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Commercial Cleaning profit margins

What one-owner commercial cleaning businesses report to the IRS, where the money goes on a commercial cleaning job, and a calculator to check your own margin.

84.3%Gross margin, IRS sector
21.2%Net margin incl. owner pay
$36,687Average receipts per return
What do you want to work out?
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$
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Leave at 15% if you do not know it yet. The business mode works it out.
Gross margin
35.7%
$1,250 over job costs
55.6%Markup
$725Net profit
20.7%Net margin
Free. Your numbers become an estimate you can send from your phone.

How we got this

  1. Job cost$1,200 materials + $900 labor + $150 other = $2,250
  2. Gross profit$3,500 − $2,250 = $1,250
  3. Gross margin$1,250 ÷ $3,500 price = 35.7%
  4. Markup$1,250 ÷ $2,250 cost = 55.6%
  5. Overhead share15% of $3,500 = $525
  6. Net profit$1,250 − $525 = $725 (20.7%)
MarkupGives a margin of
25%20%
33%24.8%
43%30.1%
50%33.3%
67%40.1%
100%50%

Commercial Cleaning profit margin benchmarks

The IRS reports what one-owner businesses filing Schedule C earn, by sector. Commercial Cleaning falls under Administrative and support services. For tax year 2023, 3,118,914 returns reported $114.4 billion in receipts, $17.9 billion in cost of sales and $24.2 billion in net income less deficit (the table gives thousands of dollars):

BenchmarkValue
Gross margin84.3%
Net margin, owner pay included21.2%
Average receipts per return$36,687
Average net income per return$7,769

The owner's own draw is not an expense on a Schedule C, so that net margin is mostly the owner's wage, not profit on top of it.

Where the money goes in commercial cleaning

Commercial cleaning is almost all labor, so the production rate a crew can hold decides whether a bid makes money.

For a worked example, our house cleaning cost calculator puts office or commercial clean at $0.09 to $0.20 a sq ft a visit, typical $0.14, and treats about 65% of that as labor. On the typical price, that is about $0.09 of labor and $0.05 of materials, equipment and everything else, before your overhead and profit.

Where commercial cleaning margin leaks, and how to win it back

  • Bids based on wrong production rates
  • Supplies included without a limit
  • Extra tasks added over time
  • Turnover and training
  • Building access delays

Ways commercial cleaning companies raise margin: bid from a measured production rate; cap supplies in the contract; charge for extra tasks; review the bid yearly.

Check your commercial cleaning prices against the costs

The typical national prices from our sourced calculators are a check on whether your prices leave room for margin:

ServiceTypicalRange
Office or commercial clean$0.14$0.09 to $0.20 a sq ft a visit
Carpet extraction$0.27$0.18 to $0.36 a sq ft
Interior and exterior windows$12.50$7.00 to $18.00 a window

Work out the margin on each line of your menu, not just the big jobs. The usual commercial cleaning menu: office or commercial clean; nightly office cleaning; restroom service; day porter; strip and wax; floor scrub and burnish; carpet extraction; interior and exterior windows; high dusting; post-construction clean.

Overhead comes out of the margin before profit. In commercial cleaning it includes general liability insurance, which Insureon's customers who are janitorial services pay an average of $60 a month for; commercial auto at $234 a month on the same figures.

Work out your own margin

Put one recent commercial cleaning job into the calculator above, or switch it to "My margin for the year" to set your year next to the IRS benchmark. A 50% markup is a 33% margin; the markup calculator shows the rest.

Sources

Last checked October 9, 2026. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and differ by state and city, so confirm with the agency named before you act.

FAQ

What is a good profit margin for a commercial cleaning business?

As a benchmark, one-owner businesses in administrative and support services reported a 84.3% gross margin and a 21.2% net margin to the IRS for 2023, with the owner's pay inside that net figure.

How can commercial cleaning companies raise their margin?

Bid from a measured production rate, cap supplies in the contract and charge for extra tasks.

What are the biggest costs in commercial cleaning?

Commercial cleaning is almost all labor, so the production rate a crew can hold decides whether a bid makes money.

Where do commercial cleaning companies lose margin?

Bids based on wrong production rates, supplies included without a limit and extra tasks added over time.

More for commercial cleaning companies

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Commercial Cleaning Profit Margins: Benchmarks and a Calculator | Koira