Why post orders matter
An officer on a post usually works alone, often at night, and often on a site they have only seen a few times. Post orders are what lets them do the job the way the client agreed, without phoning a supervisor for every question. They also protect the company: when something goes wrong, the first question from a client, an insurer or a court is usually "what were the officer's instructions?"
Vague post orders cause most of the problems. "Patrol the site regularly" gives an officer nothing to follow and gives you nothing to check. "Patrol the car park and loading bay every two hours from 20:00, scanning all six checkpoints" does both.
What to include in post orders
Write one set of post orders for each post, not one for the whole site, if the posts do different jobs (for example a gatehouse and a mobile patrol).
| Section | What to write |
|---|---|
| Site and post | Client name, site address, the post's location and what it covers, and a site map with exits, alarm panels and assembly points marked. |
| Hours and handover | Start and finish times, breaks, relief arrangements and what is handed over between shifts (keys, radios, open issues). |
| Duties and routines | Every task the officer must do, with times: opening and locking up, alarm checks, fire door checks, deliveries. |
| Patrols | Which routes, how often, which checkpoints, and what to check at each one. |
| Access control | Who may enter, which passes or lists to check, how to sign in visitors and contractors, and who can authorise exceptions. |
| Reporting | What goes in the daily activity report, what needs a full incident report, and who to tell straight away. |
| Emergencies | Step-by-step actions for fire, medical emergencies, intruders, alarms, power cuts and severe weather, with phone numbers. |
| Contacts and escalation | Client contacts, the supervisor on duty, the control room and emergency services, with an order for who to call first. |
| Equipment | Keys, radios, torches and systems the officer uses, and how to report a fault. |
| Limits | What the officer must not do on this site, such as leaving the post unattended or admitting anyone without a pass. |
How to write post orders officers follow
- Write for an officer on their first shift. Assume they have never seen the site. If an instruction needs local knowledge, add it.
- Start each instruction with the action. "Lock the north gate at 22:00" is quicker to follow than a paragraph about site security.
- Use times, places and numbers. Replace "regularly", "promptly" and "as needed" with what you actually mean.
- Say what to do when something happens. "If a delivery arrives after 18:00, refuse entry and call the site manager" settles the situation before it happens.
- Keep the everyday part short. Put the duties officers use every shift first and rarer procedures after them, so the daily routine fits on a page or two.
- Date and version every copy. Officers and auditors should be able to tell at a glance which version is current.
Keep post orders current
Post orders go out of date quietly: a contact leaves, a gate code changes, a new building opens. Review them whenever the site changes and at least once a year, and agree changes with the client.
Every officer who works the post, including relief and overtime cover, should read the current version before their first shift and confirm they have. Without that confirmation, you cannot show who knew the instructions.
Post orders in ForceVera
In ForceVera, each site's instructions are in the guard app, so the officer on the post has them on their phone from the first shift. Dispatchers keep the post orders for each site in the command center (Pro and Enterprise) and can open them when a call comes in. The same site holds its patrol checkpoints, timed duty tasks and incident reports, so the instructions and the record of what was done are in one place.
ForceVera does not yet record each officer's confirmation that they have read the post orders, so keep that confirmation the way you do today, for example a signed or emailed acknowledgement stored with the officer's file.
Need a starting point? Our free post orders template has every section above, ready to fill in for your first site.