Guide

Paper OB or digital occurrence book?

The occurrence book is the oldest tool on a guarding site, and it is still the record everyone asks for when something goes wrong. Here is what changes when it moves from a book on the desk to a phone in the guard's hand.

What the paper OB does well

A paper occurrence book is simple, every guard knows how to use it, and it needs no battery and no signal. Numbered entries in ink, one after the other, are hard to slip a line into unnoticed. Those are real strengths, and a digital book must keep them.

Where it lets you down

  • It is at the site, and you are not. The office learns what was written when someone drives there, or when a guard sends a photo of the page.
  • The time is whatever was written. An entry for 02:00 can be written at 05:45, and the page cannot tell you.
  • Nothing happens when nothing is written. A missed hourly entry is discovered days later, if at all.
  • Pages get lost, wet and torn, and books fill up and are filed somewhere.
  • Finding one entry from four months ago means paging through books.

What a digital occurrence book adds

  • The office sees an entry when it is made, or as soon as the phone has signal again.
  • The phone stamps the time, and an entry sent later says when it was made and when it arrived.
  • The book writes its own lines for the things that used to be forgotten: booking on and off, a late arrival, a missed report.
  • Photos sit with the entry they belong to.
  • Search, and print any dates as a PDF for a client or an inspection.

What to check before you switch

Not every digital OB keeps the paper book's strengths. Ask these questions of any system, ours included.

  1. Can an entry be edited or deleted afterwards? If yes, it is weaker than paper. In Truepost an entry cannot be changed: a correction is a new entry, and entries are chained so the office can check that nothing was altered.
  2. Does it work without signal? Guards work in basements and on farms. Entries must be saved on the phone and sent later, with the time they were really made.
  3. Is it numbered per site? Clients and inspectors expect OB numbers.
  4. Can you print it? Someone will ask for paper. A PDF for any site and dates should take a few seconds.
  5. Does it run on the phones your guards own? An app that needs an expensive phone will not be used.

    6. Do you still need the paper book?

    That is a decision for your company and your clients. Some keep a paper book at the gate for visitors and deliveries and move everything else to the phone; others print the digital book when a paper copy is asked for. What matters is that there is one complete record, and that you can produce it.

    How the occurrence book works in Truepost

    Written by the Truepost team at Sentrio Systems. Last updated 10 November 2026.

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