Cleaning Job Profit Calculator

Start with a sample cleaning job. We’ve preloaded a realistic residential cleaning example using reasonable assumptions—not industry averages. Change the numbers to match your business. Hover over or tap a ? icon for guidance.

Step 1 · Revenue

How much does the customer pay for this cleaning job?

Customer price ($)

Step 2 · Labor

Include employee wages, paid travel time, and a realistic value for the owner's work.

Paid cleaners (excluding owner)

Cleaning hours per paid cleaner

Sample: 3 hours per employee. Enter hours per cleaner, not combined team hours.

Hourly wage per cleaner ($)

Sample: $18/hour per cleaner. Enter the gross hourly wage paid to each employee before adding employer payroll burden. Actual local wages vary.

Payroll burden (%)

What is payroll burden? Employer expenses above gross wages, including Social Security and Medicare, unemployment taxes, workers' compensation, and benefits. Employer Social Security and Medicare alone total 7.65%. The preloaded 15% is a planning estimate, not a universal cleaning-industry standard. Actual costs vary by location and business. Payroll burden applies to employee wages, not the owner's assigned time value.

Employer taxes, workers' comp, benefits, etc. on paid labor

Owner time (hours)

Count the owner's time. Include cleaning, driving, and administrative work performed by the owner for this job. Omitting owner labor can make a job appear more profitable than it really is.

Owner's cleaning, travel, and admin time combined

Owner's time value ($/hour)

Sample: $25/hour. Estimate a reasonable replacement cost for the owner's work or the compensation the owner aims to earn. This is a planning assumption, not an industry-wide standard.

Target compensation for owner's time

Paid travel/admin hours per cleaner

Sample: 0.5 hour per cleaner. Count paid travel or job-specific admin time that is not included in cleaning hours.

Paid time not already included in cleaning hours

Step 3 · Job Costs

Enter additional costs for this job. Avoid counting the same expense in two fields.

Supplies & consumables ($)

Sample: $8 per visit. Include chemicals, cloths, gloves, liners and consumables used for this job—not the full purchase price of a reusable bottle or vacuum. No reliable universal residential-cleaning per-job industry standard exists. Estimate usage per job or divide your monthly supply spend by jobs completed.

Vehicle / mileage expense ($)

Sample: $10 per visit. Include vehicle operating costs, or estimate business miles using a mileage-based allocation. The IRS standard business mileage rate is $0.76/mile for July–December 2026 (IRS source). For example, 13 miles × $0.76 = $9.88. The IRS rate is a tax/mileage benchmark, not a required cleaning-job charge. Keep employee drive-time wages in Labor.

Fuel, mileage or vehicle allocation; not wages

Other direct costs ($)

Sample: $0. Include parking, tolls, special equipment rentals or job-specific disposal charges. Enter only costs not already counted.

Overhead allocation ($)

Sample: $15 per job. Allocate recurring costs such as insurance, software, marketing, phone, and office expenses. For example, $600 in monthly overhead ÷ 40 jobs = $15 per job. This is an example, not an industry average. Avoid including costs already entered in other fields.

Insurance, software, rent, advertising, etc.

Payment processing fee (%)

Sample: 3%. Use the percentage your actual payment provider charges. If the customer pays by cash/check with no processing fee, enter 0.

Fixed processing fee ($)

Sample: $0.30. Some card processors charge a fixed amount per transaction in addition to a percentage. Replace with your actual provider fee, or enter 0.

Please use nonnegative numbers. Cleaner count must be a whole number.

How to read your results

Estimated job profit = customer price − employee labor − assigned owner labor − supplies − vehicle costs − other direct costs − overhead − processing fees.

Profit margin = estimated profit ÷ customer price × 100.

Break-even job price is the minimum price needed to cover the entered costs, including percentage-based processing fees (assuming a fee below 100%).

Profit per total work hour divides estimated profit by all entered worker-hours, including the owner's time. It's a comparison metric, not an employee hourly wage.

For a more accurate picture, use your real payroll costs, record paid drive time, allocate recurring expenses consistently, and enter a realistic value for the owner’s work.

Benchmark note: The 7.65% employer FICA rate is sourced from the IRS. Other prefilled costs are transparent illustrative assumptions, not industry-wide averages. For context, see Jobber’s example cleaning business budget. Actual payroll taxes, insurance, supplies and overhead vary.