How much should an office cleaning contract charge?

Commercial janitorial work is usually priced one of three ways: per square foot (commonly $0.05–$0.20 per square foot per cleaning for general office space), a flat monthly rate, or an hourly rate ($25–$50 per cleaner-hour in most markets). Square-footage pricing is the most defensible because it scales with the space and is easy to re-quote when the client adds or drops floors. Whatever model you use, tie it to a defined scope and a defined frequency so neither side argues about what a "cleaning" includes.

Should an office cleaning contract be a fixed term or month-to-month?

Most commercial janitorial agreements run for an initial term of one year, then renew month-to-month or auto-renew annually. A fixed term gives the cleaning company enough stability to staff the account and buy equipment; a 30-day termination-for-convenience clause on top of it gives the client an exit if service slips. Avoid multi-year lock-ins without a performance-out, since they are hard to enforce and harder to keep a client happy through.

Who supplies the cleaning products and equipment?

Spell it out in the contract. In most commercial accounts the cleaning company supplies labor, equipment, and chemicals, while the client supplies consumables that go into their own dispensers: toilet paper, paper towels, hand soap, and trash liners. Some clients prefer to buy consumables through the contractor and be billed at cost plus a markup. Either arrangement works as long as the agreement says who buys what.

Do I need insurance to clean offices?

Yes. Almost every commercial client will require a certificate of insurance before you set foot in the building. Standard requirements are general liability (commonly $1,000,000 per occurrence), workers compensation for your staff, and often a janitorial bond covering theft, since your crew works in the space unsupervised after hours. Build the insurance and indemnification language into the contract so expectations are set before the first night.

How do you handle building access and keys in a cleaning contract?

Access is the highest-risk part of any after-hours janitorial job, so the contract should address it directly. Specify how keys, fobs, or alarm codes are issued, who on the cleaning crew is authorized to hold them, the requirement to re-lock and re-arm on exit, and the cleaning company's liability if a code is shared or a door is left unsecured. Many clients also require background checks on any worker who receives access credentials.

Office Cleaning Contract Template: Scope, Pricing, and After-Hours Access

Learn how to write an office cleaning contract. Covers janitorial scope of work, pricing models, key and alarm access, insurance, and termination terms.

An office cleaning contract is the document that turns a handshake and a walkthrough into a working janitorial account. It tells the cleaning company exactly what to clean, how often, and what it gets paid, and it tells the client what to expect every night and what to do when something falls short. Commercial cleaning runs on trust because the crew works in an empty building after everyone has gone home, so the agreement carries more weight here than in almost any other service trade.

This guide walks through what belongs in a janitorial services agreement, how to price it, how to handle building access and insurance, and the mistakes that cost cleaning companies clients and clients their security.

What Is an Office Cleaning Contract?

An office cleaning contract is a service agreement between a commercial cleaning company (the contractor) and a business that occupies office space (the client). It commits the contractor to perform a defined set of janitorial tasks on a defined schedule for a defined price, and it sets the terms around access, liability, insurance, and ending the relationship.

It is different from a residential cleaning arrangement in a few ways that matter. The space is bigger and the scope is broken down area by area. The work usually happens after hours, which raises the stakes on keys and alarms. The client is a business that will expect a certificate of insurance and clean invoicing. And the relationship is ongoing rather than one-and-done, so the contract has to survive staff turnover on both sides.

If you also clean homes or do specialty work, it helps to keep distinct templates rather than reusing one. A general cleaning service contract and a house cleaning service agreement cover overlapping ground, but the access, insurance, and scope sections in a commercial agreement need their own language.

Core Sections of a Janitorial Services Agreement

A solid office cleaning contract has the same backbone whether it covers a single suite or a ten-floor headquarters.

1. Parties and Premises

Name the cleaning company and the client by their full legal names, and identify the building and the exact areas to be serviced: floors, suites, common areas, restrooms, kitchens or break rooms, and any spaces specifically excluded (server rooms and executive offices are often carved out or handled separately). Vague premises descriptions are the first thing that goes wrong when a client adds a floor.

2. Scope of Work

This is the heart of the agreement and the section worth the most attention. Rather than a sentence saying "clean the office," list the tasks by area and by frequency. A typical breakdown looks like this:

Nightly: empty trash and replace liners, vacuum carpets and walk-off mats, mop hard floors, clean and sanitize restrooms, restock dispensers, wipe and disinfect break room counters and tables, spot-clean glass doors and entry glass.
Weekly: dust horizontal surfaces and workstations, detail-clean restroom fixtures, damp-wipe baseboards, clean interior partition glass.
Monthly: high dusting (vents, light fixtures, tops of cabinets), edge-vacuum carpet perimeters, machine-clean tile grout in restrooms.
Quarterly or as scheduled: carpet extraction, hard-floor strip and wax, high window interiors.

Define what each frequency means, and state clearly that anything not listed (carpet shampooing, window washing, post-construction cleanup, pressure washing) is an extra billed separately. A clear scope is what keeps "the floors look dull" from turning into a dispute about whether floor refinishing was ever included.

3. Schedule and Hours

Specify the cleaning days and the access window. Most office accounts are cleaned in the evening after the client closes, often between 6 p.m. and midnight. State whether a day porter is included for daytime touch-ups in high-traffic lobbies and restrooms, and how observed holidays are handled. Most contracts skip federal holidays and do not credit the client for them, but that should be written down rather than assumed.

4. Pricing and Payment

Pick a pricing model and tie it to the scope and frequency. The three common approaches are per square foot, a flat monthly rate, or an hourly rate, and many commercial accounts settle on a flat monthly figure built up from a square-footage estimate. Whichever you pick, show the client the assumptions behind the number, such as the cleanings per week and the square footage it covers, so a later change in either one has an obvious place to be re-priced. Then cover the mechanics:

Invoice timing (monthly in advance or in arrears) and the payment due date, where net 15 or net 30 is standard.
A late fee for overdue invoices, often 1.5% per month.
How extras and one-time projects are quoted and approved, ideally in writing before the work happens.
An annual price-adjustment clause so the contractor can pass through wage and supply increases without renegotiating the whole agreement.

5. Supplies and Equipment

State who provides what. The standard split is that the cleaning company supplies labor, vacuums, mops, and chemicals, and the client supplies the consumables that go into its own dispensers (paper products, hand soap, and trash liners) or buys them through the contractor at cost plus a markup. Either way, write it down so nobody is buying toilet paper at 9 p.m. and arguing about it later.

6. Access, Keys, and Security

After-hours work is the part of the job with the most exposure, so the contract should treat building access as its own clause. Cover how keys, fobs, or alarm codes are issued and to whom, the requirement that the crew re-lock and re-arm the building on exit, and the cleaning company's responsibility if credentials are shared or a door is left unsecured. Many clients require background checks on any worker who holds access credentials, and that requirement belongs in the agreement rather than in a side conversation.

7. Insurance and Indemnification

Commercial clients will almost always require a certificate of insurance before the first cleaning. Spell out the minimums the contractor must carry: general liability (commonly $1,000,000 per occurrence), workers compensation, and frequently a janitorial bond to cover theft. Pair this with a mutual indemnification clause and language naming the client as an additional insured if they request it. A clear hold harmless agreement framework inside the contract keeps a slip-and-fall or a damaged fixture from becoming a finger-pointing match.

8. Term, Termination, and Renewal

Set an initial term, where one year is typical, and say what happens at the end: auto-renew annually, convert to month-to-month, or require a fresh agreement. Include a termination-for-convenience clause with 30 days' written notice for both sides, and a shorter termination-for-cause path if either party breaches and fails to fix it within a cure period (commonly 10 days). Address the return of keys and access credentials on termination in the same section.

9. Quality Standards and Inspections

Give both parties a way to measure performance. Reference a defined cleaning standard or attach an inspection checklist, set out how the client reports problems, and give the contractor a window (24 hours is common for nightly issues) to re-clean at no charge before any deduction applies. This single clause prevents most of the slow-burn frustration that ends commercial cleaning relationships.

How to Write an Office Cleaning Contract: Step-by-Step

Step 1: Walk the building and take measurements. Square footage, floor types, restroom counts, and trash volume drive both the scope and the price. Do not quote off a floor plan alone.

Step 2: Build the scope by area and frequency. Turn the walkthrough into the nightly, weekly, and monthly task lists above. Be specific about what is included so "extras" are genuinely extra.

Step 3: Choose a pricing model and run the math. Estimate labor hours per cleaning, multiply by your loaded cost, add equipment and supplies, and add margin. Convert to a flat monthly figure if that is what the client wants to see.

Step 4: Set access and security terms. Decide how keys and codes are issued, who holds them, and what background-check standard applies. This protects the client and limits the contractor's liability.

Step 5: Specify insurance requirements. List the coverage minimums and whether the client needs to be named as an additional insured, and attach or reference the certificate of insurance.

Step 6: Define term, termination, and price adjustments. A one-year term with a 30-day convenience-out and an annual escalator is a fair default that holds up over time.

Step 7: Add quality standards and signatures. Reference the inspection checklist, set the re-clean window, and have both parties sign. For the client, that means someone with authority to bind the business.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Writing a vague scope. "Keep the office clean" is not a scope. Without a task-and-frequency breakdown, every disagreement becomes the contractor's word against the client's expectations.

Skipping the access clause. Handing over alarm codes on a sticky note with nothing in the contract about it is how cleaning companies lose accounts and clients lose security deposits with their landlord.

Forgetting the price-escalation clause. Wages and supply costs climb every year. A contract with no adjustment mechanism forces an awkward renegotiation or quietly erodes the contractor's margin until the service suffers.

Treating consumables casually. Toilet paper and hand soap are small line items that cause big arguments. Say who buys them.

Ignoring insurance until day one. A client who asks for a certificate of insurance after you have started has lost confidence before you have cleaned a single restroom. Have it ready and reference it in the contract.

Reusing a residential template. A house-cleaning agreement does not address after-hours access, additional-insured requirements, or square-footage pricing. A carpet cleaning contract or a window-cleaning agreement covers a single specialty rather than ongoing janitorial scope. Use a template built for commercial office work.

When You Need an Office Cleaning Contract

Bidding on a new commercial account where the client expects defined scope, pricing, and proof of insurance before signing.
Formalizing a handshake arrangement that has grown into a regular nightly account without paperwork.
Adding floors or buildings for an existing client, where an amendment or a fresh agreement keeps the scope and price aligned.
Taking over from another janitorial company, where matching or beating the prior scope in writing is how you win and keep the account.

A written agreement is not bureaucracy here. It is the thing that lets a cleaning crew work in an empty building every night without the client wondering what was done, and it is the thing that lets the contractor invoice with confidence and get paid on time.

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Generate Your Office Cleaning Contract with Contractable

A janitorial services agreement is straightforward once you know the structure, but getting the scope, access, insurance, and termination terms right for a specific building takes time. Contractable generates a customized office cleaning contract in seconds, with the scope checklist, pricing model, and access and insurance clauses your account needs. No lawyers or legal knowledge required.