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A facility management company takes on some or all of the work that keeps a building running: systems maintenance and repair, cleaning, grounds, waste and the planning behind them. Buyers hire one through a single-service contract, a bundle of related services or one integrated contract for the whole operation. Public buyers have written down how they define that work, how they tie payment to results and how they judge bidders, and private owners can borrow those methods. Here is how it fits together.
Read the guide02
The letters after a facility manager’s name usually come from one of two places. IFMA issues the CFM, FMP and SFP; BOMI, whose courses now sit on BOMA’s website, issues the FMA, SMA, SMT and RPA designations. Of IFMA’s three, only the CFM is a tested certification that requires several years of FM work and has to be renewed. The FMP and SFP are earned through coursework and kept for life, and BOMI’s designations pair courses with verified experience and continuing education. This guide lays out what each one takes.
Compare the credentials03
Five bodies come up again and again around commercial buildings. IFMA serves the people who manage facilities, BOMA International serves building owners and managers, and IREM serves property and asset managers. On the cleaning side, ISSA spans the whole cleaning and hygiene supply chain, while BSCAI is specific to contract building service companies. This guide sets out who each one represents, what it offers, where its local groups meet in Northern California and Nevada, and what its programs mean when one turns up in a bid or a lease.
See the groups04
Facility services are the recurring services that keep a commercial property clean, safe, presentable and running. For Continental that means janitorial, porter, floor and carpet care, windows and detail, high dusting, pressure washing, parking-lot sweeping, landscaping and grounds, and light maintenance, delivered under one program. Here is what the bundle includes, how it differs from facility management, and how a program is scoped and priced.
Read the guide05
A cleaning SLA spells out how the work is measured: how fast calls are answered, how inspections are scored, how long rework can take and what happens when the work falls short. Here is how public contracts write each clause, with a menu of KPIs and a blank scorecard to download.
Read the SLA guide06
A CMMS (computerized maintenance management system) keeps your work orders, preventive maintenance schedule, asset records and spare parts in one place, with an app your technicians carry on the floor. To choose one, list the work your team actually tracks, then line up the vendors on those features, on mobile and offline use, and on how each one sells its plans.
See the comparison07
Janitorial inspection software puts the cleaning checklist on a phone: a supervisor scores each area, attaches photos, and any miss becomes a ticket the crew has to close. Most of these tools are built for cleaning companies, so the right pick depends on who runs the inspections and what the building owner needs to see in the report.
See the comparison08
Vendor compliance software collects each contractor’s certificate of insurance, W-9 and other documents, checks them against your requirements and chases renewals before coverage lapses. Choose by what you must verify, insurance only or full prequalification, by the systems it has to work with, and by who pays: some platforms charge the vendors, not you.
See the comparison09
Choose your facility type and the systems in the building, and this generator lines up the inspections, tests and service visits under the interval each one runs on. Each line names who carries it out, from a licensed trade or an agency inspector to your own building staff, and the list prints or downloads as a Word file.
Build your checklist10
An emergency action plan tells everyone in a workplace how to report an emergency, how to get out, who stays behind to shut things down and how the people who left get counted. OSHA requires one only where a specific standard calls for it, but the plan’s contents are spelled out in 29 CFR 1910.38, and Cal/OSHA sets its own version in 8 CCR 3220. This guide walks through the required parts, separates them from OSHA’s recommendations, and shows where night cleaners and day porters belong in a commercial building’s plan.
Get the template11
Pick the kind of contractor coming on site and get the coverage lines, published limits and endorsements to write into its contract, from cleaning and porter crews to guard companies and the trades.
Build your list12
One table of the recurring compliance items a commercial building owes, federal and California side by side, ordered by cycle, with what starts each clock and who handles it.
See the calendar13
Hire a cleaning or facility services vendor in the right order, with what to collect at each step and a printable kit with the blanks, from the first scope sheet to the 30-day review.
Get the kit
