Cleaning Services
Labor is your biggest expense and your biggest variable. We track costs by contract so you know exactly which jobs are worth keeping and which ones need to be repriced.
More Moving Parts Than It Looks
Cleaning looks straightforward from the outside. Show up, do the work, get paid. But behind every route and schedule is a business that runs on tight margins and high labor costs. Crew wages, payroll taxes, insurance, supplies, vehicle expenses, and equipment all come out of that revenue before you see a dollar of profit. When labor alone is eating 50 to 60 percent of what you bring in, there is very little room for waste or sloppy tracking.
The other challenge is the mix. You might have recurring commercial contracts billed monthly alongside residential clients who pay the same day. Some weeks the schedule is packed and crews are stretched thin. Other weeks a big account pauses or goes seasonal and the revenue drops while payroll stays the same. Managing all of that requires more financial attention than most cleaning business owners have time for while also running crews.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Commercial janitorial companies, residential cleaning services, pressure washing businesses, window cleaning operations, post-construction cleanup crews, and move-in/move-out specialists. Any cleaning business in Long Beach, the South Bay, or Greater LA managing crews and juggling client accounts.
The Real Challenge
The Real Challenge
You started by doing the work yourself. You were good at it and clients kept coming. Now you’re managing a team, bidding jobs, chasing invoices, and trying to figure out whether the business is actually profitable. The financial side got complicated fast and it probably didn’t get the attention it needed along the way.
What We Handle
We set up your books so you can see profitability by client or contract. Every dollar of labor, supplies, and overhead gets tracked against what you’re billing. This way you’re not just looking at a total revenue number and hoping the bank account stays positive. You can actually see which accounts are making you money and which ones are quietly costing you.
Beyond the monthly bookkeeping, we manage invoicing and bill payment to keep cash moving. We handle 1099 preparation for any subcontractors you bring in. And if your QuickBooks Online needs to be set up properly or cleaned up from a rough start, we take care of that too. Everything is built around giving you organized, accurate numbers you can trust without spending your evenings on it.
Contract-Level Tracking
Contract-Level Tracking
Revenue and expenses tied to specific clients or contracts. You see what each account actually costs to service when you factor in labor hours, supplies, drive time, and your share of overhead. That information drives better pricing and better decisions about which accounts to keep, renegotiate, or walk away from.
Invoicing and Cash Flow
Invoicing and Cash Flow
Cleaning businesses live and die by cash flow. Commercial clients on net 30 or net 60 terms while you pay crews every week creates a gap that can choke the business. We handle your invoicing so nothing slips through the cracks. Bills get paid on time. You stop chasing payments and start seeing a clearer picture of what’s coming in and going out.
Where Things Get Messy
A lot of cleaning business owners don’t know which contracts are profitable. They look at total revenue, subtract total expenses, and assume the rest is profit. But that math hides a lot. One big commercial account might bring in $4,000 a month but cost $4,200 to service when you factor in the extra crew hours, supplies, and drive time. Meanwhile a smaller residential route is quietly generating better margins. Without tracking at the contract level, you can’t see it and you keep pouring resources into the wrong accounts.
California adds another layer of complexity. Worker classification rules are strict here. If you’re using independent contractors to fill shifts or handle overflow work, the state has very specific criteria for what qualifies as a contractor versus an employee. Getting this wrong leads to penalties and back taxes that can be devastating for a small business. Clean records and proper classification from the start prevent a problem that’s much harder to fix after the fact.
Growing Without Visibility
Growing Without Visibility
Adding a crew feels like progress. More people, more accounts, more revenue. But if you don’t know your actual costs per contract, growth can mean losing money faster. We’ve seen businesses that doubled their revenue and somehow had less cash at the end of the month. The numbers have to be tracked before you scale, not after you realize something went wrong.
Starting From Behind
Starting From Behind
Many cleaning businesses spend their first year or two with no real bookkeeping in place. Receipts are scattered, transactions are uncategorized, and tax time becomes a scramble. We offer catch-up bookkeeping to bring everything current and get your records on solid ground so you’re not dragging a mess forward into every new year.
What Gets Clearer
You stop guessing at your pricing. When you know what it actually costs to service a commercial building three nights a week, you can price the next similar bid with confidence. You can also renegotiate contracts that aren’t working instead of holding onto them out of fear of losing revenue. The data gives you a position to stand on.
The stress around tax season and record-keeping fades. Your books are closed every month. Your 1099s are ready in January. Your profit and loss statement and balance sheet tell an accurate story. If you need to show financials to a bank for a vehicle loan or a line of credit, the documents are there. You focus on running your crews and growing the business while the numbers stay organized in the background.
Confident Pricing
Confident Pricing
Historical data shows what each type of job actually costs. Weekly office cleanings, post-construction projects, residential deep cleans. You bid new work based on real numbers instead of gut feelings or whatever the competitor down the street charges. Your bids reflect your actual costs and your actual margins.
Room to Grow
Room to Grow
Clean financials let you plan ahead. You know when you can afford to add another crew, buy a new vehicle, or take on bigger contracts. Growth becomes a decision grounded in what the numbers support instead of a leap you take and hope works out. That’s how cleaning businesses in LA go from surviving to building something lasting.
Long Beach's Trusted Bookkeeping Partner
The Next Step:
A Quick Discovery Call
Tell us where things stand with your books. We'll listen, ask a few questions, and give you a clear quote to get it handled.
