MaidBossPro Blog — Running a Cleaning Business

Unbilled Extras: Making Sure Every Oven, Fridge and Load of Laundry Gets Invoiced

Extras are some of the best work a cleaning company does. Inside the oven, inside the fridge, a load of laundry, fresh linens: they take a known amount of time, customers are happy to pay for them, and they turn a standard visit into a bigger ticket. They are also the work most likely to be done for free. The cleaner was happy to help, the customer was grateful, and the invoice never heard about it.

The Biggest Leak to Fix First

Profit Leaks in a Cleaning Business: Where the Money Slips Out listed unbilled extras as one of the most common leaks in the business. It is also one of the easiest to fix, because the fix is mostly about where the information lives.

How Extras Slip Through

Extras go unbilled in a few predictable ways:

• Asked at the door. “While you're here, could you do the inside of the fridge?” The team says yes and nobody tells the office.
• Asked by text to a cleaner. The request goes to one person's phone and never reaches billing.
• Promised on the estimate, forgotten on the job. The customer agreed to linens every visit, but the job card shows only the standard clean.
• Done out of habit. A team always does the inside of the microwave at one home because the last team did, though it was never on the price.
• Billed late. The office means to add it on Friday and doesn't.

Step One: Price Every Extra

An extra without a price gets done for free. Put every add-on you offer on your service list with a set price: Inside Oven, Inside Fridge, Interior Windows, Baseboards, Inside Cabinets, Blinds, Laundry, Change Linens, Dishes, Walls & Doors. Example numbers are only examples, but something like “$35 inside the oven” is clear to the customer and to the team.

When everyone knows the price, the conversation at the door gets easier too. “Sure, inside the fridge is $30, want us to add it?” is friendly and honest.

Step Two: Put Extras on the Job

In MaidBossPro, extras are part of each job's cleaning details. They show under the address on the office lists and on the team's phone as lines like “+ Change Linens” or “+ Inside Fridge.” Extras chosen on an estimate carry onto the job when the estimate is approved, so what the customer agreed to is what the team sees.

Teach teams a simple rule: if it shows on the card, it gets done. If it doesn't show, it isn't part of this visit, and any request goes in the notes. That one rule protects both the customer, who gets what they paid for, and the business, which gets paid for what it did. Write the rule into The Room-by-Room Cleaning Checklist Every Maid Business Should Write Down so every new cleaner learns it.

Step Three: Catch On-the-Spot Requests

Customers will always ask for things at the door. That is good; it is extra work. The trick is making sure the request reaches the invoice. When a customer asks for an extra during the visit, the team lead writes it in the job notes in the team app before tapping Complete: “Customer asked for inside fridge, done.” The office sees the note and adds the line item.

Even better, encourage customers to ask ahead. The night-before reminder is a natural prompt, and two-way texting means a reply like “Can you do the oven tomorrow?” lands with the office, which adds the extra to the job before the team arrives. Customers can also request service in the customer app.

Step Four: Set Up Recurring Extras

Some customers want an extra on every visit, like linens or dishes. Others want it once a month, like inside the fridge. Put the every-visit extras on the home so they show on every job. When you Add Recurring Cleaning, the home's details and extras are copied onto every scheduled visit from its last cleaning, so they carry forward without anyone re-entering them.

For the once-a-month extras, the recurring visits are already on the schedule, so open the right visit each month and add the extra, and write a note on the home so the office remembers: “Inside fridge on the first visit of each month.”

Step Five: Invoice at Completion

The longer billing waits, the more gets forgotten. When the team taps Complete, MaidBossPro creates the invoice with line items for the clean and every extra on the job, and can charge the card on file. Invoices carry sales tax where it applies. For monthly accounts, extras appear on the monthly statement next to the right address.

Once a week, spot-check a few completed jobs against their notes. If a note says an extra was done, it should be on the invoice. A few minutes of checking will show quickly whether the habit has taken hold.

The next leak is a bigger one: recurring visits that stop without anyone noticing. For more guides, see the cleaning business software page.