Three numbers, three meanings
Most security companies talk about “hours” as if there is only one number. In practice there are three, and each one answers a different question.
- Scheduled hours: the plan. How many hours you intended to cover at each post.
- Recorded hours: what was logged. When the officer actually clocked in and out.
- Approved hours: what a supervisor confirmed. The number you stand behind.
Why mixing them costs money
If you bill from scheduled hours, you invoice clients for coverage that may not have happened, which damages trust the first time a client checks. If you pay from recorded hours without review, you pay for early clock-ins, missed clock-outs and shifts that ran long without a reason.
Approved hours sit between the two. A supervisor compares what was recorded with what was scheduled, resolves the differences and signs off. That is the number payroll and billing should use.
A simple weekly routine
- Before the week starts, confirm scheduled coverage for every post and resolve open shifts.
- Each day, have supervisors review recorded time against the schedule for their sites.
- Investigate any shift that differs from the schedule by more than a set threshold, such as 15 minutes.
- Approve hours before the payroll cutoff, and bill clients from approved hours only.
- Track the gap between scheduled and approved hours by site. A growing gap is an early warning about coverage or staffing.
What to look for in software
Whatever system you use, it should store all three numbers separately and show who approved each shift. If your tools only keep one “hours” field, the distinction will be lost the first busy week.