Charlotte, North Carolina
North Carolina law doesn't allow local minimum wages, so Charlotte cleaning businesses follow the state rate, which is the federal $7.25 an hour. Cleaning real property is exempt from North Carolina sales tax, except cleaning that's part of a taxable accommodation rental and cleaning of pools, fish tanks, and similar aquatic features. I'm in the Raleigh area and work with cleaning businesses nationwide, Charlotte included.
In Charlotte, both the wage floor and the sales tax treatment of cleaning come from state law, not from the city. Below are both, the exceptions that pull some jobs back into sales tax, what that means for your books, and how working with me from Morrisville goes. Payroll registration and the employee test are on bookkeeping for North Carolina cleaning businesses.
North Carolina law preempts local minimum wages under G.S. 95-25.1, so Charlotte can't set its own. The state rate is the federal $7.25 an hour, in effect since July 24, 2009, and no change had been announced as of October 20, 2026.
Source: North Carolina General Assembly, G.S. 95-25.1(d) Preemption
Source: North Carolina Department of Labor, Minimum Wage in North Carolina
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division, Minimum Wage
Cleaning real property is exempt from North Carolina sales tax under G.S. 105-164.13(61a)d. The statute's examples include custodial services, window washing, carpet cleaning, gutter debris removal, ductwork cleaning, and power washing other than for a pool. The exemption doesn't cover cleaning that's part of the gross receipts from a taxable accommodation rental, or cleaning a pool, fish tank, or similar aquatic feature. Cleaning tangible personal property, as opposed to real property, stays taxable as a repair, maintenance, and installation service, and items used to perform an exempt service remain taxable to the provider. The rest is on my North Carolina sales tax page. Whether a particular job is taxable is a question for your CPA.
Source: North Carolina General Assembly, G.S. 105-164.3(225) Repair, maintenance, and installation services
Exempt cleaning and any taxable job, such as cleaning that's part of a taxable accommodation rental or a pool, go on separate income lines, and any sales tax collected sits as a liability, never as income. The tax you pay on supplies is recorded as a cost of the work. Labor goes into payroll at the wage your crews are actually paid.
Figure Eight Financial is at 104 Bending Oak Way, Morrisville, NC 27560, and the phone number is (919)-460-5383. I'd love to tell you I bring some special read on the Charlotte market, but I don't, and the most thrilling thing I'll bring to our first call is probably a chart of accounts, which is about as exciting as I get. I've been in the Raleigh area since 2002, I'm a Certified QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor, and I keep books for cleaning businesses nationwide, Charlotte included.
Rules checked against the sources above as of October 20, 2026. Rates and rules change; confirm current figures with the agency or your CPA.
About Figure Eight Financial
Figure Eight Financial is Dave Gordon’s bookkeeping practice for residential and commercial cleaning companies. I work with owners in Charlotte and across the country, and I’m a Certified QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor.
Before bookkeeping I studied computer science at Penn State and spent a career at IBM as an engineer, so I build the books as a system: data comes in once, lands in the right place, and ties back to a statement. I’m a bookkeeper, not a CPA or Enrolled Agent. I keep the books your CPA works from, and the tax decisions stay with your CPA.
Credentials and memberships reported by Figure Eight Financial.
More about DaveHow I Help
Cleaning real property in Charlotte is exempt from sales tax, with exceptions, so the books keep exempt jobs and any taxable ones on separate income lines, with any collected tax held as a liability. Payroll goes in at the wage your crews are actually paid. Book a short call below and tell me where your Charlotte books stand.
The core service. Transactions recorded and categorized, every account reconciled so the books and the bank agree, and monthly reports that arrive explained, split by residential and commercial and sliceable per contract.
The full picture of how this works for a cleaning companyFor the months where nothing got entered at all. I fill in the missing periods from the ground up, pulling bank feeds, statements, and receipts until every month has a complete set of records.
How catch-up bookkeeping worksFor books that exist but can’t be trusted. I audit what’s there, fix the unreconciled accounts, duplicate transactions, and wrong categories, and tie every balance back to a statement.
How cleanup bookkeeping worksYour crews paid on time, every pay period, with each payroll run recorded in the books so labor shows up against the jobs it belongs to.
How payroll worksRecurring invoices that match your contracts, an aging report you can trust, and follow-up on slow payers handled by a process instead of your evenings. Built for net-60 commercial accounts.
How invoicing and receivables workA file built right for a cleaning company from day one, or rebuilt after the DIY version drifts, and then I teach you to run it. I’m a Certified QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor, and this is honestly my favorite part of the job.
How a proper setup worksWe start with a short call about your business and where the books stand. The first conversation doesn’t cost anything.
I take a look at what you’ve got, your QuickBooks file, your spreadsheet, whatever exists.
You get a written proposal with the price, so the decision is yours with the number in hand.
Let's Connect
Call, or book a time, and tell me where your Charlotte books stand today. The first conversation doesn't cost anything.
