Sunday evening with three notebooks
You have two cleaners besides yourself. One is paid a day rate. The other is paid a share of the value of the houses cleaned, which he prefers because he is quick. At the end of each week, you collect their lists, some ticked in the app, some in a notebook, one sent as a photo of a page, and work out their pay.
One week, the percentage cleaner says you missed a street. You check, and he is right: he did it on Saturday to catch up after rain, and it was not on his list. Another week, a day-rate cleaner did half a day because of wind, and you are not sure whether to pay the full day. Every week there is some question, and every answer is a judgement from memory.
Pay depends on the round, and the round records are scattered
Pay for window cleaners is usually tied to work done, which means it depends on accurate round records. When those records are spread across apps, notebooks and texts, pay is worked out from partial information.
- Houses done are recorded in different places by different cleaners.
- Catch-up days and swapped streets are not on the original lists.
- Weather days, half days and extras are handled case by case.
- The value of each house is in your records, not the cleaner's.
- Cleaners cannot see how their pay was worked out.
How you engage and pay your cleaners, and the rules that apply, are for you and your accountant or adviser. We handle the records and the arithmetic you choose.
Queries, mistrust and a lost Sunday
Every pay query costs time and a bit of goodwill. Cleaners who suspect they are underpaid either raise it, which is awkward, or quietly look for other work. Errors in your favour are as damaging as errors against you. And the Sunday evening calculation is unpaid time that grows with every cleaner you add.
Pay calculated from the round records
We build pay records on top of a shared round, where every cleaner marks houses done on their phone.
- Each cleaner has a pay rule you set: day rate, hourly, share of value, or a mix, with rules for half days, weather days and extras such as gutters or panels.
- Every house marked done records who did it, when, and its price from your customer records, including catch-up days and swapped streets.
- Hours, if you pay by the hour, come from start and finish taps in the app, with a way to correct them.
- At the end of the week, pay is calculated per cleaner, with every house, day and extra listed.
- Each cleaner sees their draft and can query a specific line, which comes to you with the details attached.
- Agreed figures can be passed to your payroll or accounting software in the format it needs.
| Pay question | Worked out today | From round records |
|---|---|---|
| Which houses did he do? | His list, if complete | Every house marked done, with time |
| What were they worth? | Your records, looked up | Price attached automatically |
| The Saturday catch-up | Easily missed | Recorded like any other day |
| Half day for wind | Judgement call | Your rule applied |
| Gutter job on the side | Remembered, maybe | Extra recorded against the cleaner |
Pay that nobody has to argue about
Pay appears at the end of the week without a notebook in sight. Cleaners can see how it was worked out, so most queries answer themselves. The ones that remain are about a specific house, which takes a minute to check. Adding a cleaner adds a line, not an evening.
It also shows you something useful: how many houses each cleaner does per day and what those houses are worth, which helps when you set prices, plan rounds and decide whether to take on another person.
Is pay a weekly headache?
- You work out cleaners' pay from several different records.
- Cleaners have queried their pay in the last month.
- Catch-up days and extras are easily missed.
- You make judgement calls on weather days each week.
- Cleaners cannot see how their pay is calculated.