Cleaning Services
Labor-intensive businesses need tight payroll and expense tracking. We help commercial janitorial and residential cleaning companies understand their true costs and stay compliant.
The Industry
Cleaning businesses look simple on paper. You show up, you clean, you get paid. But once you have employees, multiple clients, and supplies to track, the financial side gets complicated fast. Most cleaning companies start as one person with a car and some supplies. Then you get busy enough to hire help. Suddenly you have payroll obligations, workers comp requirements, and the question of whether those workers are employees or independent contractors.
The growth is usually organic. You take on more clients than you can handle yourself. You bring someone on to help. Then another person. Before long you are running crews and managing schedules instead of actually cleaning. The business changed, but maybe the bookkeeping never caught up.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Commercial janitorial companies, residential maid services, office cleaning crews, post-construction cleanup specialists, and move-out cleaning businesses. Anyone running cleaning crews in the Phoenix area.
The Challenge
The Challenge
Multiple payment methods coming in. Cash from residential clients, checks from property managers, credit cards through scheduling apps. Expenses scattered across supply runs, equipment purchases, and vehicle costs. Hours that vary week to week. It all needs to come together somewhere.
What We Handle
We manage the ongoing bookkeeping and the compliance pieces that cleaning businesses need. Every expense gets categorized properly. Every payment gets recorded. Your books stay current month to month instead of becoming a year-end emergency. We reconcile all your accounts and make sure the numbers actually match what happened.
Payroll is often the biggest headache for cleaning companies. Hours fluctuate. Staff comes and goes. We handle payroll processing, tax deposits, and filings so you are not scrambling every pay period. For businesses using contractors, we track payments and ensure 1099s are handled correctly at year end.
Employee Classification
Employee Classification
We help you understand the distinction between employees and independent contractors. The IRS has specific rules, and cleaning businesses are frequently audited on this point. Having clean records and proper documentation protects you from expensive surprises.
Client Profitability
Client Profitability
Not every client is worth keeping. Some contracts look good on paper but eat up too much time and supplies. We can track revenue and expenses by client or contract type so you see which relationships are actually generating profit for you.
Common Problems
The most common issue we see is the contractor versus employee question. Many cleaning business owners start by paying workers as 1099 contractors because it seems simpler. No payroll taxes, no workers comp, no extra paperwork. But if you are telling them when to show up, what to clean, and how to do it, they are employees in the eyes of the IRS. Misclassification penalties add up fast and can include back taxes, interest, and fines.
Another problem is not knowing your real costs. You bid a job at $150, but by the time you pay the cleaner, buy the supplies, and account for drive time, you might be making very little. Or losing money entirely. Without tracking by job or client, you never really know which work is profitable.
Cash Gets Messy
Cash Gets Messy
Residential cleaning often involves cash payments. If you are not depositing and recording every dollar, your books will not match reality. This creates problems at tax time and makes it impossible to know your actual revenue. Untracked cash also looks suspicious if you ever get audited.
Workers Comp Surprises
Workers Comp Surprises
When the insurance auditor shows up and your payroll records are incomplete or disorganized, you end up paying more than you should. Proper payroll tracking by job classification keeps your premium where it belongs and avoids painful year-end adjustments.
What Changes
You get clarity on the numbers. You know what you actually made last month, not a guess based on your bank balance. You know which clients generate real profit and which ones just create work. Bidding new contracts becomes easier because you have actual cost data to work from instead of rough estimates.
Payroll stops being a crisis every two weeks. Employees get paid correctly and on time. Tax deposits happen when they should. When it is time to file quarterly or year-end reports, everything is already prepared and organized.
Scaling Becomes Possible
Scaling Becomes Possible
Growing a cleaning business requires knowing your margins. You need to understand how much it costs to add another crew, another vehicle, another route. Clean books give you that foundation. You can grow based on actual numbers instead of hoping it works out.
Tax Time Gets Easier
Tax Time Gets Easier
Your accountant receives organized records with expenses categorized properly. Mileage, supplies, equipment, labor. Everything in its place. The conversation becomes about strategy and tax planning instead of scrambling to reconstruct the previous year.
Full-Service Bookkeeping for Greater Phoenix
The Next Step:
A Quick Conversation
Tell us about your situation. We'll listen, ask a few questions, and give you a clear price to handle the work.