Why cleaning businesses need different books
Small payments from many clients, recurring jobs billed weekly or monthly, cleaners paid as staff or contractors, supplies bought every week and a lot of driving between jobs. None of it is complicated alone; together it's a month of sorting.
What a bookkeeper for cleaning businesses keeps track of
- Recurring client billing and who's late
- Cleaners paid, as payroll or as contractors
- Supplies and equipment
- Mileage between jobs
- Sales tax or GST/HST on services where it applies
In the US
- Cleaners you pay as contractors $2,000 or more in 2026 need a 1099-NEC. Whether they're really contractors depends on how much you control their work.
- Driving between client homes is business mileage; driving from home to your first job usually isn't, unless you work from a home office.
- Some states tax cleaning services and most don't.
In Canada
- Cleaning services take GST/HST once you're registered.
- Whether cleaners are employees or contractors depends on how much you control the work; employees need payroll and CPP and EI.
- Contractors paid for services can need T4A slips.
What SumSwift does for cleaning business owners
- Repeating invoices sent on schedule, with automatic reminders and card or bank payments
- Payroll worked out each payday, with the deposit file for your bank and the remittance to send
- Contractor lists for 1099s or T4A slips
- A mileage log (a CRA logbook in Canada) and the business share of your vehicle worked out for taxes
- Receipts snapped with your phone or forwarded by email are read and matched to the charge
- Every statement checked against the balances your bank printed, to the cent, with personal spending kept off your profit