Questions
Answers to questions business owners ask us about bookkeeping, accounting, and how we work together.
Should I pay my cleaners as W-2 employees or 1099 contractors in NYC?
In most cases, your cleaners should be W-2 employees. New York State enforces worker classification rules aggressively, and the way most cleaning businesses operate makes it very difficult to justify treating cleaners as independent contractors.
Read answerHow do Bronx janitorial companies track recurring commercial contracts?
Set up recurring invoices in QuickBooks Online for each commercial contract and use customer types or class tracking to separate that monthly revenue from one-off residential or post-construction jobs.
Read answerDo Bronx cleaning companies need to issue 1099s to subcontractors?
Yes. If you pay a non-corporate subcontractor $600 or more during the year by check, cash, or ACH, you're required to file a 1099-NEC. Collecting W-9s before you make the first payment is the step most cleaning companies skip.
Read answerHow should a NYC residential cleaning business calculate gross margin on a contract?
Subtract your direct costs from contract revenue, then divide by revenue. Direct costs include labor, supplies, travel and tolls, and equipment. NYC operators should target 30-40% gross margin to cover overhead and leave room for profit.
Read answerWhat cleaning supplies should be inventoried vs expensed?
Almost all cleaning supplies should be expensed when purchased. They're consumed quickly and the amounts are too small to justify tracking as inventory. The only exception is a large bulk purchase near year-end that represents material future-period usage.
Read answerHow do residential cleaners in the Bronx handle customer deposits?
Customer deposits are recorded as a liability on your books, not revenue. The money only becomes revenue once the cleaning service is actually performed, which gives you an accurate picture of what you've truly earned.
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