A commercial cleaning contract needs nine things in writing: a task-by-task scope of work, a frequency beside every task, who buys the consumables, service hours and building access, the price and the rule that may change it, payment terms, a remedy with a deadline when the standard slips, insurance with a COI turnaround, and how either side ends it. Everything else is boilerplate.
In Miami almost all of these agreements fit on one page: a company name, a monthly figure, and a line about “keeping the premises clean” — an invoice with a signature line.
- 1. Scope of work, in writing
- 2. A frequency on every line
- 3. Who buys the consumables
- 4. Hours and building access
- 5. The price and its change rule
- 6. When the invoice comes
- 7. Evidence and a remedy with a deadline
- 8. Insurance, COI, vendor file
- 9. Termination and the missed visit
1. The scope of work is the contract
“Keep the office clean” is unenforceable. A scope of work is a task list, and it is the only part of the document you will ever use. Ours is published in three blocks on the janitorial services page: every visit (restrooms, trash, break room, high-touch points, entry glass), weekly (floors, desks, glass partitions, corridors, stairwells) and monthly (baseboards, door frames, vents, sills, light fixtures, restroom grout). That page states the rule plainly: “You get the exact task list in writing before the first visit.” The test: can you point at any line and say when it last happened?
2. A frequency on every line
That three-block shape is the second clause doing its work. The janitorial page calls the monthly block “the work that gets skipped everywhere else, put on a schedule so it actually happens” — the failure mode exactly. Vents and baseboards fall out of contracts not because someone deleted them but because nobody dated them. Flag every “as needed”: it means “when someone complains”.
3. Who buys the paper
This is the clause that starts arguments in month two, and the one no one-page agreement names. Two categories. Products and equipment are included on JAS office work: the office page answers “Do you bring your own supplies and equipment?” with “Yes — we bring everything”. Consumables — restroom paper, hand soap, can liners — are a separate line, and the contract has to say who buys them and who raises a hand when the closet is empty. JAS settles that in the written scope: the commercial step of the booking form carries a field labelled “Waste, recycling, or consumables notes (optional)”, and what you put there goes into the quote.
4. Hours and building access
Name the service window, not just the day: JAS commercial work defaults to 6pm–10pm, and the booking form asks your operating hours, your preferred window, and whether restricted areas need coordination. Then name access. The Terms are explicit: “You agree to provide reasonable access to the property (a code, key, smart-lock invite, or someone home)”, and an arrival with no arranged entry “may be treated as a late cancellation”, carrying the published $25 fee rather than the full visit price. In Miami that means keys, alarm codes, freight elevators and lobby access agreed with your property manager first, and many towers and board-run condos ask for the COI naming the building before a vendor can badge in.
5. The price, and the rule that changes it
A contract needs the number and the rule that moves the number. JAS commercial work starts at $225 per weekly visit for spaces up to 1,000 sq ft, and the full ladder by size lives on the office cleaning page. In the document the change rule matters more, and ours is the re-quote clause in the Terms: “If the scope on arrival is materially different (for example, additional rooms or heavy build-up), we will re-quote with you before doing extra work — never silently.” A contract with no change rule has an unlimited one.
6. When the invoice comes
The JAS answer fits in one sentence from the Terms: “There is no payment at booking. After each completed visit, we issue an invoice for the quoted amount plus any applicable taxes or re-quoted additions you approved.” Per completed visit, not per prepaid term — and that is where the leverage sits. If you have already paid for the quarter, a Tuesday nobody showed up for is a favour someone might do you; if you pay after each visit, it is simply not invoiced.
7. Evidence, and a remedy with a clock
Every contract works in month one; the one you are buying is the month-six contract. Evidence: on eligible completed visits JAS sends a CleanCheck report — that visit’s checklist status, customer-safe photos, the team’s notes — measured against what you signed, because it “shows the status of the tasks you approved in your scope of work”. The remedy, in the Terms’ own words: “If something is not right, contact JAS within 24 hours of completion with the details and include the report when available.” A remedy with no clock is a sentiment.
8. Insurance, the COI, and the vendor file
Quote the certificate, not the adjective. What JAS publishes on its legal page is this: “$2,000,000 general liability coverage · every cleaner background-checked. Certificate of insurance available on request — email bookings@jascleaning.com with your subject line ‘COI’ and the entity name. Most certificates returned within 2 business hours.” The transparency page repeats it as a verification step. In your contract, name the amount, who is listed as certificate holder — usually your building, not just your company — and the turnaround. Ask for the document before signing.
9. The exit, and the visit you lose
Read the exit before the entrance: notice, auto-renewal, prepaid balance, stopping for cause. At JAS there is no prepaid term to unwind: no long-term lock-in, billed after each completed visit, and “recurring plans renew automatically at your chosen frequency until you cancel — in your account, or by text or email”. Individual visits keep their window: free up to 24 hours before, $25 inside 24 hours. The other direction belongs in the document too: ours reserves “the right to refuse or stop service where conditions are unsafe for our team — such as mold, infestation, biohazards, or abusive behavior”. That is a refusal clause, not a remediation offering: a cleaning visit is not remediation.
And the line a downloaded template never carries: between June and November a schedule here can lose visits — a named storm, a closed building, a flooded garage. The Terms name it: “We may need to reschedule for weather, safety, or staffing reasons — we will tell you as soon as we know, and you never pay a fee for a reschedule we initiate.” With invoicing per completed visit, a storm week costs nothing instead of a quarter of a prepaid month. Ask what happens the week after, too: reopening is heavier than maintenance, and it should be re-quoted rather than absorbed.
Three lines a national template will not have
Restroom fixtures and glass pick up mineral buildup here; the add-on catalog names it “mineral buildup treatment on reachable restroom fixtures and glass”, so decide whether it rides the monthly rotation or gets re-quoted. Floor type too: the booking form asks for carpet, hard floors, tile, polished concrete or mixed, because a warehouse-front office in Doral and a Brickell suite are not the same contract at identical square footage. And with no slow season for pollen or humidity, vents, sills and cobwebs cannot live under “as needed”.
The short version
If the document names the tasks, the frequency of each, who buys the consumables, the hours and the access, the price with its change rule, when the invoice arrives, how a visit is proved and by when it is fixed, the insurance and its COI turnaround, the exit, and what happens when a storm lands — you have a contract. If not, you have an invoice with a signature line. Still deciding which kind of work you are buying? We split it in commercial cleaning vs. janitorial services. Not at the document stage yet? Start with what to ask before hiring.
Part of the JAS operating playbook, not legal advice: the list of what we put in writing before a first visit.