What to actually look for before you buy cleaning company software, and the questions that separate a good fit from a switch you’ll regret in six months.
If you are reading this, you have probably outgrown the spreadsheet, the paper diary or the WhatsApp group that has been holding your cleaning business together. Cleaning company software is the category of tool built to replace all three at once: scheduling, a mobile app for the cleaners on site, proof that the work happened, payroll, and a way for clients to see what is going on without ringing the office. This guide covers what actually matters when you compare options, what commercial and domestic cleaning businesses each need, the questions worth asking a vendor before you sign anything, and where Xota is honest about what it does and does not do yet.
At its core, cleaning company software puts one calendar between the office and the field. An admin schedules a booking, a cleaner sees it on their phone, they clock in and out on site, they tick a checklist and attach photos, and the finished job flows into an invoice. The client, if they have portal access, watches the whole thing happen without a single phone call. That is the loop the good platforms are built around: schedule, deliver, prove, get paid, over and over, for every site, every day.
Where platforms differ is in the detail: how well the scheduling handles recurring contracts and cover gaps, how much the cleaner app actually does versus how much still lives on paper, whether proof of a clean is a genuine record or an afterthought, whether payroll is a real calculation engine or a glorified timesheet export, and whether the client portal is a real login or just a PDF emailed once a month.
Demos are full of features. Most of them do not matter day to day. These five do.
This is the part you will use every single day, so it needs to handle real complexity: recurring contracts, one off jobs, absences, and travel time between sites, all on the same view, not four separate screens you have to cross reference. Look for drag and drop rearranging, a way to see the week and a way to see a longer timeline, and recurring booking templates so you are not re-creating the same Tuesday morning clean by hand every week. Our cleaning company rota software guide covers what a proper drag and drop rota should be able to do.
If your cleaners are still working from a printed sheet or a text message, the software has not actually reached the field, it has just moved the office paperwork into a browser tab. A proper cleaner app shows today and next shifts, lets someone clock in and out on site, presents a checklist, captures photos, and lets a cleaner request absence without ringing anyone. Check whether the mobile app is genuinely included in the price you are quoted, because some vendors sell it as a separate add on per user.
Photos and a signature at sign off turn “did they actually come?” into a record instead of an argument. Every booking should move through a clear lifecycle, from draft through to complete and signed off, with photos and a signature attached at the end and an audit trail behind it. This is also what feeds a client portal that clients trust, because they are seeing the same evidence you are, not a summary written after the fact.
Payroll should be calculated from what actually happened on the schedule, hours worked, absences, travel time and the right hourly rate, not a separate spreadsheet someone rebuilds every Friday. Ask whether payroll is a genuine in app calculation or just a timesheet export you still have to process by hand elsewhere. Our cleaning company payroll software page goes into what a built in payroll run should actually cover.
This usually means two different things, and it is worth knowing which one a vendor is selling you. There is a proper client login with its own restricted view, showing only that client’s sites, bookings and invoices, and there are shareable public links to a single project, invoice or quote that need no login at all. The best setups offer both, so you can give a facilities manager a full login while sending a one off client a link with nothing to sign into. See cleaning company client portal for the detail.
Commercial and contract cleaning runs on recurring schedules, the same office or site, the same time slot, week after week, with compliance paperwork and multiple stakeholders who all want visibility. Our commercial cleaning software page is built around that pattern: recurring booking templates, saved filters by client or team, and a client portal that a facilities manager can actually rely on.
Domestic cleaning, and end of tenancy work especially, is more one off and time sensitive, with bookings coming in closer to the day and less standing infrastructure per job. What matters more here is how quickly you can create a booking, assign it and get confirmation back, rather than deep recurring rota tooling. See domestic cleaning software for what that looks like in practice. If you run both, the right platform should not force you to pick a lane, it should let recurring contracts and one off jobs sit on the same calendar.
A demo will always look good. These are the questions that tell you what happens after you have signed up and moved real clients across.
We would rather tell you exactly what Xota does than let a demo do the talking. Scheduling is a drag and drop calendar with a week, day and range view plus a Timeline view, and bookings, absences, travel time and recurring virtual items all sit on the same grid, with UK bank holidays imported automatically from gov.uk. The operative mobile app for iOS and Android covers today and next shifts, clock in and out on site, checklists, photo proof and absence requests. Every booking moves through Draft, Open, Active, Complete and Signed Off, with photo and signature capture built into that last step and a full audit trail behind it, which is what powers proof of clean.
Payroll runs and entries are calculated inside Xota from bookings, absences and travel time, resolved against each person’s hourly rate, and viewed in app. What Xota does not do, and we would rather say plainly than let you find out later, is export payroll to a spreadsheet or payslip format, or connect directly to Xero, QuickBooks or Sage. There is a public REST API for teams who want to build their own connection, and direct accounting integrations are on our roadmap, not something we claim to have today. The client portal covers both patterns above: a client role login with its own restricted navigation, plus shareable public links for a project, invoice or quote that need no login at all.
If any of this is close to what you need, our pricing is a single per user rate with the mobile app and client portal included, and the trial runs for 90 days with no credit card required, enough time to move your real schedule across and see whether it holds up under a normal week.
Straight answers to the questions we get asked most before a switch.
Cleaning company software is a system that replaces spreadsheets, paper rotas and WhatsApp groups for running a cleaning business. At minimum it covers scheduling who cleans where and when, a mobile app for cleaners to clock in and check off tasks, proof that a job was actually done, payroll based on hours worked, and a way for clients to see what is happening without phoning the office.
Pricing varies a lot between UK vendors, and many charge separately for admin seats, cleaner app seats and the client portal. Always ask what is included in the headline price before comparing two quotes, because the real cost per cleaner can differ a lot once add-ons are counted. Xota is free for 90 days with no card required, then a single per-user price includes the cleaner app and client portal as standard.
No, but you do need software that handles both patterns well if you run both. Commercial contracts are usually recurring, the same site every week on a fixed rota. Domestic and end of tenancy work is more one off and last minute. Look for a platform that supports recurring booking templates for contracts and quick one off bookings for ad hoc jobs on the same calendar, rather than treating them as separate products.
It depends on the vendor, and it is worth checking carefully because claims vary. Xota calculates payroll runs and invoices inside the app and produces PDF quotes and reports, but does not currently have a built in Xero, QuickBooks or Sage integration. There is a public REST API for teams who want to build their own connection, and direct accounting integrations are on the roadmap.
Long enough to run at least one full payroll cycle and one full invoicing cycle with real clients and real staff, not just a demo account. A two week trial rarely covers that. Xota offers a 90-day free trial with no credit card required, which is enough time to move your actual schedule across and see if it holds up.
Scheduling, cleaner app, proof of clean, payroll and client portal, all in one place. Start your 90-day free trial of everything. No credit card, cancel any time.