Cleaning quote software that gets quotes signed, not ignored

How to quote a cleaning job

Every cleaning quote is a guess about time. Get the time right and the price takes care of itself. Get it wrong and you either lose the job to a cheaper quote or clean for free. Here's how to quote a cleaning job so it's neither.

1. See the job first. A walkthrough, or photos and a short video from the customer. Count bedrooms and bathrooms, but look for what changes the time: pets, clutter, the state of the oven, and whether anyone has lived there lately.
2. Estimate the hours from your own jobs. Not a chart from the internet. Look at how long your last few cleans of the same type and size really took, and start there.
3. Pick the crew size. Two cleaners finish a 7-hour job in about 3.5 hours. Count cleaner-hours for the price and clock hours for the schedule.
4. Apply your rate. Your hourly rate per cleaner has to cover wages, supplies, travel, card fees and a margin. If you don't know your number, job costing will tell you.
5. Price the add-ons separately. The oven, the fridge, inside cabinets, inside windows. Customers like choosing them, and you're paid for the extra time.
6. Add a buffer. Move-outs and first-time deep cleans run long. Build that in now, not as an awkward phone call later.
7. Write the scope down. What's included, what isn't, and the price with tax. A quote without a scope is an argument waiting to happen.

A worked example: a 3-bedroom move-out

Here's how those steps add up for one job at a demo company, Your Cleaning Co. The tenant sent photos and a short video, so there was no site visit.

These are example numbers, not a price list. Your rate depends on your wages, your area and your margin. What matters is the method: hours from real jobs, a buffer for the jobs that run long, and add-ons priced on their own.

Why cleaning quotes stall

Most quotes don't get a no. They get nothing.

• The PDF nobody opens. It's attached to an email, it's three pages long, and it needs a laptop to read properly. The customer is on their phone.
• No deadline. Without an end date, there's no reason to decide today. Or this week. Or at all.
• No easy way to say yes. "Reply to confirm" means writing an email. Print, sign and scan means finding a printer. Every extra step is a place to stop.
• No reminder. You sent it on Tuesday. By Friday it's under forty other emails, and you're too busy cleaning to chase it.

Fix those four and you'll win quotes you're currently losing to silence, not to a cheaper competitor.

Cleaning quote software: quotes customers sign online

For larger or custom jobs, More Knocks sends a branded quote that the customer reviews and signs on their phone. No printing, no scanning, no app to download. They open a link, read the scope and sign right there.

Fields and tick boxes

Add fields and tick boxes for what the customer is agreeing to: the scope, the add-ons, your cancellation terms, that the fridge will be empty when the crew arrives. Every tick box is a conversation you don't have to have on the doorstep.

A locked copy once it's signed

Once the customer signs, the record is locked, so nobody can change it after the fact. Not you, not the customer, not your new office helper trying to be useful. If there's ever a disagreement, you both have the same version.

Linked to the booking

The signed quote links back to the booking, so it sits with the job page: the crew, the photos and the payments. When the crew wants to know if inside the cabinets was included, the answer is on the job, not in your inbox.

Service agreements, signed the same way

Send a service agreement when a booking is confirmed, and the customer signs it online. Signed agreements are locked against edits too, so you always have the version the customer agreed to.

Signing on a screen counts for most everyday agreements in Canada. In Ontario, the Electronic Commerce Act covers electronic signatures. If a contract is unusual or the stakes are high, check with a lawyer.

Scope offers: a base price plus add-ons

Some customers don't want a quote. They want to pick. A scope offer is a link where the customer starts from a base price, picks the extras they want, and sees one flat price. Then they pay a deposit to lock it in.

It turns the usual email chain upside down. Instead of "Can you add the fridge? How much for the windows? What if we skip the basement?", the customer builds the job themselves and watches the price change as they go. No back-and-forth over email to agree on the scope.

Scope offers work well for:

• Move-outs, where the tenant wants their deposit back and the landlord has opinions.
• Spring and deep cleans, where the extras are the whole point.
• Regulars asking for a one-off, like a deep clean before the holidays.

The deposit does more work than it looks like. A customer who has paid to lock in a scope has said yes with their card, not just with a thumbs-up emoji. That's a booking you can schedule a crew around.

Quoting cleaning jobs from customer photos

Half of a good quote is knowing what you're walking into. Customers can send photos of the space before you quote, from the booking form or from a link you email them. Large phone photos and videos both work, and the office gets an alert when they arrive.

A few tips for photos you can actually quote from:

• Ask for every room, not just the bad ones.
• Ask for the oven and the fridge with the doors open.
• A slow video walk-through beats twenty photos.
• On move-outs, ask what's being left behind.

Good photos often mean you don't need a site visit at all. That's an hour in the car you don't spend on a quote that might not book.

Changing the price fairly after the job

Sometimes the job really is bigger than the quote. The customer added the oven on the day. The "light clean" had a year of grease behind the stove.

In More Knocks, add a taxable price adjustment to the job. The receipt still shows the original quote next to the change, so the customer sees exactly why the total moved. Nothing is hidden and nothing is rewritten. More on receipts in invoices with the tax done.

Two rules keep it fair. Tell the customer before the crew leaves, not after the charge. And use adjustments for real surprises, not to fix a quote that was too low to begin with. If you're adjusting often, your quotes need a bigger buffer.

Following up cleaning quotes

Silence isn't a no. It's usually a busy person. Quotes that aren't answered can get a follow-up email, so the customer gets a nudge while you're out cleaning.

Keep follow-ups short and useful: the quote, the date it runs out, and one easy way to say yes. And if someone priced a clean on your website but didn't book, they get their own short series of follow-up emails. More on that in lead follow-up.

What every cleaning quote should say

Whatever you send quotes with, check them against this list before they go out: