As a cleaning company owner, you know the benefits of using subcontractors: instant scalability for specialised jobs (carpet cleaning, window washing, HVAC specialists) and reduced overhead.
But there’s a problem: manually tracking these external costs, ensuring they’re added to the client invoice, and managing supplier purchases for your own stock often turns profit into paperwork chaos.
If your current software treats a specialised HVAC subcontractor the same as your in-house cleaner, you’re missing a trick. The right platform offers dedicated features to not only track them but to automatically bill your client for their work.
Here’s a deep dive into the must-have software features that turn subcontractor and supplier management from a burden into a seamless profit center.
👷 Subcontractor Management: From Job Creation to Client Invoice
When you dispatch a subcontractor—whether it’s for a one-off deep clean or a quarterly specialty service—their costs need to flow directly to the client invoice, not get buried in your Profit & Loss statement.
A powerful cleaning management software does this by giving you a dedicated workflow within the job itself:
1. Add Subcontractor Services Directly to the Job (P.O. Creation)
In modern software, you can treat a subcontractor’s service fee like a specialised “purchase order” attached to a job.
- The Feature: As you build a new job or quote, you can quickly select the Subcontractor from a dedicated vendor list, which is stored separately from your material suppliers.
- The Detail: You add the service details—e.g., “3 hours of high-reach window cleaning”—along with the Quantity (3) and the Unit Price (£45/hr).
- The System’s Role: The software captures this data and links it to the job, effectively creating a dedicated line item for the third-party service.
2. Automatic Flow to the Client Invoice
This is where you save hours of double-entry. When the job is completed, and you generate the client’s invoice, the system pulls the subcontractor line item automatically.
- The Feature: The invoice builder includes the subcontractor service as a distinct, billable line item, ensuring 100% cost recovery.
- The Client View: Your client sees the service clearly formatted, often with the subcontractor’s company name listed above the service description for clarity and transparency. The invoice accurately reflects that this cost is being passed through to them.
📦 Seamless Supplier Management: From Reorder to Restock
Beyond subcontractors, managing the material and cleaning product suppliers is equally vital for profitability. You need to know your true inventory value and ensure you never run out of vital supplies.
1. Centralised Vendor and Subcontractor Records
First, make sure your vendors are properly categorised and logged. Your software should clearly distinguish between a Supplier (who provides stock, like cleaning chemicals) and a Subcontractor (who provides service, like an electrician).
- The Feature: A unified Vendor List Modal that allows you to manage both types of external companies and filter them by their purpose.
- The Benefit: This separation allows the system to trigger different workflows, such as stock updates for suppliers and job completion tracking for subcontractors.
2. Create Purchase Orders (POs) from Low Stock
Forget spreadsheets and handwritten lists. The system should alert you to low stock and let you generate a formal PO in seconds.
- The Feature: The Stock View displays real-time inventory value and flags items below their reorder level.
- The Workflow: You select the low-stock items, choose a preferred supplier, input your negotiated cost, and the system drafts a formal PO that can be instantly emailed to your vendor.
3. Receiving Stock and Instant Inventory Update
When the delivery arrives, simply mark the PO as “Received” to execute the Goods-In process.
- The Feature: Marking a PO as received automatically updates your inventory levels and sets the latest paid cost as the new purchase price for profit reporting.
- The Distinction: For a Subcontractor PO, this same action simply marks the service as “Completed” (since there is no stock to receive), maintaining a clean record of work delivered.
The Takeaway for Cleaning Business Owners
If you’re using subcontractors to scale and suppliers to stock, your cleaning company subcontractor software needs more than just basic CRM.
It needs a streamlined process where costs from external vendors and subcontractors are integrated into your core job workflow and invoicing. This eliminates manual errors, ensures 100% cost recovery, and frees up your admin time to focus on acquiring new clients and growing your core business.
Ready to stop chasing supplier invoices and start leveraging your subcontractors for easy, scalable growth? Start Your Free Trial Today