How to start a cleaning business in BC: 2026 guide

What are the steps to open a cleaning company in British Columbia?

To open a residential cleaning company in BC, you pick a structure, reserve and register a business name if you use one, get insured, decide when to register for GST, get your city’s business licence, and set prices that cover BC wages. Add WorkSafeBC and a CRA payroll account when you hire. In our experience, most people starting a cleaning business in British Columbia can finish the paperwork online in a few days, with the municipal licence being the slowest step.

This guide covers what is specific to BC and Canada: the BC Business Registry, the CRA, GST and PST, WorkSafeBC, the Employment Standards Act and municipal licences. For the parts that work the same everywhere (choosing services, buying supplies, your first cleans), read our general guide on how to start a cleaning business. Its costs and rules are American, so use this page for the BC numbers. If you are comparing provinces, the Ontario guide follows the same structure.

Here is the order that saves you from redoing anything later:

1. Choose your services and the cities or postal codes you will serve.
2. Pick a name and a structure, request the name ($30) and register the business ($40) with the BC Business Registry if it isn’t your own name.
3. Get a CRA business number and decide whether to register for GST now or later.
4. Apply for your municipal business licence and check zoning for a home-based business.
5. Buy commercial general liability insurance, and tell your auto insurer you drive to jobs.
6. Set prices from your costs, with GST added on top if you are registered.
7. Set up booking, reminders and payments, then go find clients.
8. When you hire, register with WorkSafeBC and open a CRA payroll account.

If you are still choosing a name, the cleaning business name generator gives you options to run through the BC name request. The cleaning business plan template turns your startup costs and prices into a 12-month forecast before you commit.

Step 1: register your cleaning business in BC (structure and name)

Most solo cleaners start as a sole proprietorship. In BC you only register it if you do business under a name other than your own, and it takes two steps: a name request for $30, then the registration for $40. Incorporating costs $350 in BC or $200 federally.

Sole proprietorship or general partnership

The province’s page on proprietorships and partnerships says that if you are going to do business under your own name, you do not need to request a business name or register the business. So “Priya Sharma” needs no registration, but “Priya’s Coastal Cleaning” does. The trade-off is liability: you are personally responsible for the business’s debts and for damage you cause, which is why insurance matters more than structure in year one.

The registration itself has two steps:

1. Request and reserve a business name ($30). BC Registries checks that the name doesn’t conflict with an existing corporation. Approval gives you a name request number that expires 56 days later, so register before then or you pay for another request. Priority service costs $100 extra.
2. Register the sole proprietorship or general partnership ($40). Done online in the BC Business Registry with a BC Services Card login, or on paper at a Service BC office for the same fee.

If you start with a partner, write down who owns what, who decides prices and what happens if one of you leaves, before your first client. Both partners are responsible for all debts.

Corporation: BC or federal

A corporation gives you limited liability but costs more and needs annual filings. BC’s page on incorporated companies lists the same $30 name request, then $350 to incorporate through Corporate Online. Federal incorporation through Corporations Canada costs $200 online; a federal corporation that operates in BC also registers extraprovincially. For a one-person cleaning business, the extra cost rarely pays off in year one. Ask an accountant if you expect high profits early or plan to bring in partners.

Step 2: get a CRA business number, decide on GST, and skip PST

BC charges 5% GST on cleaning services and no PST on them. You must register for GST once your taxable sales pass $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters; before that you are a small supplier and can register voluntarily. You pay PST on the supplies and equipment you buy, but you don’t collect it from clients.

Your business number

The CRA’s page on when you need a BN lists British Columbia among the provinces where you receive a business number when you register or incorporate with the province. A cleaner working under their own name who never registers a business gets a BN only when they open a CRA program account, such as GST or payroll.

When you must register for GST

The CRA’s rules on when to register for and charge GST/HST work like this:

• Under $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters: you are a small supplier. You don’t have to register, but you can.
• Over $30,000 across several quarters: you stop being a small supplier at the end of the month after that quarter, and must register and charge GST from your next sale.
• Over $30,000 in a single quarter: you charge GST starting with the sale that took you over.

The CRA’s rate table shows British Columbia at 5% GST plus a 7% PST that the province administers separately. Registering early lets you claim back the GST you pay on supplies, a vehicle and software, but it raises your price to homeowners by 5%, which they can’t claim back. In our experience, many solo cleaners serving homes wait until they get close to the threshold. Once registered, you can use the Quick Method if your annual taxable sales, including tax, are $400,000 or less: you still charge 5%, but remit a set percentage instead of tracking tax on every receipt.

PST: exempt on cleaning, payable on your supplies

BC’s Bulletin PST 301, Related Services lists “cleaning services, unless provided to taxable goods along with another related service that is subject to PST” as exempt, and says services to real property are not subject to PST. House cleaning, move-out cleaning and office janitorial work all fall under that exemption, so you don’t add 7% to your invoices. Two cautions:

• You pay PST on what you buy to run the business: vacuums, mops, microfibre, chemicals and equipment are taxable goods. Bulletin PST 301 says service providers must pay PST on the goods they use, including consumable supplies.
• If you also sell taxable goods (say, you resell air fresheners or sell a vacuum to a client), the PST registration page says you need to register to collect PST on those sales. Pure service businesses usually don’t.

Do you need a licence to clean houses in BC?

There is no provincial cleaning licence, but most BC cities license every business, including a solo cleaner working from home. Surrey states it plainly, and Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond and others run their own licensing, so check the city where you are based and the cities where you work.

Surrey

Surrey’s business licensing page says the City requires all businesses in Surrey to hold a valid business licence, and defines a business as any commercial undertaking or the provision of professional, personal or other services. Three points matter for a cleaner:

• Home-based business: you apply as a home-based business and follow the city’s home-based business regulations, which limit signage, on-site storage of vehicles and equipment, and require the landlord’s permission if you rent. A bylaw officer may inspect after you apply.
• Non-resident business: a business with no location in Surrey that performs services in the city still needs a Surrey licence, or an inter-municipal business licence if it is eligible.
• Fee: Surrey asks you to confirm the fee with its Business Licensing team (604-591-4370), and to check whether your licence needs a criminal record check or certification.

Vancouver and the rest of Metro Vancouver

Vancouver licenses businesses through its own bylaw, including home-based businesses; apply there before your first job in the city. Because a cleaner often serves several municipalities, ask each city about its inter-municipal business licence, which lets one licence cover mobile work across participating cities in the region, though eligibility is limited to trades contractors and certain professionals, so confirm whether a cleaning business qualifies. If you serve Victoria, Kelowna or Nanaimo, the same rule applies: find “business licence” on the city’s site and look for the home-based category.

The general version of this question for US readers is in our guide to what licenses are needed to start a cleaning business, which explains why “licensed, bonded and insured” means registrations plus insurance, not a cleaning credential.

What insurance does a cleaning business need in BC?

Start with commercial general liability (CGL), which pays when your work injures someone or damages a client’s property. Add a bond or crime coverage once you have staff in clients’ homes, and make sure your auto insurer knows you drive to jobs. Strata councils and property managers in BC often ask for a certificate of insurance before your first visit.

The Insurance Bureau of Canada’s overview of types of business coverage lists commercial general liability and crime coverage among the common commercial policies, and notes that auto insurance is mandatory across Canada, with optional commercial vehicle coverage on top. In BC, basic auto insurance is through ICBC, so tell ICBC or your broker that the vehicle is used for business.

• Commercial general liability: the core policy. Ask whether it excludes damage to items in your “care, custody or control”, which is exactly what you handle while cleaning.
• Bond or employee dishonesty (crime) coverage: pays a client back if an employee steals. It matters once you send cleaners into homes without you.
• Auto: a personal ICBC policy with the wrong rate class may not cover a claim that happens on the way to a job.
• Your home policy: if you store supplies at home, ask whether your home insurance covers business use.

We did not find a public, verifiable source for typical BC premiums, so we don’t quote a price. Ask two or three brokers for quotes with the same details: services (residential, move-out, short-term rental turnovers), expected revenue, number of cleaners, and whether you drive. Compare limits, deductibles and exclusions, not only price. Our guide to cleaning business insurance explains each policy in more depth; its prices are American, so use it for the coverage, not the costs.

Hiring in BC: WorkSafeBC, minimum wage, CPP and EI

When you hire your first cleaner, register with WorkSafeBC, pay at least BC’s minimum wage of $18.25 an hour, and open a CRA payroll account before your first remittance is due. You deduct CPP, EI and income tax from each paycheque and add the employer share.

WorkSafeBC

WorkSafeBC’s page for employers who hire and pay workers says you are required to register for coverage if you own a business that hires one or more workers on a full-time, part-time, casual or contract basis. Once registered, all your workers are insured, including your children if they work for you and are paid by your business, and some contractors who count as your workers. A paid spouse in a sole proprietorship is not covered unless you apply for spousal coverage. Premiums are based on your payroll and your industry’s rate.

If you work alone, WorkSafeBC’s page for self-employed proprietors and partners says there is no requirement to register if you don’t hire workers or unregistered subcontractors. You can still buy Personal Coverage (the policy formerly called Personal Optional Protection) for your own wage loss and medical costs. You pick a monthly coverage amount (WorkSafeBC’s own example uses $3,100 a month, and it is changing the amounts in 2026, so check the current range when you apply); the monthly cost is the coverage amount multiplied by your industry’s premium rate.

Minimum wage and vacation pay

BC’s general minimum wage is $18.25 an hour as of June 1, 2026, up from $17.85. It is adjusted each June 1 in line with BC inflation. It applies whether you pay by the hour or a flat rate per clean: the hours in each pay period still have to average at least $18.25. Employees also earn vacation: after a year, two weeks off with vacation pay of 4% of gross earnings.

CRA payroll: CPP and EI

Register for a payroll account before your first remittance due date, normally the 15th of the month after you start withholding. For 2026:

• CPP: 5.95% from the employee and 5.95% from you, on earnings between the $3,500 basic exemption and $74,600 (CRA CPP rates).
• EI: $1.63 per $100 of insurable earnings from the employee, and 1.4 times that (about $2.28) from you, up to $68,900 (CRA EI rates).

Employee or contractor?

Paying cleaners as contractors doesn’t make them contractors. The CRA’s guide Employee or self-employed? (RC4110) looks at control over the work, who owns the tools, whether the worker can hire substitutes, and the chance of profit or loss. WorkSafeBC applies a similar test and can treat your “contractor” as your worker. A cleaner on your schedule, with your supplies, for your clients, looks like an employee.

How should you set prices around BC wages and GST?

Work out what an hour of a cleaner’s time really costs you, then price each job from the hours it takes plus supplies, driving, overhead and profit. At BC’s minimum wage, an employee’s hour costs about $20.54 before WorkSafeBC premiums, so any price that doesn’t clear that comfortably is losing money.

The pay floor, worked out

Here is the math for one hour at the $18.25 minimum wage, using the 2026 rates above:

A three-hour clean therefore costs at least 3 × $20.54 = $61.62 in wages and payroll costs before WorkSafeBC, supplies, driving, insurance, software or your profit. Treat $20.54 as the floor, not the target: in our experience, owners in Metro Vancouver’s labour market often pay well above minimum wage to keep good cleaners, and your prices have to carry that.

Adding GST to a price

If you are registered, 5% GST goes on top. A $150 clean is $150 × 5% = $7.50 of GST, so the client pays $157.50. No PST line appears, because cleaning is exempt. Say clearly on your website and quotes whether prices include tax. If you are a small supplier and not registered, you don’t charge GST at all.

Building the price list

The house cleaning pricing guide compares hourly, flat and per-room pricing and shows how to build each one from your costs. The house cleaning price calculator does the math for each home size: enter your BC hourly cost (at least $20.54 for an employee, more for yourself) and it gives you a flat price list you can publish.

How do you find clients in BC and run the bookings?

Start with people you know and a free Google Business Profile for the city you are based in, then add a booking link so strangers can book you without a phone call. In Metro Vancouver, strata buildings and property managers are a steady source of move-out and common-area work once you can show insurance and a WorkSafeBC clearance letter.

The full playbook for referrals, local partners, flyers and reviews is in how to get clients for a cleaning business. For showing up on Google Maps and search in your city, read cleaning company SEO. Use Canadian spelling and postal codes on your site and profile, and list the municipalities you actually serve, since clients search “house cleaning Burnaby” rather than “house cleaning BC”.

Running it with Broombook

We make Broombook, a scheduling, online booking and crew app for residential cleaning businesses, so here is how it fits a BC business, including what it doesn’t do:

• Canadian dollars. Canadian businesses charge clients in CAD through Stripe, by card on file after each clean, or mark cash, cheque or e-transfer at checkout. Broombook takes no cut of payments.
• GST preset. Sales tax is off until you turn it on, so small suppliers don’t charge it by mistake. Pick British Columbia and it fills in 5% GST on receipts, with no PST line.
• Booking pages in English or French. Clients get an instant price from bedrooms, bathrooms, type of clean and extras, and pick an open time. You can limit your service area by distance or postal codes, which matters when you only hold a licence in certain cities.
• Your crew in their language. Job notes can be translated into Spanish, French or Portuguese for each cleaner, and each cleaner gets a private link with their jobs, checklists and clock in and out, with no app download.
• Payroll export. Hours from clock-ins, tips and commission go into a CSV for your payroll service. Broombook does not calculate CPP, EI or income tax deductions.

Broombook is free for an owner with up to 2 cleaners, or $39 a month on Pro for a bigger crew, billed in US dollars, with no credit card to start. See how scheduling works on our cleaning scheduling software page.

Pick something other than Broombook if

• You need jobs and payments to sync into QuickBooks automatically. Broombook doesn’t sync with accounting software.
• You bill strata corporations by invoice with net terms. Broombook charges cards after the job and sends receipts, not invoices.
• You want a native app from the App Store or Google Play. Broombook runs in the phone’s browser.
• You mainly bid on commercial janitorial contracts, or run a multi-trade field service company.

What does it cost to start in British Columbia?

A solo cleaner in BC can start for $70 in provincial fees ($30 name request plus $40 registration), or nothing under your own name, plus a municipal licence, insurance and supplies. Government fees only grow if you incorporate. Insurance is the biggest unknown, so get quotes before you set your prices.

Government fees below were checked on official pages on October 28, 2026. Rows marked “estimate” are our own rough ranges, not quotes, so replace them with your real numbers.

A realistic minimum for a solo sole proprietor using a business name: $70 in registry fees, your city’s licence, roughly $200 to $500 for supplies (our estimate), and your first insurance payment. Everything else can wait until clients are paying you.