How to pay subcontractors on a window cleaning crew

Pay window cleaning subcontractors a rule you can state in one sentence, such as a percentage of each job's price or a commission on sales they close, calculate it from the job's recorded price, and show each person what they earned as jobs complete. Keep a record of every payout you send. Clear, consistent pay is what keeps a subcontractor crew from walking.

The percentages and dollar figures in this guide are examples to show the arithmetic, not recommendations or statistics about what window cleaners pay. This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Ask an accountant how your own crew should be classified and reported.

Why pay is the thing that makes or breaks a crew

A window cleaning crew can put up with a lot: early starts, ladders, bad weather. What it will not tolerate for long is not knowing what it earned. When a technician finishes six jobs in a week and has to text the owner to ask what they are owed, two things happen. The owner has to reconstruct the numbers from memory, and the technician starts to wonder whether the owner's memory is accurate.

Almost every pay dispute is a memory dispute. Two people remember two different prices, or two different splits, or two different dates. The cure is to take memory out of the process: record the price once, calculate from it, and let everyone see the result.

Step 1: pick a pay model and keep it simple

Three models cover most window and exterior cleaning crews. Many businesses combine them.

A percentage of the job price

Each completed job pays the person a set percentage of its price. If a technician earns 30% and a job is priced at $200, the technician earns $60.

• Why it works: it scales with the work. A bigger job pays more, and everyone can do the math in their head.
• Watch for: hard jobs that take twice as long for the same price. If your pricing does not reflect effort, a flat percentage will feel unfair to the person doing the hard ones.

A flat amount per job

Each job pays a fixed amount for a given type of work, regardless of the price charged.

• Why it works: it is predictable, and the person knows what a standard clean pays before they start.
• Watch for: you carry the risk. If you under-quote a job, you still pay the flat amount, and your margin disappears.

A commission on jobs a person sells

A rep earns a percentage of the price of jobs they booked, whether or not they do the work.

• Why it works: it pays for the thing that is hardest to hire for, which is getting customers to say yes.
• Watch for: it only works if the rep's name is recorded on the job. Sales credit that lives in someone's memory turns into arguments.

Combining them. A common pattern is that the technician earns a percentage for doing the work, and the rep earns a separate percentage for booking it. If one person does both, they earn both. Whatever you choose, work out your margin on the number that is left after both are paid, not on the full price.

Step 2: calculate from the recorded price, not from memory

The single most useful habit is to record the price on the job itself, and to calculate every person's share from that recorded number.

A worked example, using made-up numbers: a rep sells a two-story clean for $300. A technician does the work. The pay rule is 20% for the rep and 30% for the technician.

• Rep: 20% of $300 is $60.
• Technician: 30% of $300 is $90.
• Left for the business before costs: $150.

Now suppose two reps worked the same door together. Decide in advance how a shared sale is split, for example 50/50, and record both names on the job. The rep's $60 becomes $30 each. If the split is not recorded, you will be asked about it a month later and nobody will remember.

Step 3: decide when pay is earned

This is the question owners skip, and it causes the most arguments. There are two common answers.

• Earned on completion. The person is owed their share the moment the job is marked complete. It is simple and crews like it, but you may pay out on a job whose customer never pays.
• Earned on collection. The person is owed their share when the customer has actually paid. It protects you from non-paying customers, but it makes the crew's income depend on how fast customers pay.

Neither is wrong. Pick one, write it down, and tell the crew before the first job. A rule that is clear in advance is almost always accepted. A rule invented after a dispute is almost never.

Step 4: write the rules for the messy cases

Most disputes are not about the normal job. They are about the exceptions. Write the answers down once.

• Cancelled job. Usually earns nothing. If a technician drove to the house and the customer cancelled at the door, decide whether a small trip fee applies.
• Redo. If the redo is caused by poor work, it is usually unpaid. If it is caused by the weather or a customer change, it is a separate decision.
• Refund or discount. Decide whether pay is calculated on the original price or the final price. Calculating on the final price is usually fairer to the business, and easier to defend.
• Tips. Most owners pass tips straight to the person who earned them. Say so, so it is not a surprise either way.
• Add-on work. A technician who sells a screen cleaning or a gutter clean at the door has made a sale. Decide whether that earns commission and make sure the extra price is recorded on the job.
• Recurring customers. If a rep sells a recurring plan, decide whether they earn on the first visit only or on every visit. Both are used. Record the choice so the numbers are right a year from now.

Step 5: make earnings visible

A subcontractor who can open a phone and see what they have earned, what has been paid out and what is still pending does not need to text you to ask. That visibility does more for retention than a small raise.

At a minimum, each person should be able to see:

• Jobs they completed or sold, with the price and their share on each.
• A running total for the week or pay period.
• What has been paid out, and when.
• What is still pending.

If you do this in a spreadsheet, you will spend an hour a week updating it and answering questions about it. If the same system that holds the job holds the pay, the numbers are always current and the questions mostly stop.

Step 6: track every payout you send

Keep a record of each payout, separate from the job: the amount, the date and the method. That record serves three purposes.

• Your own books. You know exactly what you sent and to whom.
• Your crew. When someone asks whether a payment went out, you can answer in ten seconds.
• Your accountant. Clean per-person payout records make year-end reporting far easier.

A weekly payout day is easy to remember and easy to defend. Pick a day, pay everything earned up to a cutoff, and stick to it. Consistency matters more than speed.

Step 7: understand the 1099 basics, then ask an accountant

In the United States, businesses generally report payments to independent contractors on a Form 1099 when the total paid to a person crosses the IRS threshold for the year. Thresholds, forms and rules change, and whether someone really is an independent contractor depends on the nature of the working relationship, not on what you call them.

A few practical points that hold up regardless:

• Collect the information your accountant will need from each contractor when you onboard them, rather than in January.
• Keep per-person payout records all year.
• Do not guess about classification. If you set the schedule, supply the equipment and control how every job is done, ask a tax professional whether that person is really a contractor.

This guide is not tax or legal advice. The goal is to arrive at your accountant with clean records and specific questions.

Pay systems that backfire

• A rule nobody can repeat. If you cannot state it in one sentence, your crew cannot either.
• Rates that change by mood. Bumping someone's rate as a favor and quietly lowering another's is the fastest way to lose both.
• Calculating from a number you reconstruct later. Record the price at booking and calculate from that.
• Paying from memory. If the total comes from a text thread, the first mistake is a dispute.
• Hiding the numbers. Crews assume the worst about numbers they cannot see.

A checklist you can use today

1. Choose the model: percentage, flat per job, sales commission, or a combination.
2. Write the rule in one sentence per role.
3. Decide when pay is earned: on completion or on collection.
4. Write down the rules for cancellations, redos, refunds, tips and add-ons.
5. Decide how a shared sale is split, and record every name on the job.
6. Choose a weekly payout day and a cutoff.
7. Give each person a place to see what they earned without texting you.
8. Keep a payout log with amount, date and method.
9. Book time with an accountant about classification and year-end reporting.

What this looks like in KrewDash

KrewDash records the job price, calculates each crew member's commission from it, and lets two reps split a job. Each person has a crew portal that shows their own earnings, what has been paid and what is pending, and they can confirm a payout when the money lands. You can set default commission rates for reps and technicians, and an optional ladder where a rep's rate steps up after a set number of bookings in a period; see commissions and leaderboard.

KrewDash does not move money and does not file taxes. It works out and records what each person earned and what you sent, which is the part that causes the arguments. Paying the crew through the app and collecting W-9 and 1099-NEC data are on the public request board, where owners vote on what gets built next.

If your crew is built on subcontractors, the page on CRM for subcontractor crews goes into how this fits together, and how to price window cleaning jobs covers the other half: setting a price that still leaves you a margin after pay.