How to price a cleaning job from cost upward

Start with total worker-hours. Two people working for three hours represent six worker-hours. Use your actual labor cost or a deliberate allowance for your own work; owner time is not free.

A five-hour example

Suppose a job takes five worker-hours at $30 per hour, with $40 of supplies and other direct expenses. Monthly fixed overhead is $600, spread over 100 billable worker-hours. That allocates $30 of overhead to this job, giving a starting cost of $220.

A 10% contingency allowance produces a buffered cost of $242. To model a 30% operating margin after a 3% payment fee and $0.50 fixed fee, divide $242.50 by 0.67: the target is $361.94 before sales tax.

Use your numbers, not these sample rates

These amounts illustrate the calculation; they are not recommended market rates. Include travel time, access delays, waste disposal or specialist materials where relevant. Count an expense once: monthly overhead should not also appear as a direct cost for the same item.

Check the job after completion

Compare estimated worker-hours and supplies with actual results. If the work regularly takes seven hours instead of five, change the estimate. At the example's other assumptions, the seven-hour target becomes $480.15.

Customer expectations, local demand and competitor offers still matter. The calculation reveals your modeled cost and margin so you can assess a price with clearer information.

Try the calculation with your own costs

The free calculator needs no signup. It does not save your entries.

Need a complete job worksheet?

Pricing Engine Core costs $29 USD once. It is a downloadable HTML tool you open in a desktop browser. Includes labor, direct expenses, overhead allocation and fee-aware pricing.