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Security post orders checklist: what to write down for every post
Post orders are the playbook an officer opens at the start of every shift. Hold yours up against this list, which runs from the post’s spot and hours through rounds, visitors, reports, call lists and changeover.
Printable checklist
What post orders do for a property
A guard post works best when an officer can walk up to it cold, read one binder and know exactly what the property expects. That binder is the post orders. It records where the officer stands, what each shift handles, which doors get checked, who may come in and who gets a call when something goes wrong.
Good orders protect the property from drift. Without them, every officer fills the gaps with their own habits, and a relief officer on a Sunday can run the post very differently from the regular on a Wednesday. With them, the post runs the same way whoever is wearing the uniform. The binder also gives the property a record of what it asked for, which settles questions later about how a given night was handled.
The checklist below follows the order most binders use. Walk through it when a post is new, when a building changes hands, or when the current orders are more than a few months old. The printable copy works one post at a time, with fields for the facility, the post name, who reviewed it and the date.
Where the post sits and when it runs
Settle the practical details first. A label like “lobby” leaves too much to guesswork on a campus with three lobbies, so pin the spot down and attach a map.
- The exact location of the post, marked on a site plan
- Start and finish times for every shift, including weekends and holidays
- The doors, gates, floors or lots the post is answerable for
- Keys, access cards, radios and phones that stay with the post, plus their storage spot
- Officer parking, the break spot and a place for personal belongings
- Dress and appearance expectations for the post
Duties for each shift, including patrol rounds
A morning post greeting staff and signing for deliveries has little in common with the same post at midnight. Split duties by shift, so the person on nights is not reading through a page of daytime tasks.
- Opening tasks: unlocking doors, turning off alarms, checking the overnight log
- Daytime tasks: front desk coverage, deliveries, vendor check-ins
- Evening and closing tasks: clearing the building, locking up, setting alarms
- Patrol rounds: the checkpoints in walking order and how many loops each shift makes
- Items to look at on each round: lights, fence lines, roll-up doors, alarm panels
- Cameras near the post: where each one points and who on your team to tell when one fails
When rounds fill most of the night, a route often serves the property better than a post. Our guide on mobile patrol or an on-site guard compares the two, and mobile patrol can cover the stretches a post does not.
Access rules for staff, visitors and vendors
Most of an officer’s judgment calls happen at the door, often with someone waiting on the other side of the desk. The orders should answer the common questions before they come up, so the officer can apply the property’s rules politely and the same way every time.
- Who may enter on a badge or key without signing in
- How visitors sign in, what ID is checked and what pass they receive
- Vendor and repair crew hours, where they check in and who escorts them
- Delivery windows, the receiving door and where packages are held
- Parking rules, including fire lanes, reserved spaces and towing steps
- What to do when someone refuses to leave or heads for a closed area
Logs, reports and the escalation chain
Every Vantage shift ends with a photo report, and the orders decide what goes into it. Spell out which events need a separate incident report, how the daily log is kept and who receives each one.
- The daily activity log: its contents and how frequently the officer writes in it
- Which events get their own incident report, and how soon it is filed
- The first person to call, with two backups behind them
- Which problems warrant 911 before any other call
- Numbers for building engineering, alarm company and utilities
- When a supervisor at Vantage is brought in
A single after-hours number is a weak link. If that person is asleep or traveling, the officer has nowhere to go. List names in order, with mobile numbers, and ask each person on the list to confirm they will answer.
The changeover between shifts
The handoff is where information slips. Write into the orders how the incoming and outgoing officers meet, what they review together and where the open items are recorded. The full routine, from open items to contacts reached, is in our guide to shift handoffs and incident notes.
- Where and when the relief officer reports
- Open items carried forward, such as a broken latch or a pending delivery
- Keys, cards and radios counted and signed across
- Any change to instructions since the last shift
Keeping the binder current
Orders age fast. A tenant moves, a delivery window shifts, a door that used to stay open is now locked. Set a regular review, and update the binder the same week anything on the property changes. Vantage supervisors make quality inspections at posts, which is a good moment to compare the written orders with what the officer is actually doing.
Officers on a Vantage on-site post hold BSIS guard cards and are background-checked before they ever take a post. Send us your current orders, or this checklist with your notes, and we will build the post around them.
A few useful answers
Common questions.
Are post orders the same thing as a security plan?
No. A security plan covers the whole property and decides where guards, patrols and other measures belong. Post orders cover one post and tell the officer stationed there exactly how to run it.
Whose job is it to supply what goes in the binder?
The property supplies the rules, contacts and hours, because only the owner or manager knows them. Vantage helps put them into a format an officer can follow on any shift.
When is it time to revise a set of post orders?
Review them on a set schedule and whenever the property itself changes: a tenant arrives or leaves, deliveries move to a new hour, or a door’s locking routine changes.
Should every post have its own orders?
Yes. A lobby desk, a parking gate and a dock post do different work, so each needs its own location, duties and contacts. Shared items such as emergency numbers can repeat across them.
Do we need to fill out a form to download the printable?
No. The PDF opens from this page with no form, so you can print one copy per post and mark it up.