Patrols are what clients pay for and rarely see. The guard walks the perimeter at 1am, checks the doors, looks at the loading dock. If nothing happens, there's nothing to show for it. And when a client asks whether anyone came, "yes, the patrol sheet says so" isn't much of an answer.
Paper patrol sheets have the same weakness as paper timesheets. They can be filled in at the end of the shift, from the comfort of the guard hut, with the right times written next to each point.
Why NFC checkpoints
An NFC tag is a small sticker or disc fixed at each checkpoint. The guard holds their phone to it, and the scan records the time. A guard can't scan a tag without being at it. That's the whole point.
It also changes what a patrol record is. Instead of a sheet saying a round happened, you get every checkpoint, in order, with its time. Missed points show up as missed, not as blanks someone filled in later.
What to look for
First, it has to work with no signal. Basements, car parks and plant rooms are exactly where checkpoints go and where phones drop out. Scans should save on the phone and send when signal comes back.
Second, problems need a proper path. A damaged tag or a locked door shouldn't mean a skipped checkpoint with no explanation. The guard should be able to report it, with a photo and a note, from the same screen.
Third, the guard should see their progress, so a missed checkpoint gets noticed during the round, not in a report the next day.
Mobile patrols need the same proof
Mobile patrols visiting several clients a night have the same problem, multiplied. Each client wants proof their site was visited, for long enough, and doesn't need to see anyone else's stops. A run sheet with a minimum time at each stop, tags at each site and a reason for leaving early gives each client a record they can trust.
How ORION does it
In ORION, you set up NFC routes and checkpoints for each site in Command. Guards start the patrol in the Force app and see their progress as they scan, such as 3 of 6. A wrong tag or a repeated scan is caught on the spot. Scans are saved on the phone with no signal, and a checkpoint that can't be scanned needs a photo and a note.
For mobile patrols, the run sheet guides each stop, with a minimum time on site and NFC tags at each stop. Your office reviews each round with its route, and each client gets a patrol receipt for their own stops only.
From the team behind OrionUnified
This is the problem we build for.
OrionUnified connects your office, your guards and your clients on one live system — licence compliance enforced at the roster, geofenced timesheets, and client portals that build trust instead of phone calls.