What a Janitorial Contract and Scope of Work Should Cover

This is practical guidance, not legal advice. Have a lawyer look at any contract you're unsure about.

Most fights with a cleaning company start with a sentence like "I thought that was included." A clear scope of work prevents that. It turns "clean the office" into a list both sides can check. Here's what to put in it, and what the contract around it should say.

The scope of work

The scope is the cleaning itself. It should answer five questions.

1. Where? Every area, by name. Lobby, restrooms, break room, offices, conference rooms, stairwells, storage. Say which rooms are off-limits.
2. What? Each task, written so anyone can check it. "Empty trash and replace liners" beats "trash."
3. How often? Every visit, weekly, monthly, quarterly or once a year.
4. When? Visits per week, days and the time window.
5. With what? Whose products and consumables, and any product your business requires.

A sample frequency matrix

Put the tasks in a table like this one. Yours will be different.

Writing it this way also makes the price easier to understand. When you want to cut cost, you can move a task from weekly to monthly instead of cutting a whole visit.

Consumables and supplies

Say who buys and stocks:

• Toilet paper and paper towels.
• Trash liners.
• Hand soap and sanitizer refills.
• Cleaning products and equipment.

If the cleaning company supplies paper goods, ask how they're billed. The Texas Comptroller's real property service rule says a janitorial company can buy paper products it leaves at your building tax-free for resale, and then tax is due on the total it charges you, paper products included.

What isn't included

The exclusions list matters as much as the task list. Common items that are often outside routine service:

• Carpet cleaning.
• Hard floor stripping, waxing or refinishing.
• Interior and exterior window washing beyond entry glass.
• High work that needs a lift.
• Post-construction or event cleanup.
• Clinical cleaning in medical offices, like exam tables between patients, sharps containers and regulated medical waste.

Write down which of these are excluded, which are priced as add-ons, and how to order them.

Quality checks and complaints

Agree on how the work gets checked.

• Who inspects, and how often. The cleaning company's supervisor, your office manager, or both.
• A simple scorecard. Area by area, pass or needs work, with notes. APPA, the facilities group for education, uses five appearance levels from showpiece down to neglect. You don't need to use them, but a shared word for "good enough" helps.
• How to report a problem. A phone number, a text line or an email, and who answers it.
• What happens next. How fast a missed item gets fixed, and how repeat problems are handled.

Access and security

• Keys, fobs and door codes: who gets them and how they're tracked.
• Alarm codes and the arming steps.
• Lockup steps: lights, doors, windows, thermostats.
• Rooms or cabinets that stay closed.
• What happens to keys and codes when the contract ends.

Safety

• Products. OSHA's hazard communication rule requires an employer whose chemicals could expose another employer's workers to give that employer access to safety data sheets. Ask for them and keep them on file.
• Healthcare. OSHA's bloodborne pathogens standard requires the employer to have a written cleaning and decontamination schedule. In a medical or dental office, the scope should match that plan and say who handles blood spills, sharps and regulated waste.
• Wet floors. Signs and dry times, especially if any cleaning happens while people are in the building.

The contract around the scope

• Price and what it covers. Per visit or per month, and how added tasks are priced.
• Price changes. When and how the price can change.
• Sales tax. Texas law lists building cleaning and janitorial work as a taxable real property service. The state rate is 6.25 percent, and local jurisdictions can add up to 2 percent. Exempt buyers, like public schools and qualifying nonprofits, provide an exemption certificate.
• Insurance. A certificate of insurance showing general liability and workers' comp. If you need additional insured status, ask for it in the contract and for proof from the policy. TDI's FAQ says a certificate holder can't use the certificate to get rights the policy doesn't give.
• Term, notice and renewal. How long it runs, how much written notice either side needs to end it, and whether it renews on its own.
• Damage and lost keys. How claims get reported and handled.
• Changes to the building. What happens to the price if you add a floor or close a suite.

A one-page outline you can reuse

1. Parties and building address.
2. Start date, term and notice period.
3. Visits per week, days and hours.
4. Frequency matrix by area, attached.
5. Consumables: who supplies what.
6. Exclusions and add-on prices.
7. Inspections and how to report problems.
8. Access, keys, alarm and lockup steps.
9. Insurance requirements.
10. Price, payment terms, sales tax and price change terms.

How we write ours

Every V&V commercial quote comes with a written scope built from the walkthrough, with every task, how often it happens, who supplies what and what isn't included. Our managers do site checks against it. If something on the list gets missed, the list is how we both know. Request a walkthrough and we'll write one for your building.

Sources

1. 34 Tex. Admin. Code Sec. 3.356, Real Property Service (accessed Oct 8, 2026)
2. Texas Tax Code Sec. 151.0048, Real property service (accessed Oct 8, 2026)
3. Texas Comptroller: Sales and use tax (state rate and local rates) (accessed Oct 8, 2026)
4. Texas Comptroller Pub. 96-122: Nonprofit and Exempt Organizations, Purchases and Sales (accessed Oct 8, 2026)
5. Texas Department of Insurance: Certificates of insurance FAQ (accessed Oct 8, 2026)
6. OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1200, Hazard communication (accessed Oct 8, 2026)
7. OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1030, Bloodborne pathogens (accessed Oct 8, 2026)
8. APPA: Cleaning operations and the five levels of custodial appearance (accessed Oct 8, 2026)