The hours estimate is the whole quote #
A cleaning quote is hours times a rate, with things added. Since rates across the sector sit in a fairly narrow band, the difference between two quotes for the same building is almost entirely the hours, and the hours come from a survey.
What the survey is really assessing is not floor area. It is throughput, surfaces, access, how honest the specification is about what "daily" means, whether the previous contractor has been cutting corners for two years so the building starts below standard, and how tolerant this particular client will be.
Everything else in the quote is derived from that number, which is why quoting feels slow despite being mostly arithmetic. The arithmetic is done by hand, in a spreadsheet, differently each time, by the same person who did the survey.
What sits on top of the hourly rate #
The published employment costs are fixed, knowable and frequently underapplied in quotes. The wage floor first.
£12.71
National Living Wage an hour, 21 and over, from 1 April 2026
GOV.UK, National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates
£10.85
National Minimum Wage an hour, 18 to 20
GOV.UK, National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates
£8.00
Under 18 and apprentice rate, an hour
GOV.UK, National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates
Then what sits on top of it.
| Cost | Published position |
|---|---|
| Employer National Insurance | 15 per cent above a secondary threshold of £5,000 a year |
| Employment Allowance | £10,500 for eligible employers in 2026 to 2027 |
| Employer pension contribution | Minimum 3 per cent of qualifying earnings, £6,240 to £50,270, for eligible staff |
| Statutory holiday | 5.6 weeks, pro rata for part time workers |
| Travel between assignments | Counts towards hours that must be paid at the minimum wage |
Two of these regularly get lost. Holiday is the first: 5.6 weeks has to be covered by somebody, and if cover is priced at the same hours as the substantive shift the contract carries an uncosted gap all year.
Travel between assignments is the second, and it is the one that quietly decides whether a tight geographical round is clever or expensive. The true cost of an employee tool works the on costs through.
The parts of a quote that repeat exactly #
Strip out the survey and what remains is highly repetitive, which is why quoting is a strong candidate for the sorting test on which parts run on rules.
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Turning a specification into a task frequency table
Daily, three times weekly, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual.
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Converting frequencies into annual hours
Including the periodic work that people forget to price because it is not in the weekly pattern.
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Applying rates and on costs
Arithmetic against published figures.
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Pricing consumables and equipment
Usually a per head or per square metre rule the business already has.
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Producing the document
Same sections, same specification wording, same terms, every time.
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Following it up
A trigger, a schedule, a record of what was said.
When the workforce comes with the contract #
TUPE changes what a quote even means. GOV.UK gives the direct example of a cleaner employed by a company that decides to use an outside cleaning company instead, and says they are likely to be protected. Where it applies, you are pricing a workforce you will inherit, with existing terms, hours and continuity, rather than one you will recruit at your own rates.
That has a practical consequence for the model. The wage line may not be yours to set, the hours may be contractual rather than notional, and the rota you priced may have to absorb people who never came through your own onboarding. A quote built on your standard assumptions, for a contract where TUPE applies, is a quote for a different business.
The quote is also a forecast of your admin #
The specification you agree decides how much office work the contract generates for its whole life. A contract that bills monthly in arrears on a fixed schedule is cheap to administer. One that bills partly fixed, partly on periodic work, partly on ad hoc call outs, with a client purchase order number required per line, will consume office hours every month for years.
That is the subject of invoicing per contract, and the time to notice it is while the terms are still being agreed.
What to measure #
Take your last ten quotes and record three things.
- How long the survey took
- How long everything after the survey took
- How many of the ten converted
In most cleaning businesses the second number is several times the first, and it is the number nobody tracks, because it does not feel like selling. Then check how many of your live contracts are generating more monthly admin than the quote assumed. That is the number that explains where the office week went.