ShiftTracker vs SmartTask: UK Security & Cleaning WFM Compared

ShiftTracker and SmartTask are both UK workforce management platforms for security, cleaning and facilities firms, but they are built around different strengths. SmartTask is the more established, patrol-centred product, with automated check-call phone calls, keyholding and alarm response, a control room view and more than twenty years behind it. ShiftTracker is newer and narrower, built around the rota, BS 7858 screening records, agency coordination and exact pay and charge figures, with a public price of £49 a month plus £3 per active employee. Choose SmartTask if mobile operations, keyholding or automated phone check calls drive your contracts. Choose ShiftTracker if screening evidence, agency cover and transparent pricing matter more. Neither wins everywhere; the better fit depends on your own operation. We compared both against their own websites and documentation on 30 October 2026, and we flag every point we could not confirm so you can test it in a demo.

Which platform fits which firm?

Pick SmartTask if you run mobile patrols, keyholding or alarm response and want automated phone check calls and a control room view. Pick ShiftTracker if you need screening evidence, agency cover and published pricing. The table below sets out what each company states on its own site, with gaps marked where we could not confirm a feature.

AreaShiftTrackerSmartTaskPricing£49 a month plus £3 per active employee; Professional adds £1.50 per active employeeNo public price found; quote on requestFree trial30 days, no cardNone stated on its siteCheck callsApp check calls verified by PIN, site ID or GPS; missed calls alert staff in the app, by push and by emailApp or automated phone calls, phone reminders, a call to the line manager, alerts on the Active boardBS 7858 screeningScreening tab: 5 or 10 year window, gaps of 31 days or more flagged, consent before references, 1 employment and 2 character referencesVetting managed as a project: documents, background checks, BS 7858:2019 requirements and renewal promptsSIA licencesRecorded, with expiry alerts and a link to the public register; not checked against itStored with certification expiry alerts; its page does not say it checks the registerPatrolsPricing page lists patrols with photos, GPS and NFC; no documentation page yetStatic Patrol app with timestamped, geo-located checkpoint scans and FLIR thermal imagingKeyholding and alarm responseNo dedicated moduleKey auditing, alarm call-outs, dispatch and a site-safe confirmationSchedulingRoster with patterns and Working Time checks on assignmentAI-suggested staff matches and staff preferencesPayroll and accountsArbitration, Sage 50 timesheet file or generic hours file; Xero push on ProfessionalIntegrates with payroll and accounts packages; names not listed on its pagesSecurity standardEU hosting in Amsterdam, provider audited to SOC 2 Type II, UK GDPR alignedISO 27001:2022 compliant since August 2017, as stated by SmartTaskTrack recordFounded in 2025; no named customer case studies publishedOver 20 years; many named case studies

What does each platform cost?

ShiftTracker publishes its price: £49 a month plus £3 for each active employee, with no VAT added, and Professional adds £1.50 per active employee. SmartTask does not publish a price that we could find, so you need to request a quote and a demo before you can compare cost.

An active employee on ShiftTracker is someone who did recorded work in the month, such as a book-on, check call, form or clock-in. Staff who did no work cost nothing. For 25 active employees, the pricing page shows £124 a month. ShiftTracker's trial runs for 30 days with no card. SmartTask states no trial on its site.

Ask SmartTask for a written quote that names the modules you need. Its security pages describe check calls, call reminders, a daily occurrence log, biometrics and mobile device management as add-ons, so the total depends on what you switch on.

How do they handle BS 7858 vetting and SIA records?

Both platforms store vetting documents and chase renewals. ShiftTracker goes further on the screening workflow itself, with a day-accurate window and consent gate. Neither platform checks an SIA licence against the public register for you. ShiftTracker says so plainly. SmartTask's pages do not claim it either.

ShiftTracker's Screening tab keeps a five or ten year vetting window, the jobs and other periods that cover it, and the applicant's consent. It flags any uncovered span of 31 days or more, requires consent before references go out, and completes when one employment and two character references are in.

The ShiftTracker Screening tab: vetting window, coverage timeline and references.

SmartTask describes vetting as a managed process. Its security page says it helps gather qualifications and background checks, covers BS 7858:2019 requirements, stores documents, sends contracts and prompts for document renewals. Its page does not describe gap detection or a consent gate, so ask for a demo of both.

On SIA licences, ShiftTracker records the licence number and expiry, alerts as expiry approaches and can block deployment when a verified licence document expires. It adds a link to the SIA public register so you can cross-check by hand. A licence shows as valid only until the typed expiry date passes.

ShiftTracker's SIA Compliance Report links to the public register for manual checks.

SmartTask stores SIA licences with other credentials and tracks expiry dates with automated alerts. If your clients expect licence checks against the register, plan a manual step on either platform.

How do check calls and lone worker welfare compare?

SmartTask has the more complete welfare-call system, because it can phone staff automatically and phone a line manager when a call is missed. ShiftTracker runs check calls in the app, verifies them, and alerts your team when one is missed, but it does not place calls to the worker.

On ShiftTracker you set an interval, a call window and what proves a call: a personal PIN, the site ID, GPS or all three. A missed call sends an in-app notification and push to Admin and Control users and an email to the organisation contact. An Escalate button raises the alert sooner by hand.

ShiftTracker check-call settings: pattern, window and verification method.

ShiftTracker's documentation is explicit about the limits. After a missed call the shift keeps its status, the person is not marked absent, no call is placed to them and no cover is arranged. Its pricing page also lists a panic button, which has no documentation page yet, so confirm how it works in a demo.

SmartTask lets staff log calls in the app or by an automated phone system, sends phone reminders at set intervals, can ring a line manager about a missed call and raises alerts on its Active board. It offers the same welfare-call approach for cleaners. For lone workers, that automation is its clearest advantage.

Patrols, keyholding and alarm response

If keyholding and alarm response are part of your contracts, SmartTask is the stronger fit today. It describes dedicated features for key auditing, alarm dispatch and patrol evidence. ShiftTracker offers forms and, according to its pricing page, patrols with NFC, but it has no dedicated keyholding module.

SmartTask's mobile operations pages describe scheduled patrol routes, call-outs for alarm response, assignment instructions held against each site, a site-safe confirmation that alerts the control room if a guard does not respond, and a traffic-light key auditing process. Checkpoint scans carry a timestamp and location.

Its Static Patrol app adds check calls, incident forms and site documents, and it says it is the first guard patrol monitoring system with integrated FLIR thermal imaging. ShiftTracker's pricing page lists patrols with photos, GPS and NFC, but its documentation has no patrol page, so test the workflow before relying on it.

On ShiftTracker, incident reports, inspections and checks use the form builder, with photo points, signatures and required GPS and timestamps on photos. Submissions go through a review workflow, which suits audit evidence. The Admin role builds forms, and Managers can deploy them once published.

Scheduling, leave and Working Time

Both platforms cover rostering, leave and timesheets. SmartTask leans on suggestions, using machine learning to propose the best-matched staff for a shift. ShiftTracker leans on rules, checking Working Time Regulations limits and rest each time someone is assigned and keeping a record when a manager overrides a warning.

ShiftTracker builds recurring patterns site by site, which draw empty seats onto the roster for you to fill. Each assignment is checked against the 48 hour average over 17 weeks and 11 hours of rest, plus overlapping shifts and approved leave. Overlaps are refused, and Working Time warnings need a reason.

The ShiftTracker roster on Week and Patterns, with coverage gaps visible.

ShiftTracker does not calculate overtime pay as part of Working Time, and its documentation says night-work limits are not checked. Overtime multipliers are set in payroll arbitration instead. Ask SmartTask how it applies its Working Time Directive checks, because its pages describe compliance in general terms.

SmartTask's pages mention machine-learning suggestions, staff preferences and a confirmation feature called MySmartTask. Staff request leave in its Engage app, and rules can refuse requests automatically, for example with under two weeks' notice. In ShiftTracker, approving leave takes the person off their rostered shifts and opens those shifts for cover.

Payroll, invoicing and accounting links

ShiftTracker reconciles every shift four ways before money moves: expected, actual, payroll and charge. SmartTask automates payroll and billing calculations and links to payroll and accounts packages, but its pages do not name them. Ask each vendor for your exact payroll and accounting software.

ShiftTracker's arbitration settles clean shifts automatically and flags a drifted book-on for a person to decide. You set pay and charge rates, minimum hours, overtime multipliers and paid breaks. Registered bank holidays pay at double time. Payroll Export builds a Sage 50 timesheet file or a generic hours file.

ShiftTracker Payroll Export: preview the file before you download it.

ShiftTracker's pricing page says Professional adds a Xero timesheet and invoice push, though we could not find it in the documentation. Invoices come from the charge side of arbitration: draft, check, issue, then record payments. Issued shifts cannot be billed twice. Only an Admin or Manager can raise invoices.

SmartTask says it automates payroll calculations from hours, overtime and leave, supports timesheet sign-off with customers, and integrates with earnings-on-demand systems. Its billing page says it generates invoice data from hours worked and links to popular accountancy packages. Confirm which ones before you commit.

Client portal and reporting

Both platforms give clients a portal, and they differ in what it shows. SmartTask's portal shows schedules, incident reports and live patrol information. ShiftTracker's portal is a read-only dashboard of coverage, hours delivered and incidents, plus invoice downloads. Its dashboard cannot be exported.

A ShiftTracker client sees three screens: Dashboard, Invoices and Profile. The Dashboard shows fill rate, check-call compliance, missed check calls, hours charged and incident counts for a range of up to 92 days. Only the issuing organisation can create client logins, and the only download is an invoice PDF.

The ShiftTracker client portal dashboard: coverage and attendance for a week.

SmartTask says clients can see guard schedules, incident reports, check-ins, patrol routes and documents in real time, and its case studies describe customers getting live patrol information through the portal. If your clients expect to watch patrols live, that is a point in its favour.

Security standards, hosting and track record

SmartTask has the longer record and the formal certificate. ShiftTracker is young, small and transparent about it. Both are UK companies, and neither is the right answer if your tender requires something the other holds. Check each requirement against the supplier directly.

SmartTask states that it has been ISO 27001:2022 compliant since August 2017 and has more than twenty years of experience. Its site names many security and cleaning customers, including firms managing over 150 officers. Ask for the current certificate, since compliance is a claim on its site.

ShiftTracker was founded in 2025 and runs on Railway's EU West region in Amsterdam, which is independently audited to SOC 2 Type II. It is built to align with UK GDPR and publishes no ISO certification. Its about page shows four UK organisations, and it publishes no named customer case studies.

Which should you choose?

Choose SmartTask if you run mobile patrols, keyholding or alarm response, want automated phone check calls, or need a supplier with a long record and ISO 27001. Choose ShiftTracker if screening evidence, agency coordination, Working Time checks and a published price matter most, and you accept a younger product.

Before you decide, run the same three tests on both: roster your real shift pattern, run one missed check call end to end, and produce the screening record you would show an auditor. Ask each vendor to name its payroll and accounting links for your software.

How we checked this comparison

We read SmartTask's security, cleaning and about pages and ShiftTracker's pricing page, product pages and documentation on 30 October 2026. We treated claims on a vendor's own site as that vendor's statements. Features marked as unconfirmed were not described in the sources we read.