Know which cleaning accounts actually make money
Commercial cleaning companies do not usually stall because they need cleaner bookkeeping. They stall because revenue grows faster than account-level gross margin, payroll timing, SG&A planning, and contract-by-contract visibility. Level connects scheduling, payroll, billing, and books so operators scaling from $1M to $10M, and $10M to $50M+, can see which accounts deserve more labor, which need repricing, and where cash gets trapped.
The Cleaning Problem
Most cleaning owners know total revenue. The best ones know margin by account, crew, and contract.
A commercial cleaning company scaling from $1M toward $50M does not need a prettier P&L first. It needs to know whether each building, route, and supervisor pod can produce a healthy net profit after cleaner hours, overtime, supplies, travel time, payroll taxes, and management overhead.
Commercial contracts can hide margin decay for months. Scope creep shows up as extra trash runs, after-hours requests, seasonal deep cleans, callbacks, and supervisor time that never made it into the original bid. If the account is only reviewed at renewal, the bad margin has already compounded.
The stack usually tells the story in fragments: accounting software for books, payroll systems for wages, time-tracking or scheduling tools for labor, inspection apps for quality, and spreadsheets for budgets. Level's job is to connect those fragments into one account-level margin view.
Analyzed with the CLEAR Framework
Cash · Labor · Earnings · Accounts · Risk, the five pillars we evaluate for every company.
CFO visibility
What a scaling commercial cleaning company should see every week
The useful CFO view is not a generic dashboard. It is a short list of accounts, crews, and cash items that management can act on before the month is over.
Free audit output
The first margin leak by account
We start by showing one concrete leak: an underpriced building, a route with labor drift, a supervisor pod carrying too much rework, or a cash timing gap caused by slow-paying customers.
Account margin
Gross margin by building or contract
Revenue, regular cleaner hours, overtime, supplies, supervisor time, travel time, callbacks, and overhead allocation in one account-level view.
Labor control
Cleaner hours vs. bid hours
Which contracts are using more labor than priced, which supervisors are protecting margin, and where overtime is becoming a hidden discount.
Cash timing
Payroll due before cash collected
Commercial cleaning can grow into cash stress because payroll is weekly while clients pay later. The report should show the gap before it hurts.
SG&A planning
Department budget vs. growth plan
Scaling toward $50M requires managers, quality control, admin, sales, and finance capacity. Level models the headcount before it hits the P&L.
Renewal queue
Which contracts need scope or price reset
We turn account margin into an action list before renewal: labor hours over bid, complaint/rework cost, supply burden, payment terms, and the price needed to protect the account.
Cleaning Industry Benchmarks
How do the best cleaning companies perform? Data from our analysis of 2,200+ contractors.
Net Profit Target
10-20%
A useful range for scaled commercial cleaning, but only if account-level gross margin supports it.
Labor as % Revenue
40-60%
The biggest lever. Track by account, building, crew, route, and service type, not only company-wide.
Gross Margin
40-55%
Commercial and specialty work can support the high end when scope and labor hours are controlled.
Contract Retention
80-90%
Recurring revenue is valuable only when renewals reprice labor inflation and scope creep.
Revenue Milestone
$1M to $50M+
Where spreadsheets, one P&L, and owner memory stop being enough for account-level decisions.
Data Systems
5+
Books, payroll, scheduling, inspections, billing, and budget spreadsheets usually disagree.
What Level Does for Cleaning Companies
Account-Level Gross Margin
We break down every account by revenue, cleaner hours, payroll burden, supplies, travel time, supervisor time, callbacks, and overhead allocation. You see which contracts make money, which ones need scope control, and which ones need repricing.
Cleaner Hours vs. Bid Hours
We compare actual cleaner hours to the labor hours priced into each contract. That shows where overtime, route changes, quality issues, and informal client requests are turning good accounts into bad ones.
Payroll and Cash Flow Planning
Commercial cleaning has a timing mismatch: payroll leaves before many clients pay. We build rolling cash forecasts that tie payroll, billing, collections, and growth investments together.
Department and SG&A Budgeting
Scaling a cleaning company requires more than crews. We help plan supervisor capacity, quality control, admin, sales, and finance overhead so growth does not quietly erase net profit.
Software Stack Reconciliation
We reconcile the messy middle across Xero or QuickBooks, payroll, scheduling, inspection tools, billing, and spreadsheets so owners stop debating which number is right.
Free Account Margin Audit
Before a paid engagement, we review the current P&L, payroll timing, scheduling exports, billing cadence, and account list. The deliverable is simple: which accounts look profitable, which ones need a deeper margin build, and which data gaps must be fixed first.
Renewal and Repricing Support
We turn margin leakage into renewal language: what changed, what it costs, what scope needs to move, and what price protects the account without guessing.
Bookkeeper, your CPA, vs. Level
| Capability | Bookkeeper | CPA | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Record transactions | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| File taxes | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Contract profitability analysis | — | — | ✓ |
| Cash flow forecasting | — | — | ✓ |
| Benchmark against industry | — | — | ✓ |
| Monthly strategy calls | — | — | ✓ |
| Labor cost by crew & route | — | — | ✓ |
| Cleaner hours vs. bid hours | — | — | ✓ |
| SG&A budget by department | — | — | ✓ |
| Client concentration monitoring | — | — | ✓ |
| Growth & acquisition modeling | — | — | ✓ |
| Understands cleaning operations | Rarely | Rarely | ✓ |
Your bookkeeper records the past. Your CPA files taxes. Level is the operating layer in between, it connects the work to the money and shows you how to make more from the people you already have.
We connect to the tools you already use
15-minute setup. Read-only access. Your data stays secure.
Cleaning Insights
Data-driven articles for companies who want to see the numbers.
Commercial Cleaning Account Margin Playbook
Why cleaning companies scaling from $1M to $50M need account-level margin before more revenue.
Read more
Cleaning Company Benchmarks
Labor cost, retention, turnover, pricing, and financial benchmark ranges for cleaning operators.
Read more
Why You Don't Know Your Real Job Margin
The same margin-blindness pattern shows up across service businesses, not just contractors.
Read more
From clients
What cleaning operators say after working with us.
“Commercial janitorial, 80+ accounts, and I had no idea which were actually profitable. Sam built a per-account P&L with loaded labor and supply allocation. 14 accounts were losing money, repriced 9, dropped 5. EBITDA up $210K the first year and I'm working with fewer headaches.”
“Specialty cleaning (post-construction punch-out) and our labor mix was killing margin, too many hourly guys doing skilled work. Sam mapped role cost vs work type and we restructured the crew. Revenue per labor hour up 22%, payroll down 11%. Same revenue, way more profitable.”
“Multi-route janitorial and our supervisors were running their sites like little kingdoms, nobody was tracking site-level P&L. Sam set up a monthly site scorecard. Two sites were eating $40K/yr in unaccounted supplies and overtime. Fixed the worst one in 60 days, the other got dropped at contract renewal.”
Simple pricing
Three tiers, one ladder.
$99-$500/mo
Bookkeeping
The clean data layer: monthly books, reconciliations, and organized financials AI can work with.
$1,500-$5,000/mo
Scale
The full AI operating layer: custom agents, weekly actions, and benchmarks to grow margin per hour.
Custom
Platform / Multi-Office
Multi-branch benchmarking and scorecards for PE-backed and multi-location groups.
Book a call
Book a free 15-min Cleaning audit.
We'll review your cleaning numbers, benchmark them, and tell you what to fix first. No commitment.
Or have us reach out instead.
Drop your info and Level will review your cleaning numbers within a few hours. Free audit included.
No commitment. Real numbers, not generic advice.