Janitorial bids, read into one bid sheet before anyone puts a price on them.

Today an estimator or operations manager reads the package and every addendum, walks the buildings, puts each space into its area type, measures what the package left out, sets a frequency for each task, sorts the owner's supplies from yours, and reads the staffing, wage and insurance terms. Only then does anyone work out hours and a price, usually against a due date.

For the test, AI reads copies of packages and walkthrough notes from bids you already priced and drafts one bid sheet per bid: each building with its cleanable square feet by area type, every task with its frequency, the special services and project work, supplies split between you and the owner, the staffing rules, the insurance and bonding terms, and a list of gaps and questions for the person who prices it. A figure with no source says so. No price, production rate, labor hour or total appears in the draft.

The square footage on the list is rarely the square footage you clean. The City of Sultan, Washington's janitorial request of August 7, 2026 calls each figure on its facility list an estimate of the area to be cleaned, not necessarily the building's total, and leaves City Hall's library and library hallway out. Its cost form asks a monthly price for the wastewater treatment plant, which the facility list never sizes, and its scope points to section 5.7 for the City's supplies when that list sits in 4.8. The University of South Carolina's 2020 janitorial bid splits each building into assignable and non-assignable square feet. The draft carries every figure with the page it came from and lists each site with no size as a gap.

The level of clean decides the frequencies, and the cost form asks by level. That university keeps its buildings at APPA Level 2. Its bidding schedule wants a cost to clean per square foot at Level 1, another at Level 2 and a third for special conditions such as holidays and irregular events, with the Level 1 line applying wherever a later agreement sets no price, and every facility must be at Level 1 when the contract ends or final payment can be held back. Its guidelines set frequencies area by area: in restrooms, high-touch surfaces wiped four times a day, walls washed floor to ceiling twice a month, floor drains primed five days a month. Some lines, such as wiping office keyboards, are marked completed by occupant. The draft lists each frequency under its area type and keeps occupant tasks out of your scope.

Supplies and special services split the scope in two. Sultan furnishes toilet paper, paper towels, hand soap refills, seat covers, trash liners and urinal screens. The contractor brings every cleaning chemical, the protective equipment, floor finish and stripper, a safety data sheet for each chemical and bloodborne pathogen spill kits. Carpet extraction and floor refinishing come twice a year, and bloodborne pathogen cleanup is the contractor's only when it turns up during scheduled hours, with City staff taking after-hours events and the special-service rates going on the cost form. The draft keeps an owner-furnished list and a contractor-furnished list, and gives each special service its own line, so nothing is priced twice or left out.

People, wages and paper are part of the bid. Sultan bars any firm that skips its walk-through. It requires Washington's prevailing wage under RCW 39.12, with certified payroll reports filed electronically with the state Department of Labor and Industries, and notice before a cleaner is added or replaced. Its general liability terms name the City as additional insured, with primary and non-contributory wording and a waiver of subrogation. The university's background checks cover county, state and federal convictions and the sex and violent offender registry, and it approves every candidate in writing before work starts. The draft lists each rule, each certificate and any bond the package asks for, beside the documents your files already hold. Whether you comply is for your own staff, broker and lawyer to decide; this is not legal advice.

What the person who prices it checks. Your reviewer, usually the estimator or operations manager who prices janitorial work, checks each building and area type against its source, each frequency against the task schedule, the supply split, the special services, the staffing and wage rules, the insurance terms, the latest addendum, and the questions the draft raised for the walkthrough. Production rates, hours, the price and the decision to bid at all stay with them.

If your reviewer says yes against the success criteria, each new cleaning RFP or walkthrough gets a draft bid sheet as it arrives, for about 30 days.

Your estimator prices, signs and submits every bid. Walkthroughs, questions to the owner or property manager, and the call on whether to bid at all stay with your team.

Any job beyond bid sheets is a later decision with a price of its own.