Contracts and tenders
Commercial Cleaning Contracts and Tenders in Sydney
Contract cleaning for Sydney offices, warehouses, strata schemes and regulated sites. A written scope with documented frequency bands, an after-hours roster your building can live with, a named supervisor, and a compliance pack that arrives with the submission rather than after the award.
- Written scope split into frequency bands
- Named operator per site, with an inducted relief
- Monthly audit sent whether or not you raised anything
- Rolling agreement, 30 days notice either way
Engagement summary
- Roster window
- Nightly, from 6pm
- Insurance
- $20m public liability, certificate on file
- Turnaround
- Written submission inside 24 hours
- Agreement
- Rolling, 30 days notice either way
What does a commercial cleaning contract contain, and how is one tendered?
A commercial cleaning contract is a standing agreement to clean business premises, as distinct from engaging a cleaner for a one-off job. It is built on a scope of works: the scope lists every task and the frequency band it belongs to — every visit, weekly, monthly or quarterly — so the standard is a document rather than an expectation. A service level schedule sits on top of it, and the compliance obligations attach to the same contract.
A commercial cleaning tender or RFQ is normally answered with four things: a priced scope of works, a service level schedule, the compliance pack (certificates of currency for public liability and workers compensation, task-specific safe work method statements, a chemical register with safety data sheets, and background checks for every operator entering the premises), and referees at comparable sites. Submissions that omit the compliance pack are usually the ones whose mobilisation date slips, because procurement then has to chase the documents in the fortnight before the start.
Clean Best prices a commercial cleaning contract after a free attended site walk, and returns the scope, the service levels and the fixed figure in writing within 24 hours. Call 1300 494 983.
- Contract cleaning since 2015Holding scopes across Sydney since 2015
- Police-checked cleanersInducted for offices, warehouses, strata, clinics and campuses
- $20m public liabilityCertificate of currency supplied before the first shift
- Written submission inside 24 hoursScope, roster and fixed price, all in writing
The detail
A commercial cleaning contract buyers can compare, defend and audit
The hardest part of awarding a commercial cleaning contract in Sydney is not finding a contractor. It is comparing them. Three submissions arrive, all of them promise quality and reliability and attention to detail, all of them quote a monthly figure, and none of them tell you what is actually in it. So the decision defaults to price, the cheapest tender wins, and eighteen months later the site is on the agenda at a meeting because the standard drifted and nobody can point at the moment it happened.
We build the scope first for exactly that reason. Everything below follows from it.
The scope of works is the contract
Every task on your site is written down against a frequency band: every visit, weekly, monthly, quarterly. Bins and washrooms sit in the first band. Partition glass, vents and high dusting sit in the later ones. It is dull to produce and it takes a proper site walk to get right, and it is the single thing that makes a cleaning contract enforceable. When something is missed you point at the line. When somebody claims a task was never in the deal, so do we. It also means the next contractor who quotes against us has to quote against the same list, which is how you get a comparison rather than a beauty contest.
We price the building, not the floor plan
Floor area is the laziest possible input, and it is what almost every rate card is built on. Two premises of four hundred square metres can differ by a factor of three in the work they demand. What actually generates workload is the amenity count, the headcount, the surface mix, the number of entry points collecting grit off the street, the waste volume, and whether there is a kitchen people genuinely use. We walk the site, count those things, and give you a fixed monthly figure. We do not quote an hourly rate, because an hourly rate is a contract that pays a contractor to be slow.
Rosters built from your access rules
Most Sydney commercial work happens between six in the evening and five in the morning, but the specifics are set by your building rather than by us: lift restrictions after a certain hour, a loading dock that closes, a concierge sign-in, an alarm with a call list. All of it goes into the scope document before the first shift and every operator is inducted on it individually. Sites that never fully close — a distribution centre running shifts, a clinic with late appointments — get rostered into the changeovers instead of being asked to invent a window that does not exist.
Named operators, and a relief who has walked the building
The same operator works your site for the term of the contract. They are police-checked before the first shift, they hold a Working with Children Check where the site requires one, and they learn the building — which bin fills first, which meeting room gets hammered on a Thursday, which door does not latch unless you lift it. When they take leave, the relief operator who covers has already walked the site with them. Handing a key to a stranger at six on a Tuesday is how standards collapse, and it is the most common failure in this industry.
Compliance arrives with the quote, not after the award
Certificates of currency for public liability and workers compensation, task-specific SWMS, a chemical register with safety data sheets, police check confirmations. It is all attached to the submission, because the alternative — procurement chasing a contractor for documents in the fortnight before mobilisation — is how a start date slips by three weeks. If your organisation runs a prequalification portal, send us the link and we will complete it before we even attend the site.
What the monthly audit is for
A named supervisor walks your site every month against the signed scope and sends you the findings whether or not you raised anything. That last part is the part that matters. An audit you only receive after you complain is not an audit, it is a customer service gesture. Ours exists so that a drift in standard shows up in a document before it shows up on your floor, and so that when somebody upstairs asks what you are getting for the money, you have twelve months of written evidence rather than an opinion.
What it costs to find out
A free site walk within 48 hours, at the hour the work would actually run. A written scope and a fixed price back to you 24 hours after that, with the compliance pack attached. A rolling agreement on 30 days notice, so nothing traps you if we turn out to be wrong about your building. Call 1300 494 983 — and if your incumbent contractor is doing a good job, we will tell you that too.
Service levels
The service levels that go into the contract schedule
Three of the six measures we commit to in writing, and the evidence we produce against each one.
Quote turnaround
- What we commit to
- Written scope and fixed price back to you within 24 hours of the site walk, with the compliance pack attached.
- How it is evidenced
- Timestamped submission email; the scope document itself carries the date it was issued.
Roster reliability
- What we commit to
- Every rostered visit is attended. If your named operator is unavailable, the relief operator who has already walked your building attends instead.
- How it is evidenced
- Sign-in and sign-out records for every shift, available to your building manager on request.
Defect rectification
- What we commit to
- Anything reported below the agreed standard is rectified before the next scheduled visit, at no charge.
- How it is evidenced
- Rectification is logged against the scope line it relates to and confirmed to you by email.
Scope of works
What sits in a standard commercial cleaning scope of works
The shape a typical Sydney commercial scope takes. Yours is written from the site walk — the bands and the areas will differ, the discipline will not.
- Empty all waste and recycling, replace liners, remove to the building bin room and leave the bin room itself tidy
- Clean and disinfect washroom pans, urinals, basins, mirrors, partitions and touchpoints; restock paper, soap and hand towel to the agreed level
- Kitchen and breakout: benchtops, sinks, taps, splashbacks, fridge exteriors, microwave interiors and cupboard fronts
- Vacuum all carpet including under and behind furniture, along skirtings and through breakout areas
- Mop and spot-clean hard floors away from the exit, with signage kept up until the surface is dry
- Disinfect touchpoints: door handles, light switches, lift buttons, printer panels, taps and rails
- Detail reception and entry: counter, entry glass, entry mats, visitor seating and the first three metres of floor
- Meeting and consult rooms: tables, chair bases and arms, whiteboards, AV touchpoints and partition glass
- Weekly band: internal glass, skirtings, door frames, chair legs and the tops of low cabinetry
- Monthly band: high dusting, air vents, light diffusers, ceiling corners and the tops of screens and partitions
- Quarterly band: detail work on ledges, cable trays, blinds, and any area on a documented rotation
- Secure on exit: lights off, doors locked, alarm set, entry and exit logged against the operator's name
- Report at sign-out anything that could not be completed, so it lands in the monthly audit rather than disappearing
Outside this scope by design: carpet extraction and hard-floor restoration (priced as a periodic programme), high-reach external glass and facade work, kitchen exhaust degreasing, and hazardous-material remediation. Those are licensed trades and we will tell you so at the site walk rather than subcontract them quietly.
After-hours roster
What actually happens on your floor between 18:00 and 05:00
This is a standard weeknight on a mid-size Sydney tenancy. The times move with your building's access rules — the sequence does not.
- 18:05
Sign in at the console, not the front door
The operator presents at building security or uses the access method written into your scope — swipe, key safe, concierge log, whichever it is. The entry is recorded against their name, so if your building manager ever asks who was on level 4 at half past eight, there is an answer rather than a shrug.
- 18:20
Waste and amenities first, while the building is still warm
Bins, recycling and the washrooms are done at the top of the shift, not the bottom. It is the work that most often gets rushed when a shift runs late, so we front-load it. Consumables are restocked to the level in the scope, not to whatever is left in the cupboard.
- 19:30
Floors, in the order that lets them dry
Hard floors are mopped away from the exit and the wet-floor signage stays up until they are dry, because the one person still working late is exactly who slips. Carpet is vacuumed under and behind the desks, along the skirtings, and through the breakout areas where the crumbs actually are.
- 20:45
The rotating band — the tasks nobody sees until they are missed
High dusting, vents, partition glass, the tops of screens, the fridge, the microwave. These sit in the weekly, monthly and quarterly bands of the scope rather than in every visit, and the operator works the band that is due tonight. It is written down, so it is not a matter of memory.
- 21:40
A lift is called, and the log records it
After-hours lift and door movements are the thing building management scrutinises. Our operators do not prop fire doors, do not let anyone in behind them, and do not lend an access card to a colleague. If an alarm is triggered, they call it in themselves before your monitoring company calls you.
- 22:15
Secure and sign out
Lights off, doors locked, alarm set, exit logged. The shift is closed against the scope, and anything the operator could not complete — a room left occupied, a locked comms cupboard — is noted so it appears in the monthly audit instead of quietly disappearing.
- 04:50
The pre-open pass, on sites that need one
Gyms, clinics and reception-heavy tenancies often run a short pre-open visit instead of, or as well as, the evening shift. It covers the amenities, the entry glass and the floor the first person walks across. It is priced as its own band, never smuggled into the nightly figure.
Commercial terms
How a commercial cleaning contract in Sydney gets priced
Three bands, described by the shape of the premises. There is no dollar figure on this page and there never will be — the figure comes from the site walk, in writing, before anybody starts.
Single tenancy
One floor, one entrance, one set of amenities. Typically a suite, a clinic, a studio or a shopfront under roughly 200m².
- Two to three rostered visits a week
- One named operator across the whole term
- Amenities, waste and floors in every visit
- Consumables billed at cost or left with your supplier
Fixed figure, issued in writing before mobilisation.
Multi-area site
Open-plan floors, centres and clinics between roughly 200m² and 800m², usually with several amenity blocks and a shared entry.
- Nightly roster with a documented access procedure
- Frequency bands split nightly, weekly and quarterly
- Named supervisor with a monthly audit against the scope
- Periodic programme priced separately and scheduled up front
Fixed figure, issued in writing before mobilisation.
Portfolio or campus
Multi-floor tenancies, distribution centres, campuses, or a set of buildings held under one facilities team.
- Dedicated crew with site-specific inductions and SWMS
- Machine programmes for hard floors and carpet by zone
- One site register, one supervisor, one consolidated invoice
- Quarterly review against the agreed service levels
Fixed figure, issued in writing before mobilisation.
Free site walk, then a written scope and fixed price inside 24 hours.
Mobilisation
From first call to first shift
- Stage 1
Brief the site
Call 1300 494 983 or send the brief form. We want floor area, surface mix, amenity count, access rules, incumbent arrangement and the frequency you have in mind.
- Stage 2
Walk it with you
We attend the site inside 48 hours, ideally at the hour the clean would actually run. Bins full, floors used. That is the building we are pricing.
- Stage 3
Scope and fixed price
Back to you within 24 hours: a written scope split into frequency bands, the fixed figure, and the compliance pack attached so procurement is not chasing us for it.
- Stage 4
Induct and mobilise
Operators are inducted on your access procedure and site rules before their first shift, and the named supervisor audits the site at the end of the first month.
FAQ
Commercial cleaning contracts: what buyers ask before they sign
The questions that come up in the meeting where the decision actually gets made.
What should a commercial cleaning tender submission contain?
A priced scope of works with every task against a frequency band, and the compliance pack attached rather than promised. A scope that says 'clean the amenities' is not a scope, it is a hope. Ours lists what happens every visit, what happens weekly, what happens monthly and what happens quarterly, area by area. That is what lets you point at a line when something is missed, and it is what makes two submissions genuinely comparable rather than a beauty contest.
How is a commercial cleaning contract priced if you will not publish a rate?
Because a published rate can only be wrong. Two buildings of identical floor area can differ by a factor of three in the work they demand, depending on amenity count, surface mix, headcount, waste volume and how many entry points collect grit. We walk the site, count what generates the workload, and issue a fixed monthly figure in writing. What we will never do is quote an hourly rate, because an hourly rate makes slowness profitable.
Can you take over an existing contract without a gap in service?
Routinely. Tell us the notice period on the incumbent arrangement and we will work backwards from it. We walk the site while the current contractor is still there, build the scope from what we find, complete inductions in the fortnight before handover, and start on the first night after their last. The only thing we ask is that you tell them, rather than leaving us to be the ones who break the news at the loading dock.
Do you provide the consumables, or do we keep our own supplier?
Either. Some facilities teams have a consumables account they are happy with and no interest in changing it, in which case we simply restock from your cupboard to the level in the scope. Others would rather one invoice, in which case we supply paper, soap, liners and hand towel at cost plus a handling margin that is stated in the quote rather than hidden in the monthly figure. Both are normal. Neither is a condition of the contract.
What insurance and compliance documents should a commercial cleaning contractor carry?
Public liability cover, workers compensation for every operator, task-specific safe work method statements, a chemical register with safety data sheets, and police check confirmations for everyone rostered to the site — with Working with Children Checks where the site requires them. Clean Best holds $20 million of public liability cover. What matters as much as the cover is the currency of it: all of it is attached to the submission rather than produced on request, and certificates are reissued to you as they renew.
How long should a commercial cleaning contract run?
Long enough for a contractor to learn the building, short enough that they cannot coast on it. In practice that argues against a fixed multi-year term with an exit fee, because the one sanction that reliably changes behaviour is your ability to leave. Ours rolls month to month on 30 days notice from either side, with no minimum term and no automatic annual uplift buried in a clause. A contractor who knows you can go behaves differently at two in the morning.
How quickly can a commercial cleaning contract start?
Usually about a week from acceptance, and the constraint is almost never us wanting to move slower. It is inductions: the operator has to be briefed on your access procedure, the building's own induction has to be completed if there is one, and any site-specific SWMS has to be signed before the first shift. Rushing that is how a contractor ends up with an operator wedging a fire door because nobody explained the lift.
What happens if the standard slips six months in?
You should see it in the monthly audit before you see it on the floor, which is the entire point of sending the audit whether or not anything was raised. If something is below the scope, it is rectified before the next scheduled visit at no charge and logged against the line it relates to. If the operator is simply not the right fit for the site, we replace them. And if none of that works, the agreement rolls on 30 days notice — there is nothing holding you here.
Related scopes
Scopes commonly held alongside a commercial contract
Same supervisor, same audit, same invoice.
Get a commercial cleaning contract procurement can sign off without a second meeting
Free site walk in 48 hours. Written scope, fixed price and the compliance pack 24 hours after it. Call 1300 494 983.