Cleaning happens in your building, around your people, often outside your hours. Before anyone starts, a short set of checks protects you from problems that are painful to unwind later.
Read the certificate of currency properly
Ask for the certificate of currency for public liability cover. Then actually read it. Check the insured name matches the entity you're contracting with. Check the policy dates cover your contract period. Check the cover type matches the work. A certificate with the wrong entity name on it is a common and quietly serious problem.
A certificate is a snapshot, not a promise
A certificate proves cover existed on the day it was issued. Policies lapse and businesses change. Ask how currency gets maintained and re-checked across the contract. Diarise your own re-check at renewal.
Confirm who you're contracting with
Run the ABN. Confirm the entity exists, is active, and carries the same name on the contract and the certificate. If the quote, the contract and the insurance carry three different names, stop and ask why.
Licences where the work needs them
Some work and some arrangements need licences or registrations. Ask whether any apply to the services and the way they're being supplied to you. Ask to see them.
Ask how workers are engaged
You're entitled to ask how the people on your site are engaged and paid. You're not auditing their payroll. You're checking the answer is confident, specific and consistent. Buyers carry reputational exposure when it isn't.
Document what you were shown
Keep copies of what you sighted and when. At renewal, re-check instead of assuming.
Checklist:
- Certificate of currency sighted and read
- Insured name matches the contracting entity
- Policy dates cover the contract period
- ABN checked and active
- Licences sighted where they apply
- Worker engagement question asked and answered
- Copies kept. Renewal re-check diarised
Provider vetting and compliance tracking sit inside every Tradevero contract.