Small janitorial contractors—night porters, day porters, and a handful of offices—need dependable schedules and renewal quotes, not enterprise CMMS tickets. DusterBook fits operators with roughly one to ten staff covering a limited set of buildings.
Porter shifts and building keys
Model each building as a property under the client. Schedule night shifts on the calendar with assigned porters. Notes hold alarm codes and trash dock instructions. We do not track key inventories or sign-out logs.
Contract renewals and bids
Annual bid season means reusing quote templates with updated line items for square footage changes. Validity windows keep proposals professional. Winning bids convert to recurring jobs on Team for weekly service.
Day porter vs night crew
Use separate job series or assignments to distinguish day porter tasks (lobby wipe-downs) from nightly restroom restocks. Roles ensure porters do not see unrelated client pricing.
Supplies and consumables
Billable supplies can be quote line items; we do not track stock levels in a warehouse module. Purchase orders and approval chains are not built-in—note PO numbers on invoice memos if needed.
Light reporting
Dashboard highlights open quotes and overdue invoices. Team CSV export helps when your accountant wants customer lists—not a GL replacement.
What this is not
Not a security guard scheduling system, not CMMS for HVAC, not union timeclock compliance. For larger facility portfolios with RFP compliance packets, see commercial janitorial—that page focuses on multi-site B2B bids rather than porter shift logistics.
Payments and comms
Invoice links only—no customer card pay. Email notifications when outbound email is configured for your workspace; no SMS.
Small building portfolios
Operators with three to eight buildings benefit from property records more than enterprise asset tags. Track porter names per night in assignments rather than a CMMS asset tree.
Inspection walkthroughs
Property managers occasionally walk buildings. Capture punch-list items in customer notes and quote line items for extra labor rather than a dedicated inspection module.
Uniforms and badges
Not tracked in software. HR matters stay outside DusterBook.
Union vs non-union shops
We do not calculate union wage tables. Pay rules belong in payroll systems.
Emergency spills
One-off jobs can be quoted quickly and scheduled same day. No dispatch priority engine ranks emergencies.
Differentiation from commercial janitorial page
This page emphasizes porter operations and modest building counts. Multi-site RFP-heavy vendors should read commercial janitorial for bid-centric workflows.
Onboarding a new building
Capture the site as a customer with one or more properties. Attach access notes, alarm codes, and scope checklists in property notes so night crews see them on the job card. Send the first month’s porter quote as line items—lobby hours, restroom rounds, trash pulls—so the facilities manager can approve once and you schedule recurring visits on Team.
Seasonal scope changes
Snow season, holiday decor, and summer deep scrubs often change scope without changing the contract header. Issue a revised quote when hours or frequencies shift materially; keep the accepted quote tied to the jobs you invoice so AP teams do not dispute line items.
Owner visibility
Owners see every customer and invoice; managers can run day-to-day scheduling without sharing your Polar billing login. Cleaners only see assigned stops—useful when you subcontract a floor without exposing the whole client list.
Getting help
Setup questions belong in the help center. Plan limits and trials are on pricing. Ready to try it? Start your trial.
Honest limits reminder
There is no fleet GPS, no chemical inventory module, and no native QuickBooks sync—export CSV on Team when your accountant needs a dump. That keeps the product affordable for porter shops that outgrew notebooks but do not need enterprise CMMS features.