A WORKED EXAMPLE · ILLUSTRATIVE NUMBERS

What remains from a $140 turnover?

Suppose you spend 2.5 hours cleaning at an all-in labor cost of $25 per hour, including your own pay. Laundry costs $20, travel costs $12, supplies cost $8 and allocated overhead is $10.

The job costs $112.50.

At a $140 price, a 3% payment fee takes another $4.20. That leaves $23.30, or 16.6% of the price, before tax and omitted expenses.

A margin is not a markup.

For a 25% target margin after a 3% fee, divide $112.50 by 0.72. That gives $156.25. Rounded up to $160, the estimated contribution is $42.70.

Now suppose the clean takes longer.

If the job takes 3.5 hours instead of 2.5, with all other costs unchanged, total costs become $137.50. At the original $140 price, the contribution falls to negative $1.70.

This is why comparing actual hours with quoted hours matters. The calculator cannot tell you whether a client will accept a higher quote. It can tell you what a price leaves after the costs you enter.