The task list, room by room
Not “general office cleaning”. The actual tasks, so there is something to point at in month four when the standard slips.
For buyers · comparing bids
What should a commercial cleaning quote include?
A quote you can compare has a task list, a frequency, a price tied to both, and a plain statement of what is not in it. Most do not. Here is the checklist we would want you to hold our proposal to, and every other one on your desk.
Eight things a quote must stateFour fees that appear laterUse it on our proposal too
The checklist
Eight things a quote has to state.
Hold every proposal to this, ours included. A bid that answers all eight can be compared to another that does; a bid that answers five cannot be compared to anything.
How often each task happens
Some tasks are every visit, some monthly, some quarterly. A quote that gives one frequency for everything is hiding which is which.
The price and the period
Monthly or per visit, stated plainly, and tied to the task list above rather than floating free of it.
Who buys the consumables
Hand soap, paper towel, toilet tissue, liners. This is the single most common source of a surprise line on a second invoice.
Who supplies equipment and chemicals
Almost always the vendor, but it should say so. If it does not, assume it is a charge waiting to happen.
The notice period, both ways
Thirty days either side is fair. A long lock-in with no exit is worth questioning if nobody has bought equipment for your building.
What happens on a missed visit
Whether it is made up, credited, or neither. Most quotes are silent, and silence resolves in the vendor’s favor.
Whether the price can change
Automatic annual increases are common and often unmentioned. Ask directly, and get the answer in the document rather than the conversation.
Who you call
A name, not a support address. It is the difference between raising a problem and filing one.
The four that appear later
Ask for a sample invoice before you sign anything.
This is the single most useful thing a buyer can ask for, and it is asked for surprisingly rarely. A proposal describes what a vendor wants you to weigh; an invoice shows every line they intend to bill. The gap between the two is where the trade’s reputation for opacity comes from, and buyers are routinely warned that a substantial share of a cleaning bill can consist of charges that never appeared in the proposal.
Four charges account for most of it. A supply or consumables fee that starts once the arrangement is established. A fuel or travel surcharge, sometimes tied to a published index, sometimes not. An annual escalator written into a clause rather than stated in the summary. And product billed at a markup that is real but never described as one, which is common wherever a vendor also stocks your break area.
None of the four are dishonest in themselves. All four are reasonable if they are disclosed and priced into the comparison. The problem is only ever that they arrive after the decision has been made, at which point the bid you chose is not the bid you compared. Asking one question — may I see a sample invoice — surfaces all four at once.
Using it on us
What our own proposal looks like against this list.
We publish this checklist knowing it will be used on us, which is rather the point. Our proposal comes out of a walkthrough as a written scope: the task list at the service level you chose, the frequency, the monthly price, and a plain statement that supplies and equipment are ours while building consumables are yours unless you ask us to carry them. There is no fuel surcharge, no supply fee introduced later, no automatic annual increase, and no markup on breakroom product — it is billed at what we paid, with the receipts, and our fee for handling it is its own agreed line.
Two things go slightly beyond the list. The scope we hand you is the same document our monthly inspection is scored against, so the promise and the audit are one artifact rather than two. And the person who walks your building, writes the scope and answers the phone afterwards is the owner, which is not a virtue so much as a structural fact of a business this size — worth knowing because it is the one thing a franchise cannot replicate at any price.
If another vendor’s bid comes in well under ours on the same eight answers, that is a real comparison and worth taking seriously. That is the only kind we are interested in competing against.
Common questions
Comparing cleaning quotes, answered.
What should be in a commercial cleaning quote?
Eight things: the task list room by room, how often each task happens, the total price and what period it covers, who supplies consumables, who supplies equipment and chemicals, the notice period on both sides, what happens when a visit is missed, and whether the price can change during the term. A quote missing any of these is a number rather than an offer.
What questions should I ask a cleaning company before signing?
Ask for a sample invoice, ask what is not included, ask whether the price rises automatically, and ask who is actually accountable when something goes wrong. The sample invoice is the most revealing of the four, because it shows every line a vendor intends to bill rather than the ones they chose to describe.
Should a cleaning contract include a trial period?
A short notice period does the same job with less friction. Thirty days either way, with no penalty, means either side can end the arrangement if it is not working, which is a stronger protection than a trial that converts automatically into a long term. Be wary of anything that ties you in for a year without a clean exit.
Is the cheapest cleaning quote ever the right one?
Sometimes, if it is genuinely cheaper on the same task list at the same frequency. Compare the scopes before the prices — put both task lists side by side and mark what is in one and not the other. A gap of thirty percent between two bids almost always turns out to be a difference in scope, in frequency, or in what will be added after the first invoice.
What is a fair notice period for office cleaning?
Thirty days is standard and reasonable for both sides. It gives a vendor enough time to redeploy and gives you enough time to replace them without a gap. Longer terms are normal where a vendor has bought equipment for your building; if nobody has, a long lock-in is a commercial preference rather than a necessity.
Start a conversation
Ask us for a quote that passes this checklist.
The walkthrough is free. What comes back is a task list, a frequency, a price, and the things we have deliberately left out — in writing, before anything is signed.
Phone
Base
Monroe County, GA — serving offices from McDonough to Macon
Hours
Scheduled and after-hours service by arrangement
See also what office cleaning costs, how often an office needs cleaning, or the full service area.