To quote a commercial cleaning job, define the scope, estimate the labour and other delivery costs, then calculate a price that supports your chosen margin. Present that price against a written task schedule and clear assumptions. A useful estimate connects the promised service to the resources needed to deliver it, rather than relying on an unsupported market rate.
Confirm the site and the service required
Gather the cleanable floor area, layout, floor types, amenities, occupancy and opening hours. Confirm access, security arrangements, water, power and storage. Ask who supplies consumables and which areas or tasks sit outside your responsibility.
Use the pre-walkthrough questions to identify missing details, then inspect where conditions materially affect the estimate. If you must provide an initial budget without seeing the site, label it provisional and state what needs confirmation before a firm quote.
Estimate hours from tasks and frequency
Break the site into work areas and list the tasks for each. Assign frequency before estimating time: every-visit work, weekly tasks and periodic work need different allowances. Include setup, pack-down, internal travel and access procedures, not only hands-on cleaning.
Use your own recorded results from comparable work where available, adjusting for congestion, soil, floor condition and equipment. For offices, the floor-area and frequency estimating method helps distinguish building size from actual workload. Do not assume a large open space and a busy amenities block have equal productivity.
Separate an initial deep or restoration clean from routine maintenance. Where the condition is uncertain, identify the uncertainty and seek further information or a permitted trial rather than concealing a guess in the price.
Calculate full cost before setting margin
Multiply labour hours by your fully costed labour amount. Include relevant employer costs and paid non-cleaning time, then add supplies, equipment hire or ownership costs, travel, supervision and an appropriate overhead allocation. Check for double counting where an internal labour amount already includes overheads.
Price for a target margin = total cost ÷ (1 − target margin expressed as a decimal). Margin is not the same as adding a markup to cost. Test whether the result covers the scope and remains commercially workable for your business. State whether GST is included.
Present the price against a defined schedule
An hourly price, square-metre price or fixed service fee is a presentation method, not a substitute for estimating. Check each against the labour and costs underneath it. For monthly pricing, define visits, periodic work, closures and public-holiday arrangements rather than assuming four weeks per month.
- Describe included areas, tasks, frequency and working hours.
- List exclusions, consumable responsibilities and separately priced extras.
- State price, payment terms, quote validity and proposed start arrangements.
- Explain assumptions and how scope changes will be priced and agreed.
Clarify, follow up and improve the estimate
Check that the contact has received the proposal and agree an appropriate time to discuss questions. Use a respectful quote follow-up to resolve uncertainty rather than promising that persistence will win the job.
Once work starts, compare actual hours and supplies with the estimate. Investigate differences and use the findings for future quotes. If the client requests a different scope, document the change and review the price before treating it as part of the original service.
