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Comparing cleaning proposals in Gilroy: one checklist sheet per bid
Print one copy of this checklist for every proposal on your desk, work through it as you read, and see whether each janitorial bid covers the same building before the totals enter the picture.
Printable checklist
One sheet, one proposal
No two proposals for one building are laid out alike. One opens with a room list, another with a monthly figure, a third mentions carpet work only in a footnote. Reading them side by side tends to turn into a hunt for the lowest number. This checklist slows that down: print a fresh copy for each bid, answer every line from what the proposal actually says, and leave a line blank when the document is silent.
Blank lines are the useful part. They are the questions to ask before you sign anything, and they show which bids describe your building and which could describe any building in town. The steps leading up to the bids are in how to choose a cleaning company, and the Gilroy cleaning cost guide explains what moves the price. This sheet sits between the two, at the moment the proposals are open on your desk.
Scope and frequencies
Begin with the rooms and their visit counts; every later line on the sheet leans on these. A proposal that skips the kitchen floor will look cheaper for reasons that have nothing to do with value.
- Every room you listed appears, from the lobby to the storage closets
- Tasks are named room by room, not summed up as general cleaning
- Each task has a frequency beside it: each visit, weekly, monthly or periodic
- Nights or days per week match what you asked for
- Floor care and carpet extraction show up as separate lines with their own cycle
- Anything excluded is stated plainly so you can price it elsewhere or add it
Where a proposal says only that restrooms will be cleaned, write the tasks you expected beside that line, so the follow-up question is ready when you call.
Hours, access and the building itself
The next lines check whether the company has understood how your building runs, not only its square footage.
- Start and finish times fit around your opening and closing hours
- Weekend, holiday and busy-season visits are addressed
- Entry method is described: key, card, lockbox or a door someone opens
- Alarm arming and disarming has been discussed
- Locked rooms and areas the crew should skip are recorded
- The proposal follows a walkthrough of your building rather than a phone estimate
Hours matter more than they first seem. A crew that arrives while the last shift is still at their desks works around people and reaches less of each room, and a building that opens early needs mopped floors dry well before the doors unlock. If a bid gives no times at all, note it as a question.
Supplies and equipment
Supplies are where two otherwise matching bids most often drift apart. Settle who buys what before you compare totals.
- Restroom paper, soap, liners and sanitizer: supplied by the company or by you
- If supplied, whether dispensers are provided and fitted to match
- Cleaning products and equipment brought by the crew
- Storage space the crew will need on site, such as a closet near a sink
At Gilroy Janitorial you can choose either route: we supply and restock as we clean, or the crew refills from the stock you keep. Mark which arrangement each proposal assumes so the comparison stays even.
Supervision, inspections and communication
A bid can describe perfect work on paper. These lines ask how you will know the work is happening and what happens when it isn’t.
- Quality inspections are described, with who carries them out
- You have a named way to raise a concern: a contact, a phone line or both
- The proposal says how a missed task gets put right
- There is a plan for adjusting frequencies once cleaning is under way
- Each company’s contact for your account is written on the sheet
On our side, a supervisor comes through on quality inspections, looking at restrooms, floors and bins against the routine agreed with you, and the notes you send shape the route from the first week on.
Insurance, bonding and the certificate
Request the certificate of insurance from every bidder and clip it to that bid’s sheet. Check that the coverage on it is current and that the company named on it matches the one on the bid. Then confirm whether the company is bonded and carries workers’ compensation, and whether its crews are background-checked. The sheet has a box for each answer.
For our part, we hold insurance and a bond, cover our people with workers’ compensation, run background checks on everyone we send, and hand each client its own certificate of insurance.
The start-up plan
The last lines look past signing to the first weeks. A written start-up plan shows the bidder has planned for your building specifically.
- A proposed start date and the first night of service
- How keys, cards and alarm codes will be handed over
- A walk of the building after the first visits
- A check-in point, such as the end of the first month, to review the routine
With every sheet filled in, line the bids up by their blanks first and their totals second. The one with the fewest open questions is the easiest to judge fairly. When you are ready to add ours to the stack, request a quote and we will walk the building before we write it.
A few useful answers
Common questions
Why use a separate checklist for each proposal?
A single sheet per bid keeps each company’s answers on its own page, so you can lay them out together and see the gaps at a glance instead of cross-reading three documents.
What should we do with lines a proposal leaves blank?
Treat them as questions. Send them to the company before you decide, and note the answers on the same sheet so every bid ends up complete.
Should we compare the totals first?
No. Compare scope, frequencies and supplies first. Two totals only mean something side by side once the bids cover the same rooms, the same visits and the same supply arrangement.
Does Gilroy Janitorial provide a certificate of insurance with its proposal?
Yes. We issue one to each client, and you can request yours while the bids are still under review.
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