What to Put in an Office Cleaning Contract Before You Sign
What belongs in an office cleaning contract: scope by area and frequency, pricing basis, insurance, keys, supplies, inspections and exit terms!
When I walk an office before quoting it, I can usually guess where the friction will show up six months later. Most problems between a business and its cleaner trace back to a vague office cleaning contract, the kind that says “clean offices nightly” and leaves both sides guessing what that means. The crew thinks they did the job. The office manager thinks they skipped half of it. Both are reading the same sentence.
Eau Claire County had 2,753 employer establishments in 2023, according to the Census Bureau, and a lot of them are small offices with no facilities manager. If you inherited the cleaning account along with your other duties, this is what I would want you to get in writing. If you are still deciding whether professional cleaning is worth it, start there.
Start With a Cleaning Scope of Work by Area and Frequency
The contracts I write list every area separately: entry and lobby, open office, private offices, conference rooms, break room, restrooms, stairwells. Under each area I list tasks by frequency, meaning nightly, weekly and monthly. That is my own practice, not an industry standard.
A good cleaning scope of work should name the high-touch surfaces. The CDC’s guidance on cleaning and disinfecting a facility lists door handles, stair rails, elevator buttons, touchpads, restroom fixtures, desks and counters. The CDC also says that in most situations regular cleaning is enough to prevent the spread of germs. Disinfecting is called for where people have obviously been ill, and high-traffic areas may be cleaned more often or disinfected in addition to cleaning. Write down which surfaces get disinfected and when, so nobody assumes.
Green Seal’s GS-42 service standard is a useful reference here. It calls for disinfecting areas where pathogens collect, such as restrooms, door handles and faucets, using only EPA-registered disinfectants, and using reusable cloths or microfiber instead of paper. It covers indoor areas and the areas directly outside entryways, but not exterior grounds or parking lots.
Then list what is excluded or priced separately. I always break out carpet extraction, floor stripping and refinishing, and window washing. Windows in particular deserve their own line, and there is a good case for professional window cleaning for your home and business on its own schedule.
Know What the Price Is Built On
ISSA, the cleaning industry association, describes cleaning time as square footage divided by a production rate per hour. In its example, a 14-inch flat mop covers 1,000 square feet in about 11.2 minutes. That is why honest quotes for janitorial services are built from square footage and task mix, and why a vague scope produces a vague price.
It also explains why quotes are hard to compare. One pricing guide walks through the math: $0.08 per square foot per visit on a 10,000 square foot office is $800 a visit. At five visits a week, about 21.7 visits a month, that comes to roughly $17,000 a month. Treat that as a math illustration, not a market rate. The point is that two monthly prices mean nothing side by side unless the visit frequency and task list are identical.
Ask that the commercial cleaning contract state the pricing basis, the number of visits, and how price changes are handled, including how much notice you get.
Insurance, Workers’ Comp and the People Doing the Work
In Wisconsin, the Department of Workforce Development says an employer must carry workers’ compensation once it has three or more employees, or one or more employees paid $500 or more combined in a calendar quarter. A worker labeled an independent contractor may actually be a statutory employee unless they meet the state’s 9-point test. One employer also cannot provide workers’ comp coverage for another employer’s employees, even by contract. So ask for the cleaner’s own certificate, not a promise.
I also tell clients to request a general liability certificate. Bonds are a separate matter. Bond sellers explain that janitorial bonds mainly cover theft by the cleaner’s employees, not property damage, and that claims usually require a conviction.
The labor picture matters too. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the 2025 median pay for janitors and building cleaners at $17.71 an hour, with about 2.43 million jobs and about 321,800 openings projected each year. In May 2024, the building and grounds cleaning and maintenance group averaged $18.26 an hour in the Eau Claire metro, compared with $28.17 for all occupations there. Industry sources widely report high turnover in janitorial work. That is why consistency and supervision belong in writing: who supervises, whether background checks are done, and what happens when the crew changes.
Keys, Supplies, Safety and How Either Side Can Leave
Keys and alarm codes need a written process. I log every key and code, and the contract says what happens when someone on my staff leaves, including returning keys and changing codes.
Supplies cause more quiet disputes than almost anything else. GS-42’s product categories make a handy checklist: general-purpose, floor, bathroom, glass and carpet cleaners, floor finishes and strippers, hand soap, toilet tissue and paper towels. Mark each one as yours or the cleaner’s.
On safety, OSHA’s hazard communication standard requires safety data sheets for each hazardous chemical, readily accessible to workers. Ask the cleaner to keep SDS on site for products used there. OSHA does not generally consider janitorial staff in non-health-care facilities to have occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens, but the employer must decide which tasks do, such as sanitary-napkin disposal. Spell out who handles that.
Quality checks keep janitorial contracts honest. I want a regular walkthrough with a named contact on your side, plus a communication log for requests and complaints. A good crew also notices things you might not, the kind of detail covered in why professional cleaners spot problems your DIY routine misses. The log is where those notes should land.
Finally, the exit. State the term length and a written termination notice period that applies to both sides.
A compact commercial office cleaning checklist for your contract:
- Scope by area, with nightly, weekly and monthly tasks
- Disinfecting schedule for high-touch surfaces and restrooms
- Excluded or separately priced specialty services
- Pricing basis, visit count and price change rules
- Workers’ comp and general liability certificates in the cleaner’s name
- Key and alarm code control, background checks, staff change process
- Who supplies each product category
- SDS on site and who handles sanitary-napkin disposal
- Walkthrough schedule, named contact, communication log
- Term and written notice period
Winter Floors Belong in the Office Cleaning Contract
The UW-Madison State Climatology Office puts Eau Claire’s average snowfall at 55.4 inches a year, based on 1991 to 2020 normals. The 2018 to 2019 season hit 98.8 inches. That snow walks straight into your lobby.
An ISSA study widely cited by matting suppliers found that 1,000 people a day entering a building over 20 days with no matting track in about 24 pounds of soil. Roughly 15 feet of entry matting is commonly recommended. In my experience, ice melt and sand grind down floor finish faster than anything else we deal with.
OSHA’s walking-working surfaces rule requires floors kept clean and, as far as feasible, dry, and free of hazards such as spills, snow and ice. When I put together a scope for office cleaning in Eau Claire, the winter section covers who owns or rents the mats, how often they are swapped or cleaned, extra entry mopping on storm days, and when salt-damaged finish gets restored. It also states who clears the walk outside, since that is usually snow removal rather than cleaning.
FAQ
How do I compare two quotes for professional office cleaning?
Make both bidders price the same written scope at the same visit frequency. If the task lists or visit counts differ, the monthly totals are not comparable, no matter how close they look.
