Resources
What belongs in a janitorial service agreement
The agreement is the document everyone reaches for when a question comes up a year in. These are the operating sections worth spelling out so it answers those questions on its own.
Request a quoteCall (408) 668-0624
Attach the full task list, not a summary
The heart of a cleaning agreement is a description of the work, and it should be the detailed version. Attach the room-by-room task list with frequencies as an exhibit, and have the main document refer to it by name and date. A one-line summary such as “nightly janitorial service for the building” leaves every later disagreement to memory.
Name the spaces covered as well as the tasks. List the floors, suites and common areas included, and note any rooms that are handled separately, such as a tenant’s server room, a secured records area or a lab with its own protocol. When a new suite comes online or a tenant leaves, everyone can see at a glance whether the agreement already covers it.
If you haven’t written the task list yet, start with the facility services scope guide and bring the result to the agreement rather than drafting both at once.
Service days, hours and holidays
Write down exactly when the work happens: which nights of the week, the earliest start and latest finish, and any areas with their own window, such as a fitness room that closes late or a lobby that opens early. If a day porter is part of the program, record the porter’s hours and the areas on the porter’s route.
Holidays deserve their own short list. Name the holidays on which service is skipped, and say whether a skipped night is moved to another night or simply not performed. Buildings with tenants who work through holidays often want the restrooms and trash handled anyway, and that is easy to agree on now and awkward to sort out on the day.
Periodic work on a calendar
Floor scrubbing and refinishing, carpet extraction, high dusting, interior glass detail work and restroom deep cleaning should appear in the agreement with an interval and the areas each one covers. Better still, attach a year-long calendar that assigns each task to a month, steering clear of your busy seasons and tenant events.
Spell out how periodic visits are confirmed and recorded: who gets notice before a floor crew arrives, which desks and chairs need clearing from the floor and who clears them, and how completion is reported. Periodic work that leaves a record is periodic work you can verify.
Note what happens when a periodic visit can’t go ahead as planned, for instance because a floor is occupied by a tenant move or a renovation runs long. A line saying the visit is rescheduled within the same season, with notice to your property team, keeps the task from quietly disappearing off the calendar.
Add-ons and one-time requests
Every building eventually needs something outside the routine: a cleanup after a tenant event, a suite turned over after a move-out, a post-renovation clean, or an extra carpet treatment after a leak. The agreement should describe how those requests are made and approved, not try to predict them all.
A workable process has three parts. The request goes in writing from a named person on your side. The provider answers with a written description of the work and a quote before anything starts. Nothing is performed until someone with authority on your side approves it. Those three steps keep surprise charges and half-finished favors out of the relationship.
It also helps to list the add-ons you already expect, such as an annual carpet treatment for a high-traffic suite or a deep clean before a building inspection. Naming them up front makes later requests quicker to approve, because everyone has already discussed what the work involves.
How changes to the work get made
Buildings change: tenants come and go, floors are renovated, a conference room becomes a training lab. The agreement needs a simple path for changing the task list without rewriting the whole document. Name the people who can request a change, say that changes are confirmed in writing, and give each confirmed change an effective date.
Keep a revision history at the back of the task list exhibit, with each entry dated and initialed. A year later, nobody has to remember whether the third-floor kitchen moved to nightly service or when the lobby glass was added. Plan a fresh walkthrough whenever a renovation finishes or the building’s occupancy changes noticeably, and update the exhibit from what you find.
Who supplies what
Supplies are a common source of friction, so make them explicit. Write down who buys and stocks the restroom consumables, meaning toilet tissue, hand towels, soap, sanitizer and seat covers, and who supplies can liners and trash bags. Say who owns the dispensers and who replaces a broken one. If the provider restocks, note how stock levels are tracked and where the reserve is kept.
Record the rest of the support the crew relies on: cleaning chemicals and equipment, a lockable janitor’s closet with a sink, access to water and power, and where trash and recycling are taken at the end of the shift. When the provider handles restocking, a page such as janitorial supplies describes what that covers.
Access, contacts and quality checks
The operating section of the agreement should name who holds keys, badges and alarm codes, how the crew list is kept current with your security desk, what lockup routine the crew follows at the end of the night, and what they do if they find a door open or an alarm sounding. Ask for the provider’s certificate of insurance for your files as well; Continental issues one to every client.
Include how the crew handles the building’s own rules: which entrances they use, where they park, whether they sign in at a security desk, which lights and doors are left on or locked, and how they report something they notice but can’t fix, such as a leak under a sink or a broken window latch. Small instructions like these save more trouble than any clause about standards.
Finally, name the contacts on both sides, how an issue is reported and acknowledged, and how quality inspections are run and shared with you. Those few lines turn the agreement from a filing-cabinet document into a working reference. When you’re ready to put one together, a walkthrough with Continental gives you a written quote you can attach as the task list exhibit.
A few useful answers
Common questions.
Should the task list be part of the agreement itself?
Attach it as an exhibit and refer to it by name and date in the main document. That keeps the agreement short while making the task list part of what both sides signed.
How do we add a one-time job without changing the agreement?
Use the add-on process the agreement describes: a written request, a written quote back, and approval from a named person before the work starts. The routine program stays unchanged.
What if our building's hours change?
Treat it as a change to the work. Confirm the new service window in writing with an effective date, and walk the building again if the change shifts which areas are in use at night.
Who should be named as contacts?
On your side, the person who approves changes and the person who handles day-to-day issues, often a property or office manager. On the provider’s side, the account contact and the supervisor responsible for your building.