How do I know if a recurring cleaning client is profitable?

What to do

• Use actual labor time, not only the original estimate.
• Include payroll burden and overhead, not just hourly wages.
• Review the account when scope, travel or service time changes materially.

The basic calculation

Profit = revenue - total job cost. Profit margin = profit ÷ revenue × 100. Total job cost should include loaded labor, supplies, travel or parking and a reasonable allocation of overhead.

Worked example

A biweekly customer pays $220 per visit. Loaded labor is $118, supplies are $12, travel is $10 and allocated overhead is $20. Total cost is $160, profit is $60 and margin is about 27.3%. That number can then be compared with the business's own target and the opportunity cost of the time slot.

Why recurring clients can drift

The home may add rooms, pets, occupants or tasks. The customer may expect extras that were not included originally. Travel can become inefficient as routes change. Small increases in service time are easy to miss because the relationship feels stable.

What to track for each recurring account

Keep a simple record over several visits.

• Price per visit
• Cleaner-hours actually used
• Loaded labor cost
• Supplies and travel
• Scope changes or recurring extras
• Profit and margin trend

What to do if the margin is weak

First verify the numbers. Then decide whether the solution is a scope correction, route change, productivity improvement, frequency change or price increase. Do not automatically raise price when an internal process problem is the real cause.

Create a recurring account review trigger

Do not wait until the account obviously feels unprofitable. Use a periodic review cadence that fits your customer volume, and trigger an earlier review when service time, scope, staffing cost or travel changes materially. The goal is to detect drift while you still have several options: reset scope, improve routing, change frequency, improve productivity or update the price.

• Compare recent actual hours with the original estimate
• Flag accounts whose margin trend is declining
• Note scope additions that were never repriced
• Review route or travel changes before blaming the customer price