What is Daily activity report (DAR)?

A DAR is a chronological log, not a summary. Most contracts expect each entry to carry a timestamp, a location or post, and a short factual description of what happened or what was checked.

• Shift start and end times, and the guard on post
• Patrol rounds completed, with the time of each
• Doors, gates, alarms, and equipment checked
• Visitors, deliveries, and vehicles logged in and out
• Anything unusual, followed by an incident report if it rises to that level
• Photos where the contract or the observation calls for them

The DAR is usually the only artifact a client ever sees. When a client questions whether a site was covered, or disputes an invoice, the DAR is the record the contract is defended with. A missing or vague DAR is functionally the same as an unworked shift.

That is also why DARs are the most common friction point in guarding operations. Paper logs get lost, get written from memory at the end of a shift, or never reach the office at all, and none of that is visible until a client asks.

1. 1Write it as it happens, not at the end of the shift from memory.
2. 2Record facts and observations, not conclusions or opinions.
3. 3Use specific times and specific locations rather than "during the night" or "around the building".
4. 4Note the absence of events too. "0200 perimeter round, all doors secure" is evidence.
5. 5Attach a photo when a description alone would be arguable.

Guards submit DAR entries from the GuardOps mobile app during the shift. Each entry is timestamped and tied to the guard's active shift, and photos are captured through the camera rather than picked from the gallery, so an entry reflects what was in front of the guard at that moment. Supervisors review and approve submissions from the dashboard, and any date range can be exported as a branded, client-ready PDF.