One RFP for janitorial and day porter work, answered by vendors whose insurance we read first.

What a janitorial company files

Porter and janitorial is one trade covering the nightly clean and the person who walks the building through the day: floors, restrooms and the offices a service contract names after hours, and the lobby and common areas while people are in them.

The General liability certificate and the W-9 come first, when a company asks to open your RFP. The background check is checked when it sends a proposal.

Janitorial and day porter staff work in your building unsupervised

A cleaner works the floors after the last desk empties. An attendant sits at a lobby desk with a key to places the public never sees. Both trades need a background check.

A background check stops counting the day after the date it runs out, the same as insurance. From that day the company cannot answer a request for the trade until a current one is verified.

Every figure comes from your own insurance article

Nothing here carries a default, because the insurance article differs building to building. You type one figure against each line your exhibit names, per trade, and mark it required or preferred.

One building, one RFP, one set of proposals

Give the address, name the trade, describe the work in the words you would use on the phone, and set a date for answers. It goes out as an RFP with your insurance minimums printed inside it.

Every answer prices the lines you asked for and states how often the company would attend, so the differences you find are the ones you asked about. The building then keeps the year in one place, so next year’s renewal starts from a record rather than from a search.