FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
CleanlyRun is a software company that offers a web-based Janitorial Bidding application that's used in the creation of Janitorial, Construction Clean, Apartment Move Out and Residential cleaning bids.
Our Janitorial Bidware system guides you through a 7-Step Bid Creation Process that results in a professional, ready to deliver cleaning proposal file (in PDF format). By the way, a PDF (which stands for "Portable Document Format") is the de facto standard file format for printable documents on the web; It captures all the elements of a printed document in an electronic image that you can view, navigate, print, save or e-mail. Check out a Sample Bid.
The Bidware also computes a starting price for your Bid (by setting a Profit Margin that is based on the type of bid that you're creating). You can, of course, adjust this as you see fit.
Note: You'll find that two of the seven bid creation steps are optional, but they provide excellent ways for you to earn more profit on a bid. Specifically, the optional Specialty Work step contains over a dozen Specialty Work items that you can elect to include on your bid (such as floor waxing, carpet cleaning, pressure washing, day-porter, etc). The optional Supply Sales step enables you to offer consumable supplies (such as roll towels, toilet paper, can liners, etc.) in your bid.
For more info: The CleanlyRun home page highlights some of the system's main features and also includes screenshots.
What are the technical requirements for using CleanlyRun? (i.e. Modern web browsers, no smartphones)
Nothing to install: CleanlyRun operates in the cloud on our secure (US-based) servers, so there's nothing to install... It's available anywhere you have an internet connection.
Browser note: Since CleanlyRun is built on the state-of-the-art features found in modern web browsers, you'll need to use one of the latest versions - (e.g. Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Edge) - on your desktop computer, laptop, or tablet. (Note: CleanlyRun's Bidware does not operate properly on a mobile smartphone as the screens are not designed for small scale.)
Old computer Operating Systems: If your PC runs a version of the Windows operating system that is no longer supported by Microsoft (such as Windows 7 or XP), then some of the buttons, functions, and pop-up boxes within our modern application may not execute properly. Therefore, CleanlyRun Janitorial Bidware is not supported on obsolete computer operating systems.
The online advantage: For consumers, there are many advantages to using online software (a.k.a. SaaS - Software as a Service), the primary ones being no software installations/updates and 24/7 access from any PC, Mac, or tablet/iPad (as opposed to being installed on a single computer in a single location). Likewise, for developers, a web-based browser platform (versus the old computer hardware-based platform) is much more stable and manageable, with everyone operating on the same release of the system.
The system is designed to be intuitive and our customer feedback confirms this. Just 7 straightforward steps to a winning bid!
Good to know: There's written and/or video Help Buttons on most screens plus lots of Business and Pricing Tips. In addition, there are over 30 Sample Bids for you to review and play with...
Suggestion for getting started: The Support team has noticed that the short Video Tutorials are particularly useful as new trial members navigate the Bid Creation process for the first time. If you'll spend a few minutes reviewing the appropriate video for each step as you create your first bid, your proposal creation speed will sky rocket.
By focusing on profitable growth as opposed to growth for growth's sake. Sure, our Janitorial Bidware is designed to help you win new accounts, but more importantly, it's focused on winning profitable new accounts! You don't want to price yourself out of the market, but you certainly don't want to take a loss on an account. (And to digress for a moment, it's amazing how many janitorial businesses discover that they're essentially paying a company to clean a building after they cross check an account in our system.)
To win new business, you've got to start by making a great impression with a sleek, professional cleaning proposal. And the "math" behind that proposal - (which emphasizes that accurate cost determination leads to a fair Profit Margin) - needs to be spot on. And that's where CleanlyRun shines!
The Cleaning Production Rate for a particular facility (which determines how long it will take to clean a building) is based on time-tested industry standards that have been tweaked and refined based on a Co-founder's 35 years of winning bids in the janitorial industry.
To over simplify, CleanlyRun uses a "top down" methodology versus a "bottom up" approach (that we believe to be more accurate). "Top down" calculations emphasize Building Type - (with the exception of Specialty Work Only" bids) - while "bottom up" calculations includes things like counting every urinal in every bathroom and assigning "n" seconds to clean each one , etc...
CleanlyRun's approach to pricing a bid (which automates the best practices of highly experienced janitorial professionals) is achieved via three main parts:
- Determine the cleaning production rate (as expressed in cleaning hours) for a particular type of building (factoring in such variables as industry standards, square footage, traffic and floor type to name just a few).
- Determine your costs - (e.g. your location-specific wages, additional payroll costs, chemical, insurance, and other costs) - associated with the system-generated cleaning hours. We can't emphasize this enough - No one can profitably bid a job unless they first determine how much it's going to cost to do the work!
- Set a profit margin over your costs. Note that the system will suggest a minimum profit margin (depending on the type of bid that is being generated), but you have the flexibility to tweak (and play "What if") with the price as desired. (Within the application, check out the "Workloading and Pricing" video to see this in action.)
Absolutely! For starters, consider the system output - the cleaning proposal: You can include, exclude or rearrange any of our standard janitorial proposal section templates. Or create your own. Or include photos and images on any page and/or upload additional supporting documents (for example, Proof of Insurance). Of course, you also get to store your logo, references, experience and/or mission statement in the system which can then be pulled into any page you desire (if you don't prefer our default arrangement).
During the bid creation process, you can also tweak our system generated cleaning specs or add your own. In the system preferences, you can override our default settings for profit margin as well as specific costs (e.g. additional payroll cost percentages). Or just change the system percentages for a specific bid.
And here's a customer favorite: On the Bid Workloading and Pricing screen, you can change your production rate (or cleaning hours) and easily play out "what if scenarios" such as: If I increase my production rate and adjust my employee wages up or down, how does that effect my total monthly cost to clean this building?"
Of course, companies outside of the United States can override the default currency ($ - dollars) as well as set their preferred unit of measure (square feet or square meters).
Of course! In addition to e-mailing (via your browser's PDF Reader), you can also print and/or save proposals to your computer (for later viewing/printing/e-mailing).
Both! The system architecture focuses on the janitorial bidding process, which is independent of company size. Our customer base consists of every type of operation, from one person startups to established companies with hundreds of employees.
A suggestion to our start-up members: If you haven't done so already, you may want to check out the CleanlyRun Blog. Our founder, Drake Thomas, addresses a number of topics of particular interest to those who are just getting started in the janitorial business...
CleanlyRun Janitorial Bidware offers a 30 day free trial, which you can sign up for on our Trial page. If you don't love it, cancel anytime before the 30 days have expired and you won't be billed. (By the way, we'll send you two e-mail reminders - at 7 days and again at 3 days - before the trial ends). For your reference, our no-hassle (red) cancellation button is located on the Member Subscription screen, but we really think that you're going to find our bidware to be an indispensable tool; There's nothing like this all-inclusive bidding system out there!
After the trial, our software bills at $24.95 USD per month, until you cancel. CleanlyRun Janitorial Bidware is very competitively priced - unmatched actually - and our customer feedback is overwhelmingly positive regarding value for price. For about the cost of having a large pizza delivered, there is no limit on the amount of bids that you can create every month... And of course, the system pays for itself as you win those bids!
Regarding the trial: Some folks have asked us, "Why do you require a credit card for a free trial"? Well, when CleanlyRun was launched in January of 2013, we didn't initially ask for a card upfront. And then we quickly learned why most companies do... While 99.99% of our system users are wonderful, we've found that requiring a card - even though we don't charge it at any time during the trial - pre-qualifies our customer base and helps protects us from fraudulent use of our system and pirating of our content. It also makes for a seamless transition from trial to paid status for our customers.
We're sorry, that's frustrating... Your Trial Activation e-mail should be automatically sent just moments after the successful submission of the registration form. Here are the most common trouble areas:
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It might just be sitting in your Spam or Junk folder. (That's the case about 25% of the time.) Search for an e-mail with the subject "CleanlyRun - Trial Membership Activation".
Side note: Some mail clients treat all automated e-mails - such as trial activation e-mails - like spam, and immediately reroute them to your Spam/Junk folder. This is especially true for free e-mail accounts - (we're looking at you Yahoo!) - as opposed to YourName@YourBusinessDomain.com.
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There may be a typo in the e-mail address entered on the registration form. (It happens.) If you suspect that this is the case, just e-mail the Support Team - SupportCleanlyRun.com - and we'll manually resend your Trial Activation e-mail to your corrected address. (Note the Support Team Hours at bottom.)
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Maybe you didn't complete the Registration process after all... Are you sure that you pressed the Sign up for Trial button (a.k.a. the submit button) after filling out the form? (It's located at the bottom of the form, as shown in the screenshot below.)
Look for the onscreen Confirmation message: If a form submission is successful, you'll see the registration confirmation message (below) at the top of the screen.
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There may be a device incompatibility issue. Did you attempt to register from a mobile phone? Or from an old PC that's running the (now unsupported) Windows 7/XP operating system? See the Technical Requirements section of this FAQ.
No messages? If you didn’t see any Confirmation (or Error) message on the registration screen, then your information didn’t go anywhere as it never left your browser. This can happen when the form’s submit button was either (a) not clicked or (b) not acknowledged by your computer’s browser.
In any case, just e-mail the Support Team (at SupportCleanlyRun.com) and we'll look into your issue. But please keep in mind that the Support Team hours are 9am - 9pm U.S. Eastern time (M - F). So if you're experiencing a trial registration problem at 3am, please be patient. (We're always happy to add some extra time to your trial if it gets off to a delayed start for any reason.)
Have you clicked on the "Activation Link" in your "CleanlyRun - Trial Membership Activation" e-mail yet?
Background: Before you can log in for the first time, you must first activate your trial account by clicking on a link within your Trial Activation e-mail (that should arrive in your inbox just seconds after registering). Clicking this link immediately activates your account and takes you to the Login screen where you can sign in for the first time. (Just FYI, this link activation process lets our system know that you have a valid e-mail address on file and that we can communicate with you as needed.)
Note: If you didn't receive your Trial Activation e-mail, please see the FAQ section immediately preceding this one.
You may self-cancel your membership (or trial) at any time. Cancellations are performed within the CleanlyRun system via the Member Subscription Page. (i.e. Log into the system and then select the Member / Member Subscription option from the Main Menu bar at top.)
To cancel, click the red Cancel Icon - 
- located to the (top) right of the My Subscription Info section. A pop-up dialog box will then appear that displays a large Cancellation Confirmation Button (at bottom, that you must click) as well as details on when the cancellation will take effect.
- Trial Member Cancellation note: - If you are a trial member, canceling will cause your trial to expire without ever charging your card. (But your account will remain active for the full length of the trial period.)
- Active Member Cancellation note: - If you are a paid, active member, then canceling will cause your account to deactivate at the end of your current billing period and your card will not be charged again. (However, you can continue to use your account until it is deactivated at the end of the paid billing cycle.)
Here's how you'll know that your account has been successfully "Set to Cancel": After canceling (and closing the Cancellation Pop-Up box), your My Subscription Info Status should change from "Active" (or "Trialing") to "Pending Cancellation on a specified date". In addition, you should immediately receive a Cancellation follow-up e-mail from us. Finally, you'll receive a Cancellation Confirmation e-mail on the designated cancel date.
If you'd like to resume using the software post-cancellation, you can reactivate your account (in less than one minute) via our Rejoin page. (Screenshot below.)
All you'll need is your prior User Name - (contact us if you've forgotten it) - plus your credit card number (along with its expiration date and Card Verification Code). Note: Since account User Names can be very similar, you'll also be asked to select and answer a security question to ensure that you're reactivating the desired account.
After filling out the short form and clicking the Submit Payment button, your monthly subscription will immediately be reactivated (and your card will be billed $24.95). You can then go to the website's Login screen and sign into your newly reactivated account.
Going forward, you'll be billed monthly thereafter (on the same day of the month) until you elect to cancel...
CleanlyRun Account-Reactivation/Rejoin Screen
To reset your password, go to the CleanlyRun Login screen and click the "Forgot Password" link (located above the Sign-in button).
The Reset Password screen: You'll then be redirected to the Reset Password screen where you'll be prompted to enter your User Name. Upon submission, a temporary password will be e-mailed to the e-mail address that is on file for your User Name.
Change your password after logging in: Once you're logged into the CleanlyRun application, you can change your temporary password on the Member Password screen.
E-mail Support
Support Times: CleanlyRun Support Hours are 9am - 9pm (U.S. Eastern time), Monday - Friday. (U.S. Federal holidays excepted.)
SupportCleanlyRun.com or SupportCleanGuidePro.com: We provide written support (via the application's Member Support Form) for our subscribers (and trial customers).
Regarding telephone support: We do not provide support over the phone. Due to our large volume of customers (around the world) and in consideration of our very competitively priced software product, our support mechanism is e-mail.
Video Tutorials, Written Help/Tips and Sample Bids: We encourage our new trial members to avail themselves of the self-help that we have created, especially the application's Bid Creation videos. (Our customer feedback indicates that they really help!) In addition, please check out the written Help and Tip links that are included on every step. And keep in mind that there are over 30 Sample Bids within the application to review and test.
At-a-Glance Bid Analysis: Each bid includes a (color-coded) button that, when clicked, invokes a pop-up box that analyzes it for (high level) issues. Summary information is also displayed for each step.
Frequently Asked Questions: In addition to this general FAQ page on our public website, we also maintain a more application-specific one within the Bidware.
We keep it in-house: A knowledgeable CleanlyRun employee will respond to your inquiry. We do not outsource our support or employ unqualified support staff.
