Shift ends. The logbook is already written. Every patrol scan, incident, key handover and lone-worker alarm is timestamped, tamper-evident, and ready to share with your client, without anyone retyping a thing. COREDINATE, the guard tour and patrol system, writes it in the background, every shift, automatically.
Live view of the COREDINATE Daily Occurrence Book. Interface shown in German; English UI available.
A daily occurrence book (also called a site log, shift report, or in the US a Daily Activity Report — and named Guard Book inside the COREDINATE app) is the chronological record of every event, patrol, incident and handover during a security shift. It serves as evidence for the client, the regulator, the insurer and, when needed, the courts. In practice, three generations exist side by side in the market today.
The officer fills in a bound book by hand, often at shift end and from memory. Gaps, illegible entries and after-the-fact edits are common. Retrieving anything means leafing through pages by hand.
An electronic format where entries are typed digitally but only synced after the shift. Clients usually see the report the next morning, and the entry process is still manual.
Smartphone-based, like COREDINATE. Every checkpoint scan, event, task and key handover lands in the logbook automatically with timestamp and device ID. No manual transfer, ever.
Eight data types flow into the digital daily occurrence book without any manual re-entry. The table below lists what they are and the technical properties that guarantee tamper-evident integrity.
| What is captured | How | Technical property |
|---|---|---|
| Checkpoint scans | NFC tag, Bluetooth beacon or GPS point | Timestamp immutable after upload · 4–5 day offline buffer |
| Incidents | Photo + dictation with auto-transcription | Real-time transmission · categorisable · photo evidence stored unalterable |
| Shift hours | Automatic on scan at defined start/end checkpoints | CSV export · payroll-compatible · no timesheets needed |
| Key handovers | Manual entry or NFC key seals | Full movement history · per-area in the report (since release 9.24.1) |
| Form data | Completed flexible forms | Embedded directly in the logbook (since release 9.23) · structured export |
| Geofence entries | Entering and leaving geographic areas | Separate entries for entry and exit (since release 9.25) |
| Task status | Appears automatically on scan | "Done / Not done + reason," fully recorded in the logbook |
| Alarm triggers | Manual panic button or inactivity | BS 8484-aligned · GPS position and last scan attached |
In the portal you can filter entries by date, officer, site, event type or keyword. When your client asks for an incident report from last quarter, you have the entry on screen in under a minute.
Every logbook view exports as a PDF for internal review or client reporting, with filters and date ranges preserved. Clients who hold a customer login see only the entries you release to them, which removes the manual emailing entirely.
In car parks, basements and dead zones the app stores entries locally on the device for up to five days and syncs automatically once a connection is back. No data gaps, no after-shift catch-up.
With COREDINATE's flexible forms you can rebuild existing paper checklists in the system and link them to checkpoints. When an officer scans a checkpoint, the relevant checklist appears automatically. Required fields stop officers from skipping items, and every entry flows straight into the logbook.
We keep developing the digital daily occurrence book. Four updates from recent releases are noticeable in everyday operations.
Release 9.23. Until then, form entries and the logbook lived in two separate sections. Form data now flows directly into the logbook, so a single shift produces one continuous record in one place. Client reports go out without manual cleanup.
Release 9.24.1. Key handovers now appear reliably per site/area in the logbook report. Key responsibility per location is traceable without manual cross-referencing.
Release 9.25. Geofences can now be created as a standalone checkpoint type. The logbook captures entering and leaving geographic areas as separate, automatic entries. A real win for large sites, GPS patrols and outdoor areas without NFC infrastructure.
Release 9.25. In the portal, customers can post feature requests, comment on others, and upvote. Our developers reply directly on each thread. Every request shows a visible status: Public, Selected for Development, Released, or Closed.
UK contractors are assessed against the SIA Approved Contractor Scheme and BS 7499:2020 for static guarding services. US contractors are tested by state licensing audits, insurance carrier requirements and, in litigation, by what their records will hold up to. Three requirements are consistent across both sides of the Atlantic.
| Requirement | What it means in practice | How COREDINATE solves it |
|---|---|---|
| Completeness | Every relevant activity must be recorded, from checkpoint scans to key handovers, with no gaps for an auditor or opposing counsel to exploit. | Eight data types flow into the logbook automatically; officers do not have to remember to type anything. |
| Tamper-evident integrity | Records cannot be edited after the fact without that change being visible. This is what makes a logbook admissible in audit and in court. | Server-side timestamps are applied at upload. After upload, no entry is editable, including by administrators. |
| Searchability | Records must be available on demand in a structured form, not loose notes. ACS auditors, insurers and litigation discovery all expect this. | Full-text search, filters by date, officer and site, and PDF reports generated on demand from the portal. |
Beyond the three requirements, two further rules apply. UK contractors carry a retention duty typically of at least 12 months after contract end under BS 7499 practice. Data protection rules (UK GDPR and EU GDPR) require the logbook itself to be handled as a record of processing activity under Article 30. COREDINATE retains logbook data for the full contract term (GPS tracks for a further six months), hosts geo-redundantly in Frankfurt am Main, and develops and supports the platform entirely from Germany.
For US teams, the closest analogue to BS 7499 is ASIS PSC.1, the ANSI-recognised management-system standard for private security companies. Federal recordkeeping floor is set by OSHA (29 CFR Part 1904) for workplace incidents; the additional driver in practice is FLSA wage-and-hour exposure, where a tamper-evident patrol log is the cleanest defence.
Your client gets configurable direct access to real-time data and PDF reports. What they see is governed by your role-based access control. That removes email attachments, daily summaries and follow-up phone calls from the workload. In tenders, the optional client login is often what tips the award.
Active shifts, completed checkpoints and reported incidents with photo evidence are visible at any time. Clients who compare multiple contractors immediately spot the difference between a vendor with a digital DOB and one without.
In the UK, the Health and Safety Executive requires employers to manage health and safety risks before officers work alone. Guidance INDG73 calls for monitoring, communication, support and supervision of lone workers. The logbook is the audit trail behind every check-in. In the US, OSHA's general duty clause carries the equivalent obligation.
COREDINATE's lone-worker alarm aligns with BS 8484:2022, the British Standard for lone-worker device services. A manual panic button and inactivity-based alarm trigger an alert with GPS position and the last checkpoint scan attached, and every alarm event is logged automatically in the DOB.
A daily occurrence book (DOB) is the chronological record of every event, patrol, incident and handover during a security shift. UK contractors call it a Daily Occurrence Book; US contractors call it a Daily Activity Report (DAR). It serves as evidence for clients, regulators, insurers and, when needed, for courts.
Any contract security firm running manned guarding, mobile patrol, key holding, event security or reception services. In the UK, the Approved Contractor Scheme (ACS) and BS 7499:2020 expect contemporaneous records as part of service delivery. In the US, state licensing boards and insurer requirements drive equivalent practice; under FLSA, accurate patrol logs are also the cleanest defence in wage-and-hour disputes.
Paper DOBs are filled in by hand at shift end or after each event. A digital DOB like COREDINATE writes itself in the background as officers work: every checkpoint scan, incident report, task and key handover is timestamped and added automatically, without anyone retyping anything.
Retention varies by contract and jurisdiction. UK practice under BS 7499:2020 typically requires records to be retained for at least 12 months after contract end. In COREDINATE, occurrence records are kept for the entire contract term; GPS tracks for an additional six months.
Yes, provided the system meets three requirements: completeness, tamper-evident integrity, and searchability on demand. COREDINATE meets all three through server-side timestamps, an immutable audit trail after upload, and full-text search and filtering across every record. Servers are hosted in Germany under EU and UK GDPR.
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In around 30 to 45 minutes our team will walk you through the full feature set of the digital daily occurrence book in COREDINATE, online and free of charge. You'll see how to integrate form data, key handovers and geofence entries into your daily operations, and how to generate audit-ready reports for your clients in one click.