Cleaning & janitorial
Cleaning Productivity Calculator
Work out production rate from measured cleaning times, which is the number the whole trade prices from.
Result
Not all unbilled time is waste. Travel, restocking, training and warranty calls are necessary and will never be zero. The useful question is whether the share is drifting, not whether it reaches 100%.
Get a Free Business AuditWhat moves the number
- Area type, since open plan, cellular, washroom and kitchen differ by a wide margin.
- Specification, because a light daily clean and a full clean of the same area are different rates.
- Equipment, since the right machine on a large floor changes the rate substantially.
Where this one goes wrong
Using published industry rates without checking them against your own sites. Published figures assume a specification and an equipment set that may not match yours, and a contract costed on a rate you cannot achieve loses money for its whole term.
Questions
About this calculator
How do I measure my own production rates?
Time cleaners on real areas at the standard you actually deliver, across several sites. It takes a few weeks and it is the single most valuable number a commercial cleaning business can have.
Why do published rates mislead?
Because they assume a specification, an equipment set and a building layout. Applied to a different situation they can be substantially optimistic.
Does equipment change the rate much?
On large open floors, dramatically. Machine selection is often the difference between a profitable contract and an unprofitable one on the same building.
The formula
utilisation = billed hours / paid hours
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How to use this calculator
- Paid hours per day. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 8.
- Hours that reach an invoice. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 5.2.
- Number of technicians. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 12.
- Rate charged per hour ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $55.
- Cost per paid hour ($). Wage plus burden.
- Working days per month. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 22.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to billable share of the day, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Paid hours per day | 8 |
| Hours that reach an invoice | 5.2 |
| Number of technicians | 12 |
| Rate charged per hour | $55 |
| Cost per paid hour | $34 |
| Working days per month | 22 |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Billable share of the day main result | 65.0% |
| Unbilled hours per month | 739 |
| Revenue those hours would have carried | $40,656 |
| What the unbilled hours cost in wages | $25,133 |
65.0% of the paid day reaches an invoice. The rest is 739 hours a month, costing $25,133 in wages and carrying $40,656 of revenue that never happened.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only rate charged per hour, this is what happens to billable share of the day. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Rate charged per hour ($) | Billable share of the day |
|---|---|
| $28 | 65.0% |
| $41 | 65.0% |
| $55 example above | 65.0% |
| $83 | 65.0% |
| $110 | 65.0% |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Paid hours per day
- A number, between 0 and 24, starting at 8.
- Hours that reach an invoice
- A number, between 0 and 24, starting at 5.2.
- Number of technicians
- A number, between 0 and 500, starting at 12.
- Rate charged per hour ($)
- A money amount, starting at $55.
- Cost per paid hour ($)
- Wage plus burden.
- Working days per month
- A number, between 0 and 31, starting at 22.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Billable share of the day | The headline result. A percentage. |
| Unbilled hours per month | A number. |
| Revenue those hours would have carried | A money figure. |
| What the unbilled hours cost in wages | A money figure. |
Time is the variable that bites
Pricing that works out on paper fails when the job takes longer than quoted. First cleans, heavily soiled sites and access problems all run over, so it is worth pricing the first visit separately from the recurring one.
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.