rounds were done at 02:00 with nothing to note. It may be true. Nobody reading it can tell which stops were reached, in what order, or whether the round took 40 minutes or 4.
Your client feels that gap first. An owner who pays for overnight patrols gets a report that reads the same every night. Then something happens in the parkade at 03:10, and the only evidence that anyone was near it is a sentence written at the end of the shift. Older guard tour wands solve this, but they mean buying readers, mounting metal buttons, and collecting a handset from the post at every change of shift. If you run small posts or short contracts, that spending rarely makes sense.
A guard tour system without hardware, step by step
You print the checkpoints. Guards use the phone they already carry.
- Walk the route and pick your checkpoints: a lobby, a loading dock, a stairwell, each parking level. Use places a guard must reach on foot.
- Make each one a point with the purpose Checkpoint, print its code and fix it there, out of easy public reach.
- Make a round of those points, in order. The Security patrol preset fills in 30 seconds between stops, 30 minutes expected and a start code.
- Set the schedule, such as every 2 hours from 22:00 to 06:00.
- Put the round's start code at the guard desk. It is free.
- The guard scans the start code, then each checkpoint: one tap for All clear, or Issue with what is wrong and a photo. An issue opens a follow-up.
- The phone shows how far the patrol is and which stop comes next. Scanning the start code again ends it.
- Missed stops, stops out of order or scanned too fast, and patrols never started are flagged and sent to you.
Choose the checkpoints with care, because they define what the report can show. Put them at the far ends of the route, so that nobody can reach them all with a short walk. Keep them out of the public's reach, at a height a guard can scan comfortably with one hand. If your post has a blind spot that worries the client, make that a checkpoint.
Worked example: Hollowmere Protective
Hollowmere Protective has 3 guards covering the night post at a business park with 5 low-rise buildings and a surface lot. The contract calls for 4 patrols a night, at 22:00, 00:00, 02:00 and 04:00, and each takes about 35 minutes.
Hollowmere places 12 checkpoints: 2 at each building, 1 at the gatehouse and 1 at the far end of the lot. The start code sits at the gatehouse desk. The order is fixed, the shortest gap between stops is 45 seconds, and the 2 outdoor stops have the location check on.
On a Thursday, the 02:00 patrol is never started. That slot ends at 04:00, and the alert reaches the duty supervisor soon after, because Hollowmere has turned quiet hours off for this night post. A call finds that the guard was held at the gate by a delivery. The 04:00 patrol reaches 11 of its 12 stops: the guard missed Building 3 East, and the run shows it. At stop 7 the guard taps Issue, writes that a floodlight behind Building 2 is out, and adds a photo. The supervisor sees the follow-up and passes it to the client that morning.
At month-end, the Rounds report shows 120 patrols expected, with the done, partial and missed counts, and goes to the client with the invoice.
Names and numbers are examples.
Recommended settings for a patrol checkpoint QR code
| Setting | Recommended, and why |
|---|---|
| Photo | Offered with an issue and not on All clear. A guard walking at night should tap and move on. A picture matters when there is something to show. |
| Location check | On where a checkpoint has a fixed place outdoors, since it catches a code copied and scanned from elsewhere. Indoors it says less, because the position drifts. |
| Scan in and out | Not used. A checkpoint is one tap, and the run itself times the gap between stops, which is what a patrol report needs. |
| Approvals | Approved people only: your guards by email, or your company by domain. A stranger's scan on a client's checkpoint is something you want to hear about. |
| Alerts | A patrol not started: each time. It is reported once its slot has ended. Turn quiet hours off for a night post, or it waits for morning. Partial runs go in the daily summary. |
| Order | In order, flagging a stop out of order, where the post orders specify a route. Any order if you want the route to vary. |
| Shortest time between stops | 30 seconds or more, to fit the walk. Measure the two closest stops, and set a little under that. |
What it does not do
It is not an alarm or an emergency system. A missed patrol is reported only after its slot ends, an alert can arrive minutes after the event, and quiet hours or a daily cap can hold one back. Never use it as the way someone calls for help.
It does not follow anyone between scans. A position is read only at a scan, where the point asks for it. Nothing runs in the background during a shift.
It does not plan shifts or assign guards to posts. It knows who walked a round, not who was rostered to.
It records that a guard reached a code. It does not show what the guard saw there, or how closely they looked.
Questions
Do guards need an app or a company handset?
No app. Guards scan with their own phone's camera and a web page opens. The phone is remembered after the first sign-in code, which helps when a relief guard covers a shift. Guards never pay.
What if a guard skips a checkpoint?
The alert says how many stops were missed. The run's page names them and shows each stop reached, with its time and the gap since the one before, so you can see where the patrol went wrong.
Can a guard stand in one spot and scan every code?
Only if they have copies of the codes. Each code stays at its checkpoint, the location check compares the phone's position with the point, and stops scanned faster than the shortest time allowed are flagged.
Does the start code count toward my plan?
No. A round's start and end code is free. You pay only for the points, so a patrol of 8 checkpoints uses 8 codes.
Can I give a client a monthly report?
Yes. The Rounds report gives each round's expected, done, partial and missed patrols, every run and every issue, as a PDF or a CSV.
What if a patrol must change at short notice?
Edit the round on the server. You can add or drop a stop, or change the schedule, and the printed codes stay in place. A guard sees the new route on the next run.
Start with one free code
No credit card. Workers never pay and never install an app. Pricing is per code, in US dollars, with unlimited workers.