How to get commercial cleaning contracts in Australia, and keep them

01

How commercial cleaning contracts are bought in Australia

There is no single way to get commercial cleaning contracts. Most reach a contractor by one of three routes, and each needs a different approach.

• Direct private buying: an office tenant, a medical centre, a gym, a childcare centre or a private school asks two or three cleaning companies to quote. Relationships, referrals and a walk-through with the person who signs the contract decide most of these, and there may be no formal tender at all.
• Through an intermediary: facility management companies, property managers, shopping centre managers and strata managers (body corporate managers in Queensland, owners corporation managers in Victoria) buy cleaning on behalf of owners, often across a portfolio. They want a contractor whose reporting makes their own reporting easier.
• Government tenders: Commonwealth agencies, state departments, councils, public hospitals, universities and schools buy through formal procurement with published evaluation criteria, often through panels and standing offers (see our guide to cleaning tenders).

Commonwealth buying is governed by the Commonwealth Procurement Rules 17 November 2025, issued by the Finance Minister under the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013. They state that "achieving value for money is the core rule" and that "price is not the sole factor when assessing value for money": officials must weigh quality, fitness for purpose, the supplier's "relevant experience, performance history and ethical conduct", environmental sustainability and whole-of-life costs. Agencies must use AusTender, the Australian Government's procurement information system, to publish open tenders.

The thresholds matter to a cleaning business. For non-corporate Commonwealth entities the procurement threshold for services other than construction is $125,000, and $400,000 for prescribed corporate Commonwealth entities, both including GST. At or above the threshold the stricter Division 2 rules apply, including a minimum of 25 days to respond to an open tender, which can be cut to no less than 10 days in the cases the rules set out. Since the November 2025 rules, for procurements valued at $10,000 or more and below the threshold, non-corporate entities "must invite only Australian businesses to make submissions", with the Indigenous Procurement Policy applied first where it is relevant.

Each state and territory runs its own procurement framework and tender site. In Victoria, Buying for Victoria is the place to find state tenders and the policies that come with them. A place on a panel or a standing offer arrangement is a licence to compete for work, not a contract, and getting onto one is itself a tender.

02

What buyers look for in a cleaning contractor

Whatever the size of the building, a buyer is trying to reduce risk: complaints from tenants, a safety incident, a contractor that underpays its cleaners, or one that fails at transition. The evidence they usually ask for is:

• Insurance: certificates of currency for public liability at the level the buyer sets and for workers compensation in each state or territory where you employ.
• Work health and safety: a WHS management system, risk assessments for the tasks on the site, safe work procedures, safety data sheets for your chemicals, incident records and training records. A cleaning contractor shares duties with the building owner and the facility manager, and under the model WHS law, for example section 46 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), each duty holder must, so far as is reasonably practicable, "consult, cooperate and coordinate activities" with the others. Victoria has its own Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, so answer in its terms there.
• Award and wage compliance: evidence that you pay at least the Cleaning Services Award 2020 or an approved enterprise agreement, with correct penalty rates, allowances and superannuation, and a payroll system that shows it.
• Ethical labour practices: under the Modern Slavery Act 2018, entities with consolidated revenue of at least $100 million must report each year on the modern slavery risks in their operations and supply chains, so large property owners and their managers send questionnaires down to their cleaning contractors. Some ask for Cleaning Accountability Framework contractor prequalification, an assessment of a contractor's systems, policies and processes against the CAF Standard (see our guide to the Cleaning Accountability Framework).
• Quality assurance: how you inspect, audit and put failures right. ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 certification is a common requirement on larger contracts.
• Supervision and cover: who manages the site, how often a supervisor attends, and how you cover leave and absence without the building noticing.
• Experience and financial standing: contracts of similar size and type with referees the buyer can call, and accounts that show you can carry the wages before the first invoice is paid.
• State requirements: in Victoria, the Fair Jobs Code requires suppliers seeking a government contract worth $1 million or more (exclusive of GST) to hold a pre-assessment certificate, and suppliers for contracts of $20 million or more to submit a Fair Jobs Code plan as well.

None of these wins a contract on its own. Together they decide whether you are on the shortlist, and many are pass or fail questions where a missing certificate ends the bid.

03

Before the tender: choosing and preparing

Each tender response takes days, and a low win rate across many bids costs more than a high one across a few. Bid less often, for work you are well placed to win. Decide bid or no bid on a short list of questions:

1. Is it the kind of building you already clean well: offices, shopping centres, schools, healthcare, strata common property, industrial sites?
2. Is it close enough to your other sites for a supervisor to attend without a special trip?
3. Can you meet every pass or fail requirement now, not by the start date?
4. Is the work in-house or already contracted out? If contracted out, why is it being retendered, and how is the incumbent performing?
5. Which cleaners are likely to come across to you, and on what terms? Is there an enterprise agreement that could follow them?
6. Do the hours fall in the evening, overnight or at the weekend, and does the budget allow for the penalty rates that follow?
7. Is the budget realistic for the specification?

Build relationships before a tender is released. Private buyers remember the contractor who walked the building and followed up. Government buyers say little once a procurement is running, but Commonwealth entities must keep an annual procurement plan on AusTender, and it is worth watching.

Attend the site inspection whenever there is one: it is where you see what the specification describes in a line, and how the incumbent is doing.

Get bid-ready in advance. Keep a library of current policies, certificates of currency, WHS documents, case studies, supervisor profiles and your best previous answers, so each tender starts from your strongest work rather than a blank page.

04

Writing a tender response that scores

Government tenders are marked by an evaluation panel working through the published criteria, question by question. Private buyers read less formally but look for the same things. A high-scoring answer:

• Answers the question asked, in the order asked, using the buyer's own terms. Evaluators score against the criteria, not against your company brochure.
• Is specific to the building: this site's amenities, this food court, this school's holiday periodicals, not a paragraph that could go into any bid.
• Provides evidence: how you did it elsewhere, with a referee the buyer can call, figures you can prove and the records you would show.
• Explains method: how many hours on site, on which shifts, doing what, supervised by whom and checked how.
• Covers transition: a transition-in plan from contract award to the first day and the first month, covering recruitment and offers to existing cleaners, inductions, equipment, chemicals and keys.
• Sets out quality assurance: audit frequency, KPIs, reporting to the client and how failures are put right, measured against the commercial cleaning checklist the site will actually run.
• Prices periodicals separately: carpet cleaning, high-level dusting, window cleaning, pressure washing and ad hoc work, so the core price can be compared like for like.
• Addresses the buyer's pain points: if the building is being retendered because of complaints, show how you would stop them recurring.

If you bid often, train someone in bid writing or use a bid writer for the largest opportunities, but the operational detail has to come from the people who will run the contract. Evaluators can tell a method from a brochure.

05

Pricing to the award, and what happens to the existing cleaners

Labour is by far the largest cost in a cleaning contract, so pricing starts with hours: how many are needed to deliver the specification at the stated frequencies, on which shifts, and at what rate. The Cleaning Services Award 2020 covers "employers in the contract cleaning services industry throughout Australia" and their employees, and it shapes the rate for almost every shift you will price:

• a Monday to Friday shift that starts before 6.00 am or finishes after 6.00 pm is paid at 115% for a full-time employee, 130% for a part-time employee and 140% for a casual, for the entire shift;
• Saturday hours are paid at 150%, 165% and 175%, Sunday hours at 200%, 215% and 225%, and public holiday hours at 250%, 265% and 275%;
• part-time employees receive a 15% allowance on each ordinary hour, and casuals a casual loading, both built into those percentages;
• a broken shift, two periods of duty in a day within a spread of 13 hours and with a break of more than an hour between them, attracts a broken shift allowance.

Then add supervision, leave and leave cover, superannuation, workers compensation premiums, payroll tax where it applies, training, equipment, consumables if you supply them, insurance, overheads and margin. Price the award rates that will apply across the contract, not only today's: under section 286 of the Fair Work Act 2009, the annual wage review's variations to modern award minimum wages come into operation on 1 July, and take effect for each employee from the first full pay period that starts on or after that day. A multi-year contract needs a rise-and-fall clause or a price that anticipates them.

Australia has no automatic transfer of cleaning staff when a contract changes hands. The Fair Work Act's transfer of business rules (Part 2-8) apply where an employee's employment 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 old and new employer of a kind section 311 lists: assets passing between them, work being outsourced or brought back in-house, or the two being associated entities. Where that happens, an enterprise agreement that covered the old employer and the employee follows them to the new employer for that work. When one contractor simply replaces another, there may be no such connection. Take advice on the facts, ask the buyer which agreement covers the current cleaners, and price the workforce you will actually employ.

Value for money is not the lowest price. A bid priced below the hours the specification needs either loses money, cuts visits or underpays cleaners, and experienced buyers mark it down. Show how your price is built, and where you can, offer the specification as written and a clearly explained alternative.

06

Keeping the contract is the best bid for the next one, and where SiteClara fits

How do you keep commercial cleaning contracts once you win them? By making the client's life easy and never letting them find a problem before you do. Contracts are rarely lost over one bad night; they are lost over a run of small complaints the property manager had to raise themselves, with nothing to show what was actually done. The run sheet on the back of the cleaners' cupboard door, initialled for the whole week on Monday, proves nothing to anyone. When the contract comes up for retender, the incumbent's record is either its strongest evidence or its biggest weakness.

SiteClara gives a contractor that record. A printed QR poster at each location, with an optional NFC tag behind it, lets staff scan or tap on their own phone, with no app to install, to see the checks due there and mark them done, or explain what stopped them. Problems found on the round, such as a blocked toilet, a broken soap dispenser or a spill in the car park, are reported there, with a photo, and go onto the team's list of jobs until someone closes them. The supervisor sees what is due, done and missed, adds a note and approves a daily report that goes to nominated management or client contacts the next morning: what was reported, what was completed, what is still open, and how the scheduled checks went, for example 12 of 12 completed.

In a tender, that is something concrete to describe in your quality assurance answer and, at retender, to point to.

07

Questions people ask

How do I get cleaning contracts with the government?

Find the tender system each government uses and respond to the opportunities that suit your cleaning business. Commonwealth agencies publish their open tenders on AusTender, and each state and territory runs its own system. In Victoria, Buying for Victoria's Find opportunities page tells suppliers to "use the Buying for Victoria Supplier Portal – the Victorian Government tender system – to view and respond to tender opportunities", and the same site explains how to apply to join a state purchase contract, panel or register.

Do I need an ABN to get commercial cleaning contracts?

If you are running a cleaning business, register for one before you quote. business.gov.au's Register for an Australian Business Number says that to get an ABN "you need to be running a business or other enterprise", and that it is free to register through the Australian Business Register. It lets you "verify your business to others when ordering and invoicing", avoid pay as you go (PAYG) tax on payments you get, and claim GST credits.

08

Further reading, and a list to take away

For Commonwealth work, read the Commonwealth Procurement Rules themselves. For Victorian government work, Buying for Victoria sets out the state's policies, including the Fair Jobs Code; other states and territories publish their own. The Cleaning Services Award 2020 is published in full by the Fair Work Commission, with its current rates and allowances. The Cleaning Accountability Framework publishes its standard, its certified buildings and its prequalified contractors.

Before your next bid, check that you:

• have decided bid or no bid against a short, honest list of questions;
• can meet every pass or fail requirement today, including insurance, WHS and award compliance;
• have walked the site and understood why it is being tendered;
• have priced the hours the specification needs at the award rates for each shift, including the next 1 July;
• know which cleaners may come across and whether an enterprise agreement could follow them;
• answer each criterion specifically, with evidence a buyer can check;
• include a transition-in plan and a quality assurance method with KPIs;
• keep a bid library of current policies, certificates of currency and case studies;
• can show how your existing contracts are performing, night by night.