The Latest Fire Department Personnel & Records-Management Software Saves Administrators Time

No benefit from technology for the fire service is more obvious than that of personnel and records-management software. Hours, even days, can be given back to battalion chiefs and others who manage staffing assignments when a switch is made from pen-and-paper and/or computerized worksheets.

“No one ever said, ‘I can’t wait to get out of the fire academy to go write reports,’” Bill Gardner, who is ESO’s executive director of fire and EMS, deadpans.

Department efficiency and member piece of mind, effectiveness and health are at the root of amazing dedication to evolve and upgrade personnel and records-management software by producers of the platforms.

Valuable time savings

From making it easier for staffing administrators to quickly and easily account for one-off circumstances that pull members away from the firehouse, to pulling data from incident command programs and computer-aided dispatch systems to flesh out members’ workload, to hourly minimum staffing and shift-bidding, and more, today’s personnel and records-management software is a gift to the fire service that keeps on giving.

Asheville, NC, Fire Department Division Chief of Special Operations Wesley Rogers bears witness to the category’s phenomenal contributions. Speaking specifically to how personnel and records-management software can connect with incident management platforms and the reverse, Rogers tells Firehouse, “You have folks who may only work a half a shift or they’re in training from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. If we had the unfortunate event of a mayday or other unusual situation, we know exactly who was and wasn’t at the incident.” The same applies in circumstances of in-field preplanning work and municipal events.

Vector Solutions’ addition of its new Deployment module to its scheduling suite is an all-in-one interface that provides the capability to easily manage out-of-area deployments, such as mutual aid, wildfires and FEMA events.

“The system allows departments to leverage qualifiers to ensure the right personnel are assigned and to customize work types per deployment for better shift management,” Vector Solutions’ Naija Lambert explains. “When personnel are deployed, the system automatically creates vacancies to backfill those members’ original assignment.”

Says First Due’s Ron Kanter, “Our vision is that a department can run its entire operation on a single platform. We build out separate modules for all these different pieces of functionality so that all work seamlessly together from a single database.”

Mike McMahon serves as a product expert for First Due but also is a captain with the Cedar Hill, TX, Fire Department (CHFD). He used the First Due platform prior to affiliating with the software provider. McMahon explains that he experienced firsthand the benefits of the platform, including its Scheduling module, with the built-in capability to recommend personnel moves and shifts and which overtime vacancies need to be sent to which group of people while avoiding the members who already are working.

“The need was to give our battalion chiefs their bandwidth back,” McMahon says.

An upgrade to Fire Roster from Batt3 eliminates the need for multiple disconnected systems by bringing scheduling, qualifications management and payroll together in one platform.

“In the previous version, adding a member to an assignment meant clicking through multiple steps to place that individual in the schedule,” Batt3’s Justin Capaul notes. “Now, you can simply drag a member’s name and drop it directly into the assignment slot.”

New Fire Roster filtering options include filter by: certification/qualification; work-hour thresholds; and default shift assignment.

McMahon is excited about the release of First Due’s Time Clock module that includes facial recognition for members to clock in and clock out, though he concedes that its utility might be more suitable to certain departments than to others. That’s why Time Clock is available separately, without a cost incurred in the First Due platform itself.

Advancing member interface with systems is in play elsewhere, too. Fire Rescue Systems soon will release a version of its biometric finger reader in conjunction with the debut of its platform for mobile data terminals.

Member users of Vector Solutions’ app can check their schedule in real time, make adjustments, request time off and trade shifts. In the offing is an hourly minimum staffing function that will help departments to plan schedules on an hour-by-hour basis to ensure compliance and provide additional flexibility.

In July 2025, ESO provided the app for its Fire Incidents reporting software for departments to train with, in anticipation of them going live with the system when they’re ready to switch over to the National Emergency Response Information System (NERIS).

“We designed our system so that departments are able to know who went to an incident, what they did at that incident, were they exposed to something at the incident, and we track all of that for a records request,” ESO’s Gardner explains. “We build that file for each individual automatically into the personnel management part of the system. Same thing with a worker’s injury, and we do that also with mental health in terms of the stressors that came with a response.”

AI

As progressive as the segment is, it isn’t surprising to learn that developers are finding ways to enhance their systems by utilizing artificial intelligence (AI).

AI automation is on the verge of being applied to the First Due platform.

“We’re very, very close to an almost hands-off-the-wheel approach to letting the Scheduling module staff [the CHFD],” McMahon says. He concedes that building trust in the AI facet of the system is a must, but he foresees a time when the CHFD embraces the system’s suggestions: for example, “I see that you normally move this firefighter from Station 1 to Station 4 in a situation such as this. Would you like me to make these movements?”

“Slowly, the system will learn more and more about how we schedule, and we’ll be able to take even less time to fill out assignments,” McMahon predicts.

ESO uses AI to instantly decrease the duplication of reports. Gardner adds that, because ESO has been doing records management for 20 years and runs a million reports per month through its system, the company is capable of doing machine learning with its AI in a closed environment. This is beneficial, he says, because the company’s machine learning isn’t dependent on what might or might not be present on the internet.

Vector Solutions’ team is considering how AI can be incorporated into its system, including in terms of fatigue tracking and identifying the best person to assign to a role. Lambert says she and the team absolutely anticipate that the company will leverage AI into its system as soon as they solidify how.

Opportunities await

The limited space of this article means that what’s above only scratches the surface of what the aforementioned software suppliers and others have created to make personnel and records management significantly more streamlined. We’re confident that visiting the websites of Batt3, ESO, Fire Rescue Systems, First Due and Vector Solutions and speaking with system experts at those companies and others will prompt even more ideas of ways to free up substantial amounts of time for department officials who are responsible for scheduling staff and assignments.