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Built for commercial cleaning and janitorial operators who need a proposal that locks scope, frequency, and terms before the price is argued.
The full commercial cleaning proposal structure — readable on this page, downloadable as Word.
A cleaning proposal template for commercial work presents scope, frequency schedule, pricing, and terms so a janitorial buyer knows exactly what the monthly price buys — and how service disputes get resolved.
This is the full template, section by section, exactly as it downloads. Read it here or take the Word version and fill it in.
COMMERCIAL CLEANING
This proposal covers recurring commercial cleaning services for the property named above.
This proposal covers recurring commercial cleaning services for the property named above. It defines the scope of work, the frequency of each task, the pricing, and the terms under which service is delivered and verified.
Summarize what the client told you during the walkthrough, in their words. Name the specific problem they are trying to solve — inconsistent service, a previous contractor who stopped showing up, complaints from tenants, a failed inspection. This paragraph proves you listened and separates your proposal from the two competitors who sent a price sheet.
The following areas are included in this agreement.
The following areas are included in this agreement. Areas not listed are excluded from the scope and are not serviced under this proposal.
Listing exclusions protects you. An area you never agreed to clean becomes an area you are accused of missing.
Mark the frequency for each task.
Mark the frequency for each task. This table is the operational definition of the contract. If a dispute arises about whether work was performed, this schedule is what both parties will be reading.
| Task | Daily | 3× Wk | Weekly | Monthly | Quarterly | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Office & Common Areas | ||||||
| Empty waste and recycling, replace liners | ||||||
| Dust horizontal surfaces within reach | ||||||
| Vacuum carpeted traffic areas | ||||||
| Spot clean carpet spills | ||||||
| Dust mop and damp mop hard floors | ||||||
| Clean and sanitize high-touch points | ||||||
| Clean interior glass and partition doors | ||||||
| Detail vacuum edges and under furniture | ||||||
| High dusting: vents, ledges, light fixtures | ||||||
| Restrooms | ||||||
| Clean and disinfect all fixtures | ||||||
| Restock consumables | ||||||
| Clean and polish mirrors and dispensers | ||||||
| Damp mop and disinfect floors | ||||||
| Detail clean grout and partition tracks | ||||||
| Descale fixtures | ||||||
| Break Room / Kitchen | ||||||
| Wipe and sanitize counters and tables | ||||||
| Clean sink and fixtures | ||||||
| Empty waste, replace liners | ||||||
| Clean exterior of appliances | ||||||
| Damp mop floor | ||||||
| Clean interior of refrigerator | ||||||
| Entryways & Lobby | ||||||
| Clean entrance glass, both sides | ||||||
| Vacuum or clean walk-off mats | ||||||
| Police exterior entrance area | ||||||
| Detail clean door frames and thresholds | ||||||
| Periodic Floor Care | ||||||
| Machine scrub hard floors | ||||||
| Strip and refinish resilient floors | ||||||
| Carpet hot water extraction | ||||||
| Burnish or buff finished floors | ||||||
Service Frequency Monthly Annual Recurring janitorial service Restroom sanitation program Periodic floor care…
| Service | Frequency | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recurring janitorial service | |||
| Restroom sanitation program | |||
| Periodic floor care | |||
| Consumable supplies | |||
| TOTAL |
This section is what separates a professional proposal from a price quote.
This section is what separates a professional proposal from a price quote. Most cleaning contracts are not lost over poor work. They are lost because the contractor could not prove the work was done.
Deficiencies reported by the client are acknowledged within one business day and corrected on the next scheduled service visit, or sooner where the condition affects safety or sanitation. Each reported issue is logged with a resolution timestamp and photo confirmation.
Certificates of insurance are provided prior to the service start date and are maintained for the term of the…
Certificates of insurance are provided prior to the service start date and are maintained for the term of the agreement.
Term Initial term [e.g.
Where a deficiency is cited as grounds for termination, the service provider is given written notice describing the deficiency and a cure period of not fewer than fifteen days to correct it.
For the term of this agreement and for twelve months following its termination, the client agrees not to directly employ or contract with any personnel assigned to this property by the service provider, except by written agreement between the parties.
By signing below, both parties agree to the scope, frequency schedule, pricing, and terms described in this…
By signing below, both parties agree to the scope, frequency schedule, pricing, and terms described in this proposal.
| Service provider | Client |
|---|---|
| Signature: ____________________ | Signature: ____________________ |
| Printed name: ____________________ | Printed name: ____________________ |
| Title: ____________________ | Title: ____________________ |
| Date: ____________________ | Date: ____________________ |
The blank template is a commodity. The commentary is where operators lose or protect margin.
Crew size and service window sit at the top of the document, but you cannot know either until Section 3 is…
Crew size and service window sit at the top of the document, but you cannot know either until Section 3 is marked and the hours are calculated. Fill this section in at the end, working backward from the frequency schedule.
The square footage line is the one to get right. Use cleanable square footage, not rentable. Rentable includes shared corridors, mechanical space, and wall thickness, and it typically runs higher than the area a crew actually touches. Pricing off a landlord's stated number without walking the building is how jobs get underbid.
The template lists seven standard exclusions.
The template lists seven standard exclusions. Add anything you saw on the walkthrough that a reasonable client might assume is included: a tenant kitchenette on a floor you are not servicing, a stairwell that belongs to the adjacent building, an atrium with glass you cannot reach without a lift.
The test is not whether you think it is obviously excluded. The test is whether a property manager could plausibly claim they thought it was included.
Most operators price a 3× per week contract as three-fifths of a 5× per week contract.
Most operators price a 3× per week contract as three-fifths of a 5× per week contract. It is not. Soil load does not reset between visits — the building accumulates for two days instead of one, so each visit takes longer than a nightly visit does. Task time per visit rises even though total weekly hours fall.
If you price 3× at exactly 60% of 5×, you are underbidding it. Walk each frequency separately, or hold your per-visit rate and let the client choose the frequency knowing the per-visit cost is higher.
The frequency schedule tells you what to do.
The frequency schedule tells you what to do. It does not tell you how long it takes. The standard method is the ISSA cleaning-times formula:
square feet ÷ production rate (sq ft/hr) × 60 = minutes
ISSA publishes the formula and a worked example in their free article on calculating cleaning times: 1,000 sq ft ÷ 5,355 sq ft/hr × 60 = 11.2 minutes. Published rates are a starting point, not an answer — they describe an average building under average conditions, and your crews are not the average. Measure your own rate as soon as you have enough completed jobs to average, and use that instead.
Restrooms are the exception. Price them per fixture, not per square foot. A 200 square foot restroom with twelve fixtures takes far longer than a 200 square foot storage room, and per-square-foot math will not tell you that.
Use the production rates reference when workloading, then price locked hours in the cost calculator.
The template has a line for consumable supplies and mentions them under both "included" and "billed…
The template has a line for consumable supplies and mentions them under both "included" and "billed separately." That is deliberate — it is a decision, not an oversight, and it is a common source of margin loss in commercial cleaning contracts. Soap, towels, and tissue in a busy building add up every month.
Whichever way you go, put it in writing. If it is unstated, the client assumes you are buying them. For the full walkthrough from walkthrough notes to margin, see quoting a commercial cleaning job.
"Pricing reviewed annually" is not an adjustment clause.
"Pricing reviewed annually" is not an adjustment clause. It is an invitation to a negotiation you will probably lose, because by then the client has a year of service history and no particular reason to agree to pay more.
Tie the adjustment to something published and outside both parties' control — the twelve-month change in CPI-U from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or the applicable state or local minimum wage increase. A number from a public source is not something the client argues with. A number you propose is.
The template's verification section describes GPS-verified shift logging, photo documentation, and per-shift…
The template's verification section describes GPS-verified shift logging, photo documentation, and per-shift service reports. If you cannot actually deliver those, do not claim them — a client who checks and finds nothing is a client who terminates early.
If you can deliver them, invite the comparison explicitly. Ask the buyer to request the same three mechanisms in writing from every other bidder. Most cannot produce them, and that question does more work than any paragraph about your commitment to quality.
Property managers and institutional buyers usually have a stated insurance requirement, and it is often…
Property managers and institutional buyers usually have a stated insurance requirement, and it is often higher than what a growing operator carries. Find out before you quote. If you need to raise limits to win the contract, the premium difference belongs in your price, not in your margin.
Cure period. Fifteen days is the working standard.
Fill in the Word file, export to PDF, and send the PDF.
Fill in the Word file, export to PDF, and send the PDF. A Word document invites editing, and a client who edits your scope table before signing has created a version-control problem you will not notice until there is a dispute.
Blank template, completed sample, and bid-format — three different Word files for three different jobs.
Start here when you are writing a new commercial proposal from your own walkthrough notes.
Download blank templateSee a filled-out commercial proposal so the blank fields are not a guessing game.
Download sampleUse this when you are responding to a formal solicitation. 19 pages, because bids are long. Delete what your solicitation doesn’t ask for.
Download bid templateThe template is the starting point. The proposal generator builds a priced commercial proposal from your actual hours, wage, and margin. A free account is required. Status is still in flux — use it when you want a draft from live numbers, not a finished legal document.
Eight sections: an overview with the building's square footage, service window, and crew size; a scope of work listing areas included and areas excluded; a frequency schedule assigning a frequency to every task; pricing with a clear split between what is included and what is billed separately; a service verification section describing how the work is documented; insurance and compliance details; term and conditions covering renewal, termination notice, and the cure period; and an acceptance block for both signatures.
For a single building quoted directly to an owner or property manager, eight to ten pages. Shorter than that usually means the scope is not specific enough to be enforceable. A janitorial bid responding to a formal solicitation runs longer, often fifteen to twenty pages, because the buyer requires qualifications, insurance, bonding, references, and certification forms.
Divide the cleanable square footage by a production rate in square feet per hour, then multiply by 60 to get minutes. ISSA publishes this formula in a free article on calculating cleaning times, along with a worked example. Price restrooms per fixture rather than per square foot, since fixture count drives restroom labor far more than floor area does.
Show it as a secondary figure, not the headline. Per-square-foot pricing breaks down under roughly 5,000 square feet, where restroom fixture count and setup time dominate the labor rather than floor area. Lead with the monthly price and the frequency schedule behind it, then include the per-square-foot equivalent for buyers who want to compare.
A proposal is offered on your terms to a buyer who approached you directly, and it can be as short as the job requires. A bid responds to a written solicitation on the buyer's terms, is scored against competing bidders, often covers multiple buildings, and can be rejected as non-responsive for missing a required form or format. They are different documents and should not be reused for each other.
Assign every task a frequency in the schedule and delete the rows that do not apply rather than leaving them blank, list exclusions explicitly, state what is billed separately before the client asks, and include a repricing clause covering material changes to occupancy, square footage, scope, or access. Most scope creep enters through verbal requests that were never priced.
Continue with quoting, hours, and pricing for commercial cleaning work.
Seven steps from walkthrough to margin. Read the walkthrough →
Price hours with wage, burden, and margin. Open the calculator →
Square feet per hour by task and building type. Open the rates →
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