Facility Services
Bookkeeping for cleaning, landscaping, and maintenance companies running multiple contracts across multiple sites.
The Industry
Facility services is a labor business. You sell hours. The contract price minus what you pay your crew is the margin. Everything else, the supplies, the equipment, the vehicles, those matter, but labor is where the money goes and where it disappears if you’re not watching.
A $3,000 monthly contract looks good until you realize the crew is spending 20% more time than you bid, the drive time between sites wasn’t factored in, and the client keeps asking for extras that never get billed. The contract that seemed profitable is breaking even. Or worse.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Commercial cleaning, janitorial services, landscaping maintenance, property maintenance, building services, groundskeeping. Any business running recurring contracts at client sites.
What Makes It Different
What Makes It Different
Multiple contracts at multiple locations. Crews moving between sites. Labor costs that need to be tracked by job, not just in total. High turnover that makes payroll complicated. Margins that erode slowly if nobody’s watching.
What We Handle
Monthly bookkeeping with expenses tracked by contract so you can see which accounts are profitable and which ones are subsidized by the rest. Labor hours coded to sites. Supplies allocated to jobs instead of dumped into a general category. Revenue matched to the work that generated it.
Payroll for crews with variable hours, multiple sites, and the turnover that comes with the industry. Vehicle costs tracked so you know what it actually costs to service accounts across the region.
Contract Profitability
Contract Profitability
Each account tracked separately. Labor, supplies, drive time. You see what each contract actually nets, not what you hoped it would net when you bid it.
Payroll
Payroll
Weekly or biweekly payroll for crews. Variable hours, multiple job sites, overtime. Processed accurately and on time so your people get paid and you stay compliant.
Common Problems
Scope creep is quiet. The property manager asks for something extra. The crew does it. Nobody bills for it. Over a year, those unbilled extras add up to hundreds or thousands of dollars of free labor. The contract that looked profitable on paper is losing money in practice.
The other problem is not knowing which contracts are actually working. Revenue all goes into one bucket. Labor goes into another. You know the business made money overall, but you don’t know that the office park is carrying the strip mall, or that the industrial account eats twice the hours you bid.
Labor Drift
Labor Drift
The bid assumed two hours per visit. The crew takes two and a half because the client added tasks or the building is harder than expected. That extra thirty minutes destroys margin when it happens every visit.
Hidden Losers
Hidden Losers
Some contracts make money. Some lose money. Without tracking by site, the winners cover for the losers and you never know which is which. You renew contracts that should be repriced or dropped.
What Changes
You know your numbers by contract. When renewal time comes, you walk in with data showing what the account actually costs to service. Price increases are based on math, not guessing. Unprofitable accounts get repriced or dropped before they drag down the rest of the business.
Growth decisions get easier. You know which types of accounts are worth pursuing and which ones look good but don’t pencil out. You add contracts that improve the business instead of just adding volume.
Renewal Confidence
Renewal Confidence
Real cost data for every account. When the client pushes back on a price increase, you have the numbers to show why it’s necessary. Negotiations based on facts instead of feelings.
Smart Growth
Smart Growth
See which contract types deliver the best margins. Focus sales efforts on work that actually makes money. Stop chasing volume that just keeps crews busy without building profit.
Northwest Ohio’s Trusted Bookkeeping Partner
The Next Step:
A 15-Minute Discovery Call
Let's talk about your current bookkeeping situation. We'll assess your needs, outline a plan of action, and give you a clear quote.
