A commercial cleaning quote is compared against two others by someone who is not a cleaner. That is the whole design brief. The quote that wins is usually not the cheapest; it is the one that can be read alongside the other two without ambiguity, because the person deciding needs to defend the choice. Anything vague in your quote becomes a risk on their side of the table and they will price that risk against you.
Make it comparable, area by area
List the areas: offices, restrooms, kitchen and break areas, entrances and glass, floors by type, and any specialist work. Give each a frequency. State what is done at that frequency in a short phrase rather than an adjective. A facilities manager can then lay three quotes beside each other and see that yours includes restroom restocking daily while another does it three times a week, which is the difference the price is explaining.
State the exclusions in the same voice
Windows above ground floor, carpet extraction, high-level dusting, consumables, waste removal beyond the bins, and anything requiring access equipment. Naming them is not a weakness; it is the reason your monthly figure is lower than the quote that silently included them and will renegotiate later. Put them in the same list as the inclusions so they are read rather than skipped.
Show the basis, not just the number
Square feet, frequency, crew hours and a monthly price. When the buyer asks why the price moved after a floor was added, the answer is arithmetic rather than negotiation. This also makes an annual increase far easier to justify: the rate went up because wages did, and the employer cost on those wages is fixed by the IRS at 6.2% for Social Security and 1.45% for Medicare on your side.
Questions people ask about commercial cleaning quote
How quickly should I return a commercial quote?
Within a few days of the walkthrough. Facilities managers are usually working to a decision date and a late quote is often simply not read.
Should I quote monthly or per visit?
Monthly for contracts. It matches how they budget and it stops the price fluctuating with the number of Mondays in a month.
Do I need to walk the building before quoting?
Always, for commercial work. Quoting an office from a floor plan is how a bid becomes unprofitable in the first week.