Part 6 of the Janitorial Margin Playbook Series – turning individual metrics into an actionable system that protects profitability and drives sustainable growth.

Over the past five articles, we've covered the metrics that matter most in janitorial: margins, time theft, overtime, budget discipline, and retention. But tracking metrics in isolation won't move the needle. The operators who win are the ones who connect these data points into a coherent system—one that catches problems early, assigns clear ownership, and makes course correction fast.

This final installment shows how to put it all together: from G&A discipline to real-time oversight, and how to use the consolidated playbook table as your roadmap.

The Missing Piece: G&A Discipline

Most margin discussions focus on labor, and for good reason. But there's another cost category that quietly erodes profitability as companies grow: General & Administrative overhead.

G&A includes office staff salaries, software subscriptions, facilities, insurance, and other indirect costs. Early on, these expenses are relatively small. As you scale however, they tend to balloon, often without a corresponding increase in efficiency.

The Paradox of Scale

Here's the irony: larger companies should have more control over G&A, not less. Economies of scale should kick in. Technology should automate manual tasks. Systems should streamline operations.

Yet many operators find the opposite happens. Headcount grows. Software stacks become redundant. Administrative layers multiply. Before long, G&A has climbed from 12% to 20% of revenue, erasing gains made elsewhere.

Measuring Administrative Efficiency

G&A as a percentage of revenue varies significantly by operational maturity and represents one of the key janitorial profitability benchmarks:

That 5-7 point spread can represent hundreds of thousands in annual profit for a mid-sized contractor.

Strategic Questions to Ask

Before adding another tool, hire, or process, ask:

• How many office staff do you have per $1M in revenue? Benchmark against peers to see if you're overstaffed.
• Are salaried staff regularly working paid overtime? If supervisors or managers are burning out, it's often a sign of poor systems, not insufficient headcount.
• Is your tech stack streamlining or complicating operations? Multiple disconnected tools create duplicate work and increase training costs.

Leveraging Technology to Reduce Costs

For years, janitorial was overlooked by tech companies, leaving operators stuck with clunky, legacy tools that required extensive training, or relying on products retrofitted from other categories. Today, there's a much wider range of modern, easy-to-use cleaning company software and janitorial workforce management software built specifically for the industry. Here's how top operators leverage these tools to keep overhead lean while improving visibility:

Consolidate systems. Janitorial software platforms with built-in, real-time reporting eliminate the need for manual data pulls and reduce dependency on administrative staff. The right janitorial workforce management software can replace multiple point solutions while improving visibility.

‍Streamline workflows. Look for opportunities to reduce manual tasks without sacrificing oversight. Janitorial time tracking software that works with your payroll system can cut processing time by hours each week.

Support supervisors with better tools. If supervisors are stretched thin, the answer isn't always more hires. Often, better tools or clearer processes can restore capacity and reduce burnout.

Use mobile clock-ins with geofencing to verify attendance and reduce time theft in janitorial industry operations.

Monitor real-time dashboards that highlight edited punches, overtime risks, and budget variances for immediate account margin analysis janitorial teams need.

Set up automated alerts when staff approach thresholds or jobs drift off budget, helping managers reduce janitorial overtime proactively.

Integrate payroll systems to streamline processing—whether through a platform that includes payroll, a direct integration with your provider, or seamless data exports.

Audit subscriptions and services. Many companies accumulate software they no longer use. An annual review can uncover thousands in wasted spend.

Technology doesn't replace good management, it amplifies it. The operators who win are the ones using janitorial time tracking software to make accountability seamless and decision-making faster.

Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Rhythms

Metrics can feel overwhelming, but you don't need to track everything constantly. Top operators focus on key metrics at different points throughout the week or month, building margin discipline into their regular routines:

Daily: Quick scan of scheduled vs. actual hours by site. Are accounts drifting off budget? Catch variances early before they snowball.

Midweek: Run a 30-hour report to flag employees approaching overtime thresholds, then reassign shifts to under-utilized staff. This simple practice is essential to reduce janitorial overtime before it impacts your bottom line.

Weekly: Review labor hours and wage costs against job budgets, factoring in staffing mix, minimum wage changes, and unexpected overtime. Effective account margin analysis helps identify which clients are profitable and which are draining resources.

Monthly: Measure net margin and compare against janitorial profitability benchmarks by company size and market. Break down labor into separate line items: cleaner wages, supervisors, overtime, and PTO.

This cadence turns margin management from a reactive scramble into proactive oversight.

The Consolidated Margin Playbook

Here's your quick-reference guide—a summary of the metrics, benchmarks, and actions covered throughout this series. Use it to identify where your company stands and where to focus next. 

You don't need to fix everything at once. But you do need a system that helps you spot problems early and course-correct fast.

The Takeaway

Margins in janitorial are thin, but they don't have to be fragile. The companies that win aren't  chasing every RFP or cutting corners for short-term gains. They're using data and janitorial profitability benchmarks to make informed tradeoffs, protect profitability, and build sustainable growth.

This series provides a roadmap: understand your margin, track the metrics that move it, and build systems that prevent leaks before they become losses. Whether you're implementing better janitorial time tracking, conducting regular account margin analysis, or working to reduce overtime, each improvement compounds to strengthen your bottom line.

Now it's time to act.

Revisit the Full Series:

• Part 1: Margins – The Most Important Metric. Why margins are the foundation of profitability and how to benchmark your performance.
• Part 2: Time Theft – The Hidden Drain on Profitability. How edited punches and missing accountability silently drain payroll and margins.
• Part 3: Overtime – Controlling the Cost Spiral. Why chronic overtime is one of the fastest ways profitability slips, and how proactive checks keep labor in line.
• Part 4: Budget vs Actual – The Hidden Margin Leaks. How over-budget jobs and low-margin accounts quietly erode profitability.
• Part 5: Why Client Retention Becomes Critical at Scale. How portfolio discipline protects long-term margins and why keeping the right accounts matters more than just adding new ones.

Want the full set of benchmarks and KPIs? Download the Janitorial Margin Playbook to see where your company stands and how to start closing margin gaps today.

Part 5 of the Janitorial Margin Playbook Series — Why client retention becomes critical at scale, how portfolio discipline protects long-term margins, and why keeping the right accounts matters more than just adding new ones. A guest post from Jordan Tong of Elite BSC, co-author of the Janitorial Margin Playbook.

When a janitorial company is small, growth often comes from saying “yes” to nearly every opportunity. A new account means more hours, more revenue, more visibility. But once you’ve scaled to dozens—or even hundreds—of accounts, the game changes.

At scale, retention becomes the engine that keeps your business stable and profitable.

Landing new contracts matters, but losing accounts at the same rate you’re adding them drains resources, creates turnover headaches, and erodes margin. That’s why high-performing companies shift their focus from simply adding accounts to managing their customer base with discipline.

Why Retention Matters More at Scale

1. Acquisition Costs Multiply
   Winning a new contract requires marketing spend, sales time, walkthroughs, proposals, and onboarding. Replacing lost revenue with a new account often costs 5–10x more than keeping an existing client happy.
2. Stability Drives EfficiencyA retained client means stable labor hours, predictable supply usage, and consistent supervision. Churn creates inefficiency—your managers spend time chasing replacements instead of tightening operations. 
3. Trusted Partnerships Lead to Upsells
   Clients who stay long-term are more likely to expand services (floor care, day porter, special projects). And according to the Janitorial Margin Playbook benchmarks, tag work can drive margins of 50% vs. 30% on recurring contracts.

Retention keeps you in position to capture that higher-margin work.

Practicing Portfolio Discipline

Protecting long-term margin requires portfolio discipline: knowing which clients add value to your business and which ones drain resources.

Retention doesn’t mean keeping every account at all costs.

1. Drop Low-Margin Clients

Not every account is worth keeping. The Janitorial Margin Playbook stresses that low-margin accounts not only consume management attention but also pull down overall company margin. Walking away from underpriced or chronically over-serviced accounts is often the smartest move.

2. Double Down on Profitable Accounts

Your best clients—those with fair pricing, stable expectations, and partnership mindsets—are worth investing in. Strengthen those relationships with proactive communication, consistent quality, and occasional “above and beyond” touches. Protecting profitable accounts protects your foundation.

Balancing Growth and Discipline

Once you’ve reached scale, topline growth isn’t enough.

Growth without discipline leads to bloated overhead, creeping overtime, and account-level losses.

Instead, sustainable success comes from:

• Retaining 90%+ of core clients annually
• Actively pruning accounts that are time-suckers combined with low margins
• Building deeper partnerships with profitable clients
• Using account-level margin reporting and janitorial profitability benchmarks as a decision filter

Jordan Tong is an owner and BSC consultant. Shortly after graduating with a degree in Civil Engineering, Jordan joined the family cleaning business in 2007. At the time, Frantz Building Services was doing $1.5M in revenue. He has since led the company to nearly $20M in revenue with operations in four states. Jordan currently serves as CEO of Frantz Building Services. He founded Elite BSC in 2017 to help other janitorial business owners find success.

Want the full set of benchmarks and KPIs? Download the Janitorial Margin Playbook, co-developed by BrightGo and Elite BSC, to see where your company stands and how to start closing margin gaps today.

Continue the Series

Read Part 1: Margins — The Most Important Metric
Why margins are the foundation of profitability and how to benchmark your performance.

Read Part 2: Time Theft — The Hidden Drain on Profitability
How edited punches and missing accountability silently drain payroll and margins.

Read Part 3: Overtime — Controlling the Cost Spiral
Why chronic overtime is one of the fastest ways profitability slips, and how proactive checks keep labor in line.

Read Part 4: Budget vs Actual —  The Hidden Margin Leaks in Janitorial
How over-budget jobs and low-margin accounts quietly erode profitability and what operators can do to prevent it.

Part 4 of the Janitorial Margin Playbook Series — how budget vs actual discipline protects profitability and why fixing overages early keeps margins intact. A guest post from Jeff Carmon of Elite BSC, co-author of the Janitorial Margin Playbook.

In the janitorial industry, protecting margin is not just about getting pricing right or negotiating good supply costs. Often, the biggest leaks come from much more basic areas: jobs running over budget and accounts that never generate enough return to justify the work. Both issues are common, both are preventable, and both have a much larger impact on your profitability than most owners realize.

Budget vs. Actual: Hours and Dollars

When we talk about budget vs. actual, we are really talking about discipline. Every proposal you submit is built on assumptions about how many labor hours a job should take and what those hours will cost in dollars. If your actual results drift from those assumptions, even by a little, your margin starts to erode.

Take a simple example: you bid a job at 20 hours per week. In reality, the account takes 23 hours to meet the client’s expectations. On paper, three hours does not sound like a big deal. But three hours every week adds up to 12–13 extra hours a month, 150 hours a year, and thousands of dollars in unexpected cost. If you multiply that by ten or twenty accounts, the numbers get serious fast.

Looking only at dollars can mask the problem. That is why it is best practice to track both labor hours and labor dollars. Hours tell you how much time it is really taking to service the account. Dollars reflect the impact of wages, overtime, staffing mix, and even minimum wage changes in your market. Together, they give you a complete picture of where the account is performing against budget and where it is slipping.

Why Daily Monitoring Matters

Many companies review their budgets only at the end of the month. By then, it is too late. The overage is baked into payroll, the invoice has already gone out, and the margin is gone for good.

The best operators do not wait. They monitor hours in real time. If your system provides daily data, use it. A quick daily check of scheduled vs. actual hours can flag problems before they spiral. Maybe one cleaner is regularly clocking in 10 minutes early. Maybe supervisors are adding hours to “make sure the building looks good” without realizing the impact. Small variances caught early are much easier to correct.

At a minimum, review both hours and wage cost weekly. If you see a job running more than 2 percent over budget, take action right away. That could mean adjusting staffing levels, moving shifts around, or tightening clock-in discipline. By the end of the pay period, your goal should be to land as close to the budgeted target as possible.

The Financial Impact of Variance

The math is clear. A company with 10 million dollars in annual revenue that consistently runs 4 percent over budget on labor will lose 400,000 dollars in profit over the course of a year. That is not because of bad contracts or customer issues. It is because of small variances that no one stepped in to correct.

On the flip side, best-in-class operators consistently come in 1–3 percent under budget. That discipline creates a margin advantage worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

Those funds can then be reinvested into technology, training, or better wages for frontline staff, which creates a positive cycle of stronger performance and improved retention.

Account-Specific Margin: Winning the Right Work

Budget discipline is only half the battle. The other margin leak happens much earlier, before the account even starts. Many contractors underbid to stay competitive, only to realize later that the job barely breaks even.

Low-margin accounts are dangerous for two reasons. First, they tie up supervisors and managers who spend outsized time trying to keep the customer happy. Second, they distract your team from higher-margin accounts that could actually move the business forward.

In other words, low-margin accounts do not just hurt the P&L. They also hurt your overall operational focus.

The best way to avoid this trap is to set clear margin expectations before you ever submit a proposal. Build your pricing model with benchmarks for labor costs, supply costs, supervision, and overhead. Decide in advance what margin threshold you are willing to accept. If the numbers do not work, walk away. It is better to lose the bid than to win an account that will drag your business down.

Using Gross Margin per Job

One of the most effective tools here is gross margin per job. This measures how much revenue is left after direct labor and supply costs are covered. Top operators aim for 30 percent or more on every job.

If an account consistently produces less than 30 percent, it is a signal to take a hard look. Can you staff differently by assigning lower-cost labor? Can you renegotiate scope with the client? If not, the smartest move may be to exit the account. While it is never easy to walk away from revenue, holding onto unprofitable accounts is often more damaging in the long run.

Gross margin per job also helps you evaluate bidding success. Look at your win rate vs. the average margin on won bids. If you are winning a lot of work but margins are weak, you may be pricing too aggressively. If you are losing most bids but the ones you win are strong, you may be more selective but healthier for it.

Connecting Both Sides

Budget vs. actual and account-specific margin are not isolated issues. They are two sides of the same coin. Strong bidding discipline prevents you from taking on jobs that are doomed to underperform. Strong budget discipline ensures the jobs you do take actually deliver the margin you planned. Together, they create a system of accountability that protects profitability at both the front end and the day-to-day execution.

The Bottom Line

Margin does not slip away in one dramatic event. It leaks out slowly through unchecked hours, unnoticed dollar overages, and accounts that never had the potential to perform.

By focusing on daily and weekly budget checks, and by enforcing a clear margin threshold for new accounts, you give your company the discipline it needs to stay profitable.

Strong margins give you options. They let you reinvest in your team, provide better service to customers, and scale your business with confidence. Without them, even growth can become a burden rather than a benefit.

Action Items

• Check labor hours daily if possible – Use real-time data to catch overages before they become losses.
• Review labor dollars weekly – Factor in wage rates, staffing mix, and overtime.
• Flag jobs 2 percent or more over budget – Step in immediately to correct.
• Aim for 30 percent or higher gross margin per job – Drop or renegotiate accounts that consistently underperform.
• Balance win rate with margin discipline – Winning the wrong jobs can hurt more than losing bids.

Jeff Carmon brings over 40 years of experience across multiple industries. He spent a decade in business development and operations with Frantz Building Services before moving into his current role as Manager of Member Services at Elite BSC, where he provides training, coaching, and support to help building service contractors strengthen operations and better serve their customers.

Want the full set of benchmarks and KPIs? Download the Janitorial Margin Playbook, co-developed by BrightGo and Elite BSC, to see where your company stands and how to start closing margin gaps today.

Continue the Series

Read Part 1: Margins — The Most Important Metric
Why margins are the foundation of profitability and how to benchmark your performance.

Read Part 2: Time Theft — The Hidden Drain on Profitability
How edited punches and missing accountability silently drain payroll and margins.

Read Part 3: Overtime — Controlling the Cost Spiral
Why chronic overtime is one of the fastest ways profitability slips, and how proactive checks keep labor in line.