A proposal has to do more work than a bare price. It's the document a prospective client actually reads to decide whether to sign — so it needs to explain the offer, not just state a number. This article walks through a complete example proposal for a fortnightly office contract, section by section, so you can see how the pieces fit together in a finished document.
For the general method behind writing a proposal, see How to Write a Commercial Cleaning Proposal. This article shows what that method produces once it's applied.
How the document is laid out
Every proposal built from an approved scope and price follows roughly the same structure:
Introduction (example only)
"Thank you for the opportunity to quote on cleaning services at [Site Name]. Based on our site walkthrough on [date], this proposal outlines a fortnightly commercial cleaning service designed around the areas, tasks and access requirements we discussed."
Short and specific beats generic. Naming the site and referencing the actual walkthrough signals that the proposal was built for this client, not copied from a template.
Service overview (example only)
Service type: Fortnightly commercial cleaning. Proposed commencement: within two weeks of acceptance. Site: single-tenancy office, approximately 400m².
Scope of services
The scope section summarises the approved areas and tasks — reception, workstations, meeting rooms, kitchen, bathrooms and corridors, plus periodic work like carpet extraction on its own separate cycle. Rather than duplicating that structure here, see the full worked example in Office Cleaning Scope of Work Example— the Proposal Builder pulls this content in directly from an approved Scope Builder document.
Presenting the pricing
Some clients think in terms of a single visit price; others budget monthly or want the annual contract value to compare against other quotes. A proposal can show one figure or several, without changing the underlying price:
Terms, validity and exclusions (example only)
Payment terms: 14 days from invoice. This proposal is valid for 30 days from the issue date. Exclusions: exterior window cleaning, specialist floor stripping outside the agreed periodic cycle.
These are deliberately short, plain statements — a proposal isn't a legal contract, and it doesn't need to read like one. It needs to be clear enough that nothing about payment, timing or exclusions comes as a surprise later.
What never appears in the proposal
Labour cost, overhead allocation, target margin, markup and profit are internal business figures — none of them appear anywhere in this example, and none of them should appear in any commercial cleaning proposal you send a client. Only the selling price you choose to show belongs in the client-facing document.
Use the Free Commercial Cleaning Proposal Builder to build a proposal like this one from your own approved scope and pricing.