Cleaning bid glossary
Use the same meanings when reviewing a cleaning scope, time estimate and client price with your team.
- Scope of work
- The areas, tasks, frequencies, responsibilities and exclusions that define the cleaning service being priced.
- Walkthrough
- A site visit to review cleanable quantities, access, conditions and the service expectations before preparing a scope.
- Cleanable area
- The measured floor area included in a particular task, which may differ from a building’s total floor area.
- Person-hours
- Total labor time across all cleaners. Two people working one hour account for two person-hours.
- Production rate
- A task-specific relationship between work quantity and productive time, such as square feet per hour or minutes per fixture.
- Visit frequency
- How often a task is performed. A weekly schedule and a one-time job need different quantity and timing assumptions.
- Task quantity
- The area, fixture count or other measured units to which a task’s production rate applies.
- Transition time
- Time allowed for activities around productive tasks, such as setup, movement and restocking. Review the allowance for the actual site.
- Burdened labor cost
- The hourly labor cost after the employer-paid costs included in the company’s reviewed assumptions. Check which costs are included before using the number.
- Direct cost
- A cost assigned to the cleaning work, such as its labor, supplies or equipment.
- Overhead
- Other business costs that need an explicit allocation when deciding what a contract must cover.
- Client price
- The amount offered to the client for the agreed scope and pricing period.
- Margin
- Profit as a share of client price: (price − cost) / price.
- Markup
- Profit as a share of cost: (price − cost) / cost.
- Recurring bid
- A scope priced for repeat service over a stated period, with task frequencies made clear.
- One-time job
- A defined job priced as a whole, with the number of task occurrences included in that job.
- Exclusion
- Work or conditions expressly outside the offered scope, so the client and cleaner can review additional needs.
- Change order
- An agreed adjustment to an existing scope, schedule or price.
Work through the quantities in the cleaning time calculator, review employer labor assumptions and compare task reference units.