Resources
What belongs in a janitorial service agreement, section by section
A cleaning agreement works when it answers the awkward questions before they come up. Here are the sections worth reading line by line before you sign.
Two documents, two jobs.
A janitorial service agreement turns an accepted quote into a working arrangement. It names the two parties, the building, the start date and how long the arrangement runs, and it points to the scope of work that lists every task. Keep those two apart. The agreement settles how the relationship runs; the scope settles what the crew does on each visit. When you add a suite or drop a night, you revise the scope and leave the rest of the paperwork alone.
Most friction with a cleaning vendor traces back to something the paperwork never said. Who refills the soap? What happens when your company takes over half of the third floor? Who gets the call when a night is missed? A useful agreement answers those questions in plain sentences, before anyone needs the answer. For the task list itself, the guide to writing a janitorial scope of work walks through it room by room.
Attach the scope, and date it.
The agreement should attach the scope of work as an exhibit and give it a date or version number. That small detail keeps everyone reading the same list. When the scope changes in month four, the revised copy carries a new date and replaces the old one, and nobody has to argue over which version counts.
Before you sign, check that the attached scope covers:
- each area of the building by name and count, with its floor type
- the tasks in each area, written as actions anyone can see were done
- a frequency for every task, from nightly to quarterly
- periodic jobs like floor refinishing and carpet extraction, with the months they land in
- the rooms the crew stays out of
If the quote you accepted listed work that the attached scope leaves out, fix the gap now. Supervisors inspect against the scope, so a task that never made it onto the page tends to go undone.
Visit days, hours and building access.
Frequency lives in the scope, but the agreement should pin the schedule around it: which nights the crew comes, the hours it works and what happens on holidays. Say whether a holiday visit is skipped, moved to the next business day or kept as usual. Offices that close between Christmas and New Year’s often want a light week then and a heavier clean the night before everyone returns.
Access deserves its own short section. List what the cleaning company receives, such as keys, access cards, alarm codes and parking passes, who on your side issues them, and how each one comes back when the arrangement ends. Name the door the crew uses after hours and any rooms that need an escort. It is a dull clause to write, and it saves a scramble on the last night.
Add-ons and one-off jobs.
Few buildings get through a year on the routine alone. There is the carpet extraction before an investor visit, the cleanup after a department moves, the extra restroom deep clean before an inspection, the porter hours for an all-hands day. The agreement should say how you order that work and who approves it. One rule covers most of it: every one-off job gets a written quote, and a named person on your side approves it before the crew starts.
It also helps to list the extra services you expect to call on, for example floor care, carpet extraction or day porter coverage. Listing a service is a menu, not a purchase. When the need comes up, ordering it is a short email rather than a fresh negotiation.
When the building changes, the scope changes.
Buildings shift under a cleaning plan all the time. A tenant leaves, a floor is remodeled, the company moves to three office days a week. The agreement should say how the scope follows: who can ask for a change, that the request goes in writing, and that the cleaning company answers with a revised scope and quote before the new routine starts.
Name the people on each side who can approve a change. Without that line, a helpful employee can ask the night crew to start wiping the fridge shelves, and three weeks later nobody can say whether that task is in the plan. Seasonal swings belong here too. If your building runs lighter in August or heavier during tax season, write the adjusted frequencies down once rather than renegotiating every year.
Who supplies what.
Restroom and breakroom consumables cause more day-to-day friction than almost anything else. The agreement should state who buys and stocks the toilet tissue, hand towels, soap, sanitizer, seat covers and trash liners, and who owns the dispensers on the wall. Some buildings buy their own and the crew refills from that stock; others hand the whole job to the cleaning company. Either way works once it is on paper.
Equipment needs the same clarity. Vacuums, auto-scrubbers, carts and cleaning products normally belong to the cleaning company and leave with it, so note where they are stored on site and whether that closet is shared. If you want a fragrance-free hand soap or a particular look on the lobby floor, say so here. We can bring and restock the restroom paper, soap, sanitizer and liners each visit through our janitorial supplies service, or refill from the stock you buy; the agreement just has to say which.
Insurance, crews and how problems get reported.
Get a certificate of insurance into your file before service begins, and note in the agreement that a current one stays in your vendor file. Record what the cleaning company tells you about the people in your building: whether they are background-checked, how you will recognize them after hours and who supervises them. Fieldstone is insured, carries workers’ compensation and gives every client a certificate of insurance, and our supervisors make quality inspections against the written plan.
Then describe the reporting path. Name a contact on each side, say how a missed task gets reported and how the vendor confirms it was fixed, and decide how inspection results reach you. Finally, write the term in plain numbers: when service starts, how long the agreement runs, whether it renews on its own and how much written notice either side gives to end it. Liability and indemnity wording is a matter for whoever reviews contracts at your company.
Paperwork you can actually work from.
Every Fieldstone quote starts with a walkthrough, and the plan arrives in writing with areas, tasks and frequencies laid out so it can sit behind your agreement as the scope. Request a quote to set up the walkthrough.
A few useful answers
Common questions.
How long should a janitorial service agreement be?
A few pages for the agreement itself, plus the scope as an attachment. Clarity matters more than length: if a new office manager can read it and know what happens in the building each night, it is long enough.
Can we change the scope without rewriting the whole agreement?
Yes, when the scope is a dated attachment. You request the change in writing, receive a revised scope and quote, and the new version replaces the old one while the rest of the agreement stays as signed.
What should we do if the crew keeps missing a task that is in the scope?
Report each miss to the named contact with the date and the room, and ask for a walkthrough with the supervisor once you see a pattern. Point to the line in the scope so the fix is about the plan, not opinions.
Will Fieldstone give us a written plan we can attach to our agreement?
Yes. Every quote begins with a walkthrough of your building, and you receive the plan and quote in writing, listing what gets cleaned, how often and when.
Should holiday schedules go in the agreement or the scope?
Put the rule in the agreement, such as skipped, moved or kept, and list the actual dates in a short yearly calendar attached to the scope. That way the rule stays fixed while the dates update each January.