What You Need in Place Before a Subcontractor Cleans for You

You land a new account and your existing crew is already stretched. Bringing in a subcontractor to cover it seems like the obvious answer. It often is. But before that person walks into a client building for the first time, there are two documents you need signed. Skip them and you are exposed: legally, financially, and competitively.

This article covers the paperwork side of using subs. If you are still working through the bigger question, start with whether to bring workers on as W2 employees or 1099 subcontractors before coming back here.

Note: This article is general information only. It is not legal or tax advice. The rules vary by state and your specific situation matters. Consult an attorney and an accountant before making any decisions about how you classify or contract workers.

Start with the W9

A W9 is a one-page IRS form that collects the subcontractor's legal name, address, and taxpayer identification number. If you pay any subcontractor 600 dollars or more in a calendar year, you are required to issue them a 1099 form at tax time. To do that correctly, you need what the W9 gives you.

Get it signed before they start. Not after the first job, not when you are building the 1099 in January. Before day one. Once a sub has moved on and you need to track them down for their tax information six months later, that is a problem you created for yourself. Keep the signed W9 on file. Your accountant will tell you the appropriate retention period for your situation.

The subcontractor agreement

The W9 covers your tax obligation. The subcontractor agreement covers everything else. This document defines the working relationship and protects you when something goes wrong. Here is what it should address at a minimum.

1. Scope of work. Which account, what tasks, to what standard. Be specific. "General cleaning" is not a scope. If the sub is covering a 12,000 square foot medical office three nights a week, write that down exactly.
2. Pay rate and payment schedule. What you pay per job or per hour, and when you pay it (net 7 or net 14 are common). Your sub needs to know when money is coming and you need it in writing.
3. Damage and liability. Who is responsible if property is damaged while the sub is on site. Without a clear clause here, that conversation gets difficult fast and the answer is usually "whoever has the contract with the client," which is you.
4. Insurance requirement. A requirement that the sub carries their own general liability coverage at a stated minimum limit, and that they provide proof of active coverage before entering a client facility. This connects to the coverage your business needs to carry. You should not be the only one insured if a sub causes the damage.
5. A clause restricting client solicitation. This is the one most owners skip, and it is the most costly to leave out.

The solicitation clause is not optional

When you bring a subcontractor into a client's building, you are introducing them to your account. Without a clause that prevents them from contacting that client directly, nothing stops them from going around you three months later and offering the same work for less. You just trained your competition at your own expense.

A well-written restriction says the sub cannot solicit or accept direct business from any client you introduced them to for a defined period after the relationship ends. Twelve to 24 months is a range you often see, but the specific wording matters and it needs to hold up in your state. Have an attorney draft or at minimum review that language before you use it. The cost of a one-time legal review is far less than losing a 2,000 a month account to the person you brought in to help clean it.

The misclassification risk

Calling a worker a 1099 subcontractor does not make them one. The IRS applies a set of behavioral and financial control tests to determine true employment status. Most states have their own tests as well, and some are stricter than the federal standard. Misclassification means the worker is legally an employee even though you treated them as a sub, and the penalties for getting it wrong can include back payroll taxes, interest, and fines.

The factors that matter include things like: do you control how and when they do the work, do they work exclusively for you, do they use your equipment, do you set the rate without negotiation. The more control you have over the working relationship, the more that relationship looks like employment rather than a subcontract.

Again, this is not legal or tax advice. Before you bring on your first sub, talk to an attorney who knows your state's rules and an accountant who can walk through the tax implications. The conversation is not expensive and it is far cheaper than a misclassification audit.

The short checklist before they set foot in a building

Getting your client contracts written correctly is the same discipline: put it in writing, get signatures, keep copies. The same habit that protects you with clients protects you with your subs. Once your agreements are in order, the day-to-day of managing bids, invoices, and crew across multiple accounts is where a system like Janity.ai's operations tools saves the most time.