Standardize your business with a cleaning contract template that covers all your bases.
There’s a lot to think about as you prepare to start your cleaning business. You’ll need equipment and supplies, and probably at least a few employees. You’ll need transportation, insurance, a home base, and of course, customers. One thing, however, that’s easy to overlook in the beginning is a cleaning contract template.
Sure, you may have booked some business with an improvised contract. After all, you have to start somewhere. But having a cleaning contract template ensures that all of your agreements start in the same place, even if you may tailor each one to a specific client.
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The benefits of a template
There are many benefits to using a template instead of a new contract for each client. The first is that, with a template, you’ll know what you include with all of your services. If a customer ever expresses concern that a primary service wasn’t performed, you’ll know right away whether or not it was part of your contract.
Along those same lines, when you do make a change, it’ll be easier to remember a few here and there on each contract as opposed to trying to remember the entire contract itself. Again, it simply helps with uniformity and accuracy.
Since contracts are legally binding, you’ll probably want to have an attorney or qualified professional review the language. The benefit of a cleaning contract template is that they only have to review the language once. This saves both you and the customer time because you won’t have to get every contract approved before you can sign it and get to work.
If you take a few minutes to look, you’ll no doubt find at least one cleaning contract template online for free. While this is a good starting point, you want to make sure that you come across to your customers as professional and thorough.
First of all, have a legal professional review the free template and suggest any changes. The fact is, you don’t know who wrote the free template and whether or not their language is appropriate for a contract, even if it seems so.
Second, it’s a good practice to brand your template. This is usually easy enough to do electronically, or you can just print the contract on company letterhead so that your logo appears prominently at the top. This little addition can go a long way, especially with new customers.
Finally, make sure you use a professional looking font. Arial, Times New Roman, Garamond, and other basic fonts are all acceptable. Avoid any fonts that are playful or gimmicky. There may be a place for them in your marketing, but not in your contracts.
9 Points to include in your cleaning contract template
Once you’ve got the appearance taken care of, it’s time to focus on the content of the template. Be sure to include the following points in any template you use:
1. Legal name of your cleaning business and the client. (A non-legal name or nickname could result in an invalidated contract.)
2. The full address, including floor, suite, etc., of the premises to be cleaned as well as the location of your business.
3. Access rights. (The client is permitting you to be on their property, unsupervised, for the purposes of completing the agreed-upon job. Access rights should include hours as well as specific locations on the premises.)
4. Any equipment or supplies provided by the client.
5. Payment terms, including the amount, date payment is due, the method of payment, and any additional terms addressing late or missed payments.
6. The date the contract goes into effect, and the first date services will be rendered.
7. Services to be performed by the contractor. (If you have a cleaning service proposal, you may reference that here to avoid redundancy. However, if you don’t have a proposal included, this section should be very specific and include all covered services to be rendered with language that permits exclusions of services not mentioned.)
8. Terms of contract enforcement and termination by either party, including final payment terms.
9. Any relevant federal, state, or local legislation that provides any limitation or allowance relevant to the cleaning contract (OSHA regulations at a medical facility, for example).
Electronic contracts make it easy
Most states now recognize electronic contracts, which makes editing and storing a cleaning contract template much easier. The majority of templates are simply Word documents or PDF files that you can easily manipulate with form-fill. Edit what you need to, save it to a safe place, and then send it off to your client, who can sign electronically and send it right back! There are also ways to keep track of your contracts through most janitorial management software, so it’s a good idea to look into that as well.
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Thank you so much this was helpful