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Writing an Office Cleaning Scope of Work That Every Bidder Reads the Same Way
A scope of work tells a cleaning crew which rooms to clean, what to do in each one, how often, and when they can get in. Here is how to write one that bidders and crews read the same way.
What a scope of work does for you
A scope of work is the document a cleaning company prices from and the list its crew works from each night. When it is vague, two bidders end up pricing two different jobs, and the crew fills the gaps with guesses. When it is specific, quotes line up side by side and the first month runs without surprises.
You don’t need a procurement template to write one. A few pages organized by room, with a task, a frequency and an access note on each line, cover what most offices need. Property managers with several suites often put a short building section at the top, then give each tenant area its own page.
Write it before you collect quotes. A draft you bring to each walkthrough keeps every company looking at the same rooms, and the questions they raise about it show you what the draft still leaves open.
Build the room list first
Walk the space with a floor plan and name every room the way people use it today: reception, open workstations, private offices, meeting rooms, phone booths, the kitchen, restrooms, copy and supply rooms, and any elevator lobby or stairwell that belongs to your lease. A meeting room that became a storage room last spring should be listed as storage.
Add counts next to the names. Bidders need the number of restrooms and fixtures, kitchens, workstations and private offices, plus the square footage split between carpet and hard floor. Name the hard floor type where you know it, since vinyl tile, luxury vinyl plank, sealed concrete and ceramic tile each take different care.
Then mark the edges. Where several tenants share a building, the landlord’s contract often covers the main lobby, shared corridors and core restrooms, so write down which side handles each one. List any room the crew should skip or enter only with an escort, for example the IT closet, a file room holding personnel records, or an executive office kept locked.
Write tasks a crew can’t misread
A good task line names a verb and a surface. “Clean the restroom” leaves too much open. “Clean and disinfect toilets, urinals and sinks; wipe partitions, dispensers and door pulls; mop the floor, including behind the fixtures” tells the crew, and anyone inspecting later, exactly what done looks like.
For the kitchen, a clear set of lines might read:
- Wipe counters, the sink basin, faucet and backsplash
- Wipe the fronts and handles of the fridge, microwave and coffee machine
- Clean tabletops and chair seats
- Empty trash, recycling and compost, reline every bin and take the bags to the building’s collection area
- Damp mop the floor, edges included
State what the crew should leave alone as clearly as what it should clean. Papers on desks, personal items, whiteboards with notes and anything plugged into a server rack or a reception console usually stay untouched. One line saying so saves a hard conversation later.
Put a frequency on every line
Frequency belongs to the task, not to the room. A restroom has items that need attention on every visit and others, like dusting the top of the partitions, that run weekly. Short codes keep the document readable: each visit, three times a week, weekly, monthly, quarterly, twice a year and yearly.
Spell out what “each visit” means. If service runs three nights a week, each-visit tasks happen three times, not five. Where the day matters, name it: trash on Monday after a weekend of deliveries, the fridge clear-out on Friday, the meeting rooms before a Tuesday client day.
Hybrid offices should match the rhythm of the building. If most people come in Tuesday through Thursday, weight the visits toward those nights and put a lighter pass on the quiet ones. Write that pattern into the scope so the price reflects it.
Give periodic work its own section
Jobs that need equipment, closed rooms or drying time belong in a separate list. Typical entries are hot-water carpet extraction, a strip and refinish of vinyl tile floors, dusting vents and light fixtures overhead, washing interior glass, and a deep clean of restroom grout and fixtures. Give each one a target month or season and the areas it covers.
Keeping these apart does two things. It keeps the routine price comparable from one bidder to the next, and it lets you budget the bigger jobs for the year instead of finding them in a single invoice. The commercial carpet cleaning and restroom deep cleaning pages show how those jobs usually run.
Supplies, access and building rules
Decide who buys the consumables. Restroom tissue, hand towels, hand soap and bin liners can come from your own stock with the crew refilling dispensers, or from the cleaning company as part of the service. Loop offers the second option through its janitorial supplies service, so put your choice in writing either way. The cleaning company normally brings its own chemicals and equipment; say where they can be stored and where the nearest janitor sink is.
Access details decide whether the plan works on its first night. Note the hours the crew may work, the entry door, how keys or badges are issued and returned, the alarm procedure, any security desk sign-in, freight elevator rules and where to park. Keep the actual alarm codes out of the document and hand them to the named contact directly.
Finish the section with communication: one named person on your side, how notes or requests reach the crew, and the way a skipped item is flagged and put right on the following visit.
Keep the document current
Date the scope and give it a version number. Add a short change section that says how new rooms, extra tasks or one-off requests get asked for and priced in writing, so a verbal request on a Thursday doesn’t turn into a dispute at the end of the month.
Review it after the first month and again once a year. Teams grow, rooms change use and hybrid patterns shift. The scope is also the checklist inspections run from: at Loop, supervisors carry out quality inspections against the site’s cleaning list, so a clear scope makes every inspection easier to read.
Loop can walk your rooms with you, mark up the draft you’ve written and turn it into a written task list and quote. Request a walkthrough to get started.
A few useful answers
Common questions.
How many pages does a typical office scope run to?
Most single-suite offices fit on two to four pages. A building with several floors runs longer because each floor carries its own room list, but the format stays the same: room, task, frequency, notes.
Should the scope list square footage or room counts?
Both. Carpet and hard-floor square footage sets the time for vacuuming and mopping, while restroom fixtures, kitchens and workstations set most of the rest. Bidders who get only one of the two are pricing partly blind.
Can I ask the bidders to write the scope instead?
You can, but then each bid describes a different job and the prices can’t be compared. A better route is to write a rough draft, let the walkthroughs refine it, and send the final version back to every bidder to price.
Do alarm codes and key details belong in the document?
Describe the process in the scope: which door, who issues keys or badges, and how the alarm is set at the end of the night. Hand the codes themselves to the named contact separately, so they never circulate with the bid package.
Will Loop quote from a scope we've already written?
Yes. Bring it to the walkthrough. We check it against your rooms, point out anything it misses, and quote against your own list so the numbers match what you asked for.
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