Contracts & remedies · updated August 2026
How to Audit Your Cleaning Company (Without Buying Software)
You do not need software. You need a fixed route, a weighted form, a monthly cadence and a score that has a consequence. The industry framework is the APPA five levels of clean, with Level 2 as the normal target for a commercial office. Score on a 100-point scale, set the contractual floor at 85, and define what happens below it.
The APPA Five Levels, Translated to an Office
| Level | Name | What it looks like in a reception area |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orderly Spotlessness | Showpiece. No visible dust anywhere, glass flawless, floor uniformly finished. Rarely a realistic contract target. |
| 2 | Ordinary Tidiness | The normal commercial office target. Glass clean, floor even, no visible dust on reachable surfaces, no marks on walls at hand height. |
| 3 | Casual Inattention | Minor issues tolerated: light dust on ledges, occasional fingerprints on glass, edges of floor not consistently detailed. |
| 4 | Moderate Dinginess | Reactive only. Visible soil accumulation, dull floor, marked walls. Visitors notice. |
| 5 | Unkempt Neglect | Crisis. |
If your SLA target is Level 2, grading on a 1-to-5 scale inflates your scores in every area that never needed Level 1 in the first place. Grade against the level you actually contracted for.
A Programme You Can Run Yourself
- Build a 25-line inspection form, weighted by area. Restrooms and reception should carry more weight than a storage corridor.
- Fix the route. Same areas, same order, same time of day, every month. Comparability is the entire point.
- Score each line 0–4 against the Level 2 description, and normalise to 100.
- Photograph every failure, date-stamped.
- Send the score to the vendor within 24 hours, whether it is good or bad.
- Apply the ladder: ≥85 pass; 80–84 corrective action within a week; below 80 written cure notice; two consecutive months below 80 triggers the termination right.
The Fluorescent Marker Audit — Cheapest and Most Convincing
- Buy a UV gel marker and a UV torch.
- After hours, mark 20–30 high-touch points with a small invisible dot: door handles, switches, tap handles, elevator buttons, shared appliance handles, phone booth surfaces.
- Log every location.
- Check with the torch after the next clean.
- Report the result as a percentage removal rate — “72% of marked high-touch points were cleaned.”
It costs about thirty dollars, it takes twenty minutes, and it produces a number no one can argue with. Repeat quarterly, always on different points.
ATP Testing: What It Does and Does Not Tell You
ATP bioluminescence swabs measure organic residue in Relative Light Units. Three things to understand before you buy a meter:
- RLU thresholds are device-specific and not comparable across manufacturers. A “pass” on one brand is meaningless on another. Anyone quoting a universal RLU threshold does not understand the instrument.
- ATP measures organic soil, not pathogens. A low reading is not a statement about infection risk.
- The only valid method is to baseline your own site — same points, same time, same device, before and after cleaning — and then track your own trend.
Used that way it is genuinely useful. Used as an absolute standard it is theatre.
Last reviewed August 2026. Figures for prevailing wage and regulatory schedules change on 1 January and 1 July — we re-verify this page each cycle.
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