The same $500 cleaning job can appear on a proposal as $500, or as $550, depending entirely on how GST is displayed — not because the job changed, but because "price includes GST" and "price excludes GST" mean genuinely different things to a client reading an invoice later.
This is a narrower topic than How to Write a Commercial Cleaning Proposal, which covers the whole document. This article is specifically about the tax display setting.
The four display options
A commercial cleaning proposal can present tax four different ways, and each communicates something different to the client:
Included vs excluded — the number that actually changes
The difference between "includes" and "excludes" isn't cosmetic — it changes the number the client sees as the total:
When to use each option
GST Not Applicable suits a business that isn't registered for GST, or a proposal where tax genuinely doesn't apply. Price Includes GST is common when you want one clean, all-up number the client can budget against. Price Excludes GST is common in B2B quoting where the client expects to see tax itemised separately, particularly for their own accounting. Custom Tax covers anything else — a different tax name, a different rate, or a jurisdiction where GST isn't the applicable term.
This is a display setting, not tax advice
Choosing how a price is shown doesn't determine your actual tax obligations — whether you're required to register for GST, what rate applies, and how you report it are questions for your accountant or tax adviser, not a setting on a proposal tool. The Proposal Builder controls what the client sees; it doesn't calculate or file anything on your behalf.
Keeping it consistent across regular and periodic pricing
Whatever tax setting you choose applies consistently across the proposal — regular visit pricing, periodic work, and any custom line items all follow the same display mode, so a client never sees GST handled one way for the routine clean and a different way for the quarterly carpet clean on the same document.
Use the Free Commercial Cleaning Proposal Builder to set your tax display once per proposal, alongside your pricing and scope.