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New cleaning account startup checklist
The steps that decide whether a new janitorial or residential account is profitable and stable by day thirty, in the order an owner should work them.
Accounts are usually lost in the first month, not the twelfth. The scope was never written down, so the client kept adding rooms. The crew never got the access codes in writing, so someone waited outside for twenty minutes on night one. Nobody photographed the floor condition before you started, so the scuffs that were always there became your problem. All of that is preventable with an hour of work before the first night.
This checklist is built for a company with 2 to 20 cleaners taking on a new office, medical suite, apartment turn contract or recurring house. Work it in order. The first two stages happen before you send a price, the third happens the week before you start, and the fourth is the thirty nights that turn a signed account into a stable one.
Stage one: walk the building before you price it
Stage two: write the scope and the property task list
Stage three: access, safety and supplies before night one
Stage four: the first thirty nights
How to use it
Print it and put it on a clipboard for the walk, or keep it on a phone and work down it. The first two stages should be finished before you send a price, because half the items exist to keep you from bidding a building you have not really seen. The third stage belongs to the week before your start date, and the fourth is a calendar reminder for day two, day five and day thirty.
Owners running MopRoute usually turn stage two straight into the property checklist for the account, so the scope the client agreed to is the same list the cleaner sees on the stop, and the three photographed tasks are the proof that closes it. That single loop, from walk to scope to checklist to photo, is what keeps a new account from drifting in its first quarter.
Send me the editable copy
Enter your email and we will send the editable copy you can print for the truck and fill in during the walk.
Questions about this document
Does this work for residential accounts and apartment turns?
Yes, with small changes. For a recurring house clean the access stage is about keys, alarm codes and pets rather than dock doors, and the photographed tasks become the kitchen, the bathrooms and the floors. For a turn, the day thirty inspection collapses into the punch list walk with the leasing agent.
How long does the full checklist really take?
The building walk runs forty five minutes to two hours depending on size, and writing the scope and task list takes about an hour for a typical office suite. The access and supply stage is mostly phone calls and one shop trip. Against a monthly account you plan to keep for years, that is a small investment.
What if the client refuses a written scope?
Send it anyway as your description of the work you are pricing, and note that everything else is quoted separately. Most property managers welcome it because it protects them too. A client who wants no written scope at all is telling you something useful about how disputes will go later.
From the site walk to the first thirty nights
This checklist ends with a written scope and a task list named room by room, which is exactly what a property checklist is inside MopRoute. On a demo we take the scope from your next building walk and turn it into the list the cleaner opens on the stop, with the three photographed tasks already attached. Bring one new account and we will set it up while you watch.