For most cleaning companies, the schedule is the heart of the business and the biggest drain on the office. Recurring cleans need setting up, new customers need fitting in, cleaners need the right jobs in the right order and every holiday, sick day or customer change means moving things around. Done by hand on a whiteboard or spreadsheet, it can take hours every week and still go wrong.
The One, ProCleanerUK’s platform, automates most of that work. This guide looks at the three parts of scheduling, booking, assigning and optimising, and shows what can run automatically at each step.
Part 1: Booking jobs automatically
Recurring patterns
Most cleaning work repeats: weekly, fortnightly, every four weeks or on set days for commercial sites. Set the pattern once and the jobs appear in the schedule automatically, week after week, with the same cleaner, the same time and the same checklist. No re-entering jobs every month.
Quotes that book themselves
When a customer accepts a quote online, the job books itself into the schedule on the agreed date or recurring pattern. The customer gets a confirmation, and the cleaner sees the job in their app. Our guide to instant quote approvals explains the quote side in more detail.
Bookings from your website
Quote forms and the website chatbot capture enquiries with the details you need to price and book. Enquiries land in your leads list, ready to quote and schedule.
Part 2: Assigning the right cleaner
Same cleaner, every time
Recurring jobs keep the same cleaner assigned, which customers love and which keeps quality steady.
Finding who is free
When a new job comes in or cover is needed, the Availability Finder shows which cleaners are free and nearby. Drag and drop moves jobs between cleaners in seconds, and the new cleaner sees full job details in their app straight away.
Moving a whole round
When a cleaner leaves or changes their hours, Reassign Staff moves all their jobs to someone else from a chosen date. You can split the round job by job or set custom weekly patterns day by day. History and pay are untouched and the new cleaner is notified.
Part 3: Optimising the day
Route planning
Travel between jobs is unpaid time for the business and often for the cleaner. Route planning orders each cleaner’s jobs to keep travel down, which means more cleans per day and fewer late arrivals. Our guide to the intelligent route planner covers how it works.
Balancing workloads
A good schedule shares work fairly. Seeing each cleaner’s week at a glance makes it easy to spot someone overloaded while another has gaps.
Seeing the live day
Once the day starts, live journeys, Running Late messages and late start alerts show how the plan is going. If a job has not started 15 minutes after its scheduled time, the office gets an alert.
Handling changes automatically
The real test of scheduling is what happens when things change.
- Customer holidays: customer away dates skip visits between two dates, with no reminders sent, and restart them automatically. Customers can request this themselves through the portal.
- Staff holidays: cleaners request time off in the app, and you can see the jobs affected before approving.
- Sickness: the Availability Finder and drag and drop handle same-day cover.
- Price changes: the price increase tool updates recurring jobs in bulk, with a preview.
What stays with you
Automation handles the routine. You still decide the important things: which customers to take on, how to price unusual jobs, who works where and how to handle a difficult week. The difference is that you make those decisions with a clear view of the schedule, rather than spending your time keeping it up to date.
Commercial schedules
Commercial cleaning often runs on fixed days and times, sometimes early mornings or evenings, with several cleaners on one site. Recurring patterns handle set days, and NFC tags at the site make clock-in reliable in large buildings. When a contract changes, updating the pattern updates every future visit.
Signs your scheduling needs automating
- You re-enter recurring jobs every month.
- Cleaners ring the office for tomorrow’s jobs.
- Holidays mean an evening of rearranging.
- Routes criss-cross the area and cleaners are often late.
- Customers on holiday still get cleans or reminders.
Our guide to cleaning booking automation has more on the booking side.
Getting started
- Add your customers and set up recurring patterns for regular work.
- Assign each recurring job to its usual cleaner.
- Run route planning and adjust anything that does not make sense locally.
- Invite cleaners to the staff app.
- Switch on reminders and late start alerts.
Free training sessions during the trial help you get the schedule set up properly.
Automate your schedule
Recurring patterns, auto-booking from quotes, the Availability Finder, drag and drop, Reassign Staff, route planning, customer away dates and late start alerts are included on every ProCleanerUK plan. Start your 28-day free trial and set up your schedule, or book a free demo and we will show you how it would look for your business. For the full picture, see our article on how each step hands off to the next.
FAQs
Can recurring cleans be scheduled automatically?
Yes. Set the pattern once and jobs appear in the schedule automatically with the same cleaner and checklist.
Do accepted quotes go straight into the schedule?
Yes. When a customer accepts a quote online, the job books itself in.
How do I find cover quickly?
The Availability Finder shows who is free nearby, and drag and drop moves the job.
What happens when a customer goes on holiday?
Customer away dates skip visits between two dates and restart them automatically.
Can I move all of one cleaner’s jobs to someone else?
Yes. Reassign Staff moves a whole round from a chosen date, job by job or with custom patterns.