Bidding commercial work is a repeatable procedure and most contractors do it as an act of nerve instead. The procedure has five steps and takes an hour for a typical office. Doing it means you know before you send the bid whether you want the account at that price, which is a completely different position from finding out in month three. It also means a lost bid teaches you something, because you know exactly which assumption the winner beat.
Step one and two: walk it, then measure it
Walk the building with the person who will manage it, at the time of day the crew will work. Note the mix: open office, private offices, restrooms and fixture counts, kitchens, stairwells, entrances, floor types. Ask what the current contractor does and what they complain about, which is usually where the real scope is. Then get the cleanable area rather than the gross figure on the lease.
Step three and four: hours, then loaded cost
Convert each area type to hours using your own production rate for that type. Add fixed time that does not scale: setup, travel between floors, locking up, restocking. Multiply hours by a loaded hourly cost, which is the wage plus employer payroll tax and insurance and any paid time you fund. Then add supplies, consumables if included, and equipment cost per visit. That total is what servicing the account costs you monthly.
Step five: price, then decide
Divide the monthly cost by one minus your target margin to get the monthly price, and check it per square foot to see whether it sits in the range that market accepts. Now decide. If the price you need is above what the building will pay, the honest outcome is to not bid rather than to win at a number that funds nothing. Businesses that bid every job at whatever wins are the ones that are busiest and least profitable.
Questions people ask about how to bid on commercial cleaning jobs
How long should a commercial bid take to prepare?
About an hour of desk work after the walkthrough, once you have production rates you trust. Less than that and you are guessing at one of the five steps.
Should I ask what the current contract costs?
Ask. Many buyers will say, and knowing the incumbent number tells you whether the specification you are being shown is the one being delivered.
What if I am always the most expensive bid?
Check your production rates against a job you already run profitably. If they are right, you are competing against people who have not done this arithmetic, and some of those accounts are not worth winning.