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Security agencies

ERP software for security agencies in India

Bill every client site for the month, pay hundreds of guards on time with PF, ESI and advances, and keep uniforms and torches counted, all on one ledger.

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In short

SimpleERP is ERP software for security agencies in India. Monthly site invoices carry SAC codes and the right GST split, guard payroll runs from attendance with PF, ESI, bonus and advances, and uniforms are tracked as stock.

Illustration of a payslip with Basic, HRA, provident fund and professional tax lines and net pay of ₹27,660.

A day in a security agency

A guarding business sells hours on duty, so its month swings between two dates: the day invoices go out and the day wages are due.

A security agency in Chennai has 300 guards spread across 24 client sites: hospitals, apartment blocks, warehouses and an IT park. Each site keeps a register at the gate, and on the first of the month the supervisors bring those registers to the office. Someone has to count who stood which shift, who was absent and who covered for whom.

From those counts come two jobs that cannot slip. Every client wants an invoice per site, worked out as guards times days times the agreed rate, with GST on top. Every guard expects wages at or above the minimum wage by the seventh, with PF and ESI deducted and any festival advance recovered. New joiners need two sets of uniform, shoes and a lathi before their first shift.

SimpleERP keeps both jobs on one set of books. Attendance feeds the payroll run, the site invoices feed receivables and GST, and uniform purchases and issues move stock at average cost, so the owner can see on the fifth whether the clients' money will cover the wage bill.

GST billing

One invoice per site, worked out from man-days

Set up guard, supervisor and gunman as services billed in man-days, then raise one invoice per client site each month. The place of supply is read from the client's GSTIN, so a site in another state gets IGST without you choosing it.

  • A man-day unit so the line reads 180 man-days at ₹780, not a lump sum.
  • Site address on the invoice, so the client's accounts team knows which gate it covers.
  • Notes and terms for your PSARA licence number or a reverse charge line.
  • Receivables ageing by client, because hospitals and builders pay on their own clock.
What you billSACGST as usually charged
Guards, supervisors and gunmen at a client site99852518%, under forward charge when the agency is a company
Other security services, such as event or escort duty99852918%, check the description against your contract
Any of these from a proprietor or partnership firm to a registered client998525 or 998529Reverse charge as notified: the client pays the GST; check with your CA
Codes a guarding agency usually bills under. Rates change, so confirm the rate for your goods with your CA or the GST portal before you rely on it.

Payments

See which client is late before wages fall due

A guarding agency pays wages before most clients pay their invoices. Each receipt is allocated to the site invoices it settles, so the ageing report shows who is 60 days behind while there is still time to call.

  • Receipts by bank transfer, UPI or cheque, split across several site invoices.
  • Party statement on white A4 to send a client's accounts team.
  • Credit notes when a client disputes days for a guard who was absent.
  • TDS deducted by clients recorded with a manual journal against the receipt.

Illustration of receivables ageing: ₹2,14,800 to collect across 5 buckets, with customer totals.

Receivables by client and by age bucket.

Attendance

Attendance from the site register, without retyping a month

The daily sheet lists every guard. Since days nobody marked count as present and are flagged for review, the office only has to enter the absences and leave written in each site register. Guards with a smartphone can also check in and out themselves.

  • Night shifts that cross midnight count once, on the day they started.
  • Leave requests from the guard's phone, approved by the supervisor or the office.
  • Departments can stand for your large sites, so headcount reads by site.
  • Half days count as half a paid day in payroll.

Illustration of the daily attendance sheet on a phone with a Mark all present button.

The attendance sheet on a phone.

Payroll

Payroll for hundreds of guards, with PF, ESI, bonus and advances

Each guard gets a salary structure built on your state's minimum wage. ESI is not preset, so add it once as a deduction at a percentage of gross with a matching employer contribution. The monthly run reads paid days from attendance, recovers advances and posts the whole wage bill to the books on approval.

  • PF at 12% of Basic for the guard, with the employer's share as a contribution.
  • Bonus as its own earning, paid in full or as a monthly percentage of Basic.
  • Festival advances recovered a fixed amount each month until settled.
  • Payslips on the guard's phone once the run is approved.

Illustration of a payslip with Basic, HRA, provident fund and professional tax lines and net pay of ₹27,660.

A guard's payslip with PF, ESI and an advance recovery.

Uniforms and equipment

Uniforms, shoes and torches kept as small stock

Each uniform size and each piece of kit is a product with a reorder level. Purchase bills bring stock in with input GST, a transfer sends torches or metal detectors to a site store, and a stock adjustment with a reason records the kit handed to a new guard.

  • Stock by godown and site store, valued at weighted average cost.
  • A low-stock list for shirts and shoes in the sizes that run out first.
  • Purchase orders to the uniform tailor, converted to a bill on delivery.

Illustration of stock on hand by warehouse at average cost, with a low-stock row highlighted and a movement ledger.

Stock on hand by warehouse at average cost.

By job

Security agencies by job

One system

The modules that do this work

Attendance feeds payroll, payroll posts wages, PF and advances to the ledger, and each site invoice posts the receivable and the GST.

Honest limits

What SimpleERP does not do for security agencies yet

These come up often with guarding businesses.

  • Biometric devices and site register apps are not connected: attendance is marked on the phone or entered from the register.
  • ESI is not preset: add it as a deduction and an employer contribution in the salary structure.
  • No shift roster or deployment plan per site, and no relief scheduling.
  • No PSARA licence or compliance register, and no PF, ESI or PT challans and returns.
  • No reverse charge flag on invoices: the notes carry the reverse charge line and the client self-assesses the tax.
  • Payroll is monthly only; weekly or daily wages are not supported.

Getting started

Start with your first invoice

  1. Sign up with your phone

    Name, phone number and a password. No card for the seven-day trial, and email is optional.

  2. Tell us about the business

    Type your GSTIN and the state fills itself. Accounts, GST rates, units, roles and numbering are seeded for you.

  3. Add what you sell

    Add a man-day unit, then guard, supervisor and gunman services with SAC 998525 and their GST rate. Services carry no stock, so this takes a few minutes.

  4. Post your first GST invoice

    Pick the customer, add lines and save. Your first GST invoice can be out within 10 minutes of signing up.

FAQ

Questions, answered

Which SAC code and GST rate apply to guard services?

Guard services usually sit under SAC 998525, and other security services under 998529, commonly at 18%. In SimpleERP you set the code and rate on each service once and every invoice applies it. Rates change, so confirm the rate for your goods with your CA or the GST portal before you rely on it.

Is security service under reverse charge?

As notified, when the supplier is not a body corporate and the client is a registered business, the client pays the GST under reverse charge. A private limited agency charges GST on its invoice as usual. Rules and exceptions change, so check your case with your CA. SimpleERP has no reverse charge flag, so write the line in the invoice notes.

Can I deduct ESI from guards' wages?

Yes, as a component you add yourself. Create an ESI deduction as a percentage of gross and an employer contribution at the employer rate, then add both to the structures of guards inside the wage ceiling. Confirm the current rates and ceiling before you set them.

Can one client with five sites get five invoices?

Yes. Raise one invoice per site against the same client, with the site address on each. The client's ledger and statement show all five, and a single payment can be allocated across them.

Related

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