Cleaning for practices where the paperwork is the business.
Law firms, accountants, financial advisers, architects and consultancies: offices where a client is judged on the reception and a cleaner is judged on what they do not touch. The same vetted team every visit, out of hours, with confidential material left exactly where it was.
A stranger in the building at 7pm with the files out.
Every professional practice has the same three concerns about a cleaning contractor, and none of them are about dust. Here is how each one is answered — with mechanisms, not adjectives.
Paper is never moved, never read, never tidied
Desks are cleaned around what is on them. Files, post, printouts and screens are not touched, stacked or straightened. It is in the specification and in the induction, and a supervisor checks it in person.
A fixed team, directly employed
Our own employees rather than agency staff. The people cleaning your offices are our employees, inducted on your site specifically, and they stay. When one is off, cover comes from a relief cleaner we employ for that purpose — and you are told.
Keyholding and alarms under our procedures
Out-of-hours access is set up during mobilisation: alarm codes held under our keyholding procedures, cleaners checking in and out with GPS-verified timestamps, and a record of who was in the building and when.
The specification, written for a practice.
Every contract runs to a written specification agreed at the site visit. This is the shape most practices settle on — reception heaviest, meeting rooms reset daily, desks cleaned around the work on them.
Front of house and the working floor
- Reception, waiting area and client entrance presented for the first appointment
- Meeting and interview rooms reset — table, chairs, glass, water station
- Desks and workstations wiped around documents, never under or between them
- Kitchens and breakout areas — worktops, sinks, appliance fronts
- Washrooms cleaned, sanitised and restocked
- Bins emptied and liners replaced; confidential waste bins left sealed
- Touch points — handles, push plates, switches, lift buttons
- Floors vacuumed or mopped throughout
The detail clients notice
- Internal glass, partitions and glazed doors
- Skirting, ledges, sills and reception furniture polished
- Fridge, microwave and coffee machine exteriors and interiors
- Telephones, keyboards and screens with the right products
- Stairwells, corridors and server room floors (surfaces only, on request)
Scheduled into the year
- Carpet and upholstery extraction cleaning
- Hard floor machine cleaning, stripping and sealing
- Deep clean of kitchens and washrooms
- High level — light fittings, vents, ledges above reach
- External windows, signage and entrance canopy
Periodic items sit inside the contract on a calendar, or are booked when needed, on the same invoice. See every commercial service →
After the last person leaves, before the first appointment.
Practices almost never want a cleaner on the floor during working hours, and almost always want reception right by 8.30. Two patterns cover most contracts; the other two exist for bigger buildings.
Evening
After the office empties. The most common pattern for a practice — the floor is clear, meeting rooms are free, and the clean is a full reset for the next morning.
After the last departureEarly morning
Before the first person in, with reception and client areas the priority. Suits practices with alarmed access and early starts.
Before the first arrivalDaytime presence
A cleaner on site through the day for larger practices with high client footfall — washrooms and client areas kept right between appointments, not only at either end of the day.
Part-day or full-dayMulti-tenant floors
Where you occupy floors in a managed building, we clean your suite under your specification while the managing agent's contractor covers the common parts — or we do both on one invoice.
Suite or whole buildingAccess, alarm codes and keyholding are arranged during mobilisation and held under our procedures.
A two-partner firm and a regional HQ are different contracts.
Both are professional services cleaning. Neither is priced, staffed or scheduled the same way. These are the shapes we see most.
Law firms and chambers
Client-facing reception, interview rooms that are reset between every meeting, and a rule about paperwork that is absolute. Out-of-hours access is the norm.
Accountancy and financial advisers
Confidential material on every desk and seasonal peaks when nobody wants a vacuum running. Daily reception, desks cleaned around the work.
Architects, engineers and surveyors
Drawings on tables, model spaces and studios where the cleaner needs to know what is a project and what is rubbish. Written into the specification.
Consultancies and agencies
Open-plan, hot desks and breakout kitchens used by everybody. Kitchen frequency is what usually sets the schedule.
Recruitment, insurance and property
Interview rooms, high footfall through reception and glass everywhere. Front of house is where the standard is judged.
Banks and building societies
Branches and back offices with their own security and access rules. Bank & building society cleaning →
Professional services is one of twelve sectors. Offices generally are on the office cleaning page; public sector and healthcare have their own — or see all twelve sectors and commercial cleaning as a whole.
Consumables, waste and windows should not be three more suppliers.
Buildings rarely need only cleaning. Two parts of the business exist so that the rest does not become four more contracts, four more invoices and four more people to chase.
Consumables, waste and the outside of the building
Managed on the same schedule as the clean and billed on the same invoice, so usage is tracked against what the building actually gets through rather than a standing order that arrives whether you need it or not.
- Washroom supplies
- Sanitary units
- Waste & recycling
- Confidential waste
- External windows
- Signage cleaning
Staff, when the building needs more than cleaners
The same recruitment, vetting and HR that puts our cleaning teams in place, used to staff the other roles a site runs on — employed by us, covered by us when someone is off.
- Reception & front of house
- Caretaking
- Kitchen & catering
- Security
None of it is compulsory. Plenty of contracts are cleaning and nothing else — but if you are currently managing four suppliers for one building, raise it at the site visit.
Four steps, and a price that comes from the building rather than a rate card.
Anyone who quotes without seeing the site is guessing at your hours. This is what happens instead.
Site visit
We walk the building with you — the areas, the hours you need covered, the standard you are working to, and the things the last contractor kept getting wrong.
Written proposal
A specification and a price, with the tasks and frequencies set out plainly. Insurance certificates and compliance documents come with it, not on request later.
Mobilisation
Team assigned and inducted on site, access and alarms arranged, RAMS written for the building, consumables and equipment set up. A start date, not a vague fortnight.
Supervision
Mobile supervisors audit against the specification, your named contact stays the same, and the schedule flexes as the building changes.
Sheffield first, and staffed locally everywhere else.
We are registered and based in Sheffield and most of our contracts are here. Further afield, a contract is staffed with a team recruited near the building and supervised on a regional route — distance is a logistics question, not an obstacle.
Yorkshire
- Sheffield
- Barnsley
- Rotherham
- Doncaster
- Leeds
- Huddersfield
- Wakefield
- Bradford
- York
Derbyshire
- Chesterfield
- Derby
- Dronfield
- Buxton
Greater Manchester
- Manchester
- Stockport
- Oldham
- Salford
- Bolton
- Bury
- Wigan
Nottinghamshire
- Nottingham
- Mansfield
- Worksop
Lincolnshire
- Lincoln
- Scunthorpe
Somewhere between those towns? Ask — the honest answer depends on whether we can recruit a reliable team within sensible travel of your site. See every location we work in →
The questions practice managers ask.
Q.01How do you handle confidential documents left on desks?
They are not touched. Desks are cleaned around what is on them — files, post and printouts are not moved, stacked, read or tidied — and it is written into the specification and covered in the site induction. Confidential waste bins are left sealed for your shredding contractor, or we can arrange the collection as part of the contract.
Q.02Who will be in our offices, and how are they vetted?
Employees of NowThen — recruited, reference-checked, inducted and managed by us — our own employees, not agency staff. They are inducted on your site specifically and check in and out with GPS-verified timestamps, so there is a record of who was in the building and when. If your professional body or a client contract requires a particular level of vetting, say so at the site visit and it goes into the proposal.
Q.03Can you clean outside our office hours?
That is the normal arrangement for a practice. Evening or early morning, with alarm codes and keyholding set up during mobilisation and held under our procedures. Daytime cover is available for larger practices.
Q.04Will it be the same cleaner each time?
Yes. Every contract has a regular cleaner or team who know the building. When they are off, cover comes from a relief cleaner we employ for exactly that, and your supervisor will tell you rather than leave you to notice.
Q.05How is it priced?
From a site visit, against a written specification with the hours stated. A two-partner firm cleaned three evenings a week and a four-floor regional office cleaned nightly are not the same number, and anyone who gives you one without seeing the building is estimating your hours. Cleaners check in and out with GPS-verified timestamps, so the hours on the invoice are the hours worked.
Q.06We occupy two floors of a managed building. Does that work?
Yes. We clean your suite under your specification and either the managing agent's contractor covers the common parts, or we take both on one invoice — the entrance, lifts and stairwells alongside your floors. Raise it at the site visit and we will set it out either way.
Q.07What does switching from our current contractor involve?
A site visit, a written proposal, and a mobilisation plan with a firm start date so there is no gap. Check your existing notice period first — it is the one thing that sets the timeline. Where existing staff transfer under TUPE, that is handled as part of mobilisation.
Q.08Which areas do you cover?
Sheffield first, then Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Greater Manchester, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire — 25 towns and cities. See the full list →
Something not covered? Email hello@nowthencleaners.co.uk or call 0114 212 7030 — the office is reachable seven days a week.
Show us the practice. The price comes from the building, not a rate card.
Half an hour on site, a written specification, a price with the hours stated — and a start date rather than a vague fortnight.