Best Software For Cleaning Companies

Square might have everything you need, even though most people think about its easy POS software first when they think of Square. But there’s more to Square than that.

Another great addition to the ecosystem of Square products, Square Appointments is more than a booking software. It is the best option for scheduling, especially if you’re considering using Square’s POS system or if you already use Square Payments.

Square Appointments offers three different pricing options/plans for you to choose from. They all offer their own pros, cons, and payment processing fees.

1. Free: The Free plan starts at $0/month and is best for small cleaning businesses that are just beginning or only have basic appointment needs/a small number of clients.
2. Plus: The Plus plan starts at $29/month and is best for cleaning businesses that operate out of multiple locations and want additional features like “no-show” protection.
3. Premium: The Premium plan starts at $69/month and is best for cleaning businesses that operate out of multiple locations and want detailed reporting and commission tracking included in their plan.

The main options for Square POS hardware are:

• Basic Magstripe Card Reader: You can get your first reader for $0, and any additional readers will cost only $10. Square offers both a 3.5mm headphone jack and Lightning variants to be compatible with just about any smartphone.
• Square Contactless & Chip Reader: $49 and includes a free basic magstripe reader. Financing options are available. Check out our full Square Contactless & Chip Reader review.
• Square Stand With Contactless & Chip Reader: $169

Learn more about Square POS hardware options and costs in our full buyer’s guide.

All three of the available plans offer helpful features for cleaning businesses, such as the following:

• Automated appointment reminders: Ensure that your customers don’t forget your employees are coming with email and/or text reminders that can be scheduled as infrequently or frequently as you desire.
• Square Contracts: Take the guesswork out of writing up contracts for your clients with access to another great Square product, Square Contracts. This software allows you to email contracts (either custom-made or one of Square’s templates) ahead of their appointment and will show you in their profile whether or not they have completed them.
• Daily appointment limit: This feature allows you to limit the number of possible appointments clients can book on any given day. This makes sure that you aren’t overworking your employees or stretching your business too thin.
• Customer Directory: This feature comes free with your Square account and allows you to track loyalty, satisfaction, and feedback from your clients, along with keeping a record of their contact information.
• Invoices: With Square Invoice, you’re able to make and send digital invoices to your clients whenever from any of your devices. The best part is that clients can pay them whenever through a digital link, leaving you with fewer phone calls and emails to make in order to get paid.

Connecteam is a great option for cleaning businesses because many of its features can be tailored to your needs!

• The time clock app ensures your employees are where they should be when they should be.
• The scheduling app makes sure you know your employee’s availability.
• The communication app helps your employees start chats with each other and makes your employee contact information easily in the employee directory.

We like Connecteam because of its ample help and resource center, advanced reporting abilities, and its user-friendly interface. The company works with over 36,000 businesses — small and large — and is equipped to handle any questions or problems you may encounter.

Connecteam offers four different plans for cleaning businesses:

1. Small Business: The Small Business plan starts at $0/month and allows up to 10 users. This plan grants you full access to Connecteam’s features for free for life!
2. Operations Basic: The Basic plan starts at $29/month (paid annually) and allows up to 30 users. It is $0.50/month for each additional user.
3. Operations Advanced: The most popular of the four options, the Advanced plan starts at $49/month (paid annually) and allows up to 30 users. Each additional user will cost $1.50 a month. More features are available on top of those included in the Basic plan.
4. Operations Expert: The Expert plan starts at $99/month (paid annually) and allows up to 30 users. Each additional user costs $3 a month and includes features better suited for cleaning businesses with multiple locations.

As we mentioned above, the Small Business plan includes all Connecteam hubs and features. We’ll go over some of the highlights of those features below.

• Accurate Time Tracking: With Connecteam’s time clock app, your employees can clock in using their personal or work smartphones when they arrive to a client. You can also set up geofences around businesses that are repeat clients (or your own warehouse/office) that will automatically clock employees in when they enter it. Timesheets can also be exported to QuickBooks Online and Gusto integration for an easier payroll process.
• Easy Shift Scheduling: Connecteam’s scheduling app allows your employees to add their availability to make your life easier when you’re creating schedules. The app allows you to give your employees all the information they need for the job, including notes, location, time, files, and tasks. It also gives your employees the ability to easily claim, accept, and reject open shifts you need to be filled.
• Easy Communication: Connecteam offers an employee communication app to keep work conversations separate from personal ones. The app also allows employees to connect with each other and makes it easy to find employee contact details easily using the employee directory.
• Automate Cleaning Processes: Provide forms, checklists, and reports digitally. You can customize lists for your cleaners to ensure consistency and quality across all of your jobs and employees. Connecteam also offers employee training software to help you automate the onboarding process as well.

Lightspeed Retail is an excellent all-around POS system that can help with all aspects of your cleaning business from eCommerce to payments.

Lightspeed has extremely robust inventory management to help keep you informed of what products you have on hand in real-time. It can also help you easily transfer and track products from one location to another and has excellent options for mobile payments. Think of Lightspeed if you have a brick and mortar dry cleaning business that needs inventory and customer-contact through your POS system. 

Monthly pricing starts at $69/month for basic POS functionality on one device, but features such as eCommerce, loyalty, analytics, and accounting software integration will cost you extra.

You pay an extra $29/month for each additional device you install Lightspeed Retail on (each plan starts with one POS software license.)

Lightspeed Retail allows you to offer several ways for customers to shop, including purchasing online for in-store pick up, purchasing wholesale or by individual item, and shopping item bundles for a discount. Shoppers can also fill out inquiry forms to get a custom quote, and log into a wholesaler account for a bulk discount.

The inventory matrixing system makes it easy for retailers to sell items, add inventory tags to items, and attach items to a vendor. When you’re running low on something, you get a low-stock alert, and then you can look up a vendor and order several things at once. If you want to sell and rent out items, Lightspeed has an app that monitors rental windows, fees, and more.

Multilocation businesses will especially appreciate these special Lightspeed features:

• Stock transfers across locations
• Pricing modifications that are location-specific
• Master inventory, purchase order, and item performance dashboard
• Loyalty program cross-location sync so customers can earn points no matter their location
• Buy online, pick up in any store

FreshBooks is an accounting software specifically designed for small businesses. FreshBooks is pricey compared to some alternatives, but it’s easy to use and has spectacular customer support. Why do we like it for cleaning businesses?

FreshBooks has time-tracking software and invoicing that can automatically integrate with your accounting software. This makes things easier around tax season. While some accounting software integrates with the other options on this list, for some businesses, FreshBooks will be the better fit — especially if there are a lot of moving parts with your business financials.

There are three different plan options for cleaning businesses.

1. Lite: The Lite plan starts at $15/month and is best for cleaning businesses that have five or fewer clients and need unlimited invoices and estimates.
2. Plus: The Plus plan starts at $25/month and is best for cleaning businesses with up to 50 clients and want more advanced reporting.
3. Premium: The Premium plan starts at $50/month and is best for cleaning businesses with up to 500 clients that need bill-tracking.

FreshBooks has many features that are beneficial for small businesses and cleaning businesses in particular.

• Invoices & Estimates: FreshBooks offers two customizable templates for invoices, you are able to edit the colors, font, logo, and header while also adding terms and notes. Plus and Premium users can send reminders, charge late fees, and set recurring invoices. You can also create estimates, quickly convert them to invoices, and view the status of your estimates (sent, viewed, accepted, etc.)
• Time Tracking: Your employees have the option to log time manually in FreshBooks or use the built-in timer. This allows you to easily review their logged times and add them to projects to be billed as an invoice. You can choose to record unbillable times as well.
• Tax Support: FreshBooks allows you to prepare your 1099s and W-2s while storing all of your tax information. Their software is compatible with almost 170 currencies, fourteen languages, and any sales taxes, making it easy to operate internationally or in multiple states.

Jobber is software for the service industry that streamlines employee and customer communication. Customers can request work via the app, and you can do everything you need, from scheduling and booking to managing clients. Jobber offers invoicing and a payment processor, so it’s an all-in-one platform.

The ease and interactivity of the Jobber app make the booking and invoicing process fast and effective.

It’s routinely named one of the best software for service industry jobs.

Jobber offers four different plans for you to choose from after you finish our 14-day free trial. Payments can be made annually or monthly, and there are usually deals for one or the other.

• Lite: The Lite plan starts at $9/month and includes only one administrative user.
• Core: The Core plan starts at $37/month and also includes only one administrative user.
• Connect: The Connect plan starts at $97/month and allows up to five administrative users. Additional users can be added for $29/month.
• Grow: The Grow plan starts at $187/month and allows up to fifteen administrative users. Additional users can be added for $29/month.

Jobber has all the necessary bells and whistles, but it also offers a number of features tailor-made for cleaning businesses.

• 24/7 Customer Self-Serve Portal: Avoid missed calls, voicemails, and emails lost in the jungle of an inbox. Let your customers request work, confirm appointment details, approve quotes, and pay invoices online all the time!
• Job Forms & Checklists: Implement quality control in everything your business does. Make custom to-do lists and inspection forms for your team to ensure that each job is done right and consistently every single time, no matter the employee.
• Ready To Use Marketing: Jobber offers readymade marketing campaigns that are powered by a partnership with Mailchimp. Your contacts will sync seamlessly between the two platforms, an email campaign will be waiting to be launched as soon as the integration is completed, and they even offer postcard marketing for an extra personal touch.