Segment and Geographic Information - Financial Information by Reportable Segment (Detail) - USD ($) $ in Millions		3 Months Ended								12 Months Ended
		Oct. 31, 2015	Jul. 31, 2015	Apr. 30, 2015	Jan. 31, 2015	Oct. 31, 2014	Jul. 31, 2014	Apr. 30, 2014	Jan. 31, 2014	Oct. 31, 2015		Oct. 31, 2014		Oct. 31, 2013
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Revenues		$ 1,277.0	$ 1,249.9	$ 1,176.4	$ 1,194.5	$ 1,204.7	$ 1,180.7	$ 1,137.5	$ 1,126.8	$ 4,897.8	[1]	$ 4,649.7	[1]	$ 4,427.8	[1]
Operating profit	[2],[3]									73.6		114.8		105.3
Income from unconsolidated affiliates, net										9.0		6.5		6.3
Interest expense										(10.2)		(10.7)		(12.9)
Income from continuing operations before income taxes										72.4		110.6		98.7
Janitorial
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Revenues										2,692.7		2,583.2		2,480.5
Operating profit	[2],[3]									150.5		147.0		138.6
Facility Services
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Revenues										594.6		599.3		609.4
Operating profit	[2],[3]									25.3		25.2		25.7
Parking
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Revenues										631.9		616.1		609.1
Operating profit	[2],[3]									29.6		29.2		25.7
Building & Energy Solutions
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Revenues										557.7		483.8		401.5
Operating profit	[2],[3]									26.3		23.1		15.3
Other
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Revenues										420.9		367.3		326.4
Operating profit	[2],[3]									15.2		12.2		11.8
Corporate segment
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Revenues										0.0		0.0		0.9
Operating profit	[2],[3]									(162.3)		(115.3)		(105.6)
Segment Reconciling Items | Building & Energy Solutions
Segment Reporting Information [Line Items]
Tax Adjustments, Settlements, and Unusual Provisions	[2],[3]									(2.0)		0.0		0.0
Income from unconsolidated affiliates, net	[2],[3]									$ (9.0)		$ (6.6)		$ (6.2)

[1] Substantially all of our long-lived assets are related to United States operations.

[2] Effective in the first quarter of 2015, we reallocated certain costs from our Janitorial segment to our Facility Services and Parking segments to better reflect certain overhead support functions. The impact of these reallocations on the segments was an increase of operating profit to the Janitorial segment and a decrease of operating profit to the Facility Services and Parking segments as follows:

[3] In connection with the sale of our Security business, certain general corporate expenses that were previously allocated to Security are now allocated back to Corporate expenses and the Janitorial segment. In addition, certain Corporate expenses that were directly related to the operations of the Security business have been allocated to discontinued operations. The net impact of these allocations is as follows: