The five lines of a cleaning takeoff
Property and included area. Rooms or services. Quantity and person-minutes. Frequency. Paid setup and travel. Everything else — wage, burden, supplies, equipment, overhead, margin — is pricing on top of that inventory.
Why square footage is a description, not a bid
Square feet help you describe a warehouse or an office. They do not tell you restroom count, finish type or access. Square-foot versus task-based rates explains when a footage number is a shortcut and when it hides the work.
From takeoff to a customer document
The customer should see tasks, frequencies, visits, price and exclusions — not your wage. SweepTally Takeoff exports that as a proposal and an Excel workbook. The proposal builder shows the Pro v1 layouts.
Common questions
Is cleaning takeoff the same as construction takeoff?
Same idea, different quantities. Construction counts materials from drawings. Cleaning counts tasks, fixtures and frequencies from a walkthrough or a confirmed room list.
Do I need software to do a takeoff?
No. A careful spreadsheet works. Software helps when you reuse standards, recalculate together and produce a proposal without exposing internal cost.
Where should I start?
Walk one building, then try that building in the free workbench or the matching worked example on this site.