How to quote cleaning jobs: a practical guide for small cleaning businesses

Whenever you can, see the space in person or by video call. Photos from the client help, but they rarely show build-up in a shower or how cluttered a room really is. Write down what you see so the quote matches the job.

• Size: number of bedrooms, bathrooms and living areas, or the floor area for commercial spaces
• Condition: routine clean, deep clean, move-in/move-out or post-renovation
• Surfaces and extras: inside the oven, fridge, cabinets, windows, baseboards, walls
• Access and logistics: parking, stairs, keys or alarm codes, pets
• Client expectations: what “clean” means to them, products to use or avoid

Residential work is usually priced per visit, with the scope described room by room. Clients care about detail and trust, and many book a regular weekly or bi-weekly clean.

Commercial cleaning — offices, small shops, clinics, common areas — is often quoted as a monthly or per-visit agreement covering a fixed checklist. It may need after-hours access and set response times, and the client may expect a written scope they can share with others. Write commercial scopes more formally and list exactly which areas and tasks are included.

Most of the price of a clean is labour. Everything else either increases the time needed or adds direct cost:

• Size of the space and number of bathrooms and kitchens
• Condition and how long since the last professional clean
• Add-on tasks such as inside appliances, interior windows or wall washing
• Frequency — first cleans take longer than maintenance visits
• Travel distance and parking
• Specialist products or equipment

Time your own jobs. After a few weeks you'll know how long a typical bathroom, kitchen or bedroom takes you or your team. Build a simple reference list and add time for condition.

Count labour in person-hours, not elapsed time. Two cleaners working three hours is six person-hours. Add buffer time for a first visit — the first clean of a home almost always takes longer than later maintenance cleans.

Cleaning products, cloths, mop heads, vacuum bags and equipment wear add up. Simple approach: total what you spend on supplies over a month, divide by the jobs you did, and add that per-job amount to every quote. Specialist products for a particular job go on that quote as a separate cost.

Driving between clients is time you aren't cleaning. Include travel and fuel in your price, or set a minimum charge for clients outside your usual area.

Overhead is everything you pay to run the business whether you clean or not: insurance, phone, software, advertising, vehicle costs and admin time. Spread it across your jobs by building it into your hourly cost rather than ignoring it.

One-time deep cleans and move-out cleans take more time and effort per visit, so they're usually priced higher than maintenance cleans. Regular clients give you predictable income and shorter visits once the home is in good shape.

If you offer a lower price for a regular schedule, quote the first visit separately as a deep clean. That way the lower recurring price doesn't have to cover the extra hours of the first clean.

These two terms are often confused, and mixing them up leads to underquoting.

Cost is what the job costs you: labour, supplies, travel and a share of overhead. Markup is the amount added on top of cost, expressed as a percentage of cost. Margin is the profit expressed as a percentage of the final selling price.

Example: a job costs $100 and you charge $125. The markup is 25% ($25 ÷ $100). The margin is 20% ($25 ÷ $125). If you want a 25% margin, divide cost by 0.75 — that gives a selling price of about $133, not $125.

These numbers are made up for illustration. Use your own costs, rates and local market.

A two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment for a move-out clean, with inside the oven and fridge included. Two cleaners, each paid $25 per hour in this example.

• Labour: 2 cleaners × 3.5 hours = 7 person-hours × $25 = $175
• Supplies (per-job allowance plus degreaser for the oven): $15
• Travel: 30 minutes for two people plus fuel = $30
• Overhead share at $10 per labour hour: 7 × $10 = $70
• Total cost: $290
• Target margin of 25%: $290 ÷ 0.75 = about $387
• Rounded quote: $385, listed as kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, living area, oven and fridge

A good quote is clear enough that the client knows exactly what they're getting. Include:

• Client name, address and the date of the quote
• A line for each area or service, with the price
• What's not included (e.g. exterior windows, carpet shampooing, heavy furniture)
• Whether supplies are included
• How long the quote is valid
• Payment terms — when payment is due and how you accept it

• Quoting from a phone call without seeing the condition
• Forgetting travel time and parking
• Pricing the first deep clean at the regular maintenance rate
• Leaving out overhead, so the job looks profitable but the business isn't
• Confusing markup with margin
• Agreeing to extra tasks on the day without adjusting the price

Once the clean is done, invoice promptly while the result is fresh. The invoice should match the accepted quote, plus any extras the client approved.

In Laestan, you can keep each client's address, access notes and preferences on their customer record, create the quote from saved service templates, and schedule the job — including recurring cleans. When the job is complete, turn it into an invoice with the line items already filled in, then record the payment when it arrives. Laestan tracks payments; clients pay you directly the way they already do.