IndustriesSecurity services
A guarding contract prices posts, not projects. Revenue is guards multiplied by hours multiplied by a rate, cost is the roster that filled those posts, and the difference between the two is decided by overtime and relief cover.
Delivered in Saudi Arabia
Last reviewed
The accounting problem
01
Billing is a function of posts actually manned — a site that ran short is a site that cannot be billed in full, and a client that requested extra cover generates additional revenue at a different rate. A monthly invoice generated from the contract rather than from the roster is wrong in both directions every month.
02
Overtime, night differentials, allowances, transport and relief cover mean the cost of filling a post is materially above the base salary of the guard assigned to it. Contracts priced on base salary plus a percentage lose money quietly on the sites with the hardest rosters.
03
In a manned guarding business payroll is the overwhelming majority of cost, so payroll accuracy is margin accuracy. An error rate that would be an irritation elsewhere is a direct hit to gross margin here, and end-of-service accrual across a large, long-tenured workforce is a balance sheet item of real size.
04
Rates are fixed for a contract term while wage costs rise inside it. Without margin reported per contract with its renewal date attached, the loss-making sites are identified after they renew rather than before.
What NetSuite does about it
Contracted posts and actual deployment are held against the contract, so invoices reflect cover delivered and additional cover requested — and shortfalls are visible before the client raises them.
Overtime, allowances and relief are costed to the site they were worked on, so the true cost per post is known and pricing a renewal starts from what the site actually costs to run.
Payroll posts to the contract and site it was worked on, with end-of-service accrued as it is earned rather than recognised when it is paid — which for a long-tenured workforce is the difference between a provision and a shock.
Margin reports per contract alongside its expiry date, so the commercial team renegotiates the sites that need it in the window where renegotiation is possible.
Compliance · the UAE
Payroll runs through WPS, end-of-service accrues under the federal labour framework, and a workforce of this size makes Emiratisation targets a planning constraint rather than a reporting one. Service invoices fall in scope for structured e-invoicing.
UAE e-invoicing in NetSuite →A scoping call, not a sales qualifier. Bring the report you cannot produce today and we will tell you what it takes to produce it.