Your commercial alarm system is an invaluable tool for protecting against threats to your business, if it’s working properly. By testing it, you can proactively identify maintenance issues or tampered equipment that can be addressed before an emergency happens.
Why you should test your business alarm system
Testing your business alarm system will help to ensure that all devices communicate as intended in the event of an emergency. When you test your commercial alarm system, you ensure the monitoring station receives all necessary signals. That means if you have a door contact and that door opens when the system is in an armed status, it should send the correct signal to the monitoring station. If that doesn’t happen then you should call a professional, like our Expert Security Solutions team.
This is also a great time to identify appropriate personnel who have been trained in case of an emergency and to determine if there are any gaps in policy or procedure during the testing.
When should the system be tested?
- On a monthly basis.
- When your business alarm system is most vulnerable, like after a power outage, power surge, or any renovation.
- If your office or workplace is closed for the holidays, then it should be tested before the closure.
- After a change in your business procedures, especially if you change how you leave or enter the workplace.
How to test your business alarm system and zones
- Get a list of all your devices.
- Call the monitoring station and put the account out of service, this will prevent authorities from being dispatched when they receive signals from your alarm system.
- Arm the alarm and then exit as you generally do at the end of the day.
- Wait for 3 minutes or until the system is fully armed, whichever comes first.
- Activate each alarm system device: walk past all motion detectors, open each door with a sensor, press the panic buttons, set off the glassbreaks, and so on. Make sure you set off every device on your zone list.
- Call the monitoring station and confirm the signals they received, then put the account back in service.
- Congratulations if the monitoring station received all signals! If the monitoring station didn’t receive one or more signals, call a professional to further diagnose the problem.
Taking the time to test your business alarm system is crucial for keeping your employees, business, and assets safe. If you have any questions on testing your alarm system or want our experts to make sure your business is secure, give us a call at (403) 343-7700.
