Cleaning guides
How to calculate cleaning job profitability
Cleaning job profitability is the price of the job minus its labor, travel time, supplies and payment fees, divided by the hours the crew actually spent, so you can see which jobs and clients earn money.
The formula
Job margin = price − labor cost − travel cost − supplies − payment fees. Margin per labor hour = job margin ÷ total crew hours, including time on the way. The second figure is the useful one, because it lets you compare a small apartment with a large house on the same footing.
A worked example (illustrative numbers)
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Price charged | $180.00 |
| Labor: 2 cleaners × 3 hours × $22/hour | −$132.00 |
| Travel time paid: 2 cleaners × 0.5 hour × $22 | −$22.00 |
| Supplies | −$6.00 |
| Card fee (about 3%) | −$5.40 |
| Job margin | $14.60 |
| Margin per labor hour (7 crew hours) | $2.09 |
The job looks healthy at $180 and is thin once travel and fees are counted. The numbers above are an illustration, not a benchmark; use your own.
What people leave out
- Travel time between jobs, if you pay for it.
- Payroll costs beyond the hourly rate for employees, such as employer taxes and insurance. Contractors differ, and how workers are classified is a question for an advisor.
- Redo visits and complaints that cost a second trip.
- Estimated versus actual hours. A job priced for three hours that takes four loses a quarter of its labor margin.
Find the worst jobs first
Sort the last quarter's jobs by margin per labor hour. The bottom tenth usually shares a cause: a distant neighborhood, a service type priced too low, one client who always runs over. Fix the cause with a price change, a minimum, a surcharge or a politely ended contract.
Close the loop
Record actual start and finish times for every job, not the booked ones. Compare them with the estimate each month and adjust your estimates for each service type. After two or three cycles your quotes stop guessing.
Where Stackap fits
Stackap Business is in development onto the platform, so no outside agent can run any of this yet. The software it is built from does the following today: See the cleaning page and Stackap Business.
- Job costing compares what a job earned with its labor and materials, using actual check-in and check-out times.
- Revenue, payouts and expenses post to a double-entry ledger, so the figures reconcile with the books.
- There is no tax filing and no payroll tax handling; keep your accountant involved.
Questions
What is a good margin for a cleaning job?
Should travel time be in the cost of a job?
Stackap is in early access. Tell us what you run and we will reply with a straight answer about whether it fits.
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