Food processing and HACCP cleaning for contractors
Night sanitation crews work inside someone else's HACCP plan. Allergen changeovers, dry-clean rooms and export swabbing are the specification — USDA is not the Australian regulator.
6 August 2025
The journal
29 briefings, field notes and playbooks. Start at a hub if you are hunting a specific problem — tenders, rosters, chemicals, WHS, pricing or a sector.
Buying or selling a cleaning contract book
A contract book is not a van and a phone number. Due diligence is assignment clauses, transferring staff, WIP and the clients who will retender the week you settle.
23 July 2025
Modern slavery statements and supply-chain due diligence for cleaning firms
The Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) bites at $100 million — and the questionnaire still lands on a three-van subcontractor because cleaning is how a reporting entity’s night shift is staffed.
16 July 2025
Infection control after COVID — what still matters for contractors
High-touch cleaning, a TGA-listed disinfectant used for the dwell on the label, and an outbreak clause you can actually staff — the rest of the pandemic theatre can leave the trolley.
2 July 2025
After-hours access, keys and the security risk in a cleaning contract
Master keys, swipe fobs and alarm codes are the job. Lost metal, shared PINs and an uncleared casual on a Sunday are how a cleaning contract becomes a break-in with your name on the log.
25 June 2025
When to walk away from a cleaning contract
Walking away is a commercial decision, not a tantrum. Red-flag specifications, unpaid variations, unsafe work and a price that cannot pay the Award are all reasons to stop — at bid stage, at renewal, or with proper notice mid-term.
18 June 2025
Strata and residential common-area cleaning contracts
Strata managers write the tender; committees and residents write the complaints. Bins, foyers, gyms and after-hours access are the job, not a cheap add-on to an office rate.
12 June 2025
When an autonomous floor scrubber earns its keep
A robot earns a place on an open, repeatable floor with a supervisor who still owns the edges. It does not earn a place because a vendor animated a shopping centre at 2am.
11 June 2025
Managing absenteeism and weekend cover in commercial cleaning
Sick leave, no-shows and Saturday penalty rates will break a multi-site book faster than a lost tender. Build a casual pool, a communication tree and a weekend roster that still pays the Cleaning Services Award.
4 June 2025
Sharps, sanitary and clinical waste for cleaning contractors
A needle in a station toilet is a first-aid and WHS event; a yellow bag from a clinic is an EPA-licensed waste stream. Mixing them with the general bin is how contractors lose the site and the worker.
28 May 2025
Hotel and hospitality turnaround cleaning
Room turnaround, public areas and kitchens are three trades on one key. Occupancy, events and the night audit decide whether the roster you priced still exists at 3pm.
21 May 2025
Service level agreements that a cleaning contractor can actually live with
An SLA is not a motivational poster. It is the clause that turns a specification into inspections, rectification windows and, sometimes, money. The usable ones measure cleaning, not weather or occupant behaviour.
21 May 2025
Cleaning quality inspections that are more than a paper exercise
A score sheet that nobody walks, a photo that proves nothing, and a complaint that is really about ventilation will not hold a contract. Inspections have to match the soil, close the loop with the crew, and survive a joint walk with the client.
14 May 2025
Growing a cleaning firm from two vans to a regional operation
The jump from owner-operator to a regional book is a systems problem. Hire a supervisor before you open a depot, and do not confuse a logo with a contract.
8 May 2025
Microfibre, colour-coding and stopping cross-contamination on the job
Red for toilets, blue for general, green for food, yellow for infectious risk — the convention only works if the laundry, the trolley and the night crew all keep the same story.
7 May 2025
School and university cleaning through term breaks and exam periods
Education contracts are two jobs in one roster — term-time amenities and holiday periodics — plus working-with-children checks and a campus that treats silence as a specification.
30 April 2025
Subcontracting versus employing cleaners under Australian law
An ABN and an invoice do not make a cleaner a contractor. Fair Work, the ATO, the Cleaning Services Award, superannuation and state labour-hire licences all look at the work, and sham contracting is still illegal.
28 April 2025
Workers compensation and labour hire in the cleaning industry
Premiums, host duties and labour-hire licences sit in different columns in each state, but the injuries are the same — wet floors, needles, chemicals and the roster that sent an untrained person to all three.
23 April 2025
Building a government cleaning tender response that survives evaluation
Government cleaning tenders are won by answering the published criteria in the published order, with evidence a panel can score. Weighted criteria, local content, modern slavery, WHS and insurance are not appendices — they are the bid.
16 April 2025
Chemical safety and SDS folders — what Safe Work actually expects
A current SDS, a GHS label on every decanted bottle, and a van that is not a mixed chemical cupboard — that is the standard inspectors and clients already use, not a paperwork hobby.
9 April 2025
A 30-day induction for new cleaners that actually sticks
Day-one WHS, colour-coding, keys and a shadow shift are not a welcome pack. They are the only reliable way to put a new cleaner on a solo night without gambling the building, the award classification or the next compensation claim.
2 April 2025
Working at heights when the job is a bathroom ceiling or an atrium light
A step ladder in a wet amenity and a boom in a shopping-centre void are the same legal duty in different clothes. Client pressure is not a control, and a SWMS that names the real access method is.
26 March 2025
Cash flow, retentions and 30-day terms in cleaning contracts
Cleaning firms pay wages weekly and often wait a month or more to be paid. Security of payment helps only on some jobs, and factoring is not a strategy.
20 March 2025
Choosing floor machines for Australian commercial sites
Walk-behind or ride-on, battery or cable, vinyl in a school or terrazzo in a civic hall — the machine has to match the floor, the climate and the nearest technician, not the brochure.
19 March 2025
Rostering a night cleaning crew without burning people out
Night work is where commercial cleaning is actually delivered, and where the Cleaning Services Award, fatigue and travel between sites collide. A roster that only works on a spreadsheet will fail on a Tuesday at 2am.
12 March 2025
Hospital and aged-care cleaning contracts in Australia
Acute wards and residential aged care are different jobs. Outbreaks, screening and the strengthened Quality Standards decide whether a commercial cleaner belongs on the site.
5 March 2025
Reading a cleaning specification the way a facility manager wrote it
A cleaning specification is a facility manager’s attempt to buy a defensible result, usually written in the language of the last contract. Learn to separate frequencies from outcomes, soil from area, and the work you will be paid for from the work you will be blamed for.
4 March 2025
How Australian cleaning contractors should price a square-metre job
A square-metre rate is only a summary of hours, Award labour, travel and risk. Build the hours first or the rate will lie to you.
26 February 2025
How to win commercial cleaning tenders in Australia
Winning a cleaning tender is less about a cheap square-metre rate than about deciding which documents deserve a response, inspecting the building properly, and writing a method an evaluation panel can score.
11 February 2025