Cleaning tender: how to run one as the buyer in Australia

01

How a cleaning tender works in Australia, and the rules that apply

A cleaning tender is a structured competition. The buyer describes the cleaning services it needs in a request for tender (RFT), invites cleaning contractors to respond, evaluates the tenders against published criteria, and awards the contract for the provision of cleaning services to the offer that is the best value. Done well, it gives every tenderer the same information and time, and the buyer a decision it can explain to its board, owners corporation or auditor. Smaller jobs are often bought through a request for quotation (RFQ), and large or complex ones may start with an expression of interest (EOI) to shortlist tenderers first.

Which rules apply depends on who is buying:

• Commonwealth agencies follow the Commonwealth Procurement Rules 17 November 2025, made by the Finance Minister under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013. They say that "achieving value for money is the core rule", and that "price is not the sole factor when assessing value for money". For non-corporate Commonwealth entities the procurement threshold for services other than construction is $125,000, above which the stricter Division 2 rules apply, including at least 25 days to lodge a submission in an open tender, except in the circumstances the rules set out.
• State and territory agencies follow their own government's procurement framework and tender site. Victoria's, for example, is Buying for Victoria.
• Local councils follow their state's local government legislation, which sets the values above which a council must call for public tenders, and their own procurement policy. Check the current thresholds before you plan the timetable.
• Panels and standing offers let government buyers approach contractors already appointed through an earlier competition, often with a short request for quotation between them. Under the Commonwealth rules, "officials should approach multiple potential suppliers" when a standing offer includes several.
• Private buyers, such as property managers, strata and body corporate committees, shopping centre owners and private schools, can run any fair process they choose. The public sector disciplines are still good practice.

Commonwealth open tenders are published on AusTender, which the rules describe as "the Australian Government's procurement information system". The rest of this guide applies whichever rules you follow.

02

What the request for tender should contain

Tenderers can only price what the tender documents tell them. The Commonwealth rules set a useful benchmark for any buyer: request documentation must include a complete description of the procurement, including "the nature, scope and the quantity of the goods and services", the conditions for participation, and the evaluation criteria "and, if applicable to the evaluation, the relative importance of those criteria". For cleaning, a complete RFT usually includes:

• The specification or scope of works: every building and area, the tasks and frequencies, periodicals such as carpet and hard floor care, high-level dusting and window cleaning, the standard expected, working hours and access, and where cleaning stops and building maintenance starts. Our commercial cleaning checklist is a starting point for the tasks.
• Site information: a list of locations, whether office floors, classrooms, aged care wings or common areas, floor areas by finish, the number of toilets, kitchens and end of trip facilities, occupancy and opening hours, including school holidays and shutdowns, and any areas with special requirements, such as labs or clinical rooms.
• The contract terms: the contract period and extension options, termination, price review or rise and fall, insurances, liability, subcontracting and how variations are priced. Our guide to the cleaning contract covers the terms in detail.
• Performance management: the key performance indicators, how audits are carried out and by whom, rectification times, reporting and any abatements.
• Consumables and equipment: who supplies paper, soap, bin liners, sanitary services and general waste removal, and any required products, colour coding or storage, with any environmental requirements, such as certified products, water and energy use, or recycling.
• Work health and safety requirements: site induction, safe work method statements where they apply, hazardous chemicals and the site's register of them, working alone at night, and the site's own rules.
• Labour and ethical requirements: compliance with the Fair Work Act 2009 and the award, subcontracting controls, and what tenderers must declare.
• The pricing schedule, set out so that tenders can be compared line by line, with hours by area and shift as well as the total.
• The evaluation criteria and weightings, the timetable, the site inspection and the closing date for questions.

A good test: could two experienced contractors read a detailed RFT and arrive at similar hours for the building? If not, their prices will reflect guesswork, not value.

03

Site inspections, questions, and the cleaners already there

Site inspections let tenderers see the building before they price it. Offer every tenderer the same inspection, with the same person answering questions, and show the hard parts: the busiest toilets, the kitchens, the entrances in wet weather, and where equipment and chemicals will be stored.

Questions should go through one channel, with a published closing date and the answers shared with every tenderer, without naming who asked. The Commonwealth rules require an agency to "promptly reply to any reasonable request from a potential supplier for relevant information" while avoiding any supplier "gaining an advantage in a competitive procurement process", and to send any change to the criteria or specifications to every supplier taking part, in time to change their submissions. When questions expose gaps in the specification, fix the RFT.

The existing workforce, the cleaners employed by the current contractor or in-house, is often misunderstood. There is no general rule that cleaners move to the new contractor when a contract changes hands. The Fair Work Act 2009 has transfer of business rules (Part 2-8), but under section 311 they apply only where an employee's employment with the old employer ends, they are employed by the new employer within three months to do the same or substantially the same work, and there is a connection between the two employers of a kind the section lists:

• assets used in the work passing from one to the other under an arrangement between them;
• the old employer outsourcing the work to the new employer, which is the case when you move from in-house cleaners to a contractor;
• the new employer ceasing to outsource the work to the old employer, which is the case when you bring cleaning back in-house;
• the new employer being an associated entity of the old employer.

Where there is a transfer of business, an enterprise agreement that covered the old employer and a transferring employee can follow them to the new employer for that work. When one unrelated contractor simply replaces another, there may be no such connection. Either way, tell tenderers what they are walking into, the number of cleaners, their hours and whether an enterprise agreement covers them, and take employment advice on the facts of your own change.

04

Evaluating quality, price and the award

Most of the price is wages. The Cleaning Services Award 2020 covers, to the exclusion of any other modern award, "employers in the contract cleaning services industry throughout Australia" and their employees, and its rates change with the time and day of work. A Monday to Friday shift that starts before 6.00 am or finishes after 6.00 pm, for example, is paid at 115% of the minimum hourly rate for a full-time employee for the entire shift, 130% for a part-time employee and 140% for a casual, with higher rates at weekends and on public holidays. A tender that does not price out of hours work is not pricing the work.

Set weightings that reflect the risk of the service, publish them, and resist letting price drown everything else. The Commonwealth rules list what value for money means beyond price, including the "quality of the goods and services", "fitness for purpose of the proposal", and the "potential supplier's relevant experience, performance history and ethical conduct", as well as whole-of-life costs such as transition out costs. Quality questions should ask tenderers how they will deliver this contract, not describe their company:

1. Hours and staffing: the hours for each area and shift, how they were calculated, how absences are covered, and who supervises the team on site.
2. Pay and compliance: how the price meets the award or the tenderer's enterprise agreement, and how the tenderer checks any subcontractor does the same.
3. Training and retention: induction, chemical and equipment training, and how turnover is kept down.
4. Quality management: the tenderer's quality systems, how audits are done, how often, by whom, and how failures are fixed.
5. Evidence of delivery and reporting: how the contractor will show that scheduled cleaning and checks were done, not only that the building looked right on the day of an audit, and what you will receive and how often.
6. Transition: the plan from award to the end of the first month.

Score with an evaluation team, each member scoring independently before moderation, and record the reasons. Then test the price against the hours offered: a price that cannot pay the proposed hours at the award, with superannuation, leave, workers compensation and supervision on top, is a warning that visits will be cut or cleaners underpaid. The Commonwealth rules go further for agencies: they must not contract with tenderers who have an unsatisfied judicial decision against them relating to employee entitlements, and "should seek declarations from all tenderers confirming that they have no such unsettled orders against them". Any buyer can ask the same question, and take references from clients with similar buildings.

05

Fair work, safety and supply chains, then award and transition

Underpayment and sham subcontracting are known risks in cleaning, and buyers carry the reputational exposure for what happens in their buildings. Some tools a buyer can use:

• Victoria's Fair Jobs Code, which "promotes labour standards and encourages compliance with employment, industrial relations and workplace health and safety obligations", applies to Victorian Government procurement contracts of $1 million or more. Suppliers seeking them must hold a pre-assessment certificate, and for high value contracts of $20 million or more they must also submit a Fair Jobs Code plan.
• The Modern Slavery Act 2018 requires entities based or operating in Australia with annual consolidated revenue of at least $100 million to report each year on the risks of modern slavery in their operations and supply chains. A buyer that reports should treat outsourced cleaning as part of its supply chain.
• The Cleaning Accountability Framework offers building certification and contractor prequalification; some buyers ask for it.

Safety is shared too. Under section 46 of the model law, as enacted in the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Cth) and mirrored in most states and territories, where more than one person has a duty in relation to the same matter, each must, so far as is reasonably practicable, "consult, co-operate and co-ordinate activities" with the others. The building's manager and the cleaning contractor are usually in that position. Victoria has its own Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 rather than the model WHS Act, so a Victorian RFT should use its terms.

At the end of the evaluation, tell every tenderer the result promptly. The Commonwealth rules require agencies to notify affected tenderers, in writing if they ask, and to make debriefings available on request to unsuccessful tenderers "outlining the reasons the submission was unsuccessful". Agencies must also report contracts at or above the reporting threshold on AusTender within 42 days. Private buyers have no such duty, but a short, honest debrief improves the next competition.

Then the tender becomes a contract. Transition is where the promises meet the building: inductions, keys, swipe cards, safety data sheets, equipment and a start date. Agree a plan with named owners, walk the building with the new contractor before day one, and review the first month against the KPIs in the RFT. Keep the tender file, the winning tender and the evaluation notes: they are the baseline for managing the contract, and the starting point for the next tender.

06

Where tender promises fail, and where SiteClara fits

Every tender promises supervision, audits and reporting. After transition, the only regular evidence of delivery is often a monthly audit score and the absence of complaints. The hourly toilet check in the tender becomes a sheet on the back of the door, initialled for the whole shift at the start of it, and a missed evening clean surfaces as an email from a tenant the next morning.

One way to close the gap is to ask for daily evidence of delivery in the RFT, and SiteClara is one tool for it. A printed QR poster at each location, with an optional NFC tag behind it, lets cleaners scan or tap on their own phone, with no app to install, to see the checks due there and mark each one done, or explain what stopped them. The time and the named person are recorded as it happens, with a photo when one is asked for. A problem found on the round, such as a blocked toilet or a spill in the car park, can be reported there with a photo and goes onto the team's list of jobs until someone closes it. The contractor's supervisor reviews the day, adds a note and approves a daily report for the client's nominated contacts the next morning: what was reported, what was completed, what is still open, and how the scheduled checks went. Where the building owner and the contractor share a site, each company keeps its own staff, forms and approval.

07

Where to read more, and a list to take away

Commonwealth buyers should start with the Commonwealth Procurement Rules and publish on AusTender; state agencies and councils should check their own framework. The Cleaning Services Award 2020 sets the rates a price has to meet. For the contractor's side, read how to get commercial cleaning contracts.

Before you issue a cleaning tender, check that:

• you know which procurement rules apply, and have taken advice if you are a public body;
• the specification lists every area, task, frequency, periodical and standard;
• tenderers know what workforce they would inherit, if any, and you have taken advice on whether a transfer of business could arise;
• the pricing schedule asks for hours by area and shift, so a price can be tested against the Cleaning Services Award;
• evaluation criteria and weightings are published, and quality is not drowned by price;
• tenderers are asked to declare any unpaid employee entitlement orders, and how they control subcontractors;
• questions ask how delivery will be evidenced every day, not only how quality is audited;
• the transition plan and a first-month review are written into the contract.