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Level
Cleaning

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.

See Cleaning Benchmarks

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.

Learn more →

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

CapabilityBookkeeperCPALevel
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 operationsRarelyRarely

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.

QuickBooks OnlineQuickBooks DesktopXeroJobberHousecall ProGustoADPStripe

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.
Owner · $4M commercial cleaning & janitorial
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.
President · $3M specialty cleaning
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.
Owner · $6M multi-site janitorial

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.

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Or have us reach out instead.

Drop your info and Level will review your cleaning numbers within a few hours. Free audit included.

2,200+ service businesses benchmarked$13.25B in revenue analyzedWeekly action cadence

No credit card. 15-min audit. We only follow up if we can actually help.

No commitment. Real numbers, not generic advice.