How to read a janitorial bid line by line

To read a janitorial bid, ignore the total until you've checked four things line by line: the labor hours behind the price, the frequency of each task, who pays for supplies and consumables, and what's excluded. Two bids with very different totals are usually pricing two different jobs, and the details tell you which one matches your building.

We've been on both sides of this. We write bids, and we've walked buildings where the last vendor's low number came from a scope nobody read closely. Here's how we'd read a stack of bids if we were in your chair.

Are all the bids pricing the same scope?

Start here, because nothing else matters until it's true. If you sent each vendor a written scope, check that every bid restates it or references it directly. If a vendor rewrote your scope into their own language, compare the two side by side and mark every change.

If you didn't send a written scope, the bids are almost certainly not comparable. Each vendor walked the building and decided on their own what "nightly cleaning" means. Our janitorial scope of work template is a good place to start before you rebid.

How many labor hours does the price assume?

Labor is most of what you're buying, so hours are the most useful number on the page. Ask every bidder to state hours per night or per week, and the crew size behind them.

Then do a sanity check. Walk your building and picture one person doing the nightly list: restrooms, trash, break rooms, vacuuming, dust mopping. If one bid shows noticeably fewer hours than the others for the same scope, ask how. Sometimes the answer is better equipment or a smarter route. Often it's that some tasks won't get done every night.

A bid that won't state hours at all is harder to hold accountable later. You can't tell whether a missed task is a one-off or built into the price.

Do the frequencies actually match what you asked for?

This is where low bids usually hide. "Restrooms cleaned nightly" can mean a full clean or a quick restock. "Vacuuming" might be nightly in traffic lanes and weekly everywhere else, or weekly everywhere.

Go task by task:

• Restrooms: full clean vs. spot clean, and how often each
• Trash: every can nightly, or only when full
• Vacuuming: traffic lanes vs. full floor, and the frequency for each
• Hard floors: dust mop, damp mop or auto-scrub, and how often
• Break rooms and kitchens: surfaces, sinks, appliance exteriors
• Dusting: low and mid-level surfaces, vents, blinds
• Glass: entry doors nightly, interior partitions on a schedule

Mark every task where a bid's frequency is lower than your scope. Those are the gaps you'll feel by the second month.

Who pays for supplies and consumables?

Bids handle this in a few common ways. Some include cleaning chemicals and equipment but bill paper towels, toilet tissue, soap and liners separately. Some include everything. Some leave consumables to you entirely.

None of those is wrong, but you have to normalize them before comparing. If one bid includes consumables and another doesn't, the "cheaper" one may not be once you add your paper and liner spend back in. Also check who stocks the dispensers and who reorders. That's the difference between a restroom that runs out at 2pm and one that doesn't.

What's excluded, and what will it cost later?

Read the exclusions section twice. Typical items that sit outside the monthly price include:

• Floor stripping and refinishing, scrub-and-recoat, or burnishing
• Carpet extraction
• Interior and exterior window cleaning
• High dusting
• Pressure washing
• After-hours or emergency callouts
• Event or move-related cleaning

Exclusions aren't a red flag on their own. Periodic work often should be priced separately. The problem is when it's left out silently and shows up as a surprise invoice. Ask each vendor to price the excluded items as separate line items with their own frequency, so you can see the full year, not just the monthly number. Our guide on commercial cleaning cost covers why recurring and periodic work belong on separate lines.

What should the bid say about supervision and quality checks?

The price buys the work. The bid should also tell you how anyone will know the work got done. Look for who supervises the crew, how often a supervisor or owner walks the building, how inspections are documented, and how fast a complaint gets a response.

If a bid is silent on all of this, ask. A vague answer here usually means the person who sold the account won't be the one you call when a restroom gets missed.

Which questions should you send back before choosing?

Before you decide, send every finalist the same short list:

1. State labor hours and crew size for the scope as written.
2. Confirm or correct every frequency in the scope.
3. Say exactly which supplies and consumables are included.
4. Price each excluded item as its own line.
5. Describe supervision, inspection and complaint response.

The answers usually make the choice obvious. The bid that answers clearly is often the one that will run clearly.

Where Nexara fits

We bid janitorial services with hours, frequencies, supplies and exclusions written out, so you can hold our bid next to anyone else's. If you're comparing proposals now, request a walkthrough and we'll price your building against the same scope.