6 ways to automate washroom checks

#1 - The basic check

Who it's for: Single-site cleaners doing the rounds, where one person walks the same washrooms through the day.

What it is: A washroom check is a timed sweep of each washroom to restock it, empty the bins, and flag anything broken. This version is four steps on a phone: name the washroom, tick what you topped up, confirm the bins, then note any issues. Each completion is one stamped record. The cleaner runs it on every washroom each time round, and the trail is the list of checks over the day.

In practice: Take a cleaner covering a single office block over three floors. On the 10am round they open the canvas, type "second floor, gents", tick "Hand soap" and "Paper towels", confirm the bins are emptied, and leave the issues box blank. Server timestamp captured. Two hours later they run it again on the same washroom, this time flagging "left tap dripping". Two stamped checks for one washroom in one morning, both on a phone, with no paper sheet to fill in at the sink.

Why it works: The check is the proof. The cleaning itself does not change. What changes is that there is now a time-stamped record showing each washroom was serviced, what was topped up, and what was flagged. If a visitor complains the soap was empty at 11am, the manager can see whether it was checked and refilled on the 10am round, instead of taking it on trust.

Steps included:

• 1 text input (which washroom)
• 1 multi-choice (4 options: Hand soap, Paper towels, Toilet roll, Seat covers)
• 1 single choice (2 options: Yes, No bins to empty)
• 1 text input (issues)

#2 - With written guidance

Who it's for: Sites with rotating staff on the washroom rota, where the person doing the 2pm round might not be the one who did the 10am.

What it is: The basic check plus two guidance panels woven through the canvas. The first panel sets out the hourly rhythm and the order to work in: restock, empty bins, wipe touchpoints, then log it. The second panel explains what counts as an issue worth passing on. A cleaner on their first shift gets the same routine in their head as someone who has worked the site for years, without anyone having to walk them round.

In practice: Take a shopping centre with a cleaning team that rotates across the food court and the upper-level washrooms. A weekend starter picks up the upper-level rota. The first panel reminds them to run the sweep every hour or two through opening hours and to do it in the same order each time. They restock, empty the bins, and reach the issues step. A soap dispenser is hanging off the wall. The second panel tells them that anything they cannot fix on the spot gets noted here so it is passed on. They flag it rather than leaving it for a shopper to report. The intervals stop drifting between shifts, and the duty manager gets the same shape of record from everyone on the rota.

What it adds to the basic check:

1. A "the hourly sweep" panel that sets the interval and the order, so the round is consistent across people and shifts
2. A "what counts as an issue to flag" panel that names the things to pass on: a blocked toilet, a leak, a broken dryer, a dispenser off the wall
3. A shared standard for the round, so a weekend starter and a full-timer service a washroom the same way

Why it works: Written guidance sits inline at the moment the cleaner is about to act. The starter reads the rhythm the first time they run the sweep, and it is right there again on the next washroom. It is not an induction talk they half-remember from week one. It is on the screen at the moment of the task, every round.

Steps included:

• 1 guidance panel (the hourly sweep)
• 1 text input (which washroom)
• 1 multi-choice (Hand soap, Paper towels, Toilet roll, Seat covers)
• 1 single choice (Yes, No bins to empty)
• 1 text input (issues)
• 1 guidance panel (what counts as an issue to flag)

#3 - With a signature

Who it's for: Contracts where the cleaner's name needs to go on the record with each round.

What it is: The basic check plus a signature at the end of every round. Three parts on a single record: the timestamp, the ticks and notes, and a finger-drawn signature confirming the person did the round. A facilities auditor would accept this at the level expected from the signed sheet taped to the back of the washroom door, captured in under a minute on a phone.

In practice: Take a cleaning contractor servicing a school across term-time, where the facilities team expects a signed round on every washroom block. A cleaner finishes the block by the sports hall, restocks it, and signs at the bottom. The signature is captured on the touchscreen, time-stamped, and attached to the same record as the ticks. When the school's facilities review lands at the end of term, the contract lead pulls 30 rounds at random, sees a name and signature on each one, and the review closes in an afternoon instead of a week of digging out paper sheets from the back of doors.

What it adds to the basic check:

1. A signature step at the end of every round
2. A named confirmation on the same record as the timestamp and the ticks
3. A defensible record at the level a contract expects, with no paper sheet to file or lose

Why it works: The signature is what closes the loop. The timestamp says when. The ticks say what was done. The signature adds: and this named person confirms they did the round. Captured on the same device, at the same moment, in the same record, the three together are what an auditor expects to see.

Steps included:

• 1 text input (which washroom)
• 1 multi-choice (Hand soap, Paper towels, Toilet roll, Seat covers)
• 1 single choice (Yes, No bins to empty)
• 1 text input (issues)
• 1 signature (cleaner sign-off on each round)

#4 - With photo evidence

Who it's for: Venues wanting photo proof of each serviced washroom, so a client or a head office can see the round was done, not just logged.

What it is: The basic check plus a photo step at the end of every round. The cleaner takes a shot of the sink area with soap dispensers and paper towel dispenser restocked and ready, and it lands in the same record as the ticks and notes. A tick says the round was logged. A photo shows that specific spot as it actually looked when the cleaner left it.

What it adds to the basic check:

1. A photo step that captures the sink area at the moment the round is finished
2. A visual record a client or head office can review remotely, instead of taking the ticks on trust
3. A faster answer to a complaint, because the state of the sink area at the time of the round is on file

Why it works: A tick is a claim. A photo is the thing itself. The two together let someone who was not there see what was done. The ticks say what was topped up; the photo shows the sink area as the cleaner left it. Captured at the end of the round, on the same device, the state cannot be argued over later.

Steps included:

• 1 text input (which washroom)
• 1 multi-choice (Hand soap, Paper towels, Toilet roll, Seat covers)
• 1 single choice (Yes, No bins to empty)
• 1 text input (issues)
• 1 photo of the sink area

#5 - With Poppi checking the photo

Who it's for: Washrooms where the photo gets taken but nobody reviews it. Multi-site groups where head office cannot look at every site's photos every service.

What it is: A photo-checked washroom round is the basic check plus a photo of the sink area that Poppi (AI) reviews the moment it's saved. Poppi answers one question about that photo, set by you: is the sink area clean and restocked, with soap and paper towels ready? If the answer is no, Poppi posts what it spotted to the team chat, so the problem gets fixed before everyone moves on.

In practice: A three-site leisure centre closes at 9pm. The closing cleaner photographs the sink area as always. Poppi reads the photo: clean, dispensers full, nothing left. Verdict yes, and nothing changes. On a busy Saturday the photo shows an empty soap dispenser and paper towels running low. Poppi answers no and posts the reason to the team chat ("The photo shows empty soap dispenser and low paper towels"). The cleaner sorts it and retakes the photo while still in the building.

What it adds to the basic check:

1. A photo of the sink area that gets checked the moment it is saved, not just stored
2. A team chat message with Poppi's reason the moment a photo fails the check
3. The manager stops being the only person who ever looks at the photos

Why it works: The check happens in the seconds between the photo being taken and the cleaner leaving. That is the only moment the problem is still cheap to fix. A manager reviewing photos the next morning can only record that the sink area was poor; Poppi catching it at 9pm gets it fixed by quarter past.

Steps included:

• 1 text input (which washroom)
• 1 multi-choice (Hand soap, Paper towels, Toilet roll, Seat covers)
• 1 single choice (Yes, No bins to empty)
• 1 text input (issues)
• 1 photo of the sink area
• 1 Poppi decision (judges the photo against your question)
• 1 Poppi action (posts to the team chat if the photo fails the check)

#6 - With an alert if checks run behind schedule

Who it's for: Contract venues where checks are due at set times and sometimes get missed during busy shifts, particularly sites with strict hygiene audit requirements or high-traffic periods where a gap in the schedule gets lost mid-service.

What it is: A check-schedule alert is the basic check plus a Poppi (AI) action set to the workflow's due time. If a washroom check is not finished by the time it is due to be checked, Poppi posts a message in the Pilla team chat so the missed check gets done before a visitor finds an empty soap dispenser or a bin that has been ignored. It watches the due time, so it catches the check that quietly got skipped mid-shift, not just the one that never started.

In practice: Take a shopping centre that cleans washrooms on a 2-hour sweep. The food court cleaner gets swamped during lunch, and the 1pm upper-level washroom check gets missed. The next shift does not start until 3pm, so the washroom is unserviced for two hours during peak shopping. With this version, if the 1pm check is not finished by 1:15pm, the team chat gets a message, so the shift lead catches the missed check that lunch hour rather than a customer finding an unserviced washroom.

What it adds to the basic check:

1. A message in the team chat if the check is not finished by the scheduled time
2. A catch for the check that got skipped mid-shift during busy periods
3. A record of when each check was due, next to when it was actually done
4. The manager gets alerted during service, not when the next shift starts

Why it works: The alert is tied to the schedule, so a missed check raises its own hand. Nobody has to manually chase whether the round happened; the deadline does.

Steps included:

• 1 text input (which washroom)
• 1 multi-choice (Hand soap, Paper towels, Toilet roll, Seat covers)
• 1 single choice (Yes, No bins to empty)
• 1 text input (issues)
• 1 Poppi action (posts to the team chat if the check is not finished by the scheduled time)

How to pick the right version

You do not need to know our product to choose. Every version here is the basic check plus one addition, so pick the additions your washroom cleaning actually needs.

Do other people run the checks?

If you clean yourself and know the rhythm, the plain check is enough: #1. The moment rota staff clean, the hourly interval and method need to be on the screen: #2.

Does the check need a name against it?

If knowing it was done is enough, skip this one. If you want who did it on the record, #3 adds a signature.

Do you need photo proof?

A ticked checklist says the work was done; a photo shows it. If you want visual proof of the sink area, #4 adds a photo.

Does anyone actually look at the photos?

If a manager genuinely reviews every photo, #4's record is enough. If photos get taken and filed unseen, #5 has Poppi (AI) check each one as it is saved, and tell the team chat when something is wrong.

Do your checks have a set schedule, and do they sometimes get missed during busy shifts?

If your venue has scheduled checks and a busy lunch or evening service sometimes leaves a gap in the schedule, #6 posts a message to the team chat if a check is not finished by its due time.

Need more than one addition? Open the version with the addition that matters most in the playground and add the others as steps. That is how the product works anyway: every option here is one step added to the same check.

Related reading

• Cleaning quality audit
• Before and after cleaning photos
• Proof of attendance
• Defect reporting
• Deep clean sign-off

Conclusion

A washroom check is only effective if it actually happens on schedule, every time. A recorded sweep turns "we always check" into something you can show a facilities auditor. Every version above is the same basic check plus one addition: guidance, a signature, a photo, an AI check on the photo, or a deadline alert. Pick the ones your washroom cleaning needs and combine them in the playground.

More additions are coming in future refreshes, like pulling every site's check schedule into one report. Those need more review time and will land separately.

→ Build your own washroom check on Pilla.