Cleaning crews get into an empty building the same four ways every other vendor does: a key or fob, an alarm or door code, the front-desk vendor list, or a scheduled freight elevator. At JAS, evening slots (6pm–10pm) are the default for offices, and keys, alarm codes, or lobby access are coordinated directly with your office manager before the first visit.
The question underneath — the one vendor-screening checklists put first — is not whether the crew can get in. It is how that arrangement stays under your control after you have stopped thinking about it. That is a process question, and it has a concrete answer.
The four access routes, and what each one asks of you
A key or fob. The oldest route and the hardest to audit: a physical key records neither who used it nor when. If it is your building’s only option, ask for the copy to be assigned to the company — not to someone’s personal keyring — and write down who holds it. An alarm or door code. The best version is a dedicated vendor code: many panels and smart locks record which code opened the door, and revoking a code costs nothing compared to changing a lock. The JAS Terms describe access in exactly these materials — “a code, key, smart-lock invite, or someone home” — and the smart-lock invite is the same idea at small-suite scale.
The front-desk vendor list. In Brickell and downtown towers the building adds its own layer: a security desk where the crew signs in, and a house rule that the vendor’s COI is on file before the first visit. The freight elevator. In larger buildings, night access runs through freight windows scheduled with property management. The JAS janitorial page publishes the operational version of all of this in one sentence: “We coordinate keys, alarm codes, freight elevators, or lobby access directly with your office or property manager before the first visit.”
Which of the four you get depends on the building, and across Miami-Dade the map is fairly predictable. Brickell towers want the COI on file and a freight window; boutique buildings near the Miracle Mile in Coral Gables lock up early and live on the alarm code; in Doral and Miami Lakes business parks the door code and the alarm are the entire perimeter; and in offices inside condo buildings, the association often keeps its own vendor registry with its own insurance requirements. None of that is an obstacle — it is exactly what the office cleaning page promises to settle before work starts: “the scoping call covers your building’s access rules before the first visit”.
What keeps access secure: assigned, logged, revocable
One rule organizes everything else: never hand over anything you cannot take back cheaply. A dedicated vendor code revokes in a minute; a loaned master key does not. A front-desk sign-in leaves a record of every entry; an unalarmed back door does not. And a key assigned to the company, with a named coordination contact on each side, always has someone answerable for it — which is the actual difference between granting access and losing it.
The other half of security is paper, and it comes before the first key. What JAS publishes sits on its legal page, word for word: “$2,000,000 general liability coverage · every cleaner background-checked”, with the certificate of insurance available by email — subject line “COI” plus the entity name — and “most certificates returned within 2 business hours”. The janitorial page adds the W-9 on request and the COI naming your building as certificate holder. How to verify each claim, rather than take it on faith, is on the transparency page. And if your underlying question is who the people behind the badge are — how they are screened and trained — that has its own article: how commercial cleaning companies screen and train their crews.
“After-hours security isn’t trust. It’s a code you can revoke, a log you can read, and a vendor file you can verify — before anything changes hands.”
Put it in writing before the first visit
The access arrangement belongs in the scope of work, not in a loose text thread. The janitorial page states it as policy: “after-hours entry, alarm codes, freight elevators, and building vendor rules all get confirmed before the first visit”. In practice the document should name four things: which entry route is used and who holds what; the alarm procedure on the way in and out; whether the crew signs in at a desk; and who calls whom, on each side, when something does not line up at nine at night. The Terms put the customer’s half in one phrase — provide “reasonable access to the property” — and everything else is defining, in writing, what reasonable means in your building.
When access fails — and when something goes wrong
A dead code is not an administrative detail: it costs a visit. The JAS Terms say it without decoration: “If our team arrives and cannot access the property (lockout, no arranged entry), the visit may be treated as a late cancellation.” That is why the up-front coordination is not bureaucracy — it is what keeps you from paying for a locked door. If the building swaps its alarm panel or rewrites its vendor rules, the channel is the usual one: your manager and JAS, before the next visit.
For the other fear — something is damaged, or missing, while nobody was there — the route is already written, and it is worth reading before you need it: “If something is damaged during a clean, tell us within 24 hours at support@jascleaning.com — damage is documented in your CleanCheck and resolved through our insurance.” And accountability for a visit no one witnessed has its own mechanism: on eligible completed visits, the Terms include “a customer-safe CleanCheck proof report”. You were not in the building; the report is how you know anyway.
Quick answers
Is it safe to give a cleaning company keys and alarm codes?
It is as safe as the process around it. Hand over access that stays assigned, logged, and revocable — a dedicated vendor code rather than the master, a key assigned to the company with a named contact, sign-in where the building has a desk. Before anything changes hands, collect the vendor file in writing: JAS publishes $2,000,000 general liability coverage with every cleaner background-checked, sends a certificate of insurance within 2 business hours of an email request, and provides a W-9 on request. And know the route before you need it: the Terms say damage reported within 24 hours is documented in your CleanCheck and resolved through insurance.
Does JAS charge extra for cleaning after hours?
No — the evening shift is the default, not an upgrade. The office page puts it plainly: evening slots (6pm–10pm) are the default for offices so cleaning never interrupts your team, and Saturday visits can be arranged for spaces that run late on weekdays. What the after-hours arrangement costs you is coordination, not money: a code or key set up once, before the first visit.
Who at our company should coordinate building access with the cleaning crew?
One named person — usually the office manager, or the property manager where the building controls entry. That is how JAS runs it: keys, alarm codes, freight elevators, or lobby access are coordinated directly with your office or property manager before the first visit, and the scoping call covers your building’s access rules before anyone shows up. A single point of contact is also what makes revocation clean: when a code needs to change, both sides know exactly who calls whom.
The short version
Cleaning crews come in through one of four routes — key, code, front desk, or freight elevator — and security depends less on which one than on keeping it assigned, logged, and revocable, with the vendor file collected before the first key moves. At JAS all of it is coordinated with your manager before the first visit, on the evening shift that is already the default. As for what that night shift costs: nothing extra — the published prices already assume it, and the full math lives in the office cleaning cost guide for Miami.
This guide is part of the JAS operating playbook — written to answer in writing a question the industry usually answers with an adjective and a reassuring nod.