Keep, Raise or Drop This Cleaning Client?

Why monthly client economics matter more than one invoice

A recurring account is not one job. A $12 per-visit shortfall reads as noise; the same shortfall at a weekly frequency is roughly $52 a month and over $600 across a modeled year, on one account. The frequency multiplier is what turns a small pricing error into a structural one — and it works in both directions, which is why a modest price correction on a recurring client often does more than winning another one-off job.

Monthly figures also make capacity visible. The productive crew-hours an account consumes each month are hours that cannot be sold to anyone else. Profit per productive crew-hour is the number that lets two very different accounts be compared fairly.

Raise price, rescope, reroute — or replace the slot?

Below-target economics have more than one cause, so they have more than one fix. Working them in order avoids solving the wrong problem:

• Price — the fastest lever on paper. The model shows the price that would clear the margin you chose, which is a starting number for a conversation, not a guarantee the client accepts it.
• Scope — when the work has quietly grown past what was priced, a price increase alone just buys the expanded scope at a new number. Re-documenting what the price covers usually comes first.
• Route — travel and nonbillable time is paid without producing billable output. Moving a stop into a tighter day changes the cost without touching the price.
• Efficiency — productive hours carry both labor cost and the overhead allocation, so a shorter visit moves two lines at once. Only if the work still meets standard.
• Replacing the slot — the last option, after the others have been tested. The question is whether a better-fit client could use that capacity, which is a scheduling decision rather than a verdict on the customer.

Why route density can change the decision

Two clients with identical invoices and identical on-site hours are not identical accounts if one sits between two other stops and the other is forty minutes away. The isolated client consumes paid drive time that produces nothing billable, and it can strand the hours around it.

This calculator only counts the travel hours you enter. It does not know your map, and it does not assign a dollar value to route density. If you deliberately accept a lower margin on a client because it anchors a tight day, that should be a decision you make on purpose against your own target — not a discount the model quietly grants.

What this calculator cannot know

• What cleaning services should cost in your market. Every figure here comes from your inputs.
• Whether this client would accept the modeled target price, negotiate, or leave.
• The dollar cost of difficult access, late payment, last-minute cancellations or admin friction — none of it is priced in the model.
• Referral value, tenure, reputation in a neighborhood or the pipeline effect of a visible client.
• How hard the slot would actually be to refill, or how long it would sit empty.
• Employment, tax, payroll, insurance and worker-classification requirements — the calculator makes no determination on any of these.
• Whether the hours you entered, especially drive time and unbilled setup, match what actually happens.

Frequently asked questions

Does this calculator tell me to fire a client?

No. It never outputs a decision to end a relationship. It models what the account contributes per visit, per month and over a modeled year, and shows which lever — price, scope, route or efficiency — is driving the result. Whether to keep, reprice or replace the slot is your decision with information the model does not have.

Why can a high-revenue client still be a weak client?

Because the invoice is only one side. A large recurring invoice that consumes long on-site hours, extra drive time and a heavy share of your fixed overhead can return less per crew-hour than a smaller, tighter account. Revenue measures what comes in; margin per productive hour measures what the account leaves behind.

How is this different from the job profitability calculator?

It uses the same underlying per-visit math — the same owner replacement value, loaded employee cost, percentage fee treatment, overhead allocation and margin-based target price. This tool adds visit frequency, so you see the monthly and annualized effect of the account rather than one invoice.

What visit frequency should I enter?

Your actual one. Weekly is roughly 4.33 visits a month, biweekly is roughly 2.17 and monthly is 1. The example value in the tool is illustrative, not a recommended frequency.

Do the client context questions change the numbers?

No. Route convenience, scope creep, admin friction and replacement difficulty are qualitative only. They do not create a score or move any figure — they change which cautions and questions the tool raises alongside the math.

Sources and references

1. IRS Publication 15 (Circular E), Employer's Tax Guide — Employer share of Social Security (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%), used for the fixed 7.65% employer FICA rate applied to paid employee hours.
2. Jobber Profit Margin Calculator — Standard margin framing: price minus cost, divided by price. Referenced for methodology only; Jobber is not affiliated with this calculator and does not endorse it.
3. Jobber Service Price Calculator — Methodology context that a service price should account for labor, materials and expenses, overhead and profit.
4. Jobber job costing documentation — Job-level framing of revenue, labor, expenses and profit. Used as documentation context, not as an endorsement.