Client report

Exaktime Software for L.Lance Security Services LLC
Team Purple Parrots
Jared Lance
Max Mirra
Mary Renner
Dhrumi Shah
University of Central Florida
Mrs. Linda Evans - Chief Executive Officer
November 27, 2017

Exaktime App for L.Lance Security Services LLC
Executive Summary
The purpose of this business report is to research, evaluate and recommend a business
technology to help Mrs. Linda Evans, the Chief Executive Officer of L.Lance Security Service
LLC, to gain value and competitive advantage over time.
L.Lance Security Service LLC is a security company located in Panama City Beach,
Florida that provides security officers for condominiums and special events such as Ironman
triathlon, concerts, and weddings. According to IBIS (2017), the security industry service
companies provide services such as investigations, guards, patrols, and protect the transport of
valuable items including money. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)
code is 56161. The primary activities of this particular industry are to provide armored car
services, polygraph services, corporate investigation services, security guard and crowd control
services for temporary events, private detective services, and bodyguard services. The major
products and services in this industry are security guard services for buildings and grounds,
security services for special events, armored vehicle services, investigation services, and other
services.
Included in this report is an in-depth internal and external analysis for L.Lance Security
Service LLC. This analysis will show the biggest challenge is lack of technology for employees
to clock in and out in a timely manner. The technology recommend is the use of a software
called Exaktime. L. Lance Security Service LLC will benefit from this technology by automating
the payroll process as well as providing a mobile time clock system to ensure employees are not
shirking work hours. As detailed in the technology recommendation portion of this report, the
implementation of this technology will provide high-cost savings for the company.
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Internal Analysis
Performing the internal section of the SWOT analysis for L.Lance Security Service LLC,
the findings present strengths for the company’s capitalization and weaknesses that can be
resolved.
There are many strengths the owners of L.Lance Security Service LLC can capitalize to
make the business highly competitive in today’s market. The first major strength is having a
great working relationship with every Certified Apartment Manager (CAM Manager) L. Lance
Security Service LLC works for. It is extremely important to maintain exceptional working
relationships because CAM Managers hire a security firm and renew the contract at the end of
each fiscal year. Every CAM Manager has a different personality and high expectations from
security officers. This is very important to be able to place the right security officers at the right
site in order to complement the CAM manager’s personality rather than go against it.
Another strength is that L.Lance Security Service LLC is a decentralized company. The
organizational structure includes a Chief Executive Officer, President of Operations, site
managers, and employees at the different properties the company provides security for. Please
refer to the Appendix B, page 19. This organizational structure is very effective because there is
a large number of situations which could happen and this makes decision making relatively quick
depending on situations that could arise. Decentralization is a huge strength because site
managers do not have to wait to get approval from anyone else and use their fair judgement to
defuse the situation right then and there.
The third strength of L.Lance Security Service LLC is having high employee morale. The
executives and managers treat all the employees as the most important person at any given time
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and place. Employee satisfaction is high because employees feel that they have a say in the
decisions made regarding site placement and work time. Moreover, the owners of the company
regularly visit all the employees to assess performance. This, in turn, makes employees happy,
making them more productive and provide exceptional customer service. According to Laura
Blish, an employee of L.Lance Security Service LLC said, “the CEO and president of operations
continuously impress me by showing how much they care about me and my needs” (personal
communication, October 21, 2017).
In analyzing internal features of the company, L. Lance Security Service LLC does have
a few weaknesses which could turn into major faults if not addressed in a timely manner. The
first weakness is the company does not have an adequate training program for the employees.
This is a problem for the company because this can cause frustration among the new employees
who do not know exactly what is required to do in terms of providing exceptional customer
service to the guests of the condominiums. Due to lack of training, this may bring a hefty lawsuit
to the company if a security guard potentially injures somebody or does something illegal. In
such case, the security firm would likely be liable, causing a potential lawsuit. According to
Chron (2017), a lack of training can cause a company to lose business, have unhappy employees,
unsafe work environment, increased expenses, and loss of productivity.
The second weakness of the company is being understaffed while the company is trying
to expand. Due to being understaffed, the company is paying copious amounts of overtime to
employees to cover shifts. This problem is hindering growth to full potential because demand
can not be met.
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The third and potentially greatest weakness L. Lance Security Service LLC has is the use
of a paper time clock system where employees manually write clock in and out times. This is a
major issue because the managers are not at all properties 24 hours a day seven days a week.
Employees could show up late to work or leave early but fill out the promised time, leading to
dishonest employees. According to Epaysystems (2017), the average employee who is left to
their own to clock in and out without any supervision steal about 4 hours and 5 minutes each
week. This form of employee shirking is a major cost for the company because they are paying
employees for not working. Please refer to Appendix B, page 19.
External Analysis
The external analysis of L. Lance Security Service LLC will look at opportunities and
threats the company can face. It is important to understand all external factors whether being
opportunities or threats because they are not in control of the company. The company has to
know what to look out for and what to pay close attention to.
The first aspect of the external analysis is to analyze the threat to the company.
According to Hoover’s Online (2017), the threats L. Lance Security Service LLC would face, in
the security services industry, would be liability risks, an easily influenced public perception,
dealing with low-bid contracts, keeping up with high regulations, and the specific city’s crime
rate. All of these threats will individually affect the success of growth, but for the company, L.
Lance Security Service LLC, the analysis will focus on the three most important threats; the
liability risks security guards must face, keeping up with governmental regulations, and the
crime rate in Panama Beach City.
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By far, the most alarming threat our client in this industry deals with on a continual basis
is the liability risk. It is known when any security guard clocks in for work, their actions
represent the company as a whole. An online article posted by Rick J. Lindsey from the Prime
Insurance Company (2017), supports and provides reasons as to why security guards face a
serious liability risk. Rick J. Lindsey stated security guards “come into contact with either
potentially aggressive individuals” and or “dangerous situations.” Therefore, if employees were
to take it upon themselves and commit the wrong action due to outside factors, the company
would face serious liability damages. The liability damages that would be incurred can cost the
company its reputation. To create a good reputation for the services provided, L.Lance Security
Service LLC would immediately terminate an employee once they commit a wrong action, or did
not follow procedures.
Another threat to L. Lance Security Service LLC is up against is dealing with regulations
within the security industry. Our client must ensure to its customers that our employees are up to
date on regulations, they must hire employees and be ready to either train them before starting
work or even train them after they have been hired. Both of these factors make it difficult to hire
employees but to keep low costs. Security guards must become licensed by the Florida
Department of Agriculture with a total cost of $87. According to Security Resources Nationwide
Security Guards (2017), the following requirements must be fulfilled: a U.S. citizen or legal
resident with a social security number, must be 18 years of age or older, submit to fingerprinting,
successfully complete class D and 40-hour security guard training, submit a notarized application
to the Florida Division of Licensing, and submit two passport-style photos.
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These regulations can be an advantage, but at the same time could also be a limitation.
Furthermore, L. Lance Security Service LLC is required to have employees stay up to date on
basic regulations and standards, go through training, and receive a certificate that allows them to
legally work as a security guard. On the contrary, L. Lance Security Service LLC is not required
to have employees carry weapons. This would require more money to train employees, but could
also bring more value to the company with the service provided. The real threat that the company
would face is dealing with the government changing regulations for licenses. Although the basic
Class-D security license is fairly cheap, and in Florida is easily obtainable, our client should be
prepared for requirement changes. The regulations security guard officers must follow depend
on each state, and our client must stay on top of them in order to legitimize their company, but
also keep in mind that the more certified each employee is could mean more value to customers
and to the company as a whole.
The last viable threat the company faces could be considered as an opportunity
interestingly enough. Depending on how a city’s crime rate is, it can offer value but is also an
alarming threat. Crime rates have a direct correlation to how much a city has invested in security
guards. If the crime rate is high, then more private companies will hire security guards. When the
company's employees clock in on the job, they are putting their lives in danger just as police
officers and firefighters do every day. In Panama Beach City, Florida, where L. Lance Security
Service LLC is located, they have one of the highest crimes rates in the nation. Therefore, any
security guard officer working for our client will be expected to deal with numerous amounts of
dangerous situations. The real threat here is our clients employees are forced to engage in a
working area that is nationally known for a high crime rate, and so each employee has the higher
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probability of being put in a bad situation, which is not good for either the employee, the area
they are guarding, or our client’s company. Please refer to Appendix D, page 20 graph 1 to see
the constant high crime index in Panama Beach City, Florida.
The other side of the external analysis of L. Lance Security Service LLC is looking at
opportunities that can be used to grow the company. The three most important and relevant
opportunities for L. Lance Security Service LLC are improving the technology level for security,
pinpointing which areas are growing in terms of building more private residences, and the crime
rate for Panama Beach City, Florida.
The first opportunity, that is the most important for our client, is to improve the
technology. Overall, the company can choose to enhance its security service by including new
technologies such as setting up security cameras in each complex, providing security officers
with their own transportation within the complexes, for example golf carts, and even having a
reliable and enhanced employee clock in/payroll system to ensure that security guards are at each
location when scheduled. Currently, our client has an old and traditional way for employees to
clock in and have learned that they take advantage of the system by shirking on their hours.
Therefore, a digital time-clock technology is an opportunity for the company to capitalize on,
and ultimately show CAM managers or residences that employees are there at the property when
scheduled to, rather than being five or even ten minutes late. According to Wasp Buzz (2015),
having an enhanced clock in/payroll system provides many benefits for the company. Wasp Buzz
listed the following benefits: spending less time on payroll, prevent buddy (co-employee)
punching and other time theft, prevent human error bookkeeping, and creating a central database
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that can be accessed throughout the company. All of these benefits can be easily obtainable with
the use of a digital time-clock system.
The next opportunity is the high crime rate in Panama Beach City, Florida. This was
previously mentioned in the threat section, but after conducting a TOWS analysis, it too can be
considered an opportunity. While reading through Blue Line Security’s article (2016), they listed
out a few reasons as to why residences should hire security guards to patrol. They listed the
following, “A security officer deters crime and unauthorized activity.”, “a security guard reacts
in real-time, with a professional, measured response to each scenario”, and that “Security guard
surveillance can be customized to meet the unique needs of each property.” Therefore, we can
determine that typically a residence that is aware of crime happening will feel the need to hire a
security guard service, especially if the crime rate is high. Through research, it was discovered
that Panama Beach City, FL has a crime rate index of 0%, where 100% is the safest, according to
NeighborhoodScout.com (2017). 1 in 94 residents will become a victim of a violent crime,
whereas, in the whole state of Florida, the chances are 1 in 217 (2017). In a violent crime
comparison of Panama Beach City, Florida and the United States as a whole, this city has a
crime rate of 10.69 for every 1000 residents, the average rate for the United States is 4.62.
Panama Beach City is not just high on personal crimes. According to NeighborhoodScout.com
(2017), property crime for every 1,000 residents in Panama Beach City, Florida is 87.77,
whereas the state of Florida is only at 28.13. Therefore, we can conclude that Panama Beach
City, FL is considered to be a city with an abnormally high crime rate, especially property
crimes. This shows the L. Lance Security Service LLC has a strong and ongoing opportunity to
grow with providing security services. Located in the appendices is a SimplyAnalytics map to
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visualize the high crime rate in terms of violent crime as well as the property crime. Please refer
to Appendix D starting on page 20 for visual graphs.
The last opportunity is economic growth in Panama City Beach, Florida. With more
people moving to Panama City Beach and the surrounding areas, the demand for security
services will rise. Through the technology software of SimplyAnalytics, located on appendices
page 18, shows a map of Panama Beach City, Florida and the recent growth. The variables
chosen in SimplyAnalytics were the number of housing, year moved in from 2000 to 2009, and
from 2010 to later (2017). As seen from the map, the area of Panama Beach City and
surrounding areas, in terms of numbers, showed that Panama Beach City and surrounding areas
was a dark red, indicating a high level, anywhere from 9,629 to 673,725 houses. Now comparing
it to the most recent years, being 2010 to today, the map showed consistency. From this data,
provided by SimplyAnalytics, Panama Beach City and surrounding cities, continue to grow, in
terms of housing moved in, since 2000. Therefore, with the mixture of a high crime rate, and
high growth rate of housing, L. Lance Security Service LLC has a welcoming opportunity to
grow.
Major Problem
After an interview with Mrs. Linda Evans, the Chief Executive Officer, she
acknowledged a few of the biggest challenges for L.Lance Security Service LLC. The biggest
challenges are related to the company’s internal weaknesses. Such as lack of training and
development program, understaffed, and the CEO overworked in terms of completing the payroll
weekly. Currently, the company is paying $0 for training because there is no training and
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development program implemented. Due to being understaffed, the company pays $900 in
overtime per week. It is $300 in CEO’s time dedicated to payroll which is an issue because Ms.
Linda is in charge of all the payroll and making sure the company is complying with all the
guidelines, rules, and regulations. As a CEO, she does not have time to do many other things she
would like to accomplish in the company because of this issue. If the company continues to grow
as it is now, she will begin to drown in work and be burnt out because she is taking on more than
she could possibly handle.
The major problem that L.Lance Security Service LLC is the out of date use of a manual
paper time clock system. This goes back to the internal part of the SWOT analysis performed for
the company. With the current time clock system, the employees are physically writing in the
start and finish times. This provides a problem since the managers are not at all the properties 24
hours a day and seven days a week to supervise their subordinates clocking in and out. The
outcome is that some of the employees arrive late to work and/or leave their shift early. This
decreases employees integrity because of the ability to imply that they were on time and left at
the appropriate time but in reality, did not. According to Epaysystems (2017), an average
employee steals about four hours and five minutes every week without supervision. This is a
major cost for the company because they are overpaying employees without managerial consent.
Technology Recommendation
To solve the major problem at L. Lance Security Service LLC, the technology
recommendation will be to purchase and implement a digital time clock system. The software
that is best suited for all the needs of the company is ExakTime. This will help the company save
money by reducing labor costs by eliminating the accrual of unearned wages by employees not
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being at work for the entire shift. ExakTime is a cloud-based workforce management system that
can be accessed anywhere from the web. The software is available on Apple and Samsung
phones via mobile apps to provide convenience to employees and managers. There are three
tools ExakTime offers that will help L. Lance solve their problems, the time clock app, reports
and automatic sync for payroll.
The mobile app benefits both employees and managers by providing convenience and a
simple layout. The mobile app forces employees to provide honest information to the company
as far as their clock in and out times and their location. To prevent employees clocking in for
other employees, the app uses a private four-digit PIN combination and photo verification system
to confirm the identity of each worker. The company can opt-in to have the employees to answer
simple questions before clocking out such as, “Were you injured on the job today?” and “Did
you take all mandatory breaks?” (ExakTime). The company can also require a signature as well
as the employee approving their timecard at the end of the pay period. This keeps the employee
honest and gives the company stored data if later the employee states a different scenario. One of
the downfalls of any mobile app is the loss of cell service. ExakTime provides a solution to this
by securely storing the data on the app until cell service is available. Another benefit, especially
in Florida, is having the entire app available in Spanish for employees who would prefer spanish
rather than English.
The mobile app is also equipped with GPS tracking to track all clocked in employees.
One feature is the Geofence time tracking (ExakTime). This allows managers to pinpoint
workers’ locations using the smartphone location feature. Managers can set up a geofence around
the work area to ensure workers are on site when they clock in or out. Employees will not be able
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to clock in or out without being within the parameters. Another feature is the GPS geotracker.
This feature tracks employees and holds them accountable when on the job. This will provide
managers with GPS breadcrumbs to where the employee travels to while on the clock
(ExakTime). The mobile app compiles all of this information into GPS reports that show every
time stamp for an employee on any given day. This report can be provided in a chart and/or map
form. Located in Appendix E on page 24 is a sample report from the ExakTime website.
ExakTime also generates many other types of reports to keep the company compliant.
These reports are made available to managers to oversee all accounting operations. One valuable
report that L. Lance will benefit from is the time card and overtime report. Managers will be able
to keep track of all clock in and out times as well as daily hours. This provides a quick view to
see who is approaching overtime and to make sure start and stop times are correct. People with
access to these reports can manually change information if incorrect. The change will be
documented as well as a description of why it was changed and who changed it. The executive
summary reports compile all employees hours for any given time period to show total hours for
an individual employee as well as total hours for all employees. This provides managers with
traceable and documented information to ensure all information is correct. This makes it easier to
provide documents whenever called upon.
The final key benefit that ExakTime can offer L. Lance Security Service LLC is its
automatic payroll syncing. Payroll is an issue, wasting time for managers that need to be used in
other operations of the company. The company currently uses QuickBooks and ExakTime offers
automatic syncing to QuickBooks to make payroll less time to consume as well as minimizing
any errors normally seen by manually transferring data. ExakTime offers and program called
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AccountLinx to sync with QuickBooks (ExakTime). All managers have to do is match employee
data from ExakTime to QuickBooks and once data is ready to transfer the manager will click the
export button to automatically transfer data into payroll. This will automate the company’s entire
payroll system providing managers with time to focus on more important tasks.
Since ExakTime provides solutions that are individually tailored to the specific company,
the price of the technology varies. According to an article on Costowl.com, a portable time clock
system for 75 employees will cost $2,000 to $5,000 with GPS features and payroll syncing not
included. With a mobile app, there is likely a monthly fee for maintenance in addition to the
upfront base price. L. Lance Security Service LLC has a total of 55 employees meaning this
price range will likely be what the company will have to pay for this technology. Even though
the price of this technology is high, the amount saved in labor costs and time will likely outweigh
the purchase. On ExakTime’s website, there is a cost saving generator. Putting inappropriate
figures based on L. Lance Security Service LLC number of employees, wage per hour, number
of hours work, the website generated a savings of $88,660 per year. This calculation is a total of
cost of wasted time, human error and overpayment. A picture of the saving calculator generator
is located in Appendix E on page 25. Estimated the cost of the technology at $8,000 which
includes the estimate base and monthly cost and the wasted time cost of $10,010 provided from
the savings generator, the company should expect a 25% ROI.
ExakTime makes the implementation of their software simple and provides training for
employees. They will provide the setup and configuration and will monitor all-time records
through the first pay period to ensure the software is working properly. ExakTime provides
on-site training for all manager and employees as well as web-based training either one-on-one
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or in a group (ExakTime). L. Lance Security Service LLC does have enough resources to
effectively implement this technology. Since the price is high, they will have to allocate the
funds to pay for this technology. Even if it makes money tight for a period of time, the company
is looking to further expand the company. With the extra time provided to the managers by the
use of this technology, they can focus on hiring more employees.
Fallout
With the technology recommendation for L. Lance Security Service LLC to implement
the ExakTime software, the company needs to consider and prepare for potential issues.
Problems that could arise are the following: false pictures used to clock in for other employees,
dealing with software issues, and importantly, dealing with employees not accepting the change.
The first problem to anticipate is employees using printed pictures to clock in for other
employees. The software ExakTime app offers is the ability for employees to clock in by taking
a picture of themselves, authenticating the employee is truly signing in and not misusing it to
sign in for other employees. Although, if employees were devious, they could print out a picture
of themselves and give it to fellow employees and use the photo to sign into the ExakTime app.
The solution to this problem is hard to find. Moreover, we believe when Linda Evans, the Chief
Executive of L.Lance Security Service LLC looks over at all the timesheets on the software; she
can see a change in the photos taken to clock in, and clearly, see one photo was a photo and not a
true selfie.
When dealing with software issues, ExakTime app offers 12 hours 7 days a week tech
support to resolve any troubleshooting issues even though this app is integrated and very
user-friendly. Ms. Linda Evans, the CEO of L.Lance Security Service LLC, will need to fully
14

learn the software and schedule training session for all employees. Ms. Evans must explain the
change and its benefits for the company and its employees. There are multiple benefits of
integrating this technology into the clock in and out and payroll system. According to the
Acroprint (2014), the benefits are more accurate paychecks, increase fairness by not allowing
other employees to take longer lunch breaks or clock in later or earlier than scheduled, and
improve job satisfaction where employees will be noticed for their overtime. Presenting these
reasons to the employees will surely boost their morale and make them realize this change will
bring more benefits to them and the company.
The most important fallout is to consider employees resistance to change for
implementing ExakTime technology instead of a paper clock in and out. According to Ken
Blanchard's report on Mastering the Art of Change (2010), “there are always a few people who
are up and raring to go with change, but most are skeptical to neutral at the start.” L. Lance
Security Service LLC must anticipate some employees will not want to use this software or not
fully understand why it should be used. Ken Blanchard lists out several strategies to help with
such changes in the workforce. Some relevant strategies that will likely to work in this situation
are: “Strategy 5 Envisioning the Future, by inspiring the team to see why it is important, Strategy
8 Execute and Endorse, hold both leaders and employees accountable for implementing change
(2010).” In addition, Strategy 9 “Embed and Extend”(2010), when employees successfully use
the change, they shall be rewarded for it. Therefore, our client should provide a reward system to
give to employees when they successfully clock in with the new technology and integrity.
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Appendix A - References
1. #1 Time Tracking Solution for Construction and More. (2017). Retrieved November 12,
2017, from https://www.exaktime.com/
2. 8 Benefits of Tracking Time and Attendance. (2015, June 23).
Retrieved November 12, 2017, from
http://www.waspbarcode.com/buzz/8-benefits-of-tracking-time-and-attendance/
3. Blanchard, H. (2010). Mastering the Art of Change. 44, 46-47.
4. CostOwl.com. (2017). Retrieved November 13, 2017, from
http://www.costowl.com/b2b/time-attendance-portable-cost.html
5. Crime rate in Panama City, Florida (FL): murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries,
thefts, auto thefts, arson, law enforcement employees, police officers, crime map.
(2017). Retrieved November 24, 2017, from
http://www.city-data.com/crime/crime-Panama-City-Florida.html
6. Donskey, J., & Says, J.L. (2017, March 23). Employee Time Theft Facts & Statistics.
http://www.epaysystems.com/time-theft-facts-and-stat/
7. How to be a Security Guard in Florida | How to Get my Security Guard License FL.
(2017). Retrieved November 16, 2017, from
http://securityresources.net/security-guard-requirements-florida/
8. Lindsey, R. J. (2017, July 31). Are Your Security Guard clients High-Risk?
http://www.primeis.com/blog/security-guard-client-high-risk/
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9. Longo, Daniel. (2017, June). IBIS World Industry Report 56161.
Retrieved October 25, 2017, from
http://clients1.ibisworld.com.ezproxy.net.ucf.edu/reports
/us/industry/default.aspx?entid=1487
10. Panama City Beach,. (2017). Retrieved November 10, 2017, from
https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/fl/panama-city-beach/crime
11. Security Guard Services. (2017). Retrieved November 14, 2017, from
http://subscriber.hoovers.com.ezproxy.net.ucf.edu/H/industry360/trends
AndOpportunities.html?industryId=1563
12. The Negative Effects of a Lack of Training in the Workplace. (2017).
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-effects-lack-training-workplace-45171.html
13. Why Employees (Should) Love Time and Attendance. (2014, August 29).
https://www.acroprint.com/newsletter-archives/2012-10.php
14. Why You Should Hire a Security Guard to Patrol Your Apartment Complex. (2016, May
18). Retrieved November 13, 2017, from
http://www.bluelinesecurityservices.com/why-you-should-hire-a-security-guard-to-
patrol-your-apartment-complex/
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Appendix B - Charts
Chart 1: Organizational Structure
Chart 2: Swot Analysis
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Appendix C - Graphs
Graph 1: Panama Beach City Crime Index compared to US Average City
Appendix D - Maps
Map 1: Property Crime Rate 2011
19

Map 2: Property Crime Rate 2012
Map 3: Violent Crime Rate 2011
20

Map 4: Violent Crime Rate 2012
Map 5: Number of Housing, Year Moved in 2000 to 2009
21

Map 6: Number of Housing, Year Moved in 2010 to Later (2017)
22

Appendix E - Other
Time Card & Overtime Report Sample
23

Payroll Savings Calculator
24

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