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Level
Cleaning

Know which cleaning accounts actually make money

Revenue growth can outpace account-level gross-margin, payroll-timing and contract visibility. Check the account-level records before deciding whether bookkeeping, pricing, scheduling or another process needs attention. 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

Looking for the detailed percentage analysis? Read the cleaning labor-cost percentage analysis

Company revenue does not show 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.

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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 look for the first concrete margin issue the supplied data supports: 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. If no issue is established or exports are incomplete, we return the unanswered questions and required records.

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 where payroll runs weekly or biweekly while clients pay on longer terms. 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 Benchmarks and Planning Inputs

Use Level observations as cross-trade context. Other cards are planning scenarios, not measured industry percentiles. Match your business model, period and cost definition before comparing.

Net Margin Scenario

10-20%

Planning inputs to test, not measured industry percentiles: Independent optimistic 10-20% net-margin scenario for a fictional specialty commercial-cleaning mix after loaded labor, supplies, vehicles, supervision and overhead. This is not derived from the lower office-janitorial planning bands on the benchmark page. It cannot be combined with unrelated gross-margin and labor scenarios as one observed company.

Labor as % Revenue

40-60%

Planning inputs to test, not measured industry percentiles: Independent 40-60% labor-to-revenue sensitivity. Include paid travel, supervision, overtime and employer costs; compare account and route scope before calling an hour waste.

Gross Margin

40-55%

Planning inputs to test, not measured industry percentiles: Independent 40-55% gross-margin scenario after defined direct account costs. Match supplies and supervision treatment before comparing with labor-to-revenue inputs.

Contract Retention

80-90%

Planning inputs to test, not measured industry percentiles: Planning account-count retention: opening eligible accounts still contracted at period end divided by opening eligible accounts, over a stated annual window. Repricing is a separate margin question.

Revenue Milestone

$1M to $50M+

Planning inputs to test, not measured industry percentiles: A $1M to $50M+ revenue span is a planning audience, not a measured point where spreadsheets fail. Account count, crew structure and available records determine the required workflow.

Data Systems

5+

Planning inputs to test, not measured industry percentiles: A fictional stack can include five or more sources: books, payroll, scheduling, inspections, billing and budgets. Inventory what your business actually uses and reconcile identifiers and cutoff.

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What Level Does for Cleaning

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 available approved connections or exports across books, payroll, scheduling, inspection tools, billing and spreadsheets, identifying unsupported scope before combining records.

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

Comparison illustrates engagement scopes, not a survey of providers. Confirm each firm's actual services, cadence and contract; Level features depend on the agreed scope and available records.

CapabilityBookkeeperCPALevel
Record transactions✓No✓
Tax-ready books and CPA handoff✓✓✓
Contract profitability analysisNoNo✓
Cash flow forecastingNoNo✓
Compare verified benchmarks or planning scenariosNoNo✓
Monthly strategy callsNoNo✓
Labor cost by crew & routeNoNo✓
Cleaner hours vs. bid hoursNoNo✓
SG&A budget by departmentNoNo✓
Client concentration monitoringNoNo✓
Growth & acquisition modelingNoNo✓
Understands cleaning operationsVaries by engagementVaries by engagement✓

Your bookkeeper records the past. Your CPA files taxes. Level helps your team connect work, costs and cash to the decisions ahead, using the records and review scope agreed for your engagement.

Work from the tools you already use

Accounting tools hold your books; operating tools hold jobs, sales or service records; payroll and payment tools show labor costs and money movement. We compare the relevant records to answer your financial question. These are systems to evaluate, not a promise of a native connector for every product. Access and setup vary by software, plan and permissions. We use approved connections or exports and request read-only access where supported.

QuickBooks OnlineQuickBooks DesktopXeroJobberHousecall ProGustoADPStripe

Operating review

Cleaning decisions the numbers should explain

The margin, cash, and operating questions we check first when reviewing your numbers.

Which contract funds its actual staffing requirement?

Revenue per account can conceal differences in hours, coverage and service obligations.

Evidence to request: Compare the contracted scope with complete labor and supply costs for the same account.

Do reported hours match the payroll population?

A timekeeping export and a completed payroll run may use different dates and people.

Evidence to request: Reconcile worker identity and earned service periods before using the labor total for pricing.

Which additional service is approved and billable?

A request, completed task and issued invoice are different evidence states.

Evidence to request: Trace authorization and billing for additional work instead of assuming every extra task generated revenue.

Simple pricing

Three tiers, one ladder.

$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 company records and compare supported measures with relevant references or planning inputs. No commitment.

Preparing the calendar.

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Or have us reach out instead.

Share your details and Level will follow up to arrange your company financial review.

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

No credit card. Start with a 15-min call. We only follow up if we can actually help.

No commitment. Real numbers, not generic advice.