The cleaning inspection library

Checklists you can print and carry, plus guides on the quality control systems that hold up once you have more than one supervisor. Straight comparisons of the software in this category, sourced and dated. No email required for anything here.

Inspection checklists

Operator-grade checklists you can print and carry. Every one is free, ungated, and built around Pass / Fail / N/A scoring.

Commercial cleaning inspection checklistThe general building inspection plus a deeper office floors list, both with free printable PDFs.Commercial restroom cleaning checklistFixture-by-fixture inspection criteria, daily to monthly cadence, and the checks complaints actually come from.Condo and strata common area cleaning checklistThe resident path from the entry door to the amenity floor, scored on finish quality.Medical office cleaning checklistClinic work by zone, with contact time and clean-to-dirty order scored on the same form as the surfaces.Dental office cleaning checklistThe cleaning contractor's side of a dental practice, with the clinical boundary scored line by line.Janitorial quality control plan templateA worksheet you fill in to produce the two-page QC plan larger tenders ask for.Daycare cleaning checklistInfant rooms, sleep mats, diaper change stations and toy sanitising, at the standard a licensing officer looks for.Hotel housekeeping inspection checklistRoom-by-room inspection criteria for guest rooms, bathrooms, corridors and back of house, with a printable PDF.Custodial inspection checklistThe school and institutional custodial walk: classrooms, washrooms, stairwells, gym and cafeteria servery.Cleaning inspection report templateThe report you hand the customer after the walk: score, deficiencies, what was fixed, and what happens next.Commercial cleaning quality standardsWritten pass and fail criteria by surface type, so two supervisors score the same building the same way.Warehouse cleaning checklistDocks, racking aisles, travel lanes and dust control, mapped to OSHA's housekeeping rule.Gym cleaning checklistEquipment grips, locker rooms and showers, with the overnight crew and daytime porter split.School cleaning checklistClassrooms, washrooms, gym and cafeteria, plus the school-year rhythm from September to summer.Post-construction cleaning checklistRough clean, final clean and touch-up, each scored on its own, ending in a sign-off walkthrough.Janitorial inspection scoring systemThe scale, N/A rules, area scores, critical items and inspector calibration, with a worked example.Commercial cleaning scope of work templateFill it in on the walkthrough. It prices the bid and becomes the inspection checklist.Church cleaning checklistSanctuary, pews, fellowship hall and nursery, timed around services, with a free PDF.Car dealership cleaning checklistShowroom glass and floor, lounge, service drive and parts counter, with a free PDF.Retail store cleaning checklistStorefront glass to stockroom, scored before opening, with merchandise left exactly as set.Senior living cleaning checklistAssisted living and retirement residences, built around fall prevention and residents' belongings.Veterinary clinic cleaning checklistReception to isolation in clean-to-dirty order, with hair, odour and kennel lines.Bank cleaning checklistATM vestibule to safe deposit area, with the security checks a branch expects every night.Office break room cleaning checklistCounters, appliances, coffee and waste sorting, plus a fridge clean-out rule that keeps the peace.Manufacturing facility cleaning checklistAisles, lunchrooms, locker rooms and offices, with the plant safety rules scored every visit.Day porter checklistLobby, elevators, restroom rounds and kitchens in an occupied building, inspected at the busy hours.Floor care inspection checklistStrip and wax, scrub and recoat, burnishing and carpet extraction, checked the morning after.Parking garage cleaning checklistRamps, drains, stalls, stairwells and elevator lobbies in a building parkade.Office move-out cleaning checklistAn end-of-lease clean for a commercial suite, with the photos the handover needs.Lobby cleaning checklistStone floors, glass, brushed steel and the security desk, scored the way the owner sees them.

Running the business

Written by Mark S., who ran a commercial cleaning company for three decades before co-founding KleanProof.

Cleaning business quality control: the whole systemMark S. on building a QC program that survives growth: the standard, the cadence, the scoring, the escalation.How to keep cleaning clients past the 90-day dropMark S. on why accounts fade around month three, and what to change in the first 90 days.How much is my cleaning business worth?Mark S. on the multiples cleaning companies sell for, and the records that move a buyer up the range.Hiring your first cleaning supervisorWhen to hire, why promoting a cleaner needs care, and the number almost nobody tracks.How to create a cleaning inspection checklistSeven steps from the signed contract to a checklist a supervisor can finish in twenty minutes.How to run a walkthrough with your customerMark on the meeting most contractors get wrong, and why you name the problems before they do.How often should you inspect a cleaning site?Mark on inspection frequency by service days, and what actually limits how often you can get there.The 30-60-90 day plan for a new cleaning accountMark on the baseline inspection, the first-week calls and the 90-day review.KPIs for commercial cleaning companiesThe eight numbers Mark would track per site, from inspection score to time to confirm.Proof of service in commercial cleaningSign-in sheets to confirmed fixes: what each kind of proof actually shows.How to raise prices on a cleaning contractMark on walking into renewal with visits, scores and fix times instead of hope.Cleaning supervisor daily reportMark on why the end-of-day email fails, plus a one-page daily site report template.How to handle cleaning complaintsMark on answering fast, proving the fix and finding the cause, plus a one-page complaint log.Paying cleaning subcontractors by proof of workMark on a day rate per building and a photo before the day counts.

For facility managers

For the person who signs the cleaning contract rather than the one who fulfils it. What to check before you award the work, and what to do in the first 30 days after you switch.

Janitorial vendor audit checklistFor the person who signs the contract: what to check on site and what to ask for in writing.Switching cleaning companies: transition checklistNotice periods, keys, the baseline walk nobody does, and the first 30 days with a new contractor.Cleaning client satisfaction scorecardA monthly scorecard for property managers rating their cleaning contractor.Cleaning service level agreement templateInspection frequency, target scores, fix times and missed-target steps, as a fill-in PDF.What clients look for in a cleaning companyWhat property managers check before signing, with a printable selection checklist.

Software comparisons

Honest, sourced comparisons of the inspection tools cleaning companies actually shortlist.

GoAudits alternativesSix alternatives compared on scoring, the ticket loop, cleaner access without seats and published pricing.Janitorial inspection software, comparedEight tools with every published price in one table, and what each does after a failed item.OrangeQC pricingBoth plans, the frontline add-on, and what real team sizes pay each month.Janitorial Manager alternativesWhat Janitorial Manager costs, how its quotes work, and five tools for companies that only need inspections.Swept alternativesSwept's location-band pricing, where inspections start, and five tools built around inspections.OrangeQC alternativesSeven inspection platforms compared honestly, with what each one is actually good at.SafetyCulture alternatives for cleaning companiesWhere a general-purpose audit app breaks down on a janitorial contract, and what to use instead.CleanTelligent (now Otuvy) alternativesThe rebrand, the current pricing, and the platforms worth looking at next.OrangeQC reviewWhat OrangeQC does well, what users push back on, and what it costs, with every fact sourced.

Where to start

If you are setting up quality control for the first time, work in this order. It is the order that produces a result inside a week rather than a policy document nobody follows.

Pick one site, not all of them. Choose the building generating the most complaints. A change there shows up fastest, and the people at that site will notice inside a week.
Print the general checklist and walk the site. Do not adjust anything yet. The first walk exists to tell you which of your items are actually checkable and which ones are opinions in disguise.
Fix the checklist, then freeze it. Cut anything two supervisors would score differently. Add the specific things that generate complaints at that site. Then stop editing it. A standard that moves cannot be compared month over month.
Walk it again a week later and send the report. This is the step most companies skip. Send an unremarkable report to a customer before anything goes wrong, and by the time something does, the report is already routine.

How often should you inspect?

The honest answer depends on traffic and on how much the contract is worth to you, but the working defaults most operators land on are these. A high-traffic site (a medical building, a busy lobby, a school) gets a full inspection weekly. A standard commercial office gets one every two weeks. A low-traffic site, or one with a long clean record, gets one monthly. Any site inside its first 90 days gets inspected weekly regardless. That is the window where the standard is still being set, and drift is cheapest to correct before a customer notices it.

One more rule that pays for itself: walk a new site before the first clean and record it. That baseline is what stops an argument six months later about whether the carpet stain was yours.

What is in here

The checklists are the item lists themselves, grouped by area, with the pass and fail criteria written out so two people scoring the same restroom land on the same answer. Each one downloads as a printable PDF with Pass, Fail and N/A boxes. There is no email wall on any of them.

The guides are about the system around the checklist: how often to inspect, what score to hold people to, what happens when an item fails, and how to keep the record in a form your customer will accept at renewal. They are written by someone who ran a cleaning company through the growth stage where this stops being optional.

The comparisons exist because this category is badly served by the listicles currently ranking for it. Most of them recommend field-service and maid-service software to people searching for janitorial quality control. Every competitor figure on those pages carries a link to the vendor’s own page and the date it was checked. Where a competitor is genuinely better for a particular operation, the page says so.