For South African private security firms

Every guard accounted for.
Every shift you can prove.

Watchly is the record your firm runs on — PSIRA compliance, attendance booked at the post, payroll and incidents, all held to one standard. Good for the firm that has to prove it, and the guard who stood the post.

Illustrative data — not a real firm
On post nowKopano Protection · Sandton CityOn post
SN
Sipho Nkosi
PSIRA 1428857 · Post A
On 06:58
TM
Thabo Mahlangu
PSIRA 1930442 · Post B
On 06:55
RM
Riaan Meyer
PSIRA 0871330 · Post C
Late 12m
JB
Johan Botha
PSIRA 1102338 · Post D
No-show
Built around the framework South African security firms are held to
PSIRAPOPIASASALRASD 6
Good for the firm. Good for the guard.

A record that protects both sides of the post.

Most systems watch the guard for the firm. Watchly keeps a record that works for the firm and for the officer standing the shift — the same truth serves both.

Good for the firm

Prove your standard, on demand

Every registration, every post booked, every incident and shift on one record — and a compliance snapshot PDF ready the moment a client, tender or PSIRA inspector asks.

  • Compliance and attendance you can show, not scramble for
  • Attendance booked at the post and checked against the roster
  • One sign-in across a group of firms, each kept separate
Good for the guard

Paid for the post you stood

The shift you stood is on the record, beside the roster your pay is worked from — and when life is tight, support is there without a loan shark.

  • Your book-on and book-off on the record, beside the shift you were rostered
  • Salary advances on the record, not off the books
  • An account of your work that protects you in a dispute too
Attendance

Every shift booked on and off at the post

Officers book on and off by opening the printed code at the post, and Watchly stamps the time from its own clock. Payroll is worked from the roster, and the booked hours for the month sit beside it, officer by officer, so a gap between the two is on the record for someone to resolve.

  • Book-on and book-off tied to the post, with late arrivals and no-shows read against the roster
  • Rostered hours against booked hours for the month, per officer
Illustrative data — not a real firm
Payroll — from rostered hoursReady to run
Sipho Nkosi
184h rostered
R7 360
Thabo Mahlangu
176h rostered
R7 040
Naledi Dlamini
168h · advance −R500
R6 220
Riaan Meyer
172h rostered
R6 880
Salary advances

Support that keeps good officers

When a guard needs help before payday, a supervisor records the request and a manager approves it — capped at the net pay the officer has already earned, with no interest and no fee. Fair, on the record, and a reason good people stay.

  • Request → approve, capped at net pay already earned
  • No interest and no fee, on the record — retention, not exploitation
Illustrative data — not a real firm
Advance requestNaledi Dlamini · PSIRA 2310884Awaiting approval
R500Requested · school fees
TermRecovery projected on this month's payroll
CapWithin net pay earned to date
✓Approve — a manager signs it off
Compliance

Never get caught by a lapsed registration

Every officer's grade, PSIRA number and expiry in one register, with warnings weeks before anything lapses. You always know exactly where your force stands — and you can prove it.

  • Grade, registration & expiry tracked per officer
  • Warnings before PSIRA or firearm competency lapses
  • A compliance snapshot PDF of the whole force, for a client, tender board or inspector
  • A compliance pack for any client: every officer rostered on their sites, and exactly who cannot be rostered and why
  • A tender pack for any client: your PSIRA and VAT registration numbers as recorded, your firm certificates, and every employed officer counted by PSIRA grade, clear to work or not, with no officer named
Illustrative data — not a real firm
Force standing142 clear · 1 lapsed
SN
Sipho Nkosi
PSIRA 1428857 · GRADE B
Compliant
TM
Thabo Mahlangu
PSIRA 1930442 · GRADE C
Expires 14d
KP
Kagiso Phiri
PSIRA 2310884 · GRADE C
Expires 28d
JB
Johan Botha
PSIRA 1102338 · GRADE B
Lapsed
Deployment

Know who stands where, at a glance

Every client site's attendance on one board — who is booked on at each post now, and which of last night's rostered shifts nobody booked on.

  • Who is on post now, at every site
  • Rostered shifts that nobody booked on, from the night before
Illustrative data — not a real firm
Booked on against rostered23 sites active
Sandton City Mall18/18
Melrose Arch14/14
Fourways Estate7/9
Centurion Warehouse4/7
Incidents

The account of what happened

Structured, time-stamped incident records — who, what, when and what was done. When a client disputes the night of the fourteenth, you open the account, not your memory.

  • Every incident time-stamped and attributable
  • An audit pack for any client and month: every ended shift on their contracted sites against its bookings, and every occurrence-book entry there that month, with the chain of each whole book checked
Illustrative data — not a real firm
Incident #INC-2081Open
02:14Perimeter sensor triggered — north fence
02:19Officer on scene · N. Mabaso
02:22Armed response called · SAPS notified
02:41Site secured · awaiting client sign-off
The whole operation

Everything a firm runs on, held to one standard.

Attendance at the post

Officers book on and off from the printed code at the post, read against the roster for late arrivals and no-shows.

Payroll & advances

Pay worked from the roster, and a fair advance against wages already earned, on the record.

PSIRA compliance

Grades, registrations and expiries tracked, with warnings before anything lapses.

Compliance snapshot

Every officer in good standing, or exactly who has lapsed and why, as one PDF drawn from the live register.

Owner's oversight

Roles in each firm, from owner down to read-only viewer, and one sign-in that moves between a group's firms, each kept separate.

POPIA by design

Tenant-isolated, role-scoped, and with no field for an SA ID number.

Getting started

How a firm gets on the record.

1

Bring in your force

Officers, grades and PSIRA numbers. Anything already expiring is flagged, so you begin from an honest baseline.

2

Set sites & shifts

Define client sites, posts and shift patterns. Officers book on at the post, and bookings are read against the roster from the first morning.

3

Run it as the record

Payroll runs from the roster and attendance is checked against it. Incidents go on the occurrence book as they happen.

Why firms switch

The old way vs. Watchly.

Capability
Spreadsheets & legacy suites
Watchly
Attendance
Paper register
Booked at the post, against the roster
Payroll
Re-keyed from timesheets
Straight from the roster
PSIRA expiry tracking
Manual, easy to miss
Automatic warnings
“
We built Watchly on one belief: the firm that can prove its standard, and the guard who upheld it, deserve to be protected by the same record.
Watchly  ·  our founding principle
Pricing

Priced for SA firms, not Silicon Valley.

Priced per officer, per month — and the rate per officer falls as your force grows. You pay for officers, not for sign-ins, and a monthly minimum applies.

Starter
For a single branch finding its feet.
  • PSIRA compliance register
  • Attendance, incidents & patrols
Create an account
Growth
For firms scaling across sites and clients.
  • Unlimited sites
  • Attendance & payroll
  • Advance expiry warnings & the compliance snapshot
  • Role-based access in each firm
Book a demo
Group
Custom
For national umbrellas & multi-company groups.
  • One sign-in across the group of firms
  • Tenant isolation per firm
  • Dedicated onboarding
Talk to us

Pricing is provisional — owner review before launch. Book a demo and we will take you through it.

Questions

The things firms ask first.

How do officers book on and off?+
At the post, by opening its printed code, and Watchly stamps the time from its own clock. A supervisor can also record a booking from a list, with a reason. Either way the booking is read against the roster, so a late arrival or a no-show is on the record.
What are advances, exactly?+
A way for a firm to support its officers: a supervisor records an advance an officer has asked for, against wages already earned and capped at net pay to date, and a manager approves it. There is no interest and no fee, and it is on the record. Watchly does not offer loans.
Is Watchly aligned with PSIRA requirements?+
Watchly is built around the PSIRA framework — officer grades, registration numbers and expiry dates are first-class fields, and the record warns you before anything approaches lapse. It's a compliance and record-keeping tool that makes an inspection something you can prove, not a regulator itself.
Can I move off my spreadsheets without downtime?+
Yes. You bring in your officers, sites and PSIRA details, anything already expiring is flagged, and you run in parallel until you trust it.
Does it suit one branch or a national group?+
Both. Each firm is its own tenant, kept separate from every other, and one sign-in can move between the firms of a group, with access set by role in each.

Put your firm — and your guards — on the record.

See Watchly run a security firm's day.