Built for this category
Not a generic HR tool with a checkbox for your industry. The workflows, terminology, and reports match how your operation actually runs — because the platform was designed for it from the start.
Security Companies
Operations & Payroll for African Security Companies
The operations platform for African private security — geofenced clock-in, patrol-route proof, PSRA & licence expiry tracking, per-client invoicing, payroll, and a guard mobile portal — all in one system.
12
capabilities
10+
African markets
USD
pricing · local currency view
Mobile · USSD · WhatsApp
every device
Geofenced clock-in at every post
Live attendance map
Patrol routes with checkpoint scanning
SOS panic button with GPS
Occurrence Book (OB), digital
PSRA / CID / medical expiry tracking
Per-client contracts & auto-invoicing
Equipment issuance with return tracking
Shift templates & rosters
Tap any capability to see the detail · or scroll for the full picture
Connected to payroll
Every event in this module — attendance, leave, timesheet, equipment, incident, performance — flows automatically into the next payroll cycle. No spreadsheet reconciliation, no double entry.
African by design
Statutory rules maintained for 40+ countries, mobile-money payouts, USSD self-service, WhatsApp delivery, multiple languages, offline-capable mobile app for field workers.
The problems we hear most
If any of this sounds familiar,
If any of this sounds familiar,
you're in the right place.
These are the recurring conversations with buyers in this category. We built the platform to retire each of them.
Clock-in happens on a paper register at the gate. By month-end, supervisors are re-typing 80 sites worth of attendance — and you still can't prove to the client that the guard was at the post.
Patrol rounds: did they actually happen? You only find out a guard skipped a route after the client complains about a break-in nobody logged.
PSRA, CID clearance, medical certificates, firearm competency — they all have expiry dates. You find out one has lapsed when an inspector or client audit catches it. That's a fine, sometimes a contract.
Each client wants their own invoice with hours by guard, by post, by shift, with supervisor sign-off. Finance rebuilds those by hand — 80 invoices, four days, every month-end.
Equipment goes out — radios, batons, uniforms, boots, sometimes a firearm. Months later half of it's missing. There's no link from "lost kit" to "deduct from payroll" so the loss just walks.
An SOS or incident at 02:00 reaches operations the next morning over WhatsApp, after the situation is over. The site supervisor and HQ never see the same picture in real time.
Overtime, public holiday rates, Sunday work, double-time thresholds — the labour law math differs per country and changes every gazette. Your spreadsheet has six tabs and one of them is always wrong.
What's built in
Features your team will actually use.
Specific tools for this category — not generic HR repackaged. Each card describes what the feature does and how it fits the way you work.
01
Geofenced clock-in at every post
Each site has a GPS pin and a radius (e.g. 100 m). The guard's phone is verified inside the geofence before clock-in is accepted. Out-of-radius attempts return the exact distance so the guard knows to move to the actual post.
02
Live attendance map
Green dots for on-time clock-ins, red for late, geofence circles overlaid on every active site. Operations sees who's on duty, where, in real time — filterable by date, site, supervisor.
03
Patrol routes with checkpoint scanning
Build a patrol route with ordered checkpoints. Guards scan an NFC tag or QR code at each. The system flags missed checkpoints or rounds completed too fast — automatic proof for the client, automatic alert when discipline slips.
04
SOS panic button with GPS
The guard ESS app has an always-visible SOS button. One tap captures GPS, raises a high-severity incident in operations, and starts an audit trail with timestamp and location. Designed for real emergencies, not paperwork.
05
Occurrence Book (OB), digital
Guards file OB entries — patrols, visitors, handovers, hazards — from their phone. Each entry is timestamped server-side and immutable. Per-site export ready for clients on request, no more paper books going missing.
06
PSRA / CID / medical expiry tracking
Every guard's licence, clearance, medical, firearm competency, and training certificate is tracked with 90/60/30/7 day expiry alerts. The compliance dashboard shows everything expiring this month. Inspector visits stop being a surprise.
07
Per-client contracts & auto-invoicing
Define each client's contract: rate per guard hour, supervisor margin, public-holiday loading, OT terms. End of cycle, invoices generate from the same attendance data that drives payroll — no double entry, no reconciliation.
08
Equipment issuance with return tracking
Issue a radio, baton, uniform, or PPE — system records who got what, when. On return, condition is logged. Lost or damaged kit links automatically to a guard loan deduction in next payroll. The loss loop closes.
09
Shift templates & rosters
Day, night, 12-hour, split — define shift templates once. Roster 500 guards across 80 sites with conflict detection, leave-aware scheduling, and automatic relief assignment when someone calls in sick.
10
Auto-payroll from attendance
At cycle end: one click generates payroll entries from attendance hours, OT, allowances, equipment-loss deductions, and active loans. Country statutory deductions applied. Review, approve, payslips go live in ESS.
11
Guard mobile ESS portal
Mobile-first web app the guard opens at /guard. Today's shifts, clock-in/out, schedule for the next 14 days, OB filing, incident reporting, SOS, leave applications, payslip download — all in one place.
12
USSD attendance for feature phones
For guards without smartphones, a USSD short code captures clock-in/out from any handset on any network. SIM-tied to the registered guard. No app installation, no data plan, no paper.
Why modules aren't enough
Every event is wired to the next.
Most HR systems sell modules as separate products — and then your team spends every month reconciling between them. SmartHR Africa is one system. Each event in this category flows automatically into the right downstream process.
Geofenced clock-in
Payroll hours
GPS-verified clock-ins at each post become attendance hours, computed automatically against the shift template — no paper register, no end-of-month re-typing of 80 sites.
Patrol checkpoint scans
Client proof-of-service
NFC / QR scans on every route are timestamped server-side. The next time a client asks "was the guard patrolling at 02:00?" you have map pins and timestamps before you hang up.
Equipment issuance
Guard loan deduction
A radio or uniform issued and not returned at exit triggers an automatic loan deduction on the final payroll. The loss loop closes; nothing walks off the books.
PSRA / CID expiry
Compliance alerts
Each guard's licence, clearance, medical, and firearm competency is tracked with 90/60/30/7 day alerts. Inspector visits stop being a surprise.
SOS panic button
Operations dashboard
One tap captures GPS, raises a high-severity incident in operations, and pings the duty officer. Real emergencies surface in seconds, not next-day WhatsApp.
Attendance hours
Per-client invoicing
The same hours that drive payroll generate each client's invoice in their preferred format — hours-only, guard-name detail, or per-shift breakdown. No double entry.
Where this matters most
Live across 10 African markets.
Statutory compliance, local-currency payroll, and salary disbursement options in every market we support. Click through to your country page for in-region pricing, statutory rates, and a calculator.
GPS accuracy on consumer phones is typically 5–15 m outdoors, worse indoors or in dense urban areas. The default geofence is 100 m — wide enough to absorb that drift, tight enough to prove the guard is at the post and not at home. Each site's radius is configurable; operations can widen it for sites with bad signal.
Each checkpoint scan captures GPS at scan time. If the scan happens outside the checkpoint's geofence, the round flags as suspicious. Combined with the \"expected interval\" between checkpoints, you can spot rounds completed in 30 seconds when they should take 15 minutes.
USSD attendance — they dial a short code, pick clock-in or clock-out, and get an SMS confirmation. No data plan needed, no app to install. For incident reporting or OB entries, the guard can dictate by phone to operations who logs on their behalf, or use a shared smartphone at the gate.
For devices that speak standard protocols (ZKTeco, Suprema, Anviz, Hikvision via ADMS / TCP-IP / SDK), we ingest clock-ins automatically. For older devices, the operator uploads the daily attendance CSV which the system processes. Biometric, GPS phone, USSD — you can mix all three in the same fleet.
Yes. The admin panel has an \"override attendance\" form on every record with mandatory `clock_in_method = manual` flag and a required note explaining why. Manual entries are visually distinct in the attendance map and audit log, so the supervisor or auditor knows they were keyed in by hand.
Yes. Client contracts hold per-rate cards (guard hours, supervisor margin, public-holiday loading) and an invoice template. The same attendance data feeds payroll AND each client's invoice in their preferred format — hours-only, guard-name detail, or per-shift breakdown. Set up once, generates every cycle.
Equipment issuance is tracked with serial number, issue date, and assigned guard. On guard exit, the system flags any kit not returned. You can convert the loss to a guard loan (auto-deducted from final settlement) or write it off — with the audit trail for both choices.
It does both. One tap captures the GPS coordinates, raises a high-severity incident in operations, and (if you have alerts configured) sends an SMS/email/WhatsApp ping to the operations duty officer. The incident persists in the system, so post-event reviews have a clean chronological record.
Typical onboarding for a 500–1,000 guard fleet: 2–3 weeks. Week 1 — sites pinned with geofences, client contracts loaded, shift templates defined. Week 2 — guards imported with PSRA / CID / medical data, supervisors trained. Week 3 — pilot at 5 sites, then phased rollout. First clean payroll cycle by week 4.
Operations creates a payroll period (e.g. 1–31 May), clicks Generate Entries. The system pulls attendance hours from clock-in/out logs, computes OT against shift thresholds, applies allowances and active loan/equipment-loss deductions, and applies country statutory deductions (PAYE, UIF, SDL in SA; PAYE, NSSF in Kenya; etc.). You spot-check, mark Approved, payslips go live in the guard ESS. Bank file or mobile-money batch is the next click.
Pricing
Simple USD pricing.
Pay per employee, monthly. Local-currency price on every country page — converted at our locked monthly rate.
Starter
Core HR for growing teams
$10.00
/month base
+ $0.50 /employee/month
- Employee records & profiles
- Leave management
- Web attendance with GPS
- Document management
- Employee self-service portal
- Mobile app access
- Email support
Most Popular
Professional
Full HR + payroll, statutory compliance built in
$50.00
/month base
+ $1.50 /employee/month
- Everything in Starter
- Full local-currency payroll
- Statutory compliance (PAYE / NSSF / NHIF / etc.)
- Performance management
- Recruitment & onboarding
- Expense claims & loans
- Training & certifications
- WhatsApp & SMS notifications
- Priority support
Business
Multi-country operations, full automation
$100.00
/month base
+ $3.00 /employee/month
- Everything in Professional
- Multi-country dashboard
- Projects & timesheets (NGO/donor reporting)
- Biometric device integration
- API access
- White-label option
- Dedicated account manager
- SLA-backed support
See pricing in your local currency on any country page →
See it work on your data.
30 minutes with our team. Bring your countries, your headcount, and the questions your finance and HR leads keep asking — we'll walk you through every module relevant to your operation.