Build a monthly price for a commercial cleaning contract from labor hours, burden, supplies, overhead and margin.
Labor hours = (area ÷ production rate + extra minutes ÷ 60) × visits.
Labor cost = hours × wage × (1 + burden %).
Total cost = labor + supplies + hours × overhead per hour.
Bid = total cost ÷ (1 − margin %).
An office of 12,000 sq ft cleaned 22 times a month at 3,000 sq ft per hour plus 30 minutes of extras needs 99 labor hours. At $19 with 20% burden, labor is $2,257.20. Supplies $180 and overhead $594 bring cost to $3,031.20. At a 15% margin, the bid is $3,566.12 a month, about $162 per visit.
Use it when you bid on offices, clinics, schools or retail sites. The most common bidding mistake is pricing labor at the wage only, without burden, overhead and travel.
All rates are yours to enter. Production rates vary with building type, floor type and the level of service in the contract.
An 8,000 sq ft dental office is cleaned three nights a week, about 13 visits a month, at 2,200 sq ft per hour plus 45 minutes for operatories and restrooms: 57.0 labor hours a month. At $17.50 with a 22% burden, labor is $1,217.44, and supplies of $95 plus overhead at $7.50 per labor hour add $522.67. Total cost is $1,740.11, so an 18% margin gives a bid of $2,122.08 a month, about $163.24 per visit.
The bid divides cost by one minus the margin, so the profit is a share of the price, not a markup on cost. Small changes in production rate move the bid more than anything else, so check it against timed visits in similar buildings. The per visit figure is an average; if some nights include extra work such as restroom deep cleans, price those nights on their own.
From time records on similar buildings.
This uses margin. A 15% margin is a 17.6% markup.
Add it to extra minutes or overhead.
When wages or scope change.
Use the monthly average: 3 x 52 / 12 = 13 visits, not 12. The extra visit each month adds up to a full month of one night’s work across a year.
This calculator takes a monthly figure, so multiply per-visit supplies by visits per month. Include liners, paper towels and soap only if the contract says you supply them, since many clients buy their own consumables.
More for the same job
EZTime tags hours by job, client and role and shows real-time labor costing on the schedule, so estimates can be checked against actual hours. Book a demo to see it with your team.