How to start a housekeeping services company in India

How is a housekeeping company different from other manpower supply?

Housekeeping and facility services look like general manpower supply, but the shape of the work is different:

• Many small sites. Two staff at a clinic, four at an office, eight at a housing society. Ten clients can mean ten sites and a supervisor on the road all day.
• Shifts and part days. Morning and evening shifts, half-days, and staff who cover two sites in a day.
• Materials as well as people. Chemicals, mops, garbage bags and machines, which you either supply and bill or the client provides.
• Frequent replacements. When someone is absent, the client expects a replacement the same morning, and the bill has to reflect who actually worked.

Each of these is an attendance and billing problem as much as a staffing problem. The multi-site attendance guide covers the site side in detail.

Which registrations do you need?

A housekeeping company does not need a PSARA licence unless it also supplies security staff. Check your state's shops and establishments registration and its rules under the Labour Codes with a local consultant. See the contractor licence guide.

How do you price a housekeeping contract?

Price the people and the materials separately. People are priced per post per month, the same way as any manpower contract: the minimum wage for the category and zone, employer PF, ESI and bonus, uniform, and your service charge, with GST on top. Add a 1/6 reliever only where the client wants the post covered seven days a week.

Worked example: an office wants 6 housekeeping staff, six days a week (no reliever). Wage ₹16,000 a month (basic + VDA), PF 13%, ESI 3.25%, bonus 8.33%, uniform ₹300, service charge 10%.

Consumables go on a separate line or a separate monthly bill at an agreed amount or at actuals. Keeping them apart stops a spike in chemicals eating the margin on staff. Try your own numbers in the manpower rate calculator.

How do you supervise many small sites?

• Assign every staff member to a site and a shift, so you always know who should be where.
• Give each supervisor a fixed set of sites and a daily round. Attendance should be marked at the site, at the start of the shift.
• Record replacements where they happen. Mark the person who covered a site as present at that site (and transferred at the site they left), so they are paid once and billed to the right client.
• Close each site's month separately. The client at site A should never see staff-days from site B.

What does a clean month end look like?

1. Attendance closed per site on the last day of the month, with replacements and half-days marked.
2. Salary sheet from that attendance: days, half-days, overtime, minus advances. Wages paid by the 7th of the next month, as the Code on Wages requires for monthly wages.
3. One bill per client: staff-days × rate for each category, consumables, and GST. Housekeeping is not in the reverse-charge entry for security services, so you normally charge the GST yourself; confirm with your CA. See how to bill a client for manpower.
4. PF and ESI deposited, with challans kept. Many clients ask for them before releasing payment.

What do new housekeeping companies get wrong?

• Pricing materials into the staff rate. When material prices rise, you cannot show the client why.
• Billing a fixed headcount. If a post was empty for three days and you billed it anyway, the client will find it, and trust goes with it.
• Not revising rates. When the minimum wage or VDA goes up, your cost rises the same month. See how to pass a revision on.
• Paper registers at every site. They arrive late, with gaps and mixed-up names, and month end takes a week.

Sources

• Code on Social Security, 2020, First Schedule (EPF and ESI applicability) (India Code)
• Code on Wages, 2019, section 17 (time limit for payment of wages) (India Code)
• OSH and Working Conditions (Central) Rules, 2026: licence fee table, rule 90(4) (eGazette)
• Notification 29/2018-Central Tax (Rate): reverse charge entry for security services
• Notification 11/2017-Central Tax (Rate): rates for services, heading 9985

This guide explains the rules in plain language. It is not legal or tax advice. Laws and rates change, so check your state's rules and confirm registrations and GST treatment with your CA before you act on it.