Cleaning & Janitorial Services
Payroll eats most of your revenue. If you don't know what each job actually costs, you're guessing at prices and hoping for the best.
You Started With a Mop
Nobody opens a cleaning business because they love accounting. You started because you were good at the work. Maybe you cleaned houses on the side. Maybe you picked up a few commercial contracts. Clients kept coming back. Referrals started flowing. Eventually you had more work than you could handle alone.
So you hired help. And that’s when everything changed. Suddenly you’re dealing with payroll taxes, workers comp, scheduling across multiple job sites, tracking supplies, and figuring out which contracts are actually profitable. The cleaning part stayed simple. The business part got complicated fast.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Residential cleaning companies, commercial janitorial services, office cleaning crews, window washing operations, carpet and floor care specialists, and post-construction cleanup services throughout the Merrimack Valley and Greater Boston.
The Real Challenge
The Real Challenge
Labor is your biggest expense. Payroll might run 50% or 60% of revenue. When that number is off, when you’re not tracking hours correctly or missing the true cost per job, your whole financial picture is distorted. You can’t price correctly if you don’t know what you’re spending.
Where the Money Goes
Cleaning businesses have a payroll problem. Not that you can’t make payroll. The problem is that payroll is complicated and time-consuming and one mistake triggers penalties. You have employees working different hours at different locations. Some weeks are heavy, some are light. Overtime calculations depend on getting hours tracked correctly. Tax deposits are due on schedule whether you remembered or not.
Beyond payroll, you need to know what each job actually costs. That commercial contract paying $2,000 a month sounds good until you realize you’re spending $2,300 in labor and supplies to service it. Without job-level tracking, profitable contracts subsidize losing ones and you never see it happening.
Payroll Management
Payroll Management
We handle the full payroll cycle. Time tracking reconciliation, wage calculations, tax withholdings, direct deposits, quarterly filings, and year-end W-2s. You focus on scheduling crews. We make sure everyone gets paid correctly and the government gets their cut on time.
Job Costing
Job Costing
Labor hours and supply costs tracked by client or contract. You see exactly what each job costs, not just what you charge for it. This tells you which contracts to keep, which need a price increase, and which might not be worth the trouble.
Where Things Go Wrong
The biggest risk in this industry is worker classification. Many cleaning company owners pay their workers as 1099 contractors when they’re legally employees. It saves money in the short term. No payroll taxes, no workers comp, no unemployment insurance. But Massachusetts takes this seriously. The state’s independent contractor test is one of the strictest in the country. Get it wrong and you face back taxes, penalties, and potential lawsuits.
The other common problem is flying blind on profitability. You know you’re busy. You know money is coming in. But you don’t actually know which jobs make money. A residential client who pays $150 every two weeks might be more profitable than a commercial account paying $1,500 a month. Without real numbers, you end up chasing revenue instead of profit.
Misclassification Risk
Misclassification Risk
If your workers use your equipment, follow your schedule, and work only for you, they’re probably employees under Massachusetts law. We help you structure things correctly from the start or clean up past mistakes before they become audit problems.
Underpriced Contracts
Underpriced Contracts
You bid a job three years ago based on a rough estimate. Wages went up, supply costs increased, the job takes longer than you expected. But the price stayed the same. Without tracking actual costs, you don’t know which contracts are underwater until cash flow gets tight.
What Changes
You stop guessing and start knowing. Each contract shows its true profitability. You can have informed conversations with clients about price increases instead of hoping they’ll accept whatever number you come up with. When you bid on new work, you use real cost data, not estimates from memory.
The compliance worry goes away. Payroll runs correctly. Workers are classified properly. Tax deposits happen on time. You’re not wondering if you’re doing something wrong or waiting for a letter from the state. The business runs cleaner, which is probably what you wanted all along.
Pricing Confidence
Pricing Confidence
You know your labor cost per hour, your supply cost per job, and your true overhead. When a potential client asks for a bid, you can price it accurately. When an existing client pushes back on an increase, you have the numbers to explain why.
Room to Grow
Room to Grow
Clean financials support growth. When you want to hire another crew, buy a vehicle, or bid on larger commercial contracts, you have organized records that show exactly where the business stands. Banks and landlords see a real business, not a scramble of receipts and guesswork.
The Merrimack Valley's Trusted Accounting Partner
The Next Step:
A 15-Minute Call
Tell us about your business and what you're dealing with. We'll listen, ask a few questions, and give you a straightforward quote.