Are you an Australian Business Owner who is disturbed by the trends in violent crime and wants to ensure their business, staff and family have all the protection they need?
If you run a business in Perth, July is the month you’re already looking at spreadsheets — budgets, depreciation schedules, maybe a capital works list for the year ahead. Security tends to get bundled into “general maintenance” on that list, which is a mistake. A security system isn’t a cost centre you tick off once and forget; it’s infrastructure that ages, drifts out of date, and quietly stops doing its job long before anyone notices.
We’ve walked into more than a few sites over the years — a bottle shop in Malaga, a childcare centre in the eastern suburbs, a multi-site retail client with stores from Joondalup to Rockingham — where the alarm was technically “working” but hadn’t been reviewed since the system went in five or six years earlier. New staff weren’t in the access control system. The CCTV footage was still standard definition, in an era where number plates and faces genuinely matter to police and insurers. Nobody had changed the default keypad code since the electrician left.
None of that is unusual. It’s just what happens when a system isn’t reviewed on a schedule. So if you’re planning FY26/27 spending now, here’s the audit we’d actually run if we walked through your door this week.
Why July Is the Right Time to Do This
Capital works decisions for the new financial year are being locked in right now, and equipment purchases, upgrades, and monitoring contracts are far easier to budget for at the start of a financial year than halfway through it. There’s also a practical seasonal argument: winter is when break-ins spike in Perth, and a security review done in July catches problems before the months when you need the system most, not after.
It costs nothing to walk your own site with fresh eyes. This checklist is built to help you do exactly that, before you decide whether the year ahead needs an upgrade, a service, or just a change to how the system is being used.
Step 1: Walk Your CCTV Coverage Like You’ve Never Seen the Site Before
Most business owners stop actually looking at their cameras after the install. Pull up the live feeds and ask honestly:
- Can you identify a face or a number plate on every camera, or just a blurry shape? Older analogue and low-resolution IP cameras were fine for general deterrence a few years ago; they’re often not good enough for an insurance claim or a police report today.
- Do your cameras cover every point of entry — front door, back door, loading dock, fire exits, car park — or were a few added as an afterthought during install and others left out?
- How’s low-light performance? Perth’s winter mornings and evenings are darker for longer, and a camera that looks fine at 2pm in July can be near-useless at 6:30am in June.
- Where’s the footage actually stored, and for how long? If you’ve never checked, you may find retention is shorter than you think, which matters if an incident isn’t reported for a few days.
If any of those questions gave you pause, that’s the finding. Our CCTV Solutions page runs through what a properly specified system covers, camera by camera, without the sales pitch.
Step 2: Check Who Can Actually Get Into Your Premises
This is the part businesses skip most often, because it’s less visible than a camera. Pull up your access control system — or, if you’re still on physical keys, pull up your key register — and ask:
- How many people currently have access, and does that match who should have access? Staff who left six months ago are still a common finding on active credential lists.
- Are back-of-house and stockroom areas actually restricted, or does everyone with a front-door code also have the run of the storeroom?
- If you’re still using shared PIN codes or keys, how would you even know if one had been copied or shared?
For a lot of Perth operators, this is where the biggest gap sits — not because the system is bad, but because nobody’s owned the job of keeping it current. If you’re weighing up whether it’s time to move from keys or shared codes to a proper credential-based system, our Access Control Solutions page breaks down the realistic options for a business your size.
Step 3: Test Your Alarm — Properly, Not Just the Beep
An alarm that arms and disarms without complaint isn’t the same as an alarm that works. A few things worth actually testing rather than assuming:
- Do all the sensors still trigger correctly? Motion sensors get knocked, blocked by stock, or simply age out over years of use.
- Is the system actually monitored, and does the monitoring centre have your current contact details? We still come across sites where the emergency contact list has someone who left the business years ago.
- What’s your actual response time if the alarm triggers overnight — and who is legally and practically responsible for responding?
This is a two-minute conversation with your provider, and it’s worth having before winter’s darker evenings put more pressure on the system.
Step 4: Decide — Upgrade, Maintain, or Leave It
Not every finding on this checklist needs a spend this financial year. A rough guide we’d give any Perth business:
- Maintain if your equipment is under about five years old, footage quality is genuinely clear, and access lists are current. A service check is still worthwhile, but a full upgrade isn’t urgent.
- Upgrade if camera footage wouldn’t hold up for an insurance claim, if you’re still relying on shared keys or codes for a business with regular staff turnover, or if your system has no remote monitoring at all.
- Get a proper assessment if you genuinely don’t know the answer to more than a couple of the questions above. That uncertainty is usually the clearest sign a walkthrough with someone who does this daily will save more than it costs.
Make FY26/27 the Year the Audit Actually Happens
None of the above requires new equipment to start. It requires about twenty minutes with your existing system and an honest answer to each question. Most businesses that go through it find at least one gap worth fixing — and it’s far cheaper to fix in July, as part of planned spending, than after an incident in August.
If you’d like a second set of eyes on your current setup — no obligation, no pressure to buy anything you don’t need — get in touch with our team. We’ve been doing security assessments for Perth businesses, from single-site retailers to multi-site franchise groups, for long enough to know exactly what to look for.