Daily occurrence book: what to record, and how to keep one that stands up

01

What a daily occurrence book is, and where PSA 28 comes in

A daily occurrence book, usually shortened to DOB or OB, is a chronological record of every significant event and activity on a security assignment during each shift. It is kept on site, at the security desk, gatehouse or control room, and every officer on duty writes in it. It is also called an occurrence book, site log or security log book; "log" is more common when it is kept on a device.

In Ireland the security industry is regulated by the Private Security Authority (PSA), set up under the Private Security Services Act 2004. The Act defines a security guard as "a person who for remuneration guards or patrols or provides any other protective services in relation to persons or property", and the definition expressly includes a person who provides those services exclusively for an employer who is not a private security employer, and one who supervises and inspects security guards while they are guarding or patrolling. Among the Authority's functions under the Act is to "specify standards to be observed in the provision of security services by licensees".

For contractors in the Security Guard (Static) sector, that standard is PSA 28:2013, PSA Licensing Requirements – Door Supervision and Security Guarding, which took effect on 1 May 2014 and replaced I.S. 999 for licensing purposes. The PSA's page of standards required for licensing lists PSA 28:2013, with PSA 31:2023 for new entrants, as the standards for the Security Guard (Guarding) licence, and a contractor's compliance is audited by a PSA-approved certification body.

PSA 28:2013 does not use the words "occurrence book". What it does require is a set of records that, on a static site, mostly start in the book. Clause 11.1.3 requires facilities "for the monitoring and recording by mechanical, electronic or supervisory means of all static and mobile patrol assignments, with the records of the results of such monitoring available for inspection by the client". Clause 6.4.5 requires the assignment instructions to cover working hours and handover requirements, and clause 11.3.1 requires them to set out "patrol routes and routine reporting points and times". Clause 6.3 sets out incident reporting and records, and clause 11.4 the key register. The occurrence book is where the shift's part of all that is written down as it happens.

Contract officers are the main users, but in-house security teams, concierge staff in apartment developments and caretakers in schools keep occurrence books too, wherever the next shift needs to know what happened.

02

What should be recorded in a daily occurrence book

The assignment instructions, agreed with the client under clause 6.4 of PSA 28:2013 and kept on site, should say what goes in the book and what goes in separate registers. A typical list of entries includes:

• Start and end of each shift: the officer's name, PSA licence number and the time they came on and went off duty.
• Handover: what was passed on – open issues, keys out, contractors still on site, systems in fault, anything the client asked for.
• Patrols: the time each patrol started and finished, the reporting points visited against the times in the assignment instructions, and anything found.
• Check-in calls and escalation: calls with the contractor's control room, the client's duty manager or the supervisor, and any change to instructions.
• Keys: a reference to the key register for any key issued or returned. PSA 28:2013 requires every key movement to be recorded in a key register with the signatures of the issuing officer and the recipient, so the book points to it rather than replacing it.
• Visitors, contractors and deliveries out of hours, or a reference to the visitor book.
• Alarms and access control: intruder and fire alarm activations, faults and tests, door-forced and door-held alerts, with the cause and the action taken. A fire alarm activation or fault also belongs in the building's fire safety register.
• Health and safety: accidents and near misses, with a reference to the accident report, and hazards found on patrol.
• Faults: failed lighting, leaks, broken locks, a blocked final exit, and who they were reported to.
• Incidents: a short summary with the time, and the reference of the separate incident report.
• Garda and emergency services attendance: the time they were called and arrived, the names or numbers of the members who attended, and any reference given.
• Supervisor visits: the time, and the supervisor's signature.
• Routine duties the site requires: opening up and locking up, CCTV checks, plant room readings, car park barrier checks, whatever the assignment instructions list.

The test: could an officer who was not there read the day's entries and know what happened, in what order, and what is still outstanding?

03

How to write entries that can be relied on

Occurrence books are read by people looking for gaps: an auditor, a client after a complaint, an insurer after a claim. The conventions for a handwritten book make entries hard to alter and easy to follow, and apply equally to a digital log:

1. Write entries at the time, or as soon as possible afterwards. An entry made at the time carries more weight as evidence than an account written up at the end of the shift.
2. Use the 24-hour clock, and put the time against every entry.
3. Keep it in order. Never leave a space to fill in later. If something was missed, add it as a late entry, marked as such, with the time it was written.
4. Use a bound book with numbered pages, and never tear a page out.
5. Write in ink, legibly, with no correction fluid. Strike a mistake through with a single line so it can still be read, and initial it.
6. Rule off blank space at the end of an entry or a shift so nothing can be added.
7. Record facts, not opinions: what was seen, heard and done, and by whom.
8. Sign at the end of each shift, with the officer's name and PSA licence number.
9. Have it reviewed: the site supervisor signs and dates the book on each visit.

04

Occurrence book or incident report?

The two are often confused, and PSA 28:2013 treats them differently. Clause 6.3.2 requires that all incidents "be handled by the site supervisor in the first instance and recorded in the Incident Report or other suitable method", and sets out what that report must contain as a minimum:

• the date, time and place of the incident;
• the date and time of reporting, and by whom it was reported;
• the nature of the incident;
• the action taken, including onward reporting;
• further action to be taken;
• where possible, the names and addresses of all relevant persons present.

Clauses 6.3.3 and 6.3.4 then require a record of all reported incidents to be kept at the contractor's command and control system for at least three years, with entries "numbered sequentially and serially" and including the time, the date, a record of notification of the client and the name of the controller completing the record. The certification body's auditor inspects those records against the clauses, under the PSA's Auditing Guidelines for Certification Bodies for PSA 28:2013 (2025 edition).

• The daily occurrence book is a running account of the whole shift on one site, in time order. Most entries are routine.
• An incident report (see the security officer report guide) is a separate, detailed account of one event, with the particulars above, which goes to the supervisor, the control room and the client.
• Other registers, such as the key register, the visitor book and the fire safety register, each have their own purpose, and the book refers to them rather than repeating them.

When does an entry become an incident? When the event needs more than a line or two; when it involves injury, crime, damage, the Gardaí or the emergency services; when it might lead to a complaint, a claim or disciplinary action; or when the assignment instructions say so. The book then records the time and a summary and gives the incident report's reference, so the chronological record and the detailed one link up.

05

Review, retention, and paper or digital

A book nobody reads is a diary. The site supervisor should read and sign it on every visit, checking that entries are accurate and complete, that patrols were made at the reporting points and times the assignment instructions set, that faults were passed on and closed, and that anything that was an incident was written up as one. Clause 6.3.7 of PSA 28:2013 requires "a facility ... for the checking and reviewing of reports and reporting procedures periodically by senior management", and the auditing guidelines say those checks and reviews should take place quarterly. Because clause 11.1.3 makes the records of monitoring static assignments available for inspection by the client, the client should be able to see the book, or a summary of it, as part of the contract review.

PSA 28:2013 sets three-year minimum retention for several records: the record of reported incidents (6.3.3), the record of check-in calls (6.3.6), the key register (11.2.2 and 11.4.4) and the records for each site, "which shall include the service provided and the name, licence number, identification number or works number of any person employed on such site" (6.3.8). Records are then disposed of "in a secure and confidential manner". The standard gives no separate period for the occurrence book, but where it is the site's day-by-day record of who was on duty, keeping it for less is hard to defend. The Data Protection Commission's storage limitation principle sets the outer edge: fix a time limit for erasure or review rather than keeping books for ever. Write the period into the records policy, and store completed books securely with the date range on the cover.

Paper or digital? Paper books are cheap, need no battery or signal, and every officer knows them, but they stay on site and are rarely read until something goes wrong. A digital log timestamps each entry, keeps a trail of changes, carries photographs and lets the supervisor and client read the day as it happens, provided officers use it at the time and in full. Clause 6.5.2 of PSA 28:2013 requires all confidential information the contractor holds electronically to be backed up at least once a week, with the back-up kept so that one threat cannot reach both sets, and a digital log is no exception.

06

Where the occurrence book fails, and where SiteClara fits

The book is good at recording what the officer chose to write. It is weak at showing the routine. "02:00 patrol completed, all secure" reads the same whether the officer walked every floor of the car park or wrote it at the desk. A leak written up at 03:00 stays in the book unless someone passes it on. The client can inspect the records of patrol monitoring under clause 11.1.3, which on many sites means the book, but only by calling to the site, and by then the week's entries are history.

SiteClara records the routine part of the shift where it happens. A printed QR poster, with an optional NFC tag behind it, goes at each reporting point: a final exit, a gate, a plant room, a loading bay, a car park level. The officer scans the code or taps the tag with their own phone, with no app to install, sees the checks due there and marks each one done, or explains what stopped them. The named officer and the time are recorded as it happens, with a photograph when one is asked for. A fault or incident found on the round can be reported there with a photo, and it goes onto the team's list of jobs until someone closes it.

The supervisor sees what was due, done and missed across the site, and records the reason a check was missed. At the end of the day they review the totals and photographs, add a note and approve the daily report, which goes to nominated managers or client contacts the next morning: what was reported, what was completed, what is still open and how the scheduled checks went.

07

Questions people ask

How does an occurrence book work in security?

Each officer on duty writes the shift into it as it happens, in time order, and the next shift reads it at handover. In Ireland the book is how many static sites meet part of PSA 28:2013, PSA Licensing Requirements – Door Supervision and Security Guarding, although the standard never names it. Clause 11.1.3 requires facilities "for the monitoring and recording by mechanical, electronic or supervisory means of all static and mobile patrol assignments, with the records of the results of such monitoring available for inspection by the client", and clause 11.3.1 requires the assignment instructions to include "patrol routes and routine reporting points and times". The book records those patrols against those times, and points to the key register and the incident report for the detail they hold.

How do you write an entry in a security occurrence book?

Put the 24-hour time first, then what was seen, heard and done, and by whom, in plain facts, and sign off at the end of the shift with your name and PSA licence number. For anything more than a routine line, follow the minimum that clause 6.3.2 of PSA 28:2013, PSA Licensing Requirements – Door Supervision and Security Guarding sets for an incident report: the "date, time and place of the incident", the "date and time of reporting and by whom reported", the "nature of the incident", the "action taken, including onward reporting", the "further action to be taken" and, "where possible", the names and addresses of the people present. For example: "02:14 Patrol, level –1 car park. Rear fire exit found unlocked. Secured, checked area, nothing taken. Reported to duty manager by phone 02:20. Incident report 118 raised."

08

Further reading, and a list to take away

The PSA's page of standards required for licensing links PSA 28:2013 and the 2025 edition of its auditing guidelines, which show what a certification body inspects clause by clause.

Before the next book is opened on site, check that:

• the assignment instructions say what goes in the book and what goes in separate registers, and list the patrol routes, reporting points and times;
• every officer knows how to write, correct and sign an entry, with their PSA licence number;
• entries are made at the time, in order, with the time against each;
• incidents in the book refer to an incident report that meets clause 6.3.2;
• key movements go in the key register, and the book refers to it;
• faults written up are passed on to someone who will fix them;
• a supervisor reviews and signs the book on every visit, and senior management reviews reporting at least quarterly;
• completed books are stored securely, and the retention period is written down.