Security Guard Scheduling Software for UK Firms

It's Thursday afternoon and next week's rota still isn't finished. Two sites need cover on Saturday night, one guard has booked a holiday you only half remember agreeing to, and you're fairly sure somebody's SIA licence runs out this month but you'd have to go and look.

What most UK security firms do today

A spreadsheet, a wall planner, or a group chat with the rota pasted in as a photo. It works, mostly, and it's cheap. The trouble is that none of those things know anything about your guards. A spreadsheet will happily let you put the same person on two sites at once, or roster someone whose licence expired last week, and it won't say a word.

So the checking happens in your head, or it doesn't happen at all. Then the rota goes out, the changes start, and by Friday there are three versions of it in circulation and the guards are texting to ask which one is right.

How TacDesk schedules your guards

The rota shows your guards and the days of the week in one view. Add a shift on the day you need it, pick the guard, the site and the times, and add any notes the guard needs to see for that shift. For regular cover, set the shift to repeat instead of entering it again every week.

The checking happens while you build:

• Double-bookings are flagged. Put a guard on a shift that clashes with one they already have and TacDesk warns you before you save it.
• SIA licences are checked against the rota. TacDesk tracks each guard's SIA licence, and assigning someone whose licence has expired or been revoked gets flagged at the point you assign them. A manager can still go ahead with a written reason, and that override is recorded.

Guards see their shifts in the TacDesk app on their phone, with the site, times and your notes.

Then TacDesk makes sure they turn up. Every scheduled shift gets a push reminder 15 minutes before the start, and again at the start time if the guard hasn't clocked in. If they're still not in, you and your on-call managers are alerted at 5, 15 and 30 minutes late, so an empty site gets noticed in minutes, not when the client rings.

Why it matters

Gaps get found while you can still fill them. A clash or a lapsed licence shows up when you're building the rota on Thursday, not on Saturday night.

You can show how you check licences. Licence checks and the override record sit alongside the rota, which is the kind of evidence an ACS assessor or a client's compliance team asks for.

Fewer "am I in Tuesday?" messages. Every guard can check their shifts in the app, and it shows the rota as it stands, not last week's photo of it.

No-shows get caught early. Reminders and late alerts run on every shift without you setting anything up per guard.

Where it sits

Rota & Scheduling is on every plan, TacFree included, along with shift reminders and SIA licence tracking. You can start free and build a real rota before you pay for anything.

On TacStarter and above you also get the Shift Marketplace, where you post an open shift and guards claim it, which is handy for last-minute cover.

If you want the day-to-day detail, the rota and scheduling page covers how the checks work, and our guide to choosing security guard scheduling software in the UK walks through what to look for. If your contracts need proof that patrols were walked, see our guard tour system.