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Cleaning bid comparison checklist: line up janitorial quotes item by item
Janitorial quotes rarely arrive in matching formats. Run each one through these six groups of questions before any total gets your attention.
Printable checklist
Why totals alone mislead
Once the walkthroughs are over, the quotes land in your inbox in whatever format each company prefers. You might get a one-page letter quoting a figure per month, a thick packet built around a task table, and a third bid organized room by room. Putting the bottom lines next to each other feels like a comparison, but it only works if every bidder priced the same building, the same tasks and the same nights.
This checklist is the step between receiving bids and choosing one. Give each bid its own copy of the sheet and complete it from the wording in that bid, not from what the salesperson said at the walkthrough. When a line can’t be answered from the paperwork, mark it as a question and send it back to that bidder in writing. After an hour with the sheets, the gaps tend to show themselves.
If the bids came back far apart, the cause is often upstream: each company was guessing at the work. Before another round, our scope of work guide helps you hand every bidder an identical picture of the job.
Scope and frequencies
Everything else on the sheet leans on this section. Read the task list for each area of the building and check that the frequency is written down rather than implied.
- Are all the areas from the walkthrough named in the bid: restrooms, breakrooms, offices, lobbies, stairwells, storage?
- Is a frequency stated for each task, such as each visit, weekly or monthly?
- How many visits a week does the price cover, and on which days?
- Where do periodic jobs sit (high dusting, extraction of carpet, machine work on hard floors): in the price, priced apart, or absent?
- Does the bid mention interior glass, breakroom appliances or trash removal to an outside dumpster if your building needs them?
Some phrases read as thorough and still leave gaps. “Clean restrooms nightly” says nothing about partitions, drains or descaling, and “floors as needed” leaves the interval to someone else’s judgment. Neither phrase is wrong, yet each makes a bid harder to hold up against the others. A missing line isn’t necessarily a problem either, but it is a question. Note it on the sheet and ask for the task behind the phrase.
Hours, access and the building itself
Two bids can describe identical tasks and still plan very different evenings. Check when the work happens and how the crew gets in, since both affect your tenants and staff.
- The start and finish window for each visit, and whether it fits your closing time
- How keys, access cards or door codes are issued and logged
- Who arms and disarms the alarm, and what happens after a false alarm
- Any weekend, holiday or day-porter coverage the bid includes
- Lights, HVAC timers or locked suites the crew will need to work around
Supplies and consumables
Restroom paper, soap and liners are easy to overlook in a bid and hard to ignore once the building runs out. Confirm who buys them and who loads the dispensers.
- Does the bid supply toilet tissue, towels, hand soap, sanitizer and can liners, or expect you to?
- When the bidder provides paper and soap, does it also hang dispensers, or work with the units already on your walls?
- Are cleaning chemicals and equipment the bidder’s responsibility?
- Is restocking part of every visit?
Sage can carry the whole supply side through our janitorial supplies program, and it is written into the quote as its own line so you see what is included.
Oversight and communication
Cleaning quality drifts without someone checking it. A good bid explains who checks the cleaning and the route for raising a problem, in terms you could hold a company to later.
- Which person checks the finished work, and how regularly?
- Who hears about a missed task, and how soon do they answer?
- Who is your contact at the company, and how do you reach them?
- Does the bid describe how changes to the task list are agreed and recorded?
At Sage, supervisors do quality inspections on a regular schedule, walking the building against your task list.
Insurance paperwork and screening
Request current proof of insurance from every finalist, and make sure the business name printed on it is the same one signing the bid. On the sheet, record whether each bid speaks to workers’ compensation, bonding and the screening cleaners pass before working in a client’s building. Your landlord or property manager may have its own requirements, so compare the certificate against them. Reading a certificate closely is covered in how to pick a cleaning company.
On our side, every Sage client receives a certificate of insurance. We carry workers’ compensation, we are insured and bonded, and each cleaner clears a background check before working on a site.
The start-up plan
How a contract starts tends to decide how it runs. A bid that explains the start shows the company has thought past the signature.
- Is there a start date, and how much notice does the bidder need?
- When are keys, codes and alarm instructions handed over?
- Is the task list confirmed with you before the first visit?
- Is there a check-in after the first weeks of service?
Jot down how each bidder handled the walkthrough as well. The questions a company asked about your hours, floors and busiest rooms usually reappear as lines in its bid, and a bid with none of that detail gives you less to check once service starts.
With all the sheets complete, spread them out together. Bids that answer most lines from their own paperwork, with few open questions, are the ones you can measure later. Then weigh price against what each bid actually covers.
A few useful answers
Common questions.
Can one sheet cover several bids at once?
No. Give every bid a sheet of its own and fill it in only from that bid’s paperwork, so one company’s answers don’t color how you read the next.
What if two bids describe the work differently?
Return one written task list to all the bidders and request updated pricing against it. Once each one prices identical tasks and frequencies, the totals become comparable.
Is the lowest bid the best value?
Only if it covers everything the other bids cover. Check the sheet for missing frequencies, periodic work and supplies before treating a low total as a saving.
Does Sage charge for the walkthrough before a bid?
No. The walkthrough is free, and the written quote that follows lists each service on its own line.
Can our whole selection team use the sheet?
Yes. Print a set for each reviewer, have everyone score the same bids, and compare notes before you shortlist. Differences between reviewers often point to the lines worth asking about.