Labour
How Labour Time Works
The calculator shows two separate labour figures so you can follow the recommendation and still set the hours you will actually use.
- Suggested Labour Hours
- A read-only recommendation built from the job details. It is rounded up to the next quarter-hour (15 minutes). It keeps updating when you change rooms, services, stage, frequency or other job inputs — including while a manual override is in use.
- Labour Hours Used for This Job
- The editable hours used for labour cost, total job cost, profit and margin. It starts matching the suggestion. Once you edit it, it becomes a manual override and is not overwritten by Calculate Price, automatic recalculation, labour pay, materials, discounts or travel changes.
Rounding
Labour time is always shown in quarter-hours only — for example 5.75 hours (5 hours 45 minutes). Values such as 5.7 are not used. If you enter another decimal, it is rounded up to the next quarter-hour when you finish editing.
Use Suggested Hours
Choose Use Suggested Hours to copy the latest suggestion into Labour Hours Used and return to automatic following. Your costing then updates from that recommendation again.
What labour changes affect
For room-, service- and item-based quotes, changing Labour Hours Used, labour pay or materials updates your cost and profit figures — not the customer price. Where a method is priced by labour hours (for example Post-construction By Hour), the hours used also update the customer price.
Customer price rounding
Round customer price up to nearest (£) only affects the final customer price. It does not control labour-time rounding.
Commercial
What the commercial calculator does
The commercial section estimates a monthly price for offices, clinics, gyms, retail, communal areas and similar sites. It combines area hours, fixture hours, shift/service-level multipliers, cleans per week, cleaners, client hourly rate, consumables, supervision and periodic tasks.
Information needed before starting
- Site type
- Context for the premises (does not by itself change the formula).
- Cleans per week
- How often the site is cleaned — used with cleaners and client rate to form the monthly labour charge.
- Cleaners per visit
- Headcount for the visit. Visit hours are multiplied by this number to form total labour hours and the monthly labour charge.
- Client rate (£/hr)
- The hourly rate charged to the client for labour hours.
Visit hours, cleaners and total labour
Area and fixture work first produce visit hours (workload hours for the visit, after shift/service-level multipliers, and not below the minimum visit hours). Those visit hours are the estimated time for the visit workload — they are not already total team labour hours.
Cleaners per visit then multiplies visit hours:
- Total labour hours for the visit = visit hours × cleaners per visit
- Monthly labour charge = visit hours × cleaners × client rate × cleans per week × 52 ÷ 12
- Suggested monthly labour hours also use visit hours × cleaners × visits × 52 ÷ 12 (plus periodic hours)
Example
Two cleaners with two visit hours each represent four total labour hours for that visit (2 × 2 = 4). If they work that pattern five times a week, monthly labour hours and the monthly labour charge both use that total-labour relationship.
Elapsed time on site is what you schedule for the team; total labour hours are what the calculator multiplies by the client rate. With more cleaners, total billed labour hours rise for the same visit-hours figure.
Areas and cleanable square metres
Each area contributes hours from its cleanable floor area. For each area:
Working relationship
Hours ≈ cleanable m² ÷ production rate (m²/hr) × Cleaning Workload / Usage Intensity
Production rate
Production rate is how many square metres a cleaner can cover per hour in that area type. A lower rate means more hours for the same floor area.
Cleaning Workload / Usage Intensity
This setting multiplies estimated area hours for that zone only. It does not change the client hourly rate.
| Level | Multiplier | Meaning |
|---|
| Low | ×1.00 | The calculator’s baseline for that area. |
| Normal | ×1.15 | Adds approximately 15% to that area’s hours. |
| High | ×1.35 | Adds approximately 35% to that area’s hours. |
Fixtures
Toilets, sinks, showers, kitchens, bins, waste stations and high-touch zones add fixed hours per visit on top of area hours.
Service level & frequency
- Shift / service level
- Multiplies visit hours after areas and fixtures are combined.
- Frequency
- Cleans per week turn visit hours into a monthly labour charge together with cleaners and client rate.
- Number of cleaners
- Multiplies visit hours into total labour hours and the monthly labour charge (see above).
Periodic work
Periodic tasks contribute hours × times per month, added to monthly labour hours (for example interior glass or detail cleans).
Materials and consumables
Consumables and supervision are monthly £ amounts added to the monthly price. Separate materials and labour inputs on the shared panel help you estimate the cost of delivering the job.
Reading the result
Expect an itemised view of area and fixture contributions, visit hours, monthly labour charge, periodic work, consumables, supervision, then discount and travel where used, ending at the final estimated monthly customer price.
Common mistakes
- Leaving intensity at Low on a high-touch reception or clinical area.
- Omitting fixtures that dominate visit time (toilets, kitchens, bins).
- Confusing production rate with client hourly rate — they serve different parts of the estimate.
Post-Construction
Choosing By Size, By Rooms or By Hour
| Method | When to use (summary) | What drives price |
|---|
| By Size (m²) |
You know cleanable floor area |
Cleanable m² × builders and/or sparkle £/m² (stage selects which). Floors are contextual. Condition/complexity can scale the m² price when not Standard. |
| By Rooms |
You are quoting from room counts |
Individual room/space quantities drive labour hours, then room rate, stage multiplier and debris/complexity. |
| By Hour |
You are selling agreed labour time |
Cleaners × hours per cleaner × hourly rate. Stage is shown for context only. |
Apply minimum charge is optional and off by default. Enable an optional minimum only if your own business uses a minimum charge. When enabled, the quote will not fall below the amount you set.
Property / Project Type
Property / Project Type is context only (house, flat, HMO, new-build, commercial premises, and similar). It does not create bedrooms or change the formula by itself.
Cleanable square metres
Used in By Size. Enter the cleanable area in m². Number of floors is contextual and does not change the m² rate.
Individual rooms and spaces
Used in By Rooms. Each room or space quantity is itemised. Labour hours, room base rate, stage and debris/complexity then form the cleaning subtotal.
Labour hours
Used in By Hour as cleaners × hours per cleaner for the suggestion. Labour Hours Used can be overridden; on By Hour that also updates the customer price. In other methods, suggested and used hours still appear for costing after Calculate.
Builders Clean, Sparkle Clean, Both stages
- Builders clean
- First-pass post-build clean; priced via builders £/m² when using By Size, or via stage multiplier on room methods.
- Sparkle clean
- Final presentation clean; priced via sparkle £/m² when using By Size, or via stage on room methods.
- Both stages
- Combines builders and sparkle where the method supports it (By Size uses both rates; room methods apply the combined stage factor).
Condition and complexity
Condition / complexity (By Size) and debris / complexity multiplier (By Rooms) scale the estimate when the site is harder than a standard finish. Job multiplier on By Rooms further adjusts labour.
Materials & travel
Materials/product inputs support your costing notes. Travel uses the shared postcode and mileage controls (free miles, rate per mile, Calculate Miles or manual miles).
Reading the result
The breakdown shows the chosen method’s drivers (area, rooms or hours), stage context, cleaning subtotal, add-ons, materials (costing), discount, travel and final estimated customer price.
Common mistakes
- Choosing By Hour when you only know m² — or By Size when the site is better described by room counts.
- Leaving complexity at Standard on a heavily soiled builders site.
- Enable an optional minimum only if your own business uses a minimum charge.
