Janitorial vendor audit checklist
Written for the person who signs the cleaning contract rather than the person who holds it. Scoring the building tells you about Tuesday. Scoring the contractor tells you about next year.
Most property managers evaluate their cleaning contractor by walking the building and forming an impression. It is a reasonable instinct and it misses the thing that actually predicts trouble. A building can look perfectly acceptable on the morning you visit because somebody knew you were coming, and it can look poor on a day when a cleaner is off sick and the contractor covered it properly.
What you want to know is whether there is a system underneath. Is there a written scope with frequencies. Does a supervisor actually attend, and how often. When something is found, does it get assigned to a person and closed on a date, or does it get an apology. Can the contractor show you six months of records for your own property without going quiet for a week.
The checklist below is split that way. Some of it you score standing in the building. The rest you score by asking for documents and seeing what comes back, which is often the more revealing half.
Contract and Scope Delivery
- A current signed scope of work exists and matches what is actually being cleaned
- The scope lists every area of the building with a stated frequency per line
- Periodic work (carpet extraction, floor restoration, high dusting, window cleaning) has dates, not intentions
- Periodic work billed in the last 12 months can be evidenced as completed
- Any scope reduction since the contract started was agreed in writing, not absorbed quietly
- Consumables supply is defined: who buys, what brand grade, and who tracks run-outs
Site Presence and Staffing
- The number of cleaning hours delivered on site matches the number contracted
- Sign-in records or an electronic log exist and are current
- The same crew works the site week to week, and turnover is disclosed
- Staff are identifiable on site: uniform, badge, or a name the tenant can use
- A named supervisor visits the site on a stated schedule, not only after complaints
- Cover arrangements for illness and holidays are defined and have actually been used
- Staff have been trained on this building specifically, including access and restricted areas
Quality of Work: Spot Check
- Restrooms pass an unannounced check at the end of the day, not only the morning
- Detail areas pass: baseboards, corners, under desks, behind doors, chair legs
- High dusting is current: vents, light fixtures, tops of frames, ledges above eye level
- Hard floors show no mop haze, streaking or edge build-up under overhead lighting
- Carpet edges and corners are clean, not only the open traffic lanes
- Glass and touchpoints are clean at hand height on both faces
- Waste streams are correctly separated at every collection point
- The janitor closet is organised, chemicals labelled, equipment maintained
Inspection and Quality Control
- The contractor runs its own documented inspections at a stated frequency
- Inspection records are produced on request without a delay of days
- Failures carry photo evidence, not a narrative description
- Deficiencies have owners, due dates, and a recorded fix with evidence
- Repeat problems are visible as repeats rather than logged fresh each time
- Scores are trended over time, so improvement or decline can be seen
Communication and Responsiveness
- One named contact answers within an agreed response time and it holds in practice
- Requests logged in the last quarter were acknowledged and closed within that time
- After-hours and urgent contact routes are defined and have been tested
- Complaints are answered with a site visit, not only an apology
- The contractor reports building faults it finds rather than cleaning around them
- A regular review meeting happens on a stated cadence and produces actions
Compliance, Safety and Administration
- Insurance certificates are current and name the correct entity
- Workers compensation coverage is current and evidenced
- Safety data sheets for products in use are available on site
- Products in use match what the contract or building policy specifies
- Equipment is in safe working order, cords and guards intact
- Security requirements are followed: keys, fobs, alarm codes, doors left secured
- Invoices reconcile to the contract with no unexplained charges in the last 6 months
General checks (site-wide)
- This audit was carried out on site, not from a desk
- At least one check was made outside the contractor's usual service window
- Findings were shared with the contractor with photos and a date for response
- The building's own faults were separated from the contractor's failures
- A re-audit date has been set
How often to inspect
| Quarterly | Full vendor audit using this scorecard, results shared with the contractor |
| Monthly | Spot check of restrooms and two randomly chosen floors or zones |
| Annually | Contract, insurance, pricing and scope review ahead of renewal |
| On complaint | Targeted check of the area complained about within 48 hours |
Three questions that do most of the work
Show me the last six months of inspections for this building
Pass: dated records, per area, with what failed and when it was closed. Fail: a promise to send something, followed by a document assembled after your request. You can usually tell. Records built for you have suspiciously even scores and no ugly weeks in them, and real ones have a bad February.
Who supervises this site, and when were they last here
Pass: a name, a role, a cadence, and a date you can check against the record. Fail: a name you have never heard, or a supervisor whose last attendance nobody can put a date on. A great many contracts are supervised entirely by whoever answers the phone when you complain.
Where is the scope of work, and does it have frequencies
Pass: a current document listing tasks against daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly cadence, matching what you signed. Fail: a task list with no frequencies attached, or a scope that has not been touched since the building changed use. This is where most disputes actually come from. The contractor believes high dusting is quarterly, you believe it is monthly, and neither of you is lying.
Score the same way twice
Run the scored review the same way each time and keep the sheets. One review is an opinion. Three reviews across eighteen months is a trend, and a trend is what you take to a renewal or a tender.
Use Pass, Fail or N/A on each line rather than a rating out of five. Five-point scales let everybody settle comfortably on a three and nothing changes. Mark a line N/A when it genuinely does not apply to your property, and note why, so the contractor is not penalised for a loading bay you do not have.
If the contract is going badly enough that you are considering a change, the switching cleaning companies checklist covers the transition and the handover items people forget, keys and alarm codes among them. If you want to see what a competent contractor should be scoring themselves against, the commercial cleaning inspection checklist is the operator-side version of this document, and the quality control plan template is the program you should expect them to have.
What good looks like from your side of the desk
A contractor worth keeping does three things you can verify without leaving your office. They tell you about a problem before you find it. They answer a finding with a date rather than an apology. And once a year they arrive with the numbers already prepared, because they have been keeping them all along rather than assembling them the week before.
That last one is rarer than it should be, and it is the single best signal that the building is being managed rather than merely attended.
Common questions
How often should a facility manager review a cleaning contractor?
A full scored review twice a year, plus a short unannounced check every quarter. Do the first full review at the 90-day mark of a new contract rather than waiting for the anniversary, because that is when the standard the building will hold gets set and it is still early enough to correct.
What should you ask a janitorial contractor for in writing?
The current scope of work with frequencies attached, the inspection records for your building for the last six months, the list of people assigned to your site and who supervises them, proof of insurance and WCB coverage, and the safety data sheets for every product used on the property. A contractor who cannot produce inspection records for your own building is not inspecting it.
What is the difference between a cleaning inspection and a vendor review?
An inspection scores the condition of the building. A vendor review scores the contractor: whether the scope matches what is actually happening, whether supervision is real, whether findings get closed, and whether the paperwork exists. A building can look acceptable on the day you walk it and still be served by a contractor with no system behind it.
Should you tell the contractor before you do a review?
Announce the full scored review and give them a date. Do not announce the quarterly spot checks. The announced review tells you what the contractor is capable of when they prepare, and the unannounced one tells you what your building looks like on an ordinary Wednesday. You need both numbers, and the gap between them is the most useful thing you will learn.
What are the warning signs of a failing janitorial contract?
Turnover you were never told about, a supervisor you have never met, a scope document nobody can produce, cleaning logs signed in advance, and supplies running out before anyone reports it. The clearest one is a contractor who responds to every finding with an apology rather than a date.