Switching Janitorial Companies: A Transition Checklist for Security, Supplies and Service

Before you start

This checklist is for the facility manager who has already decided to switch. If you’re still deciding, start with our guide on whether to change your cleaning vendor. It covers the warning signs and the one conversation that tells you whether the problem can be fixed.

Most switches go wrong in the same few places. The service gap between vendors. A key nobody collected. A dispute over who owns the floor machine in the janitor closet. The paper towel dispensers that turn out to belong to a supplier. Each is easy to prevent if you plan for it, and a pain to sort out after the old vendor has gone.

Four to six weeks out: line up the new vendor

1. Read your termination clause. Most cleaning contracts require 30 to 90 days’ written notice. Some allow immediate termination for a serious breach. Know which applies before you do anything else.
2. Choose and sign the new vendor first. A new vendor typically needs three to four weeks to hire, screen, order supplies and plan your building. Sign before you give notice, so the start date lines up with the old vendor’s last day.
3. Write or update your scope of work. The scope is what the new vendor prices, and it’s also your handover document. Our guide to writing a janitorial scope of work has a template.
4. Walk the building with the new vendor. Agree the standard for each area and take dated baseline photos, so you both know where things started.
5. Keep a record of the old vendor’s issues. Dated notes and photos. If the last weeks turn into a dispute over billing or performance, you’ll want them.

Giving notice

Send written notice by a method you can prove, such as certified mail or an email with a read receipt, and refer to the termination clause by section. State the exact last day of service.

In the same letter, remind the outgoing vendor that service continues at the contracted standard through that date. Crews and supervisors sometimes ease off in the final weeks. Plan for it: keep inspecting, and if it slips badly, ask the new vendor whether they can start with reduced interim service.

Supplies, equipment and dispensers: settle who owns what

This is the step most switches skip, and it causes the most arguments on the last day. Make a list with three columns.

A few things to check before the last day:

• Consumables on hand. Count the stock together with the outgoing vendor on the last day, and both sign the count. If you paid for it, it stays.
• Equipment. Anything the vendor owns leaves with them. If the new vendor is bringing its own, that’s fine. If you’re expecting a floor machine to stay, confirm who bought it.
• Dispensers. Many paper and soap dispensers are loaned by the supplier under an agreement that requires you to buy that brand’s refills. On cancellation, the supplier may remove them or charge for them. Check your agreement before you assume the dispensers stay on the wall, and tell the new vendor which refills they take.

Chemicals and safety data sheets

When the vendor changes, the chemicals in your building change too. The outgoing vendor’s products and their safety data sheets leave together. The new vendor must bring safety data sheets for every product it uses and keep them accessible during every shift, and its crew must be trained on those products. That’s what OSHA’s hazard communication standard requires of employers whose chemicals share a worksite.

If your facility keeps its own chemical inventory, update it. If you run a school, daycare or medical facility, ask the new vendor which EPA-registered disinfectants they’ll use and what contact time each one needs.

Keys, fobs and alarm codes

Do this on the old vendor’s last day, not the week after.

• Count every key and badge against your issue log. Master keys first.
• Deactivate fobs and access cards at the end of the last shift.
• Change the alarm codes the vendor used, and remove any shared logins.
• Decide whether to re-key. Collecting keys isn’t always enough. Re-key when a master or exterior key is involved, when your key records are incomplete, or when the relationship ended badly. A key that wasn’t returned opens the door until the lock changes.
• Set up the new vendor’s access before their first shift, with written authorization for sensitive rooms like server rooms, records rooms or medication storage.

Also ask the new vendor how it screens staff. Texas doesn’t require background checks for janitorial workers, so it’s a contract term, not a legal guarantee. Put it in writing.

Insurance and paperwork before day one

Get these before anyone from the new vendor works in your building:

• Certificate of insurance showing general liability and workers’ compensation, with your organization named as additional insured.
• Check workers’ compensation specifically. In Texas, most private employers can choose not to carry it. If your new vendor doesn’t, an injured cleaner on your site becomes a much harder problem. Ask for the certificate. If you can’t tell from the paperwork, the state’s Division of Workers’ Compensation can confirm an employer’s coverage.
• Form W-9 for your accounts payable team.
• Compliance agreements, re-signed with the new vendor where your facility needs them, such as a confidentiality or business associate agreement in a medical practice.

Tell the people in your building

About two weeks before the change, let occupants or tenants know. Name the new vendor, the start date, and who to contact with feedback. You don’t need to explain why you switched.

Handover day

Line up the outgoing vendor’s last day with the incoming vendor’s first. A short overlap can make sense in high-security or healthcare facilities, but most buildings don’t need one. If a deep clean is part of the handover, agree in writing who does it and who pays.

Before the old vendor leaves, collect anything that belongs to you: keys, badges, your floor plans and any service records. Make sure open invoices and work orders are settled against the right dates, with the old vendor billing through their last day and the new one from their first.

The first 30 days

The first month tells you whether the switch worked.

• Walk the building with the new vendor every week against the scope, using an inspection checklist. Our janitorial inspection checklist is built for this.
• Track the basics: missed tasks, stocked restrooms, trash pickup timing, and how fast issues get answered.
• Hold a 30-day review. Go through the findings, agree what changes, and set the inspection schedule from there.

Does the new vendor have to hire the old crew?

Not in Texas. New York City and California have laws that require a new cleaning contractor to keep the previous contractor’s workers for a set period. We’re not aware of any Texas equivalent, and a 2023 state law limits Texas cities from setting their own employment rules like that. Some vendors choose to interview the existing crew, and that’s worth asking about if you’re happy with the people and unhappy with the company.

Request a Site Assessment for your Dallas-Fort Worth Facility

If you’re planning a switch, we’ll walk your building, write the scope, and line our start date up with your notice period. We cover the DFW metroplex from Lancaster and Arlington to Dallas and Fort Worth.

See how we price our commercial cleaning services before you talk to anyone.

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