How to Bid a Commercial Cleaning Contract Without Guessing

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Published September 28, 2026 · Updated September 28, 2026

Build an office cleaning bid from a site walk, task frequency, paid crew hours, account costs, and target margin. Includes a worked monthly proposal.

Cleaning · Commercial Cleaning · Contract Bidding

A commercial cleaning bid starts with the work the building actually needs, not its square footage alone. Walk the site, count visits and tasks, estimate paid crew hours, add direct account costs and overhead, then set a margin the contract can support. Check that the proposed monthly price still works when the schedule changes or a cleaner is absent.

Quick answer: Scope the building, calculate paid cleaner-hours per visit, multiply by monthly visits, add supplies, travel and account overhead, then divide total cost by one minus your target margin. In the example below, a 20-visit office contract costs $4,860 a month to deliver and support. A 20% margin calls for a $6,075 monthly bid, assuming the stated scope and costs.

Build the bid from tasks and paid labor hours

Before you quote, ask for access to every area in the proposed scope. Note cleanable floor area, number of restrooms, waste stations, kitchens, touchpoints, security procedures, floor materials, permitted work hours and who provides consumables. A hallway with carpet does not take the same time as a restroom or a break room. Confirm whether windows, floors, periodic deep cleans and replenishment are included or priced separately.

Write a task schedule: vacuum and trash each visit, restroom cleaning each visit, kitchen wipe-down each visit, and a defined frequency for dusting and other periodic jobs. Time a comparable job using your own records, or estimate by room and revise after a trial. Count setup, loading, transit between accounts, key handling and paid closeout. “Two cleaners for two hours” means four cleaner-hours for that visit; do not mistake two hours on the wall clock for two hours of payroll.

For a fictional small office, assume four cleaner-hours per visit and 20 visits in a planning month. At a fully loaded labor cost of $32 per paid cleaner-hour, labor is 4 × 20 × $32 = $2,560. This rate is an assumption, not a national wage benchmark. Add $18 of supplies per visit ($360), $22 of account-specific travel and parking per visit ($440), and $500 for monthly account supervision and allocated operating overhead. Add $1,000 for minimum owner management pay and a service contingency that is genuinely expected to be spent. Total monthly cost is $2,560 + $360 + $440 + $500 + $1,000 = $4,860.

If you want a 20% margin on the selling price, divide $4,860 by 0.80: the bid is $6,075 per month, or $303.75 per planned visit. At that price, revenue minus budgeted costs is $1,215; $1,215 ÷ $6,075 is exactly 20%. Adding 20% to cost would produce $5,832, which is a 16.67% margin. The SBA break-even explanation is a useful reference when separating fixed expenses from costs that move with visits.

What changes the number you should quote?

Scope and usage: an office of the same size with a busy kitchen and more restrooms can take longer than one with mostly desks. Walkthrough notes beat a blanket price per square foot. Frequency: two visits a week do not equal five; periodic tasks must be assigned to specific visits. Hours and access: after-hours entry, alarm procedures and a required second cleaner change the paid hours and schedule. Account geography: a short visit far from your existing route can consume a surprising share of a shift. Payment terms: a monthly invoice paid later creates a cash need for wages and supplies even when the accounting margin is healthy.

Document those assumptions in the quote. Define the service location, included rooms, weekly frequency, monthly price, periodic task schedule, consumable responsibility, exclusions, approval process for extra work and billing cycle. Have an actual contract and insurance requirements reviewed for your location; the arithmetic here is a pricing model, not contract or legal advice.

Three bid scenarios with the same service method

These invented scenarios show why a profitable-looking per-visit rate may not scale across buildings. Treat each cost line as a modeling input and replace it with your time sheets, supply receipts and account-specific travel.

The small office requires $1,750 ÷ 8 = $218.75 per visit. If it is outside your route, the assumed $680 nonlabor cost may be too low. The large site needs 200 cleaner-hours per month. Two cleaners available for 25 hours a week each supply roughly 200 cleaner-hours in a four-week schedule before leave, travel and other clients: the plan is already full. A larger building may require a dedicated shift or backup crew.

Now stress-test the standard office. If each visit needs five cleaner-hours instead of four, labor increases by 20 × $32 = $640. Total cost becomes $5,500; at the quoted $6,075, the margin falls to $575 ÷ $6,075 = 9.47%. A site walk and measured first week are worth more than a copied rate sheet. If your agreement permits it, specify how changed scope will be priced before accepting extra work.

How to run your own numbers

Enter average revenue per completed visit, the labor and supplies that rise with each visit, monthly fixed costs, owner pay, expected booked-to-completed visits and realistic team hours in the cleaning business break-even calculator. For a commercial contract, also keep a separate account-level schedule so its specific travel, supplies and invoice timing do not disappear into a company-wide average. The calculator supports other currencies if USD is not yours.

For background on which costs belong in monthly overhead, use the cleaning business monthly expenses guide. If you also quote homes, keep that distinct from this office-contract method and consult the house-cleaning pricing guide. A contract bid answers a different question from your overall cleaning business break-even target.

Common mistakes in commercial cleaning bids

• Pricing only by square feet: it ignores restroom counts, kitchen use, floors and service frequency.
• Using on-site time as paid time: setup, closing, transit and supervisory time still consume payroll or owner hours.
• Leaving out periodic work: a monthly floor task becomes an unpriced obligation if it is promised but not budgeted.
• Confusing markup with margin: a 20% markup on $4,860 is not a 20% margin.
• Assuming every invoice arrives immediately: delayed collections can leave an otherwise profitable account short of payroll cash.
• Quoting unspecified extras: define consumables, windows and event cleanups before they become disputes about scope.

Takeaways

• Inspect the building and describe the work before calculating price.
• Quote using cleaner-hours, direct account costs, allocated overhead and a clearly defined margin.
• Test the bid against your actual crew capacity and a slower first week.
• Give the client a written scope and a process for changes.

FAQs

How do I price an office cleaning contract per month?

Estimate paid hours for each visit, multiply by visits in the billing period and add account-specific supplies, travel, supervision and overhead. Divide by one minus your target margin. State the assumed number of visits, because months have different numbers of weekdays.

Is price per square foot enough for a commercial cleaning bid?

Use square footage as one scoping input, not the entire bid. Restrooms, kitchens, floor materials, traffic, access rules and cleaning frequency determine the actual workload.

Should I include travel time in the quote?

Yes, if travel and loading consume paid hours or restrict how many accounts a crew can serve. Allocate the specific trip to the account or distribute shared route cost consistently.

How should I bid periodic deep cleaning?

Name each periodic task and frequency, estimate its separate hours and materials, and either include its monthly allowance in the contract or quote it as approved extra work. Avoid calling it included while assigning no labor to it.

What is the difference between a 20% markup and 20% margin?

Markup divides profit by cost; margin divides profit by the client price. A $4,860 cost plus 20% markup is $5,832, while a 20% price margin requires $6,075.

Can a profitable cleaning contract still create a cash shortage?

Yes. Wages and supplies may be due before the customer's invoice is collected. Forecast collection dates and payroll dates separately from operating margin.

Explore the MyBreakeven guide library for related business planning guides.