Keys, codes and alarms: home access for cleaners

Access is the real trust test

Customers hire a cleaning company for clean floors. They keep it because they trust it with their front door. For recurring weekday service, that trust is unavoidable: 81% of employed Americans worked on an average weekday in 2025, compared with 30% on an average weekend day^[1]. Most of your Tuesday homes will be empty.

The market is full of solo cleaners: there were over a million cleaning businesses with no employees in 2023^[2]. A company with a written access policy, a key log and a lost-key plan has something many competitors can't show. Put the policy on your website and walk new customers through it at the first visit.

Choose the access method with the customer

Offer options and record the one the customer picks. Each method has a weak point you can manage.

Storing keys

1. 01

   Tag with a code, never an address

   Each key gets a numbered tag. The code-to-customer list lives in your job system, not on the key or in the cabinet.

2. 02

   Use a locked key cabinet

   In the office, bolted down, with access limited to the owner and one or two named people.

3. 03

   Sign keys out and in

   Date, time, key code, cleaner and return time. A paper log works; a digital one is easier to review.

4. 04

   Keep keys off the van overnight

   Keys go back to the cabinet at the end of each day unless a written exception applies.

5. 05

   Audit monthly

   Count keys against the list. Any gap is treated as a lost key until found.

Alarm codes and door codes

The FTC's data security guide for businesses rests on five principles: take stock, scale down, lock it, pitch it and plan ahead^[3]. They fit codes as well as they fit customer files.

• Take stock: know which customers have given you codes, and which cleaners know them.
• Scale down: hold only the codes you need. Ask customers to give you a unique company code rather than their personal code.
• Lock it: store codes in one restricted field of your job system, visible only on the day's assigned jobs. Not in group texts, notes apps or sticky notes in the van.
• Pitch it: delete codes when a customer stops service, and ask them to remove your code from their alarm or lock.
• Plan ahead: decide now who calls the customer and the alarm company if a code is exposed or a false alarm happens.

Teach cleaners the false-alarm routine: enter the code, and if the alarm still sounds, call the office and the monitoring company with the customer's password if they gave you one. Customers should tell their monitoring company that cleaners will be entering on specific days.

Arrival and departure routine

Most access problems happen in the first and last two minutes of a visit. A fixed routine, practiced until it is automatic, prevents the unlocked back door and the alarm left unset.

1. Before entering, check the job notes for the access method, the alarm instructions and any customer request such as ‘leave the porch light on’.
2. Knock or ring even when you expect the home to be empty. Customers working from home, or a family member, may be inside.
3. Disarm the alarm straight away, then note the time you entered.
4. Lock the door behind you while you work. An open front door with a cleaning cart outside invites anyone in.
5. On leaving, walk the home: doors and windows as found, lights as found, appliances you used switched off.
6. Set the alarm, lock up, test the door handle and return any key to its pouch before you reach the van.
7. Record the departure time and anything unusual, and tell the office the same day if something was not as expected.

Keep an access log customers can ask for

Pew found that nine in ten US adults think people often or sometimes pretend to be someone else to steal personal information^[4]. Customers who worry about who has been in their home deserve a factual answer. For each visit, record which cleaners entered, the arrival and departure times, the access method used and anything unusual, like a door found unlocked. Smart locks and alarms often log this automatically; match their records to yours.

When a key goes missing

1. The cleaner reports it to the office as soon as they notice. No blame for reporting quickly; blame only for hiding it.
2. The office searches the van, the last homes visited and the key log within the hour.
3. If the key isn't found the same day, call the customer and explain what happened, when, and what you are doing.
4. Offer a rekey of the affected lock under your written policy. Most customers expect the company to arrange and cover it.
5. Record the incident, the cost and the cause, and review the key procedure at the next team meeting.

The same steps apply when a code is exposed, for example when a cleaner's phone with a saved code is lost. Ask the customer to change the code and confirm when it is done.

Insurance and bonding questions to ask

The SBA describes general liability insurance as protection against financial loss from bodily injury and property damage, and advises businesses to speak to insurance agents about the coverage that fits^[5]. Lost keys and theft are not always covered by a basic policy. Ask your agent directly:

• Does my policy cover rekeying or lock replacement after a lost client key?
• What covers theft by an employee from a customer's home: a janitorial bond, crime coverage or an endorsement?
• Is there coverage when a cleaner leaves a door unlocked and the home is burglarized?
• What documentation will the insurer want after an incident?

Write the answers into your key policy so customers know what you will do and how claims are handled.

When a cleaner leaves the company

Offboarding is where access policies fail quietly. On the cleaner's last day, collect any keys, fobs and badges, remove their accounts from your job system and any smart-lock apps, and list every customer whose codes they knew. Ask those customers to change their codes, or change them yourself where you manage them. It is a short, slightly awkward call. It is far better than explaining a break-in later.

Example: moving a company off labeled keys

Example: a fictional six-cleaner company kept customer keys on a hook board with street names on the tags. After a near-miss with a key left in a coffee shop, the owner moved to numbered tags, a locked cabinet and a sign-out sheet, and asked every lockbox and smart-lock customer to set a company-only code. Two customers who had shared their personal alarm code changed it. The new policy went on the website and into the welcome email, and the owner now reviews the key log every month.

Put the policy in writing

A one-page policy covering storage, codes, logs, lost keys and offboarding answers most customer questions before they are asked. Pair it with your cleaning quality checklist process and your plan for damage to customer property.