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Too many cleaning business owners know this pain: you’ve cleaned all day, and instead of dropping your shoulders when you walk in the door at night, you come home to hours of paperwork, answering emails, and sending quotes to new potential clients.
You’re not resting; you’re not growing your business. You’re treading water, trying to stay afloat.
Most cleaning business owners probably didn’t start their business to turn it into another desk job, and certainly no one looks forward to managing spreadsheets and chasing invoices every day. Admin work is a necessary part of running a business, but it’s certainly not the glamorous part.
Even though you can’t avoid the work that runs your business, you can make it way easier and less time-sucking. Part of it is automating the things you find most tedious, the repeatable tasks you do joylessly every day but need to get done. And the other part is making the work mobile.
This post will look at mobile tools and strategies that free up your time without requiring a big team or a tech background. In fact, solo operators and small teams are most likely to feel the benefits of mobility and automation more strongly than large ones — so if that’s you, read on!
Table of contents
What “Managing From Your Smartphone” Actually Means
When we say, “manage your business from your smartphone,” you might imagine someone with a Bluetooth headset in their ear running phone calls all day. This does not have to be you.
Most cleaning business owners start simply, with a pen and some paper and maybe a payment processing software. As the business grows, so does the amount of paperwork you have to bring with you on-site.
This becomes an issue when you’re never at a desk or in an office. Cleaning is one of the few jobs left that requires you to be in the field, but as the business grows, you’ll need to find a balance between handling admin work and keeping up with clients.
Papers can get lost or left behind, invoices may need to be sent twice, and cleanings might get missed if you’re not organized.
A tool like ZenMaid prevents this entirely. The right software can bundle client information, job details, time tracking tools, and invoicing in a single place and make it available via computer and mobile app, for when you’re on site.
Not only can software help you stay organized, but it can also handle recurring administrative tasks, such as emailing clients. Automations like these save you hours of busywork.
Even if your days are still filled with cleaning clients, the right software means you can spend your nights however you want.
The Core Admin Tasks You Can Automate or Streamline
The biggest blocker most teams face when adopting software is finding time to learn it, upload and organize data, and set up automations. Finding this time might be difficult, especially when you’re booked, but focusing for an hour or two might save you weeks each year.
There are five key areas that we recommend automating, with ZenMaid or another tool:
- Scheduling & Dispatching: Manually texting staff or clients back and forth
- Invoicing & Payment Collection: Chasing unpaid jobs, hand-writing receipts
- Client Booking & Confirmations: Phone tag, missed calls, no-shows
- Time Tracking: Not knowing how long jobs actually take; tracking pay for hourly workers
- Team Communication: Last-minute cancellations, unclear job details
We’ve written extensively about what to automate, how to automate, and why you should automate your recurring tasks, so make sure to check out these other articles on the Magazine.
At ZenMaid, we strongly recommend automating as much as possible so that you can focus on growing, not running, your business. If you’re looking for somewhere to start, the complete guide to automating your business might be a good place!
Mobile Apps That Help Cleaners Manage Daily Schedules
The most important thing to focus on when choosing software to purchase is the stage your business is in. Why buy expensive software with every bell and whistle? Every option is priced differently and offers different features, so you can buy what you need and leave what you don’t.
Several software options with mobile apps can help you manage your daily schedule and the ins and outs of your business. In the table below, we offer a quick comparison of some popular software options with mobile apps.
| Business Stage | Recommended Stack | Cost | Standout Features |
| Solopreneurs, just starting out | Google Calendar + Sheets | Free | — Share a link with clients to book appointments — Manage costs, inventory, appointments, and revenue — Set calculation automations that make accounting easier |
| Solopreneurs; established cleaners (5+ recurring clients) | ZenMaid | Free for the first 14 days, then $19/month | — Book and schedule jobs online with a calendar, dispatch, map view, and more — SMS & Email communication templates for cleaners and clients — Access to all automations — Cleaner SOS alert — Online payments with Stripe and Square |
| 1-3 staff, growing | Jobber | Free for the first 14 days, then $29/month | — Book and schedule jobs online — Send professional quotes — Send and receive invoices — Track performance with built-in reporting |
| 5+ staff | Housecall Pro | Free for the first 14 days, then $59/month | — Book and schedule jobs online with dispatch — Send and receive estimates and invoices — Online payments and price book — Review management |
Tools Built Specifically for Solo Cleaning Operators
While most software is built for larger teams, solo operators can still get a lot of value out of the systems software provides.
On top of what we discussed in the last section, solopreneurs should look for software that is low cost, has a simple user interface (UI), automates reminders, and lets clients self-book. A clean UI reduces the time you need to spend learning the software, while other features free up more of your time.
ZenMaid is worth emphasizing here again not only because of its maid-specific features, but also because its pricing tiers are flexible and align well with the speed at which cleaning businesses grow.
vCita is another option with a client portal, invoicing, and appointment booking for solo service businesses. The basic plan is $29/month and includes client management, a business calendar and online scheduler, online payments and invoices, and a mobile app.
Finally, Square Appointments may be all you need to get started, with a free tier for scheduling and payments available to solo operators.
Free software isn’t necessarily worse, nor is paid software always better. Use your free trials to figure out which tool works best for you, and upgrade as revenue (and your team) grows.
How to Use Your Phone to Cut Admin Time in Half
We’ve talked a lot so far about cutting admin time in half, but in case it’s not quite clear what the result would look like for you, let’s break this down into some mini-strategies:
- Set up automated booking confirmations and reminders → Eliminate the back-and-forth with clients and cleaners
- Use digital invoicing with auto-reminders → Get paid faster without chasing invoices
- Create reusable job checklists → Send to clients and staff from your phone
- Track time per job automatically → Use data to price future jobs better and grow revenue
- Centralize client notes in a simple CRM → Stop relying on memory or scattered texts to improve customer service
Mobile apps for the software we’ve discussed let you access all these features from your phone and quickly take action while in the field or out of the office.
Even though we’d still recommend having a computer or desktop setup for deep strategy work, your smartphone can help you make a big impact day-to-day. Try automating appointment reminders. You might end up with a much quieter day running from place to place because emails reach clients without you needing to follow up yourself.
Less Admin, More Growth
The right tools will give you back the hours you need to build your business. Reinvest your time into marketing, building client relationships, or just resting, because building a business is hard work!
Don’t overthink how to get started. Pick one thing from this post to implement this week, and then another next week, and so on, until you’ve automated everything you need to. Then, start tinkering and making small improvements until everything runs smoothly.
Sign up for ZenMaid and try building out automations during your 14-day free trial. With over 3,000 cleaning business owners already using ZenMaid, you’ll get a taste of how our users have grown their businesses to new heights with automations.
