The verdict in three sentences
A guarding company with 1,300 officers across 220 sites cannot keep running rosters on spreadsheets without losing billable hours, client penalties and payroll accuracy every month. Software that connects NFC guard tours, shift replacements in under 2 hours and overtime exported straight to payroll usually pays for itself in less than 18 months. Choosing between an off-the-shelf platform at USD 4 to 9 per officer per month and a custom build depends mainly on your client contracts, your payroll rules and where your data must live.
What spreadsheet scheduling really costs
Take a mid-sized contract security firm in a UK or US city: 220 sites mixing hotels, gated communities, construction sites, bank branches and clinics. Each site has 8 or 12-hour shifts, post orders, checkpoints and reporting duties. On spreadsheets, three schedulers rebuild the week by hand, chase absences by phone and re-key hours for payroll. The cost never shows up in one budget line, it leaks everywhere.
| Item | Spreadsheet situation | 2026 order of magnitude |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduling | 3 full-time schedulers | USD 11,000 to 14,000 payroll per month |
| Replacements | 3.5 hours average, about 25 call-offs per week | penalty of USD 150 to 400 per uncovered post |
| Guard tours | paper log signed at end of shift | 1 to 3 % of revenue disputed |
| Overtime | 2 days of re-keying per month | 2 to 4 % of payslips corrected |
| Invoicing | hours worked and hours billed not reconciled | 1 to 2 % of revenue never invoiced |
| Compliance | officer files scattered | licence checks (SIA in the UK, state licences in the US) hard to prove |
Labour rules shape the software too. In the UK, the National Living Wage of GBP 12.71 per hour from April 2026 and Working Time Regulations rest periods; in the US, FLSA overtime at 1.5 times after 40 hours a week plus state rules such as California daily overtime. All of this must come out of the system without manual rework.
The modules a guarding platform needs
Good software starts from the post, not the officer: each site is split into posts (front desk, patrol, control room, K9), each with hours, required licences and a bill rate. Priority modules:
- Scheduling by site and post, with recurring patterns (2x12, 3x8) and automatic checks on rest periods and hour caps.
- Officer mobile app: geofenced clock-in, roster view, digital daily activity report with photos.
- NFC guard tours: 15 to 40 tags per site, about USD 4 to 10 each, scanned in a set order and time window, with alerts on missed checkpoints.
- Open-shift marketplace: when a call-off is logged, available licensed officers within 6 miles get a push notification, the first to accept is assigned, the supervisor approves.
- Payroll export: regular, night, weekend and holiday hours, premiums calculated, file ready for ADP, Sage or your payroll provider.
- Client portal: tour reports, incidents and hours worked visible to the hotel or the bank.
| Criterion | Off-the-shelf SaaS | Custom build |
|---|---|---|
| Price | USD 4 to 9 per officer per month, so USD 5,200 to 11,700 per month for 1,300 officers | Kolonell grid: medium application 4,000,000 to 7,000,000 FCFA (6,100 to 10,670 EUR), complex 7,000,000 to 15,000,000+ FCFA (10,670 to 22,870+ EUR), exact amount in the quote |
| Lead time | 4 to 8 weeks of configuration | 3 to 5 months |
| Payroll rules | generic export to rework | your premiums and union agreements coded in |
| Languages | usually English and Spanish | languages are set in the quote |
| Data | vendor's cloud region | hosting of your choice, GDPR or state privacy rules |
| Maintenance | included in subscription | 35,000, 75,000 or 120,000 FCFA per month (53, 114 or 183 EUR) |
| Ownership | lifelong rental | you own the code and the data |
Off-the-shelf tools fit firms under 300 officers with standard contracts. Above that, the subscription becomes a heavy fixed cost and every local specificity (meal allowances, on-call rotas, seasonal hotel sites) ends up back in a spreadsheet.
How to scope the project in 3 to 5 months
The build runs in three lots. Lot one, 6 to 8 weeks, covers scheduling, the officer app and clock-in. Lot two adds NFC tours and the open-shift marketplace, piloted on 20 sites. Lot three plugs in the payroll export and the client portal. Each lot goes live before the next one, so gains are measured early.
| Lot | Scope | Indicative duration | KPI tracked |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | scheduling, officer files, clock-in app | 6 to 8 weeks | scheduler hours per week |
| 2 | NFC tours, activity reports, open shifts | 4 to 6 weeks | average replacement time |
| 3 | payroll export, invoicing, client portal | 4 to 6 weeks | gap between hours worked and billed |
| Migration | import of 1,300 officers and 220 sites | 1 to 2 weeks | share of complete records |
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Mini case study
Tom, operations director of a 1,300-officer guarding firm in Manchester, works from his own figures. With the software, two of three schedulers move to field supervision: GBP 5,600 of time freed per month. Replacement time drops from 3.5 hours to 1 h 40 and uncovered posts fall from 12 to 3 per month, so 9 x GBP 250 = GBP 2,250 in penalties avoided. On monthly revenue of GBP 2.6 million, recovering 1 % of unbilled hours is worth GBP 26,000. The monthly gain is therefore about GBP 33,850, against a SaaS subscription of 1,300 x GBP 5 = GBP 6,500 per month that still leaves payroll rework in place. Tom compares this gain with the build budget set in the quote plus monthly maintenance: payback is counted in months, not years.
FAQ
Do NFC tags survive outdoor sites?
Yes, IP67 hardened tags cost around USD 8 to 10 and last more than 5 years. Keep 10 % spare stock for vandalism.
What if an officer has no signal?
The app stores the scan offline with its timestamp and syncs when the network returns. On our projects, under 2 % of scans arrive late.
Can we keep our current payroll software?
Yes, the scheduling platform produces a monthly import file with regular and premium hours. The 2 days of re-keying per month disappear.
How long to onboard 1,300 officers?
A 20-minute session per team is enough for the officer app. Plan 2 to 3 weeks of rollout in waves of 50 sites.
Is officer data protected?
Role-based access, encrypted storage and location tracking only during the shift keep you aligned with GDPR or US state privacy laws. Retention periods are set per data type.
Let's scope your project. Share your sites, shift patterns and payroll system, and we will scope a build deliverable in 3 to 5 months. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
