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Employee dishonesty and crime insurance for cleaning companies
Employee dishonesty insurance is the employee theft part of a commercial crime policy, and it can pay your company back when someone on your payroll steals your money, checks, supplies or equipment. With clients' property coverage added, it can also reach a client's property taken by an identified employee, and other parts of the policy can answer forged checks and fraudulent bank transfers.
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What employee dishonesty insurance covers for a cleaning company
Employee dishonesty insurance pays for loss of money, securities and other property caused by theft by one of your employees. On ISO's 2015 crime forms, that's Insuring Agreement 1, Employee Theft; ISO's 2022 edition makes it the first part of a broader Fidelity insuring agreement. The 2015 wording covers theft by an employee "whether identified or not" and has no conviction requirement. You prove the loss; you don't wait on a court.
The form defines theft as taking property "to the deprivation of the Insured." So the base coverage is built around your company's losses: property you own or lease, hold for others, or are legally liable for. In a cleaning business, the money tends to leak out in a few predictable places:
- Payroll. With constant turnover, a ghost name on a route can hide for months.
- Supplies and machines. Cases of liners, chemicals, backpack vacuums and floor machines walk out of storage rooms.
- Fuel and purchase cards. A supervisor's card buys gas for a personal car.
- Billing. Someone invoices a client for extra work and pockets the payment.
Discovery form vs. loss sustained form
ISO publishes two versions. CR 00 20 is the discovery form: it covers loss you discover while the policy is in force, even if it happened earlier (subject to any retroactive date). CR 00 21 is the loss sustained form: it covers loss that happens during the policy period and is discovered during that period or within a set window afterward. Either can sit inside a package or stand alone. In ISO's 2022 edition, the loss has to be discovered by a "designated person," such as an owner, officer or manager. The difference between the two forms matters most when you switch carriers, so ask which one you're buying.
Who counts as an employee
The form covers people you pay wages to and have the right to direct, plus temps filling in for staff and workers leased from a labor leasing firm. Subcontracted 1099 cleaners usually don't fit that definition. If part of your night work runs through subs, ask how the policy treats them before you rely on it.
Reaching your clients' property
Because the base coverage protects your losses, a client's stolen property isn't covered unless your policy adds clients' property coverage with its own limit on the declarations page. On ISO's 2015-era forms, that's the Clients' Property endorsement, CR 04 01, which pays for a client's money, securities or other property taken by your employee and defines "client" as an entity you serve under a written contract. ISO's 2022 edition builds it into the Fidelity insuring agreement as Employee Theft of Clients' Property, again with its own limit. Both versions pay only when the employee who took the property is identified.
Forged checks and fraudulent transfers
Other insuring agreements on the same form cover forged or altered checks drawn on your account, and money moved when someone fraudulently instructs your bank without your knowledge. When your own office manager is tricked into sending money, the basic wording may not respond. That usually takes social engineering coverage: an endorsement on older forms, or the optional Fraudulent Impersonation insuring agreement in ISO's 2022 edition, often with a lower limit than the rest of the policy. Our cyber liability page covers how those payment schemes reach cleaning companies.
| What a crime policy may cover | What it usually doesn't |
|---|---|
| Cash, checks and deposits taken by an employee, identified or not | Theft by you, your partners or your members |
| Supplies, chemicals and machines an employee steals or resells | Shortages you can show only through an inventory count or profit-and-loss math |
| Payroll padding and billing schemes by staff | Theft by an employee after you learned of earlier dishonesty |
| A client's property taken by an identified employee, with clients' property coverage | Theft by 1099 subcontractors who don't meet the form's employee definition |
| Forged or altered checks drawn on your account | Money your staff sends after a spoofed email, unless social engineering is added |
Crime claims at a cleaning company
These scenarios are fiction. Each shows a different part of the policy at work.
Example scenario: two cleaners who never existed
A route supervisor covers nine office buildings. Over eight months, he adds two names to payroll who never clock a shift, and their pay lands on cards he controls. Your bookkeeper spots it when hours in the inspection app don't match the payroll register. The $31,000 loss is your company's money taken by an employee, which is what Employee Theft is written for, and no conviction is needed.
Example scenario: tools missing from a plant office
After a Sunday-morning clean at a manufacturer's front office, a set of precision gauges is gone from the quality lab. Badge records show only one of your porters entered that room. The plant doesn't press charges; it just wants the gauges paid for. If your policy carries clients' property coverage, the claim may go there, up to that coverage's limit, because the employee has been identified.
Example scenario: a supplier email that wasn't
At 8:15 on a Monday, your office manager gets an email that looks like it's from your paper-goods distributor, with new bank details. She pays $18,400 for liners, towels and chemicals. Two weeks later the real distributor calls about the unpaid invoice. Because she sent the money herself, this usually needs social engineering coverage, and the sublimit may be well below the loss.
What crime coverage costs, and the limits contracts ask for
We haven't found a reliable published average for crime coverage priced for cleaning companies, so we quote it from your answers. Expect the limit you choose, your headcount and how money moves through your office to shape the number. Your price depends on the payroll in each class code, your annual sales, the kinds of buildings you clean, how much specialty and chemical work you do, the vehicles your crews drive, your claims history and the limits your contracts require.
Contract limits are the best guide. One Florida water district asked for $100,000 of employee dishonesty coverage with the district named on it, and one Texas college asked for $500,000 of "Employee Dishonesty or Fidelity Bond" coverage. When a contract allows either, ask the client in writing whether a crime policy with clients' property coverage satisfies it.
Crime coverage or a janitorial bond?
They answer different questions. A janitorial bond is written to your client, is what many contracts name, and often needs a conviction before it pays. A crime policy protects your company first, with no conviction requirement, and can add client coverage at higher limits. Many cleaning companies carry both: the bond to satisfy the contract, and crime coverage for the business. Our guide to being bonded and insured lays the two side by side.
Who needs employee dishonesty coverage most
The need grows with the number of people who touch money, keys or supplies without you watching. It's usually worth a hard look when:
- an office manager or bookkeeper handles payroll, deposits and supplier payments
- supervisors carry fuel cards or order supplies for a route
- your clients' offices hold cash, devices or tools your night crew walks past, as in multi-tenant office buildings
- a plant or warehouse client stores equipment near the areas you clean; see industrial cleaning insurance
- a school or public agency bid names employee dishonesty coverage; see school cleaning insurance
You can request a crime coverage quote with your general liability and bond so the limits line up.
State notes on crime coverage
Public buyers in several of our states write theft protection straight into their contracts:
- Georgia: the state purchasing guideline lists janitorial and building-management services as examples of contracts that might require employee dishonesty coverage, and says that coverage should be written on an ISO crime form with the CR 04 01 Clients' Property endorsement or its equivalent. See Georgia.
- Florida: naming the client on fidelity coverage is a wording many crime forms don't offer without an endorsement, so price that request before you bid. See Florida.
- Kentucky: a 2025 library RFP held the cleaning company liable for "any unauthorized or criminal acts of its employees." A general liability policy usually won't pay for that theft. See Kentucky.
- Ohio: a contractor's employees whose school jobs involve routine interaction with children need a clean criminal records check from the five years before they start, or a school employee must stay present with the children. See Ohio.
Related coverage
Employee theft insurance questions
Is employee dishonesty insurance the same as an employee dishonesty bond?
Does commercial crime insurance cover theft from my clients?
Do I need a police report or a conviction to file a crime claim?
Does employee theft insurance cover my 1099 cleaners?
How much employee dishonesty coverage should a cleaning company carry?
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