Commercial cleaning bid checklist

Blank operator checklist — pair with the CSV worksheet. Do not price from a national $/sqft “market rate.”
Illustrative process only. Not a wage determination, SCA advice, insurance quote, or guarantee that any bid wins.

1. Scope

☐ Walk the site (or review plans) and write the SOW: areas, frequencies, exclusions, day vs night, security/keys
☐ Record facility type and whether the buyer is private commercial or government
☐ Note square footage only as a scope descriptor — hours come from the walk-through

2. Labor hours (productive + paid time)

☐ Estimate productive cleaner-hours per clean
☐ Enter paid travel hours separately from fuel/mileage dollars
☐ Enter paid training / leave / other non-productive paid time, or a utilization % (productive ÷ total paid)
☐ Add supervision / QC hours (do not bury twice in overhead)
☐ Multiply by cleans per month from the contract calendar
☐ Load labor on total paid hours (or productive ÷ utilization) — not productive hours alone

3. Wage + employer burden

☐ Enter your actual offer wages (or SCA WD if federal/DC covered — look up on SAM.gov; do not invent)
☐ Check separate state/local wage or prevailing rules when they apply
☐ Apply employer burden % from your payroll/WC/tax reality (FICA + unemployment + WC allocation + other)
☐ Cross-check loaded labor with the site employee-cost calculator

4. Non-labor

☐ Supplies / consumables for this account
☐ Equipment allocation (amortized share)
☐ Travel fuel/mileage dollars (paid travel TIME already in labor hours)
☐ Job overhead allocation (admin, software, GL insurance share)

5. Margin vs markup → package price

☐ Choose a margin target (profit ÷ price) or a markup on cost — they are not the same math
☐ Convert monthly price to per-clean if the buyer wants a visit rate
☐ Confirm insurance COIs and cash runway before bidding / hiring

StartBusinessByState.com · companion to How to Price a Commercial Cleaning Contract