Leak Report 2026

Where fire and security contractors lose margin #

A fire and security contractor turning over £3 million with 15 engineers can lose around £194,000 a year without anything obviously going wrong. No single job looks bad. The money goes in small amounts, spread across quotes, timesheets, van runs, reports and renewals.

This report shows where it goes, how we worked it out, and how to check the numbers against your own business.

The model firm #

The headline #

The nine leaks fall into three groups. They are different kinds of money and should not be read as one number you can bank.

Margin you lose is the closest to cash. Hours you lose only turn into money if you use the time for billable work or avoid a hire you would otherwise make. Revenue you never collect is turnover, not profit, but it is the easiest recurring revenue you will ever win because the customer already trusts you.

The nine leaks #

1. Quotes priced from old supplier sheets

What happens. The estimator prices a job from a supplier sheet that is months old, or from memory. Suppliers have moved their prices since. The markup is applied to a cost that no longer exists, so part of the margin on every materials line is gone before the job starts.

The model. Materials are 35% of turnover, sold at a 30% markup, so the firm buys about £807,700 of materials a year. If 3% of supplier price rises are not passed on, that is £24,231 a year.

What fixes it. A price date on every line of the parts list, a flag on any price older than your limit, and supplier sheets loaded into one place instead of kept in inboxes.

2. Timesheets and mileage nobody can check

What happens. Engineers fill in timesheets at the end of the week from memory. Some round up, some forget hours they worked. Mileage is an estimate. The office has no way to check any of it, so payroll trusts the sheet, and cost per job is wrong.

The model. 20 minutes a day of unverifiable time per engineer is 1,150 hours a year across 15 engineers, or £32,200. Ten over-claimed miles per engineer per week at 45p adds £3,105. Total £35,305.

What fixes it. Timesheets built from vehicle telematics and job status, with the office reviewing exceptions instead of every line.

3. The unplanned run to the wholesaler

What happens. The engineer arrives on site and the van does not have the part. They drive to a wholesaler, lose an hour and a half, and the customer waits.

The model. One unplanned run per engineer per week, 1.5 hours and 15 miles each, across 46 weeks: £33,638.

What fixes it. Checking each van against the next day's jobs before it leaves the depot, and deducting stock when a part is fitted so the picture stays accurate.

4. Out of hours callouts that never get billed

What happens. The phone rings at 11pm. The on-call engineer goes out, fixes it, writes a note on paper or not at all. The callout never reaches an invoice.

The model. Four callouts a week, every week of the year, with one in ten not billed at an average of £180: £3,744. Small on its own, and almost pure margin.

What fixes it. Every out of hours call logged as a job at the moment it comes in, with the rate applied automatically.

5. Reports typed on a phone, then rewritten by the office

What happens. An engineer finishes a service visit and types notes on a phone with cold hands. The office rewrites the poor ones before the customer sees them. Some engineers write a lot, others almost nothing.

The model. 15 engineers doing 8 visits a week is 120 reports. Typing takes 10 minutes; voice capture takes about 3. The 7 minutes saved per report is worth £18,032 a year in engineer time. The office rewrites 30% of reports at 10 minutes each, another £4,692. Total £22,724.

What fixes it. Voice capture on site, turned into a structured report that keeps every fact the engineer gave and adds nothing they did not.

6. Quotes built by copy and paste

What happens. The estimator opens an old quote, copies blocks, edits the scope, and tries to remember which compliance wording applies. Each quote takes hours and the quality depends on who wrote it.

The model. 12 quotes a week at 2.5 hours each is 30 hours. If half of that can be saved, the firm gets back 690 estimator hours a year, worth £17,250.

What fixes it. A parts list with current prices, labour units instead of guesses, and one reviewed library of compliance wording instead of whichever old quote was open.

7. Travel and idle time from manual scheduling

What happens. One person holds the schedule in their head. Engineers cross the same area twice in a day, wait for access, or sit idle after a cancellation nobody filled.

The model. 20 minutes a day per engineer of avoidable travel or idle time: £32,200.

What fixes it. Scheduling that groups work by area, knows who is qualified for what, and confirms access before the engineer sets off.

8. Service contracts that quietly lapse

What happens. A contract is due for renewal. Nobody sends the renewal. The customer drifts to a competitor or simply stops, and nobody notices until someone reviews the customer list.

The model. 200 contracts at £900, with 8% lost through missed renewal rather than price or service: £14,400 a year, repeated every year you do not fix it.

What fixes it. A renewal sequence that starts 90 days before expiry, with a named person responsible for every contract that has not been renewed 30 days out.

9. Installs that never become service contracts

What happens. An install is finished and handed over. Nobody offers a maintenance contract, or it is mentioned once and forgotten.

The model. 60 installs a year. If one in five more of them became a £900 contract: £10,800 a year of new recurring revenue.

What fixes it. A service agreement offer built into every handover, priced before the engineer leaves site.

What is not in the number: compliance risk #

Some of the most expensive problems do not have a fair annual figure, so we left them out rather than guess. They include:

• A system that falls outside its service window. Under BS 5839-1:2025, a service can fall between five and seven months after the previous one. Later than seven months is non-compliant.
• An engineer working on a system after a qualification has expired.
• A missing commissioning or modification certificate discovered at audit.
• Days of office time pulling files together before a certification body visit.

These costs arrive rarely and all at once. A lost customer, a failed audit sample or an insurance question can cost more than every leak above in a single month.

Run your own numbers #

Where to start #

If you fix one thing first, fix timesheets. Verified time and mileage make cost per job real, and real cost per job is what makes pricing, scheduling and renewals worth improving.

Then fix pricing, because it touches every quote. Then renewals, because the customers are already yours.

One warning from our own delivery work: software does not fix a process nobody has agreed on. If your team cannot say in one sentence how a quote is priced or when a renewal goes out, write that down before you buy anything, including from us.

Method and limits #

• The figures are modelled, not surveyed.
• All costs use a 46-week working year, except out of hours calls, which use 52.
• Hours you lose are shown at cost, not at charge-out rate. At charge-out rate they would be higher.
• Revenue figures are turnover, not profit.
• VAT, finance costs and overheads are not included.

We plan to replace the model with real data in the 2027 edition. If you run a fire or security business and would share anonymised figures, email hello@sentinelvero.com.