Ask any operations director who has been through an ACS assessment what the hard part was, and it's rarely the standard itself. Most well-run security companies already do the things the workbook asks about. The pain is proving it: pulling together patrol records, screening files, training logs, payroll evidence, complaint histories and client correspondence — often from spreadsheets, filing cabinets and one manager's inbox — into something an assessor can verify in a day or two on site.
This guide is written for the people who prepare that evidence pack: what the self-assessment workbook is, how it's structured, and how each of its themes maps onto the operational records a platform like Pulse generates automatically. It is general guidance, not an official SIA document.
What the ACS self-assessment workbook is
The Approved Contractor Scheme (ACS) is the Security Industry Authority's voluntary quality scheme for suppliers of private security services in the UK. To gain and keep approval, a business assesses itself against the ACS standard using the SIA's self-assessment workbook, and an independent assessor then verifies those scores against real evidence.
The standard is organised as seven criteria, broken down into 33 sub-criteria and 78 individual indicators. For each indicator there is a required achievement level — the baseline every approved contractor must meet, scored as zero — with additional points available where you can evidence good practice and continuous improvement beyond it. The seven criteria are:
- Strategy — a clear strategic approach to the business: planning, communication and performance against key indicators.
- Service delivery — robust processes that deliver the service customers contracted for, monitored and improved over time.
- Commercial relationship management — transparent, professional relationships with customers, suppliers and subcontractors.
- Financial management — a financially viable business with sound financial processes, including clear and effective management of payroll.
- Resource management — the management information, premises, procedures and equipment needed to sustain the business.
- People — properly screened, licensed, trained and supported staff, deployed competently and treated lawfully.
- Leadership — effective, ethical leadership that measures and improves organisational performance.
Assessment isn't a one-off. After the initial assessment, approved contractors are reassessed annually — and where the assessor identifies improvement needs at an annual assessment, they must be addressed within the timeframe the assessor sets. Assessors take a holistic view of the business rather than marching through the indicators one by one, but they drill into specific indicators wherever something looks thin — and every score in your workbook must survive that scrutiny.
Assessors don't take the workbook's word for it. They review staff files and payroll records, contracts and duty rotas, policies and procedures, and site documentation; they interview staff and customers; and they visit operational sites. If your evidence lives in ten places, assessment prep becomes a weeks-long archaeology project — every year.
The SIA updates the workbook periodically, and emphasis shifts between editions. Always work from the current workbook and guide on GOV.UK rather than a saved copy.
Mapping the seven criteria to your operational records
Below, criterion by criterion: what assessors broadly want to see, the operational records that satisfy it, and where a platform like Pulse produces that evidence automatically. (We describe the requirements generically — check the exact indicator wording in the current workbook for your own scoring.)
1. Strategy
What assessors want to see: that the business plans deliberately, communicates with its people and customers, and tracks performance against meaningful indicators rather than gut feel.
The records that satisfy it: business plans and review minutes live with your leadership team — but the performance data underneath them shouldn't be assembled by hand. Pulse's management-information reports give you patrol completion rates, incident volumes, response times, welfare-check compliance and contract KPIs per site and per client, exportable to CSV for board packs and the assessor file. The numbers in your strategy documents trace back to real operational data.
2. Service delivery
What assessors want to see: that key service processes are defined, actually followed on the ground, monitored, and improved — and that the service customers receive matches what was contracted, including where subcontractors are used.
The records that satisfy it: this is where an operations platform earns its keep. Every Pulse patrol is photo-verified with GPS coordinates and timestamps, so "the patrol happened" is a record, not an assertion. The incident and occurrence book is digital and tamper-evident — entries are timestamped, attributed and preserved in the audit log, so the assessor can see exactly what was reported, when, and what happened next. Assignment instructions, site procedures and completed jobs sit against each site record, and monitoring reports show whether the contracted service was actually delivered, shift by shift.
3. Commercial relationship management
What assessors want to see: professional, transparent dealings with customers — including how complaints are received, handled and resolved, and how customer perception is measured.
The records that satisfy it: the Pulse client portal gives each customer a live view of their own contract — patrols, incidents, reports — which is itself evidence of transparent service. Communication through the portal creates a dated record of what was raised and how it was answered, so complaint and query histories are retrievable per client rather than buried in individual inboxes.
4. Financial management
What assessors want to see: a financially viable business with sound financial processes — including clear, effective payroll management.
The records that satisfy it: your accounts and payroll run outside any operations platform — but the data feeding them shouldn't be guesswork. Pulse's rostering and time-and-attendance records show who was scheduled, who actually worked, and for how long, per shift and per site. That gives payroll a verifiable source, makes billed hours reconcilable against delivered hours, and gives the assessor a clean trail from rota to timesheet to invoice.
5. Resource management
What assessors want to see: that the business has the management information systems, procedures and equipment to sustain the service it sells — and uses them to improve.
The records that satisfy it: a working operations platform is, in itself, strong evidence for this criterion. Pulse demonstrates a live management-information system in daily use: control-room dashboards, per-site records, scheduled reports and a full audit log of who did what and when. Showing an assessor the system running your operation beats describing one in a policy document.
6. People
What assessors want to see: that deployed staff are properly screened, licensed and trained, deployed within their competence, supported and welfare-managed, and employed lawfully. Assessors check how well you understand and apply the relevant British Standards — notably BS 7858 for security screening — and verify licences against the SIA's register.
The records that satisfy it: Pulse's compliance and vetting registers hold BS 7858-style screening records, right-to-work documents, training and qualification records against each person, with SIA licence numbers and expiry tracking so a lapsing licence is flagged before it becomes a deployment problem. For lone and remote workers, welfare check-call logs show that scheduled checks happened and what was done when one was missed — exactly the deployed-staff welfare evidence the workbook asks you to demonstrate.
7. Leadership
What assessors want to see: leaders who know the industry, behave ethically, and measure and improve the organisation's performance rather than presiding over it.
The records that satisfy it: leadership is evidenced by people, but the paper trail matters: management review packs built on real MI, documented actions arising from incident trends or missed KPIs, and an audit log showing managers actually working in the system. Pulse gives leadership the same live data the control room sees, so "we monitor and act" is demonstrable, not aspirational.
10 pieces of evidence to have ready before your ACS assessment
Whatever system you run, an assessor will move faster — and score you more confidently — if these are producible on demand:
- Completed patrol records for a sample period per site: timestamps, GPS, photos, and exceptions with what was done about them.
- The occurrence book and incident reports, with an unbroken, tamper-evident trail from report to resolution.
- Screening files for a sample of staff showing BS 7858-style vetting completed before deployment.
- The SIA licence register — every deployed officer's licence number, status and expiry, current on the day of the visit.
- Training records per person: inductions, site-specific training and refreshers, with dates.
- Duty rotas and time-and-attendance records that reconcile with payroll and with the hours billed to clients.
- Welfare and check-call logs for lone workers, including missed-check escalations.
- Assignment instructions and site procedures, versioned, with evidence staff can access the current copy.
- Complaint and client-communication records showing issues raised, handled and closed.
- Management-information reports — KPI packs and exports demonstrating performance is measured and reviewed, not just collected.
What Pulse does — and honestly doesn't — do
Let's be clear: no software grants ACS status. Approval rests on how the business is actually run — its leadership, finances, people and service. What a platform changes is the cost of proving it. When patrols, incidents, welfare checks, vetting, licences, training, rostering and client communication all happen in the system, the evidence trail assembles itself as a by-product of daily work. Assessment prep stops being an annual excavation and becomes an export.
If compliance record-keeping is your current weak point, start with our compliance module overview — and if Martyn's Law is also on your radar, the same evidence-first approach applies: see our Martyn's Law readiness guide.
This guide is general information to help you prepare and is not an official SIA publication or professional advice. The ACS standard, workbook and guidance are updated periodically — always verify current requirements against the self-assessment workbook and guide published on GOV.UK, and direct questions about your assessment to the SIA or your assessing body.