Honest first reaction The pitch is clear and the pricing is refreshingly upfront. Showing the VAT-inclusive total rather than hiding it until checkout will save you grumpy messages, and the "planning aid, not a market rate" disclaimer is sensible. Independent cleaners get burned by templates that bake in a London hourly rate and then wonder why nobody in Carlisle books.
Two things stand out straight away though:
- Desktop only is a real limitation for this trade. Most domestic cleaners quote on the doorstep or in the client's kitchen, from a phone. If the calculator cannot be used on a mobile browser, a fair chunk of the audience will look at it once at home and never again.
- Quote entries vanishing on refresh will cost you refund requests. Even a simple "save to this device" option, or a one-click export of the entered figures, would stop that. A 14-day refund policy is the legal minimum for a digital download sold to UK consumers anyway, so the real cost of lost quotes is bad reviews, not refunds.
Which admin task actually eats the time? Ask cleaners on here and the answer is rarely "working out the quote". Quoting is maybe ten minutes per new client. The recurring time sinks are:
- Chasing payment. Weekly cleans often get paid late or in dribs and drabs. Polite reminder messages at day 3, day 7 and day 14, plus a firm but friendly "we'll pause visits until the account is settled" message, would be more valuable than the quote itself.
- Cancellations and rescheduling. Clients cancel the night before, or ask to swap days because they have a plumber coming. A cancellation policy template (24 or 48 hours notice, 50% or full charge) and the message that goes with enforcing it saves hours of awkward back and forth.
- Scope creep. "While you're here, could you just do the oven?" The scope worksheet you mention is good, but it needs a companion: a short message for "that's outside the agreed scope, here is the add-on price".
- Keys, alarm codes and access notes. Not glamorous, but every cleaner needs a secure per-client sheet for this, and it ties into data protection (see below).
- Invoicing. Many cleaners still text "£60 please" with sort code and account number. A simple invoice template showing the trading name, address, and for a Ltd company the registered number and office, would cover the legal basics people routinely miss.
If the kit does not already cover payment chasing and cancellations, those two additions would probably double its appeal.
Pricing structure inside the calculator Worth checking the calculator handles these properly, because they are where cleaners lose money:
- A minimum visit charge, so a 90-minute flat in a block with no parking does not come out at a loss once travel is added.
- First clean vs regular clean. The first visit is almost always longer. Many cleaners under-price it and resent the client for the next six months.
- Supplies: provided vs client's own. Two different cost lines, and plenty of clients expect the cleaner to bring everything.
- Unpaid gaps between jobs. You have paid travel time, which is good. A field for the dead time between a 9am and 1pm job would help people see their true effective hourly rate.
- A tax set-aside percentage. For a sole trader, showing "put roughly X% of this away for Income Tax and Class 4 NI" on the internal view would be a nice touch, with the usual caveat that it is a rough guide.
Compliance points to mention in the pack You do not need to turn it into a legal guide, but a one-page "things to check" sheet adds credibility:
- Holding client names, addresses and access details means UK GDPR applies, even for a one-person outfit. Most cleaners will need to register with the ICO and pay the small annual data protection fee, which catches people out.
- Public liability insurance is not a legal requirement for domestic work, but clients increasingly ask for it, and a line on the quote stating "insured for £X" helps conversion.
- Right to cancel: when a client agrees a quote at their home or by message, the 14-day cooling-off period under consumer contracts rules applies. A short clause on the quote covers this.
- Sole trader vs Ltd: the quote and invoice need the correct legal name either way, and for Ltd companies the registered details.
Where to go from here The core idea is sound and £14.40 is an easy decision for someone who has never costed a job properly. Mobile support, saved quotes, and a payment-chasing module would turn it from a one-off novelty into something people open every week. If you add those, come back and post an update, because a tested, cheap, no-subscription option for this trade is genuinely thin on the ground.
