Setting up Deputy for Cleaning Services
This guide explains how to set up Deputy for a cleaning business. Deputy brings scheduling, attendance, payroll, communication, and reporting together in one place. It covers how to structure Locations and Areas, manage team access, prepare payroll workflows, review scheduling and attendance settings, and plan your rollout.
Before you read
- Target audience: This article is for users with System Administrator access.
- Free trial: If you haven't signed up for Deputy yet, see Creating an Organization and Getting Started with a Free Trial. When signing up, select the industry that best matches your business.
- Returning to your trial: If you've already signed up, log in at once.deputy.com to continue setting up your account.
- Watch Deputy in Action: Before you start, watch Deputy in Action to see how Deputy works and what you'll be setting up throughout this guide.
This article covers:
- Choose your organisational structure
- Review Location settings before rollout
- Set access and approval responsibilities
- Prepare payroll and scheduling workflows
- Run day-to-day cleaning workflows
- Quick add-on and plan check
- Five-step onboarding checklist
- Avoid common cleaning business set-up mistakes
- Get more help
Choose your organisational structure
In Deputy, Locations can represent regions, major clients, buildings, depots, or fixed work sites. Areas usually represent client sites, building zones, floors, task types, contracts, travel, or work types.
Choose a starting model that reflects how your business manages rosters, client reporting, site access, payroll export codes, and supervisor responsibilities. You can refine the structure as your use of Deputy grows.
| Business type | Suggested starting structure | Cleaning Area examples | Things to consider |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Many small client sites Commercial, domestic, and mobile cleaning teams |
One Location for each region, with Areas for clients or sites | Client sites, travel, office cleaning, domestic cleaning, deep clean, and supervisor | This structure keeps mobile scheduling manageable without creating a Location for every small client. |
|
Major client contract Large buildings, campuses, or contracted facilities |
One Location for the client, with Areas for zones, floors, tasks, or shifts | Lobby, Level 1, Bathrooms, Common Areas, Night Clean, and Periodic Clean | This can support client-level reporting, site notes, and stronger manager boundaries for major contracts. |
|
Fixed facility team Schools, aged-care facilities, factories, and industrial sites |
One Location for the building or site | Zones, floors, buildings, common areas, amenities, and site lead | Kiosk or tablet clock-in may work well where cleaners start from a fixed facility. |
|
Specialist or mobile service team Industrial, aged care, compliance-sensitive, or specialist work |
One Location for each region or depot, with Areas for service types | Industrial, Aged Care, Deep Clean, Window Cleaning, Travel, and Site Induction Required | Training Tags can help managers identify police checks, site inductions, licences, or specialist skills before shifts are published. |
When you plan your structure, consider:
- Client scale: Avoid making every small client a Location unless separate permissions, settings, or approvals are needed.
- Mobile teams: Regions or depots can keep mobile schedules easier to manage when cleaners move across many sites.
- Reporting and export codes: Consistent Area names and export codes can support payroll, accounting, client reporting, and contract reporting.
For a complete overview, see Organisations, Locations and Areas.
Review Location settings before rollout
Location settings control many of the defaults used for scheduling, clock-in, timesheets, approvals, and reporting. Review these settings before go-live so each region, client, building, depot, or fixed site works the way your team expects.
Key settings to review include:
- Review the physical address and map pin: Accurate addresses and map pins matter where mobile clock-in, GPS capture, or geofencing are used.
- Review Areas and Training Tags: Areas can represent client sites, zones, floors, task types, contracts, travel, or work types. Training Tags can help identify cleaners with police checks, site inductions, licences, or specialist skills.
- Review scheduling settings: Confirm recurring rosters, default shifts, breaks, open shifts, shift offers, shift swaps, notifications, and shift locking.
- Review timesheet settings: Confirm mobile clock-in, GPS capture, geofencing, kiosk clock-in for fixed facilities, employee timesheet edits, break settings, rounding, and unscheduled shifts.
Mobile clock-in with GPS capture is usually practical for mobile cleaners. Kiosk or tablet clock-in may work well where cleaners start from a fixed building, depot, or client site.
For a complete overview of every Location setting, including General, Areas, Scheduling, Timesheets, Notifications, Public Holidays, and Preferences, see Creating your Locations.
Set access and approval responsibilities
Access decisions should be made during set-up. The right access model helps managers control scheduling, timesheet approvals, payroll visibility, labour cost access, site visibility, and client reporting.
| Cleaning role | Recommended Deputy access | Common responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| Cleaners | Employee | View rosters, clock in and out, request leave, and review updates |
| Site leads | Supervisor | Review attendance, site exceptions, and missed clock-ins without unnecessary wage visibility |
| Area supervisors | Supervisor or Location Manager | Support roster review, approvals, and site coverage depending on responsibility |
| Operations managers | Location Manager | Manage rosters, approvals, labour visibility, and reporting |
| Payroll and bookkeepers | Advisor | Review approved timesheets, payroll exports, and employee records |
| Owners and administrators | System Administrator | Manage account settings, structure, integrations, and access |
Most cleaning businesses use Supervisor access for site leads who approve time but should not see wage costs. Use Location Manager access for operations managers or area supervisors who need labour cost visibility, roster cost visibility, or broader reporting.
For a complete overview, see Deputy access levels and permissions.
Once you've set access levels, add your team members and assign them to the Locations where they work. You can add team members individually, add multiple team members, import them from another system, or invite them to join Deputy.
For a complete overview, see Adding team members.
Prepare payroll and scheduling workflows
Cleaning payroll can include early mornings, late nights, weekends, public holidays, broken shifts, travel between sites, allowances, minimum engagements, overtime, and leave. Pay Templates and Pay Rate Builder can support your pay conditions, while Leave Policies control the types of leave available to team members and how leave is managed in Deputy.
You can process payroll using Deputy Payroll where available, or connect Deputy to a supported third-party payroll provider.
Click to expand for each payroll option.
Deputy Payroll (AU)
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Deputy Payroll (AU) is Deputy's integrated payroll option for Australian businesses. It keeps scheduling, attendance, approved timesheets, and payroll within Deputy, so you can move from worked hours to a pay run without exporting timesheets to a separate payroll provider.
Set-up includes your business and payroll details, pay calendars, superannuation, deductions, extra earnings, and team member payroll information.
For a complete overview of setting up and using Deputy Payroll (AU), see Getting started with Payroll (AU).
Deputy Payroll enabled by Paycor (US)
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Deputy Payroll enabled by Paycor (US) connects Deputy workforce management with Paycor payroll. Deputy manages scheduling, time tracking, leave, pay rates, and approved timesheets, while Paycor can be used to handle payroll functions such as tax filings, banking, and year-end processing.
Approved timesheets can be exported directly from Deputy to Paycor, reducing the need to manually re-enter worked hours.
For a complete overview of how Deputy and Paycor work together, see Getting started with Deputy Payroll enabled by Paycor (US).
Third-party payroll integration
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If you already use another payroll provider, you can keep Deputy focused on scheduling, attendance, timesheets, and pay calculations, then send approved timesheet data to your existing payroll system. Deputy supports payroll integrations including Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks, ADP, and other providers, with the exact workflow and data available depending on the integration you use.
For a complete overview of the available payroll connections, see Payroll integrations.
For more information on Leave management, see:
Keep payroll testing simple
Run a test export before your first live pay run. Focus on:
- Regular and recurring shifts: Confirm that standard hours, recurring schedules, and pay rates appear as expected.
- Site and travel scenarios: Test cleaners working across multiple sites, travel time, broken shifts, allowances, and missed clock-in corrections where applicable.
- Weekend and public holiday work: Confirm that weekend, public holiday, overtime, and late-night rates appear as expected.
Client, site, and workforce reporting
If labour reporting by client, site, region, contract, or work type matters, use Areas, Area export codes, consistent naming conventions, notes, or integrations. This keeps reporting cleaner and helps avoid duplicating your contract management or facilities management systems.
Common reports include:
- Schedule, timesheet and sales comparison: Compare scheduled and actual hours and wage costs, and review cost variance where relevant.
- Attendance & absence: Review no-shows, late arrivals, missed clock-ins, and early departures by Location, Area, or team member.
- Schedule adherence by team member: Compare scheduled hours with actual hours worked and identify the cost variance when team members work outside the original schedule. (Requires Analytics+)
Compliance, checks, and Training Tags
Training Tags help prevent cleaners from being scheduled into Areas where they are not trained, approved, or inducted to work. They can support decision-making, but they do not replace formal compliance review.
Common cleaning Training Tags include Police Check, Working With Children Check, Site Induction, Aged Care Approved, Industrial Cleaning, Equipment Training, White Card, First Aid, Key Holder, and Supervisor.
If your business needs to collect onboarding documents, store employee records, manage policy acknowledgements, background checks, right-to-work checks, licences, or certification expiry dates, Deputy HR can help support those workflows. Deputy HR requires an add-on.
Run day-to-day cleaning workflows
Clocking in: Mobile or kiosk
Choose the clock-in method that matches where your team works.
- Mobile clock-in with GPS capture: Useful for mobile cleaners who travel between client sites or work without a fixed starting point.
- Kiosk or tablet clock-in: Useful where cleaners start from a fixed building, depot, facility, or client site.
For a complete overview, see Using Deputy across different devices.
Manage recurring schedules and shift changes
Recurring roster templates can help with weekly office cleans, daily facility cleans, school term schedules, after-hours work, weekend work, and regular client contracts.
Open shifts, shift offers, and shift swaps can help fill gaps, but they should be reviewed carefully where site access, inductions, client requirements, or specialist skills matter.
For a complete overview, see open shifts, shift offers, and shift swaps.
Site instructions and tasks
Site instructions can help cleaners understand access details, parking, alarm instructions, keys, PPE requirements, restricted areas, and client-specific requirements before they arrive.
Task management can help cleaning businesses standardise cleaning checklists, opening and closing tasks, supervisor inspections, site handovers, compliance checks, and recurring site routines.
Communicate with your team
News Feed and Messaging can help managers share site access changes, urgent cover requests, client updates, roster changes, and last-minute replacements with mobile teams.
For a complete overview, see News Feed and Deputy Messaging.
Quick add-on and plan check
The following add-ons and plan options may be useful as your use of Deputy grows. To check what is included in each plan or add-on, see our pricing plans.
| Do you need to... | You may need... | Common fit |
|---|---|---|
| Store checks, inductions, licences, onboarding records, policy acknowledgements, or employee records | Deputy HR | Businesses that need staff checks, inductions, or documents before cleaners are rostered |
| Create custom reports, schedule emailed reports, and review contract labour or attendance trends | Analytics+ | Managers or operators who need deeper visibility across clients, sites, regions, and labour trends |
| Use larger messaging groups, more message history, or team-based communication for mobile teams | Messaging Plus | Businesses that need faster communication for urgent cover, roster changes, and mobile team updates |
| Process payroll from approved Deputy timesheets where available | Deputy Payroll | Businesses that want payroll connected more closely to Deputy scheduling, attendance, and timesheet approvals |
| Set up custom roles, additional Location hierarchy, and more detailed permission controls | Deputy Pro | Businesses with complex regions, major clients, fixed sites, supervisor layers, or reporting requirements |
Five-step onboarding checklist
These stages apply whether you are evaluating Deputy, testing it with one region or site, or rolling it out across your full business.
- Set up your structure: Create your Locations and Areas, choose naming conventions, and review any required export codes.
- Add your team and schedules: Add cleaners and managers, assign access levels, set up pay details, and create your first recurring schedule.
- Test your workflows: Test mobile clock-in, GPS capture, geofencing if used, site notes, open shifts, shift swaps, and missed clock-in workflows with a pilot group.
- Review timesheets and payroll: Approve pilot timesheets and test travel, broken shifts, allowances, weekend work, public holidays, client or site export codes, and payroll export.
- Go live: Train supervisors and site leads, publish the live schedule, and roll Deputy out to the rest of your team.
For a guided onboarding checklist, open the Help menu by selecting the ? icon in your Deputy account, then select Start here.
Avoid common cleaning business set-up mistakes
| Common mistake | Why it causes problems |
|---|---|
| Creating every small client as a Location | Can make scheduling, permissions, and reporting harder to manage. |
| Not using recurring rosters | Creates extra weekly admin for regular client contracts. |
| Using geofencing without checking site size | Can create failed clock-ins in large buildings, shared sites, or facilities with unclear boundaries. |
| Not keeping site instructions current | Can cause access issues, missed requirements, or delays for mobile teams. |
| Giving site leads wage visibility unnecessarily | Supervisor access may be enough for daily attendance review. |
| Not testing cleaners who work across multiple sites | Can create payroll or reporting issues if site, travel, or export codes are not set up correctly. |
| Ignoring payroll setup until go-live | Can delay payroll testing and create reporting or payroll issues. |
Get more help
During your trial, use the Action Bar to access setup help without leaving Deputy.
From the Action Bar, you can:
- Select Start here to open Deputy Essentials, where you'll find bite-sized videos and guided walkthroughs to help you set up your business at your own pace.
- Select Ask an expert to connect with an SMB Consultant.
- Select the ? icon to open the Help menu and access support options.
You can collapse the Action Bar or drag it to another position on the screen.
Help Centre
For help and support, see Get help and request support from Deputy.