A guard tour system exists to prove that patrols happened. The technology you choose affects cost, tamper resistance and how much your guards will resist it. Here is an honest comparison.

QR code checkpoints

How it works: a printed code is fixed at each checkpoint and the guard scans it with the phone camera.

  • Pros: cheapest by a wide margin, replaceable in minutes, works on any phone with a camera, easy to roll out across dozens of sites.
  • Cons: a code can be photographed and scanned from elsewhere — unless you pair the scan with a GPS check.

Best for: most commercial and residential sites, especially multi-site rollouts where hardware cost matters.

NFC tags

How it works: the guard taps the phone against a tag embedded at the checkpoint.

  • Pros: the guard must be physically present to tap; tags are cheap and can be hidden or embedded in walls.
  • Cons: requires NFC-capable handsets, which rules out the cheapest phones; tags can be cloned by a determined person.

Best for: higher-value sites where you control which handsets are used.

Pure GPS waypoints

How it works: no physical marker — the app records the guard’s location at intervals.

  • Pros: nothing to install, nothing to vandalise.
  • Cons: GPS drifts badly indoors, in basements and between tall buildings. Accuracy is often 10–50 metres, which cannot answer "was he at the rear gate or the front gate".

Best for: open perimeters and mobile or vehicle patrols — not indoor checkpoints.

The combination that actually works

Use QR, plus a GPS sanity check, plus a timestamp. The QR proves which checkpoint, the GPS proves roughly where, the timestamp proves when. Add an optional photo for anything unusual. Cheap, hard to fake convincingly, and it produces a report a client will accept.

Do not forget missed rounds

Recording completed scans is only half the job. The valuable signal is the round that did not happen. Set an expected interval per route and alert the supervisor when a window closes with no scan — before the client rings you.

What clients actually want to see

Not raw scan logs. They want rounds expected, rounds completed, gaps, and what happened during the gaps. Present it that way and patrol reporting becomes a retention tool instead of an argument.

SecureForce uses QR checkpoints with distance checks, optional photo proof and automatic missed-round alerts. See patrol features.