In a sector where margins are getting tighter and tighter, finding ways to reduce operating costs is no longer optional. And in this context, digitalization has already proven its value. But as a service provider, which cleaning software should you choose?
Among the hundreds of solutions available on the market, not all options are equal or even comparable! ERP, SaaS platform, ticketing, QR codes… which one should you go for? Here’s a clear overview of the essential features you need in a high-performance cleaning management software.
Why invest in cleaning management software?
Traceability, compliance, performance management… cleaning software brings a wide range of features. But what concrete benefits does it offer your business? These multifunctional tools are a goldmine for optimizing your intervention workflows. In fact, they deliver value on several levels:
- For cleaning operatives: cleaning software is a true driver of operational performance. It improves both working conditions and the quality of service delivered by your teams:
– Time savings thanks to digitized, pre-filled documents and automatic task assignment
– Reduction of errors thanks to real-time access to protocols
– Fast information transfer between the field and management, with no loss
– A safer work environment through instant incident reporting
– Visibility over workload, helping improve work–life balance
- For managers: A cleaning-management software solution is also a major asset. Stress, emergencies, blind interventions… all these challenges become distant memories:
– Reduced mental load thanks to real-time visibility over past, ongoing and upcoming operations
– Time savings with automatic team geolocation, reassignment and rescheduling of tasks
– Data security and faster generation of analytical reports
– Improved fluidity and efficiency within and between teams
– Better decision-making thanks to clear, easy-to-read indicators
– Incident anticipation enabled by smart alerts and predictive monitoring
The cleaning software features you shouldn’t miss
The number of competitors and cleaning software providers has been steadily increasing in recent years. ERPs, platforms, mobile applications… The formats are diverse, and it can be difficult to know which direction to take. Yet some functional features are simply non-negotiable if you want to avoid multiplying tools. Here is a non-exhaustive list of the features you should require in your future cleaning software.
Scheduling and team management
Let’s start with the basics! For your operations to run smoothly, you first need to schedule, organize, and assign responsibilities to your teams. But this function goes far beyond simple calendars. In the facility management and cleaning sectors, flexibility, adaptability, and responsiveness are essential. That’s why your cleaning management software must offer dynamic scheduling that evolves according to your constraints and operational needs.
Dynamic schedules and job sheets
The scheduling feature is the foundation of your software but it must not be rigid or inflexible.
Your cleaning software must be able to offer a fully customizable scheduling module. Routes, recurrences, planned leave, tasks, protocols… every parameter should be configurable. In the event of a change or an unexpected adjustment, your system must be able to synchronize all elements automatically, simultaneously, and according to the conditions you’ve defined. Otherwise, you’ll waste a tremendous amount of time updating information across different tools time that could be dedicated to higher-value tasks instead.
Time tracking and working-hours management
The second step is to track the execution of services. Planning is important, but you also need to be able to monitor and verify the completion of interventions on your clients’ sites. To do this, your cleaning software must offer a feature that tracks shift start and end times. Whether through time clocks, QR codes, or mobile applications, this data collection enables you to certify that the service was carried out and to measure your teams’ working hours.
Most importantly, this feature is essential for managing unforeseen events and replacements. An agent is absent, late, or unavailable for any reason? Your software should alert you, identify a qualified replacement, and adjust your schedules in just a few minutes. Otherwise, your client satisfaction will suffer, and you’ll expose yourself to financial penalties.
Payroll statements and HR reports
Your scheduling and workforce-management module must also include a component dedicated to human resources management. Tracking working hours allows you to update payroll statements based on actual hours worked and therefore avoid compensation errors. Additional hours, overtime, absences… everything is automatically integrated for the payroll period.
In addition, some cleaning software solutions give you access to performance reports on your teams and individual agents. This analytical feature is an excellent way to identify training needs or areas where employees may require updated knowledge.
Management of recurring and exceptional interventions
Next, day-to-day operational management must be a central functional component of your cleaning software. The services sector is driven by unforeseen events and urgent situations, so reactivity is essential.
Digitalisation of operations sheets
To stay reactive, you first need to be informed at the right time. Many service providers still rely on paper or Excel to transmit information, but these manual tools are completely outdated. After all, how can you know what’s happening kilometres away if the information is stuck on a post-it in your office? That’s why your cleaning software must enable you to collect field data from anywhere and consult it wherever you are.
To achieve this, your cleaning software must allow you to digitalise your various operational documents: work orders, attendance sheets, incident reports, consumables requests, reinforcement calls… The possibilities for dematerialisation are endless. Thanks to these digital supports, your field teams can send you information instantly, without loss, and you can react within minutes.
Automation of request processing
Once the information is collected, how do you process it? Imagine receiving hundreds of email or SMS alerts from dozens of client sites scattered across the region a nightmare! To avoid this, the ideal cleaning software must offer an automated request-processing feature.
An agent is absent? An automated workflow finds the nearest qualified replacement, contacts them, and assigns the tasks to be completed.
A customer submits a complaint from the restrooms? An agent is automatically dispatched to perform an exceptional cleaning intervention.
No more hand sanitizer at the reception desk? The restock is triggered without any action required on your part!
Automation saves you time and secures your entire operational journey, ensuring maximum service quality.
Quality, compliance and SLA adherence
Once your interventions are under control, it’s time to verify their proper execution. Poorly performed work or failure to comply with established protocols can have devastating consequences for your company: penalties, customer disputes, health risks, endangering the public… the list of risks is long! Your cleaning management software must therefore enable you to:
Carry out customised quality inspections based on the specific area being audited, the protocols to follow, and the relevant scoring grids
Automatically record anomalies or non-conformities and trigger corrective procedures quickly or even automatically
Maintain a tamper-proof history, illustrated with photos if needed, of all actions performed in the field to easily trace the source of any issue
Analyse compliance thresholds for each element, compare expected results with actual results, and implement quality action plans to continuously improve your teams’ practices.
Performance monitoring and management
In the same vein as the quality analysis feature, your cleaning software should offer more advanced operational and strategic analytics. Gaps between planned and completed interventions, absence trends, measurement of contract compliance… Whether the data concerns workflows, equipment or costs, you should have access to clear dashboards with visual charts that allow you to interpret trends and make informed decisions readable
enough to support your weekly, monthly, or annual reviews.
However, be careful! Cleaning software solutions offer analytics features that vary greatly in depth. Choose a tool with intuitive graphical models, where every piece of data can be correlated with others according to your needs. Otherwise, it will be difficult to measure the impact of risks by site or by contract.
Contract management and customer relationship
Now that your teams are perfectly managed, it’s time to take a closer look at your clients. These stakeholders should never be overlooked if you want to maintain long-term business stability. Keeping an existing client is far less costly than finding a new one. That’s why your cleaning software must also become a key ally for winning and retaining your contracts.
Customer satisfaction surveys and client requests
The first step is to give your clients a voice. Gone are the paper logbooks that get checked once a month! To stand out in an increasingly competitive market, your cleaning software must transform the customer experience from A to Z.
To do this, some solutions offer dedicated mobile applications. These innovative tools allow your clients or the occupants of your service sites to submit requests with a single tap.
Shared activity reviews and a digital client portal
To go even further, some cleaning software solutions completely digitalize client interactions. By creating a dedicated digital space, each client can access activity reviews related to their contract, billing documents, or any other preconfigured indicators. Clients can view cleaning schedules in real time, track the progress of rounds according to contractual frequencies, and access the technical sheets for each procedure.
Proofs of intervention (photos, videos, digital signatures, etc.) are centralized and automatically feed into reports. Everything is tracked and available when needed. In addition to showcasing your quality of service, these client portals protect you from potential disputes.
MoveWORK Flow: the all-in-one cleaning management software
Thanks to its multi-user interface and its ability to assign access rights based on user profiles, the MoveWORK Flow platform brings all your operational stakeholders together in a single tool. No more scattered subscriptions costing you hundreds of euros per month and shrinking your margins. From the field to the office and even on client sites your users access exactly the features they need, according to the model you’ve defined.
On the management side, team leaders and operations managers can plan, assign tasks, and monitor every action in real time. Paper disappears entirely from your operations, replaced by fully digital forms, work orders, and attendance sheets. Thanks to digitization, every piece of data is collected automatically and displayed as graphs or indicators within customized reports. Whatever your analytical needs, MoveWORK Flow delivers real-time answers. HR reports, activity reviews by client site, or global performance analyses are available instantly.
But that’s not all unlike traditional cleaning software, MoveWORK Flow includes an intelligent automation module that resolves issues before they even arise. On the operations side, every absence triggers an automatic replacement. On the quality side, the MoveWORK Flow platform digitizes your inspections and automates the handling of non-conformities. For requests or incident reports, the assignment of exceptional tasks is fully automated. No more wasted time, no more disputes your SLAs are met under all circumstances.
Moreover, MoveWORK Flow is not just another cleaning software operating in isolation. Our innovative platform comes with a full digital and technological ecosystem designed to map your sites and analyze every activity within them. Mobile applications for agents and managers, gateways with your business tools, IoT sensors, connected equipment… every component is seamlessly linked to your interface to provide real-time, end-to-end visibility over your operations.
Is it possible to manage multiple clients with a single cleaning management software?
Some cleaning management softwares, like MoveWORK Flow, offer multi-site, multi-contract, and multi-entity supervision. These systems provide sorting and filtering features to generate specific views based on your needs. Want to analyze the profitability of a particular client site? Simply select the financial and commercial data related to that geographical area. Want to study the performance of a regional entity? You’ll get consolidated indicators with the average results of the agencies in that region. Need to assess the requirements of a specific business unit? You can group all incidents reported by specialized teams and identify the critical operational factors. This way, you can easily switch between dashboards and adapt your strategy according to the real challenges identified.
Does the cleaning management software work on mobile and tablet?
Cleaning management software can offer native mobile applications or web applications. There are three scenarios when it comes to mobile versions:
- Either the software includes a responsive application that allows you to access the same features as the main platform directly on a mobile or tablet. This type of application is called native, coded and developed in-house, and ensures optimal use of the tool.
- Or the software provides a web application that runs through a web browser. To guarantee optimal performance, this type of application is sometimes limited and gives access only to a selection of features.
Or the cleaning management software offers “external” mobile applications that collect data and send it directly back into the platform. These applications may be designed for cleaning staff, team supervisors, or even clients and building occupants.
These three options may be available individually, sometimes combined, or not necessarily included by default in cleaning management software.
Can a cleaning management software be integrated with other tools?
Some cleaning management software, such as MoveWORK Flow, are not closed ecosystems and allow the integration of other tools, applications, or software into their system. Integration is usually carried out through:
- Pre-developed APIs that only require the integration of a digital key to configure the interface between the two tools
- A custom development, which often involves an additional cost
- Data exports using standardized transfer formats (CSV, Excel, etc.)
However, interoperability between cleaning management software is not universal. Be sure to discuss all these points with the provider or vendor before making any purchase.
MoveWORK Flow in a personalized demo