How to quote a security contract in one sheet

To quote a security contract for one 24-hour guarding post, build a sheet with seven lines in the order the cost arrives. The wage grade from the sectoral determination, the hours a round-the-clock post really needs, the on-costs, the vehicle if there is one, the margin, and the VAT. It takes an afternoon in Excel or Google Sheets and costs nothing but the afternoon.

The mistake is to start from what the competitor charges. Start from what the guard must legally be paid, and the sheet tells you whether the competitor is cutting margin or cutting the law.

Before you start

• The current wage table under Sectoral Determination 6: Private Security Sector, downloaded from the Department of Employment and Labour or the Government Gazette, not copied from another company's website or a salary site. The table changes annually, the salary sites disagree with each other, and the wrong year is the commonest error in the trade. This piece deliberately quotes no figure from it, for the same reason.
• The client's site in one line: hours of cover, number of posts, whether there is an armed or response element, and the area, because the determination prices by area.
• Your PSIRA registration number and the registration numbers of the officers you intend to post.

Step 1: read the grade off the determination to quote the contract

Every guarding post has a grade under the determination, and every grade has a monthly minimum for the area the site sits in. Open the table and write the number into cell B2 with the year of the determination next to it. Do not write it from memory. If you cannot say which gazette the number came from, the sheet is already wrong.

Step 2: work out the hours a 24-hour post needs

A post covered 24 hours a day for a month needs 730 hours of presence (24 hours by 365 days, divided by 12). One guard cannot supply that. Divide 730 by the ordinary hours one officer may work in a month under the determination, round up, and that is the number of officers the post needs before leave and sickness. Add cover for annual leave, sick leave and the public holidays in the contract period, and the number rises again.

Step 3: put the public holidays in as their own line

Public holidays are paid at a premium under the determination, and the count changes. The Presidency announced on 15 September that the President had declared Wednesday 4 November 2026 a public holiday for the local government elections; the proclamation sits in Gazette 55352. A quote written in August for a contract that runs through November has one more premium day in it than it was priced for. Count the holidays in the period, multiply by the premium, and give the line its own row.

Step 4: add the on-costs per officer

Under the wage line, one row each for what employing the officer costs beyond the wage. PSIRA registration and annual renewal, the provident fund contribution the determination requires, UIF, COIDA, the uniform and its replacement cycle, and training.

Read each figure from its source on the day. The PSIRA notice gazetted on 16 September 2026 lifted a moratorium on applications to extend the scope of specialised training course accreditation. It is a reminder that the regulator's rules move without warning. Then total the officer's monthly cost and multiply by the officers from Step 2.

Step 5: price the vehicle if there is a response element

A response element is a second business inside the quote. The vehicle, its fuel per month at the current diesel price, its tracking, its insurance and the reaction officer's own grade. Keep it on separate lines so the client can see what the guarding costs and what the response costs. Clients who ask to remove the response element can then see exactly what leaves.

Step 6: add the margin as a percentage on a line of its own

The margin sits on its own row, as a percentage of the cost total above it. It is not hidden inside the wage line. When the determination changes and every line above moves, a margin on its own row moves with it and the client conversation is about the wage table, not about you.

Step 7: add VAT as the last line

VAT at the current rate on the subtotal. The quote states the figure excluding VAT, the VAT, and the total. A quote that shows one number is a quote a bookkeeper phones you about.

Step 8: date the sheet and name the determination on it

At the bottom, one line: the date of the quote and the year of the determination it was priced under. If the quote goes to the client by WhatsApp, our published piece on WhatsApp Business reply costs sets out what the reminder messages will cost from 1 October.

What breaks here

The cheaper quote. A client shows you a competitor's number that cannot be paying the grade minimum. Your sheet is the answer. Hand over the wage line with the gazette reference and let the client decide whose contract they want to be found holding.

The annual change. The determination is amended, and every live contract reprices on the effective date. A quote that carries the year of the table on its face can be re-issued in an hour. A quote that does not has to be rebuilt from scratch, at thirty sites, in the same week.

The unregistered officer. A guard whose PSIRA registration has lapsed is a contract breach on a site you are being paid to secure. The quote assumes registered officers, and the register has to be checked before the roster is issued, not after.

When this stops being enough

One sheet prices one site. At thirty sites, one determination change means thirty sheets to reopen, and the version each was quoted under is whatever the person remembers. What is needed then is a rate card with a version number, so that every live contract can be re-priced from one change and every quote records which version it was built on.

That is the record Zorah builds for South African security companies. The grade table becomes a versioned rate card, the roster reads from it, and the quote to invoice chain carries the version number to the debtor's statement.

On Monday, open your last three quotes and look for the year of the determination on any of them. If it is not there, you cannot tell which of them is already underpriced.