Free Cleaning Bid Template

A bid is a price you are submitting into a competitive process, usually against other contractors and usually to a deadline. What wins it is rarely the number on its own, it is how completely the scope and the exclusions are written down.

Bid, quote or estimate: this is the same document

It is one form with one word changed on it, and that is deliberate. A bid is a price submitted into a competitive process, a quote is normally a fixed price you are committing to, and an estimate is a considered approximation that can move with the scope. Owners and general contractors use all three interchangeably.

The longer version, including what belongs in the exclusions and why every price you send needs a valid until date, is in estimate vs quote vs bid. The cleaning service estimate template is this same form with the other word on it, and the same cleaning line items.

What a contractor bid should contain

• Your business details and license number where required
• The customer name and the job address
• A bid number and the date you submitted it
• The project or solicitation it answers, so it can be matched to the right package
• A valid until date, because a bid held open indefinitely is a price you never agreed to
• Scope in plain language, line by line, so it can be compared against the other bids
• What is explicitly excluded, which is where a low bid and an honest bid differ
• A line saying scope changes are priced in writing and approved before the work is performed
• Subtotal, tax, any deposit required to book the work, and the total

What goes on a cleaning service bid

These are the lines a cleaning job usually needs. They are already in the template and in the generator, so you edit rather than start from an empty page.

• Deep clean, whole home
• Recurring clean, per visit
• Interior windows and tracks
• Oven and refrigerator interiors
• Supplies and equipment

Delete what does not apply, add what does. The point is that a customer looking at an itemized cleaning bid can see where the money went, which is what stops the argument before it starts.

Cleaning is priced by the visit, by the hour or by the size of the home. The template keeps the first deep clean and the recurring visit on separate lines because they are not the same amount of work, and a customer who sees one price for both will expect the deep clean every time.

What to settle before the Cleaning bid goes out

Say what a standard visit includes and what costs extra. Oven and refrigerator interiors and inside windows are on their own lines here because they are add ons, and spelling them out stops a customer assuming they came with the visit.

Related pages for Cleaning work

• Hazard communication toolbox talk
• Hourly rate calculator

The rules that hold for every trade

These are on the contractor bid template page, with the questions people ask about the template:

• Write an exclusions line, it wins arguments before they start
• Put an expiry on every price you send

Other trades