Method & worked examples · Updated 1 November 2026
Cleaning quotes: margin and markup are different
Before choosing a cleaning price, decide what your percentage means. A markup is added to cost. A margin is the share of the customer price left after the costs you have included.
One fictional visit, two different prices
Suppose one cleaner spends three hours on site at a complete labor cost of $20 per hour. Include the owner’s time when the owner does the work. Add $10 of paid travel labor, $5 of supplies and $5 of allocated overhead. The modeled job cost is $80.
Adding a 30% markup gives $80 × 1.30 = $104. The modeled profit is $24, and $24 ÷ $104 is approximately 23.08% of revenue.
A 30% job margin instead requires $80 ÷ (1 − 0.30), or approximately $114.29. That leaves approximately $34.29 before income tax and any costs you have not entered. Display rounding can change the exact percentage slightly.
Use a consistent cost boundary
Our calculator includes on-site labor, paid travel labor, vehicle costs, supplies, allocated overhead and other dollar costs entered by you. The result is called job margin before income tax. It is not a standard accounting gross-margin or company net-income report.
Do not count a cost twice. If your loaded hourly labor cost already includes a payroll burden, do not add the same burden again in “Other.” If paid travel time is included in travel labor, keep it outside your on-site hours.
Make the estimate, then agree the customer price
The calculator answers what price matches a chosen margin under your assumptions. It does not establish the going price in your area, confirm a customer’s willingness to pay, or create a service agreement. Review the service scope and agree the actual price before work starts.
When the job is finished, record the actual hours and costs. A precise formula cannot correct an inaccurate estimate.
All money examples are in USD. Calculations use your inputs and exclude automatic sales tax, income tax and percentage payment fees. No result is a promise of profit.