Renewal season is when a facility manager discovers whether a building-service vendor has a process or a collection of explanations. The cheapest proposal may have looked acceptable in a spreadsheet, but the renewal decision should test the operating record: were people insured, trained, paid, scheduled, and present; were incidents handled; and can the vendor show what was delivered at each building?
A vendor audit is not a demand for every employee’s private file. It is a structured review of controls that protect the property, the workers, the client, and the service outcome. The 12 points below are written as running prose because the audit should become a repeatable conversation with evidence, owners, and follow-up dates. StockPoint can provide operational records for attendance, checkpoints, photos, payroll preparation, and audit history; the buyer still validates legal and insurance requirements with its advisers.
Use the same questions for every bidder and incumbent vendor. A consistent method reduces the risk that a polished presentation wins over a vendor with better underlying controls. It also gives a facility manager a defensible explanation for renewal, remediation, or rebid.
Insurance and workers’ compensation evidence
First, confirm certificates of insurance against the contract’s requirements and the property’s risk profile. Verify that the named insured, policy dates, limits, additional-insured wording, and covered operations match the vendor entity actually sending workers. A certificate is evidence of a policy document, not a guarantee that every claim is covered, so the client should ask its broker or counsel what verification is appropriate.
Second, request evidence that workers’ compensation coverage is in place where required and that the vendor has a process for reporting injuries. Do not accept an expired certificate or an unexplained subcontractor exception. The audit should record the document date, reviewer, open question, and renewal owner rather than storing a PDF with no conclusion.
A vendor that cannot explain who carries the risk for a temporary worker, subcontractor, or independent contractor can create a property and employment problem at the same time. The client should avoid directing individual cleaners’ methods or schedules in a way that blurs the parties’ roles; the contract should establish deliverables, access rules, and safety requirements while the vendor manages its workforce lawfully.
Staffing, hours, and building-level performance
Third, compare contracted labor assumptions with actual hours by building. The question is not whether every month matches a proposal exactly; it is whether the variance is explained by scope, access, occupancy, events, absences, or a persistent staffing shortfall. Ask for a sample report that identifies dates, buildings, scheduled hours, approved hours, and unresolved exceptions without exposing more employee detail than the buyer needs.
Fourth, review the incident log. It should cover injuries, property damage, security events, chemical exposures, lost keys, complaints, and near misses as applicable to the site. Cal-OSHA’s injury and illness prevention guidance, OSHA recordkeeping rules, and the property’s own emergency procedures may affect what the vendor must document. A blank log is not automatically good news; it may mean incidents are not being recorded.
Fifth, examine turnover and coverage without demanding an invented retention percentage. Ask how the vendor handles absences, replacement training, access badges, and supervisor handoffs. StockPoint’s per-building attendance and checkpoint records can show whether a substitute actually arrived and whether a building’s scope was completed, while a portal can give the facility manager live status instead of a next-morning guess.
Subcontractors, screening, and training
Sixth, require disclosure of subcontractor use by scope and building. A client should know which entity employs the person entering the property, who supervises the work, which insurance applies, and how the subcontractor is trained. The contract should prohibit unapproved substitution where security, privacy, or licensing makes identity material.
Seventh, review the background-check policy against the job and applicable law. “Background checked” is not a complete answer: ask what role-based screening is used, how consent and adverse-action steps are handled, and whether records are retained securely. EEOC guidance warns against using criminal-history information in a way that creates unjustified disparate impact; have counsel review the policy and local restrictions rather than treating a check as a universal safety guarantee.
Eighth, verify documented training for the actual hazards of the building. The file may include chemical handling, bloodborne pathogens where relevant, ergonomics, lift or equipment operation, harassment prevention, emergency reporting, and site-specific access rules. Safety training should be understandable to the workforce. A bilingual supervisor or Spanish-language training surface may be important, but the client should ask the vendor to demonstrate comprehension rather than simply count translated pages.
Chemical control and safety data
Ninth, inspect the chemical inventory and Safety Data Sheets. OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard requires employers to maintain information and train employees about hazardous chemicals; the exact program depends on what is used and where. The facility manager should check that the inventory matches reality, labels are legible, incompatible products are controlled, and the SDS set is accessible to the workers who need it.
Do not ask a cleaner to use a product that is absent from the vendor’s program or to improvise a mixture. Record open issues such as an unlabeled spray bottle, a missing SDS, a broken dilution station, or a blocked eyewash route. A serious vendor welcomes a documented correction because it is safer than a silent workaround after an exposure.
NYS wage notices, payroll controls, and client boundaries
Tenth, for a vendor with New York employees, ask how it issues and retains wage notices and pay stubs required by New York Labor Law, including applicable section 195 requirements. The client is not the worker’s payroll administrator, but wage-and-hour failures can become a joint-employer or contract-risk discussion. Ask for a redacted sample showing required fields, language handling, hours, rates, deductions, and employer identity; have counsel validate the current requirements.
StockPoint prepares bilingual section 195.3-compliant pay-stub data and keeps payroll events audit-logged, but the employer remains responsible for the filing and legal decision. The same approved punch can feed worker pay preparation and cost-plus billing, which helps a facility manager reconcile a service invoice to building labor without editing an employee’s time. Bank-feed reconciliation is on the roadmap, not a shipped feature, so do not represent it as part of this audit.
Eleventh, ask how the vendor prevents double payment and unauthorized edits. Per-worker payroll locking should make a closed period impossible to pay twice, and corrections should record who changed what and why. The manager should review a control demonstration rather than accept a screenshot. A vendor that can explain its exception path is more credible than one that claims no exceptions ever occur.
Invoices, bilingual coverage, and renewal decision
Twelfth, sample an invoice back to the contract, approved hours, buildings, extras, credits, and client approvals. Look for repeated rounded totals, unexplained overtime-like surges, charges for a building with no attendance evidence, and extras that never received written authorization. The goal is not to reject an invoice because a signal failed; it is to verify that the exception was investigated and the charge is supported by the agreement.
Then evaluate bilingual coverage as an operating control, not a demographic checkbox. Can workers receive shift instructions, safety updates, wage questions, and correction guidance in a language they understand? Can the supervisor explain a missed checkpoint without relying on a client employee to translate? Clear communication reduces rework and gives the vendor a fairer opportunity to address a problem before renewal.
The renewal memo should separate pass, remediation, and rebid decisions. Name the evidence reviewed, the risk, the corrective action, the owner, and the deadline. Link to the facility-manager verification guide and the RFP clause guide when a failed audit points to a contract or evidence standard that should change next cycle.
A vendor audit is a relationship tool
Ask for one normal example and one exception example during the review. In the normal example, the vendor should show assignment, arrival, checkpoints, photos if required, supervisor approval, and invoice support. In the exception example, it should show what happens when a door is locked, a worker is absent, a chemical is unavailable, or a device loses signal. The exception workflow often reveals more about operational maturity than the polished success case.
Finally, review whether the evidence is usable by the people who need it. A facility manager should not receive a raw export with no building labels, a client portal should not expose unnecessary worker data, and a supervisor should not need to translate a safety instruction during an emergency. Role-based access, clear retention, bilingual instructions, and a named owner for each open item turn audit information into a control. If the vendor can produce records but nobody can interpret them, the audit has found a reporting problem that belongs in the renewal plan.
The final question is whether the vendor can explain its limits. A provider that says a GPS pin proves an exact indoor location, a photograph proves every task, or a certificate proves every coverage question is overselling its controls. A provider that states what each record establishes, what remains a human review, and how an exception is resolved is giving the client a more reliable basis for renewal.
Put the evidence to work
The point of an audit is not to create a gotcha file. It is to make the service promise measurable, surface risks while they are still fixable, and give a good vendor evidence for the work it performs. A facility manager should leave the review knowing which buildings need attention, which controls are missing, and whether the incumbent can close the gaps on a defined schedule.
StockPoint helps cleaning, security, landscaping, and other field-service companies present building-level punches, proof-of-work photos, checkpoint status, bilingual workforce surfaces, and audit-logged payroll preparation in one workflow. The client receives clearer operational evidence, while the employer keeps responsibility for wages, tax filings, and safety compliance. Sign up at getstockpoint.com to see what your next renewal review can verify before it becomes a dispute.