Get started with LAFT: Cleaning module
In this article, we will walk you through the necessary steps to get started with the cleaning module in LAFT. If you are not subscribed to this today and would like more information, please contact us at support@laft.io.
Table of Contents
To start using the cleaning module in LAFT, there are 3 things that must be in place:
- Users (Head of Department Cleaning and cleaners)
- Room lists
- Allocation of cleaning
Uploading and marking up floor plans is not essential to using the system, but makes the cleaning app easier and more intuitive to use.
Importing room lists
The best and most efficient way to enter all the rooms to be cleaned in the cleaning module is to import from an Excel sheet. You fill out one import template per building. It is important that this template is filled out completely correctly for the import to work. Contact us at support@laft.io to receive the latest updated template, or find it here: Import templates .
Once you have received the template, it is very important that you read through the instructions that are on a separate sheet in the template. NOTE that you should not edit the columns in red. Once you have filled out the template, follow the steps below to import it into the cleaning module:
Go to the Cleaning module, either from the home page or the menu in the top left corner when you are logged in to LAFT.
- In the menu on the left, click “Setup”, then select “Building Setup”.
- Select the building you want to import the room list into and click “Import”. If the building is not listed, you can see here how to do it.
- Select the file on your PC. You should check the box for “Dry run” before you press “Upload” the first time, so that you can see any error messages. Then nothing will be saved.
- The result of the room import will appear in a table below (sometimes you have to refresh the page once). If there is something you want to edit, you can do it directly in this table (for example, if you want to edit the room number etc.). Click on what you want to edit and then the blue check mark.
How to edit the room list afterwards
If you want to edit more rooms later, you can export the room list again, edit it, and reload it. However, you cannot update/change the room list via import. You must therefore delete all rooms that are already in the system before loading the new room list.
To delete rooms, go to Setup > Building Setup. Select the correct building and floor, and click Room List. Uncheck all the rooms and click the red trash can icon. Note that if the room has already been cleaned, it cannot be deleted. In that case, you must edit the rooms manually. You do this by clicking directly on the various fields in the table as described in point 4 above.
Frequency and performance
All room types in LAFT except “F-Room” and “Technical Room” have predefined both frequency and performance. Technical rooms have performance, but not frequency, while F-rooms are rooms that are not to be cleaned, so neither performance nor frequency are included.
When filling out the import template for room lists, you must select one of the room types that already exist in LAFT, and you cannot change the frequency or performance during import. However, you can change this after the rooms have been imported.
There are 3 different levels that can set performance in a room:
- Experience profile
- Room type category
- Room type
Frequency can be set on room type category, room types and on individual rooms.
All rooms except the F-room and Technical room have an experience profile.
| Experience profile cannot be edited, but you can edit performance and frequency on both room type category and room type. The lowest level overrides them. That is; if you set frequency on a room type, it overrides the frequency listed on the room type category. |
Only the “Daily” cleaning class has predefined frequencies. To set frequencies for other cleaning classes, you must do this in the cleaning module > Setup > Cleaning frequencies.
Marking floor plans
It is not required to upload floor plans to use the cleaning module and the app, but it will often be experienced as easier and more intuitive in the app if floor plans are uploaded and marked.
Cleaning instructions
If you want to give instructions to the cleaners on how to clean a room type or individual room, or other things they need to keep in mind, you can enter cleaning descriptions.
For room types, do the following:
- Go into the cleaning module, then click on “Setup” and then “Room Types”.
- Here you can see all the room types available in LAFT. In the search box to the right above the table, you can search for the room type you want to enter a description for.
- Tap the three lines to the far right of the room type, then Cleaning Description. A box will then appear at the top of the page where you can select which cleaning class the description should apply to, and enter the desired instructions. You will also see an overview of any existing descriptions.
For single rooms, do the following:
Go to Building Layout > find the room in the filter at the top > Manage > Cleaning Descriptions:
The cleaning descriptions will be available to the cleaners in the cleaning app.
Allocation of cleaning
Once you have imported room lists and are satisfied with the frequency set, you can assign the cleaning to the cleaners.
- Go to “Setup” and then “Cleaning Assignment”. You assign cleaning to one building at a time, but can choose whether to assign individual rooms or entire floor zones.
- Check the rooms/zones you want to assign to a cleaner. Then scroll down the page until you reach “Schedule”. It is possible to assign cleaning to users with the roles Department Manager Cleaning, Specialist Manager Cleaning and Cleaner.
First select the user you want to assign the rooms/zones to.
- On “Select Days” you can either use one of the default frequencies or tap “Custom Schedule” to create your own frequency. What you are essentially doing here is telling the system which days the cleaner is available.
| Do you want to have different frequencies for even and odd weeks, for example? Then use “Custom schedule”, select the days you want in the first week, and then select “every 2 weeks”. Then set a start date in the even week. Then click “Add new schedule”. Then do the same, but select the days for odd weeks, and set a start date in the odd week. |
You will see the assignment you have made when you scroll up to the table again. In the “Cleaner” column you will see the cleaner you selected, and in the “Assigned cleaning” column the schedule you have set up. The assignments you make apply to all cleaning classes. At the top of the page you can also go to the “Existing assignments” tab to edit assignments you have made. Here you can also delete assignments. The “Deactivated assignments” tab shows assignments where the end date (if filled in) has passed.
NOTE! Do you not see the user in the drop-down menu when assigning? Then the user is most likely a member of a building group, and the building you are assigning to is not part of this group. Building group members are managed in the Cleaning module > Settings > Building group members.
Settings in cleaning
Under general in the settings in cleaning we have several factors you can edit:
Additional time and running time:
If cleaners spend time during the day on things other than cleaning, you can enter this here.
Walking time refers to the number of seconds it takes the cleaner to move between rooms. Our recommendation is to include this as part of the additional time.
Additional time refers to the number of minutes the cleaner spends on other tasks/chores during the day. This can be, for example, refilling toilet paper, watering plants, driving between different buildings, etc.
Note that you can set times for new buildings on the first page. If you want to enter running and additional times for existing buildings, you must select the “Cleaning settings per building” tab.
Default minimum time:
If you don't set this here, small rooms will say that cleaning takes less than one minute. For example, in toilets it is impossible to clean in less than one minute, even if the room is small, so our recommendation is to set a minimum of 3 minutes here.
Modifiers:
The modifiers change the calculated performance per cleaning class.
For example:
Periodic cleaning: the performance figures in LAFT already include periodic cleaning 4 times a year. If you still set up periodic cleaning in the system, our recommendation is to set the modifier on the Periodic cleaning class to 0.01. This will increase the performance of the cleaning class to max.
Supervisory cleaning: this type of cleaning does not take that long to carry out, as it is usually just checking that everything looks OK, possibly emptying the trash, etc. This allows you to adjust the performance of the room upwards in relation to the daily cleaning class, as the daily cleaning takes longer to carry out. Setting 0.35 will mean that supervisory cleaning is carried out 1/3 of the time in relation to the daily cleaning class.
Salary and position fraction:
Managed in the cleaning module menu > Settings > Cleaners.
The hourly wage is based on the annual salary for cleaning personnel with a trade certificate (tariff wage, 16 years of seniority). It does not take into account operating costs, social costs, sick leave and the use of temporary workers. Here you can also enter the cleaners' position fraction.