The Real Cost of Juggling Too Many Systems: Why Software for Cleaners Needs to Work Together
Dan Teare
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“We’ve got too many systems… and none of them talk to each other.”
This is one we heard a lot when we spoke to cleaning professionals at The Cleaning Show.
Scheduling in one system. Timesheets in another. Reporting somewhere else entirely. Plus, a group WhatsApp chat on the side just to keep things moving.
And while each tool on its own might do its job well enough, the real problem is that none of them are connected. So, the ops team is left spending half their time copying and pasting data between platforms, chasing missing information, or trying to patch together a view of what’s actually going on.
It’s like running a marathon with your shoelaces tied together.
This is exactly why software for cleaners shouldn’t just tick a few boxes - it needs to bring everything together in one place.
The Patchwork Problem: How Cleaning Companies End Up Here
Most cleaning companies don’t plan to end up with five, six, seven different systems. It just happens, bit by bit, as the business grows.
You bring in a scheduling tool because managing shifts over email is a nightmare. Then a timesheet system, because payroll’s getting messy. Add an audit app, a reporting platform to keep the clients sweet, maybe stock control on the side. All of them solve a problem - but none of them solve the problem.
Fast forward a few years and now you’ve got your office team stuck stitching it all together manually. Export from one place, import into another. Chase the bits that got lost along the way. Cross your fingers that nothing’s gone missing.
Sound familiar? We’ve started affectionally calling this “system soup”. Too many tools, none of them connected and a big helping of frustration on the side.
The Hidden Cost of “Making Do” with the Wrong Software for Cleaners
On the surface, this looks like “just a bit of admin.” A few extra clicks here, the odd spreadsheet download there. But when you add it up, that time and energy really starts to cost you.
Every hour your ops and admin team spend moving data around is an hour they’re not spending managing your people, supporting your cleaners on site, or keeping clients happy.
But it goes deeper than that. Because when your software for cleaners doesn’t work together, things get missed. Shifts aren’t covered. Hours don’t match up. Reports are out of date - or just plain wrong. And nine times out of ten, you only find out because a client picks up the phone and points it out.
We’ve spoken to so many cleaning companies where the ops team spends more time playing “spreadsheet detective” than actually running the business. No one signed up for that. And it’s a huge drain on resource and morale.
Why Chasing “The Best Tool for Every Job” Can Backfire
Disconnected tools = disconnected teams
It’s easy to fall into the trap of looking for the best possible software for each individual task. The perfect scheduling tool. The slickest audit app. A payroll system with all the bells and whistles.
But here’s the catch: if those tools can’t talk to each other, it doesn’t matter how brilliant they are on their own.
The right software for cleaners doesn’t just handle one part of the job - it connects the dots between scheduling, reporting, payroll, audits and everything else that keeps your operation running smoothly.
In our experience, the cleaning companies that run most efficiently aren’t the ones with the flashiest apps - they’re the ones using fewer systems that actually work together.
So, Where Do You Start?
We’re not here to tell you to rip out everything and start again (unless you really want to). We know that’s expensive, disruptive and rarely practical.
But if any of this has you nodding along, it might be worth stepping back and asking:
Three questions to ask yourself
- Are these systems helping my team - or making their lives harder?
- How much time are we losing each week just moving data from one place to another?
- What would it look like if our multiple pieces of cleaning software actually spoke to each other?
Good software should make your life easier - not give you another job to do.
Sometimes the answer isn’t “add another tool” - it’s finding the right one that brings everything together.
A Few Simple Steps to Start Sorting the Tangle
If this all sounds familiar, here are a few low-stress ways to start getting things under control:
- Map out what you’re using today
Write down every system, spreadsheet and process your team touches - from scheduling to payroll to audits. Seeing it all in one place is often an eye-opener.
- Spot where the gaps (and overlaps) are
Where are you duplicating effort? Where are things falling through the cracks? If you’re exporting data from one tool only to retype it into another, that’s your red flag.
- Prioritise the biggest pain points
Don’t try to fix everything at once. Focus on the areas causing the most headaches - whether that’s missed shifts, payroll errors, or time wasted on reporting.
- Talk to your team (not just the ops office)
Check in with the people actually using the systems day to day. What’s winding them up? What’s working? What’s getting ignored completely?
- Look for software for cleaners that connects the dots
Whether that means integrating your current tools better, or finding one system that can handle more of the work, the goal is the same: less faff, more focus.
What’s Next?
This blog is part of our series unpacking the biggest frustrations cleaning companies shared with us.
Next up, we’ll be digging into the next issue we kept hearing: the headache of rolling out new systems across large cleaning teams, where not everyone’s sat at a desk and tech confidence varies wildly.
If any of this sounds familiar, or if you’ve found ways to fix it in your own business, we’d love to hear from you.
