Cleaning Quote Template

A cleaning quote should do more than throw a price at the customer. It should tell them what's included, what isn't, when the service will happen, and what they need to do next.

Casual quotes cause problems down the line. The customer assumes extra work is included. The deep clean takes ninety minutes longer than you priced for. The add-on for the oven never made it onto the quote, so you eat the cost. You meant to follow up Thursday and forgot until the following Tuesday, by which time they hired someone else.

None of that is a pricing problem. It's a quote-structure problem. A simple cleaning quote template fixes most of it.

What every cleaning quote should include

A complete quote covers thirteen things. Some are obvious, some get forgotten, and the forgotten ones are usually what cause arguments later:

• Client name and contact information
• Property address
• Service type
• Square footage or estimated home size
• Number of bedrooms and bathrooms
• Cleaning frequency
• Scope of work
• Add-ons
• Special conditions
• Estimated price
• Deposit or payment terms
• Expiration date
• Follow-up date

Service type

State the service type explicitly on the quote. Don't assume the customer knows the difference between a standard clean and a deep clean. They don't. To them, "clean" is one word.

The service categories you'll quote most often:

• Standard recurring clean
• Deep clean
• Move-in clean
• Move-out clean
• Post-construction clean
• One-time clean

Each one carries different time, effort, and pricing assumptions. Charging deep-clean prices for a standard clean loses you the job. Charging standard-clean prices for a deep clean costs you an afternoon of unpaid work. For more on how to price each type without underselling yourself, see our guide on 7 cleaning pricing mistakes that cost small cleaning businesses money.

Scope of work

"Full clean" is not a scope. It's a fight waiting to happen.

Spell out what's included so the customer knows exactly what they're paying for. A typical residential scope looks like this:

• Kitchen counters and exterior appliances
• Bathroom surfaces, toilets, showers, and mirrors
• Floors vacuumed and mopped
• Dusting reachable surfaces
• Trash removal
• Interior windows only if selected as an add-on
• Inside oven or inside fridge only if selected as an add-on

That last bit matters. If you don't put "only if selected" next to the add-ons, the customer will read the list and assume everything on it is included.

Add-ons and special conditions

Most jobs that bleed margin bleed it here. Add-ons forgotten. Conditions undisclosed. You quoted the home as a standard clean and showed up to two cats, three weeks of dishes, and a stove that hasn't been cleaned since 2019.

Common add-ons to ask about:

• Inside oven
• Inside fridge
• Interior windows
• Pets
• Heavy buildup
• Extra rooms
• Laundry
• Dishes
• Cabinets
• Garage or basement areas

Special conditions to flag before you commit to a price:

• Excessive clutter
• Heavy pet hair
• Hard water buildup
• Mold concerns
• Post-renovation dust
• Limited parking
• No elevator access

Any of these can change a job by an hour or more. None of them should be discovered when you arrive.

Deposit and balance

If you take a deposit, put the numbers on the quote in plain language. Total, deposit, balance, payment methods, cancellation policy. The customer should know exactly what they're paying and when, before they say yes.

Quote expiration

Quotes should expire. Without an expiration date, a price you gave in March becomes a price someone tries to book in October when your costs have changed.

Example expiration language:

"This quote is valid for 7 days and may change if the scope, condition, or requested service changes."

Seven days is a reasonable default. Long enough that the customer doesn't feel rushed, short enough that you're not stuck with stale prices.

Follow-up process

A quote isn't finished when you hit send. It's finished when the customer either books or formally declines. Until then, you track it:

• Date sent
• Follow-up date
• Status
• Client response
• Won/lost reason

Most quotes that go silent aren't a no. They're a "got busy, forgot to reply." A 24-hour follow-up converts more of those than people expect.

A simple quote template structure

If you don't want to overthink it, copy this structure into a blank document and use it for every quote going forward:

It's not flashy. It works. A customer reading a quote in this format knows what they're agreeing to, and you've left yourself nowhere to forget an important detail.

Common quoting mistakes to avoid

The mistakes that show up most often, in roughly the order they cost the most money:

• Sending a price without scope
• Forgetting add-ons
• Underpricing deep cleans
• Not documenting special conditions
• Giving verbal quotes only
• Not following up
• Not tracking quote outcomes

For a deeper breakdown of the pricing side of these, read 7 cleaning pricing mistakes that cost small cleaning businesses money. For the intake questions that prevent most of these mistakes before they happen, see cleaning client intake form: questions to ask before you quote a job.

Before you send your next estimate

Take the template above and fill it in for your next quote. Scope, add-ons, conditions, deposit terms, follow-up date. The first time you send a clean, organized quote, the customer notices. So will the next one.