Cleaning business expense tracker spreadsheet: a simple layout
The columns, categories and monthly summary a cleaning business expense tracker needs, with SUMIFS formulas and a worked example.
A cleaning business can be busy every day and still lose money if nobody adds up the costs. An expense tracker fixes that: one row per cost, one category per row, one total per month. Here is a layout you can build in any spreadsheet in about twenty minutes. Every number below is an example: swap in your own.
1. The columns you need
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Date | The day you paid (not the day you ordered). |
| Vendor | Who you paid: supply store, gas station, insurer. |
| Category | Pick from a short fixed list (see below) so totals add up cleanly. |
| Amount | What left your account, in dollars. |
| Job or client (optional) | Fill it in when a cost belongs to one job, such as a special chemical. |
| Receipt? | Yes/No, so you know what to chase before tax time. |
2. Keep the category list short
Eight to ten categories are plenty: supplies, equipment, fuel and mileage, vehicle, insurance, phone and software, marketing, wages and payroll extras, subcontractors, other. A category you use once a year belongs in "other". Ask your accountant whether they want the categories matched to the tax form they file for you.
3. Add a monthly summary
On a second tab, list the months down the side and the categories across the top. Each cell sums the amounts for that month and category.
Add an income row from your invoices and subtract the month's total costs to see profit.
4. Turn costs into a per-job number
Divide the month's supplies and overhead by the jobs you did that month. That gives the per-job supplies and overhead figures you need when you price a job, which is the method in our guide on how to price house cleaning jobs.
5. A ten-minute weekly habit
Once a week, enter every receipt from the week and tick the Receipt column. Monthly totals then build themselves, and tax time is a matter of handing over a sheet instead of a shoebox.
Do it in a spreadsheet
The Spreadoodle cleaning Profit & Expense Tracker + Job Pricing Calculator has this layout built in, with a monthly profit view and the pricing calculator on the same file.
This guide is general information, not tax, legal or accounting advice.