Tesser Index breaks down what you pay your guard vendor — wage, burden, benefits, billed extras, and markup — benchmarks it against what the same vendor charges comparable clients, reconciles billed hours against hours delivered, and recovers what you're overpaying. Without cutting a single post.
Get a free teardown of one contractRoughly a quarter of the bill is markup and billed extras. Some of that funds real service — we credit it first. What's left is recoverable, without touching coverage or officer pay. Most clients have never seen this split, which is exactly why the overpayment goes unnoticed.
You're quoted a bill rate. What's inside it — and whether it's fair — is invisible. So markup drifts up, "direct" line items get padded, hours get billed that were never worked, and the escalator compounds a little faster than wages actually grow. The money leaks quietly, year after year.
| Officer wage | What the guard is actually paid. |
| Payroll burden | Taxes and workers' comp — varies widely by state and by armed vs. unarmed. |
| Benefits | Often billed richer than the guards receive. |
| Billed extras | Uniforms, training, fees — a common place to hide margin. |
| Markup | Overhead and profit — the largest source of quiet overpayment. |
We decompose every line of your guard spend, benchmark the markup against what your vendor charges comparable clients in your market, audit the hours and the contract, and hand you a defensible number you can act on.
One agreement, the rate schedule, and a year of invoices. That's all we need to start.
Every cost broken out — burden calibrated to your states and posts — and compared to observed market rates by vendor, role, and region.
A findings report with a recoverable number, labeled honestly as identified vs. Year-1 realizable — and our help capturing it.
A savings claim is only worth what it can defend. Six things make ours hold when the vendor pushes back:
Payroll burden is computed per post — state unemployment and workers' comp by state and by armed vs. unarmed — not assumed as a flat percentage. That's the first number a vendor attacks; ours is calibrated.
Markup isn't pure profit. Unbilled account management, training, technology, and richer benefits are valued and credited before we call anything overpayment.
Rates are compared to the Tesser Index — observed averages for the same vendor, role, and region — and only where the sample is sufficient. No thin claims.
Billed hours are checked against scheduled and delivered hours. Paying for hours not worked is recoverable — and a control gap we help you close.
The annual bump compounds. We price it against actual wage growth over three years — often the easiest clause to win back.
No recommendation cuts officer pay or pushes it below a sustainable wage. Underpaid guards quit; savings that cause turnover aren't savings.
Every engagement adds to an index of observed bill-to-pay multiples by vendor, role, region, and service tier. So "above market" isn't an opinion — it's a number, with a sample behind it, compared like-for-like.
of annual guard spend — from vendor margin, billing accuracy, and contract terms. Never from coverage or officer pay.
| Step | Engagement | What happens | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 / | One-contract teardown | See exactly where your money goes on one contract — no commitment, no coverage changes. | FREE |
| 1 / | Spend & Markup Review | The full analysis across your program, benchmarked to the Index. | FLAT FEE, CREDITED |
| 2 / | Implementation | We help renegotiate, recover credits, and re-base the escalator. | % OF SAVINGS |
| 3 / | Governance | Quarterly invoice reconciliation and re-benchmarking, so the savings hold. | RETAINER |
"We've sat on both sides of this table. Now we work for yours."
Tesser Index was founded by a former leader and advisor at some of North America's largest contract-security firms. We then led security programs inside Fortune 500 organizations, managing vendor programs from the client side. We know how guard pricing is built, where it bloats, and what a fair number looks like, and we understand the financial pressure of owning the program on both the vendor and in-house sides. The difference: we now work only for the buyer.
Start with a free teardown of one contract — no commitment, no coverage changes.