Security guard attendance format: the short answer
A security guard attendance format is the layout an agency uses to record which guard did which duty, at which client site and post, on which date, with the actual in and out times and a supervisor's verification. A plain present/absent register is not enough, because guards work 12-hour duties, rotate between day and night, are covered by relievers on their weekly off, and are billed to clients site by site.
That is why most agencies run a set of formats rather than one sheet. A daily in-out register at the guard room captures the evidence, a monthly sheet per site turns it into duty counts, and a head-office summary adds each guard's duties across every site for payroll. A reliever log explains every day a post was covered by someone else. Agencies that use an attendance app get the same data as an export instead of paper.
This guide walks through the six formats, the columns each one needs and when to use it. Every format here is available to download: the security guard attendance sheet PDF has five printable versions, and the security guard attendance template in Excel calculates hours and overtime for you.
The columns every security guard attendance format needs
Whatever the layout, an inspector, a client or your own payroll team should be able to answer five questions from the record: which guard, which site and post, which shift, from when to when, and who verified it. If one of these is missing, the record cannot support a wage register or an invoice annexure.
- Guard identity: guard ID (the same ID used in your guard register and wage register), name and category (unarmed, armed, supervisor)
- Deployment: client or site name, post (Main Gate, Basement, Tower Lobby) and the shift with its scheduled timings
- Time: actual in-time and out-time, hours worked and overtime hours
- Status: one code per guard per day (D, N, WO, A, L, R and so on), so no day is left blank
- Verification: the guard's signature or a selfie and GPS stamp, the supervisor's initials, and the client's countersignature at month end
- Header: agency name, PSARA licence number, client, site, month and year, so a loose page can still be identified
Format 1: Daily in-out register (the guard room book)
The daily register is the primary evidence. It stays at the site, usually as a bound book, and each guard writes the actual arrival time and signs, then writes the departure time and signs again. The site supervisor or shift in-charge initials every row. Because it is filled at the moment of the event, it is the record clients trust most and the first one an inspector asks for at the client's premises.
Use one page per shift per day: S.No, guard ID, name, post, shift, in-time, guard signature, out-time, guard signature, hours, overtime, supervisor initials and remarks. Remarks are where late arrivals, early exits and 'relieved by G-104' go. The statutory side of this book (which laws require it, how long to keep it) is covered in our guide to the security guard attendance register format.
- Best for: every site, every day, regardless of agency size
- Filled by: the guard (times and signature) and the shift in-charge (initials)
- Watch for: times copied from the roster (every guard at exactly 08:00) instead of actual times
Format 2: Monthly attendance sheet for 12-hour duties
The monthly sheet condenses the daily register into one row per guard and one cell per date, with a duty code in each cell. Most Indian guard posts run two 12-hour duties a day, so the codes are D for a day duty and N for a night duty, with WO for weekly off, A for absent, L for leave and R for a reliever's duty. Totals at the right count duties, night duties, weekly offs, absences and overtime hours.
This is the sheet that goes to the client with the invoice, countersigned by their facility manager, and the duty count per site is what the invoice is built from. Keep one sheet per site or per post. A ready layout with automatic totals is our security guard attendance sheet format in Excel, which also has a consolidated tab that sums each guard across sites.
- Best for: billing clients by duties and paying guards by duty count
- Totals: Duties = D + N + G + R + 2 x DN; Night duties = N + DN
- Watch for: blank cells, which an inspector reads as an unrecorded day
Format 3: Monthly sheet for 8-hour, three-shift posts
Some clients, especially factories, hospitals and corporate campuses, insist on three 8-hour shifts. The layout is the same as the 12-hour sheet, but the codes change to I, II and III for the first, second and night shifts, and totals count each shift separately because the night shift often carries an allowance.
The guard count changes too. A 24-hour post needs 21 eight-hour shifts a week, which at six shifts per guard is 3.5 guards, against 14 twelve-hour duties and about 2.3 guards for the same post. Our duty roster guide for security guards works through that maths. The Excel template's 8-Hour Shift Grid tab and page 3 of the PDF pack use this format.
- Best for: client sites that run three shifts or pay a night allowance on the III shift
- Totals: Shift I, Shift II, Shift III, R and Duties = I + II + III + R
- Watch for: a guard held back for a second shift; record it as two shifts and show the extra 8 hours as overtime
Format 4: All-sites monthly summary at head office
Guards do not belong to one sheet. A reliever may cover posts at four sites in a month, and a guard transferred mid-month appears on two site sheets. The head-office summary lists every guard once, copies their duties from each site sheet into a column per site, and totals them. The guard's total drives salary, PF and ESIC days; each site column's total drives that client's invoice.
Two checks belong on this summary. Any guard above 30 duties in a month has done double duties that need a reason, and every site's total should match the sanctioned strength in the deployment order. How those totals become an invoice is covered in how security agencies bill clients for guard man-hours, and the payroll side in security guard salary calculation.
- Best for: agencies with more than one site or any relievers
- Columns: guard ID, name, category, one column per site, total duties, night duties, OT hours, leave, absent, remarks
- Watch for: a guard who appears on two sites on the same night
Format 5: Reliever and exception log
The reliever log records every day a post was not covered by its rostered guard: the date, post, shift, the guard who was missing and why (weekly off, leave, absent, late), who covered, from and to times, and who approved it. It is short, but it is the format that settles most disputes, both with clients who query an unfamiliar name in the register and with guards who say they were not paid for a duty they covered.
The rule that keeps the monthly sheet honest is simple: mark R on the reliever's row and WO, L or A on the rostered guard's row for the same date, so the post shows exactly one duty. For what to do when nobody turns up, see handling security guard no-shows.
Format 6: Digital attendance record from an app
An attendance app captures the same columns at the moment of the event, with evidence paper cannot carry: a selfie or face check that the person clocking in is the rostered guard, a GPS position inside the site's geofence, and a timestamp nobody can back-date. The register then becomes an export: site-wise duties, hours and overtime in the same layout as the formats above.
Two things decide whether the digital record works: every guard signs in to their own account (our security guard attendance login guide covers that), and the roster is in the app so each punch lands against a post. The rollout steps are in how to set up a security guard attendance app.
Standard codes to use across every format
Pick one set of codes and use it on every site sheet, the summary and the app export. Mixed codes are the most common reason a head-office summary does not add up.
- D: day duty (12 hours, for example 08:00 to 20:00)
- N: night duty (12 hours, for example 20:00 to 08:00)
- G: general shift at a post that runs office hours
- I, II, III: first, second and night shift at 8-hour posts
- DN: double duty, a day followed by a night; counts as two duties and should be rare
- R: reliever duty, marked on the reliever's own row
- WO: weekly off; L: approved leave; H: paid holiday; A: absent
How the formats fit together each month
The flow runs in one direction. The daily register is written at the site; the supervisor turns it into codes on the monthly sheet as the month goes on; at month end the client countersigns the sheet; head office copies each guard's duties into the all-sites summary; payroll works from the summary and billing works from the countersigned site sheets. Each step must be traceable back to the one before it, day by day, or the wage register built from it cannot be defended.
To see every step with real numbers, follow our security guard attendance example: one site, three posts, four guards and a month that includes a reliever, an absence, a double duty and leave, reconciled to 90 duties and 1,080 man-hours.
Which security guard attendance format fits your agency
Small agencies with one or two sites can run on paper: the daily register at the site and a printed monthly sheet, both from the PDF pack. From roughly 20 guards and a few sites, add the Excel template so hours, overtime and site totals calculate themselves and the head-office summary is not typed by hand. Once guards are spread across many sites, relievers move daily, or clients dispute duties, the paper trail costs more than it saves; that is the point where agencies move the daily register into an app and keep the monthly formats as exports.
- Up to about 20 guards, 1 to 2 sites: printable daily register plus monthly sheet
- 20 to 300 guards, several sites: Excel template with site and guard summaries
- Many sites, frequent relievers or billing disputes: a security guard attendance app with exports in these formats