Commercial cleaning / Bid tool
Bid the work—not the guess.
Turn scope, crew time, operating costs, and target margin into a defensible per-visit cleaning price.
Beyond the quote
Make every visit as repeatable as the bid.
Turn every quote into a repeatable room-by-room cleaning and quality-control checklist for yourself or your crew.
Worked example
A weekly account with visible math.
A 12,000-square-foot account is estimated at 2,500 square feet per labor hour. A two-person crew, weekly-frequency adjustment, and 30 minutes of paid travel and setup produce about 5.3 paid worker-hours and $120 of labor cost at $22.50 per worker-hour.
Adding $80 for supplies, equipment, and vehicle expense plus $35 of allocated overhead creates an estimated true cost of $235. Pricing that cost for a 30% gross margin produces a $335 per-visit bid, about $1,452 in an average 4.33-visit month.
Method and boundaries
Cost first, then margin.
The calculator estimates cleaning duration from area, room counts, or a manual walkthrough estimate. Service, frequency, and condition multipliers are applied once to cleaning time. Paid travel and setup are added afterward, then multiplied by crew size and loaded labor cost.
Supplies, equipment, vehicle expense, and allocated overhead are added to labor to find the true estimated cost. The target price is total cost divided by one minus the desired gross-margin rate; the recommended bid is the greater of that price and the minimum service charge.
Example production rates and multipliers are editable testing values—not market standards. Confirm task frequencies, floor and surface types, access restrictions, security procedures, union or prevailing-wage requirements, taxes, and contract terms for each opportunity.
Formula version 0.1 · Operator workflow review required before public launch
Common questions.
The pricing logic stays visible so every assumption can be checked against the walkthrough and scope of work.
How do I calculate a commercial cleaning bid?
Estimate the paid labor required for the scope, multiply it by the loaded hourly cost for each worker, and add supplies, equipment, travel, and allocated overhead. Divide that total cost by one minus the target gross-margin rate, then compare the result with the minimum service charge.
What does cleaning production rate mean?
Production rate is the cleanable area completed per paid labor hour. It should match the tasks, surfaces, soil level, frequency, equipment, access, and quality standard in the actual scope. This calculator does not assume one universal rate.
What is the difference between margin and markup?
Gross margin is profit divided by selling price, while markup is profit divided by cost. To preserve a 30% gross margin on $100 of cost, divide $100 by 0.70 for a price of $142.86; adding a 30% markup would produce only $130 and a lower margin.
How does frequency change the cleaning estimate?
The frequency preset changes estimated cleaning time only. For example, a well-maintained weekly account may take less time per visit than the same scope cleaned monthly. The multiplier remains editable so the walkthrough—not a generic preset—controls the bid.
How is monthly cleaning revenue estimated?
The per-visit price is multiplied by average visits per month. Weekly service defaults to 4.33 visits per month and every-two-week service to 2.17, both of which can be edited to match the contract calendar.
Does adding workers increase the quoted labor hours?
The calculator distinguishes elapsed crew duration from total paid worker-hours. A two-person crew working for three hours represents six worker-hours. A larger crew may shorten elapsed time, but total paid labor still depends on the production estimate and any travel or setup time paid to every worker.