Landscaping business software. Start with a free estimate worksheet.

How to estimate a landscaping job

Measure on site, then price from what the job costs you. A price per square foot from somewhere else doesn't know your crew or your drive.

Quote = (crew hours x pay x (1 + payroll %) + materials + equipment) x (1 + overhead %) / (1 - margin %)

1. Count crew hoursPeople x hours on site, plus the drive. Drive time is paid time, and on small lawn care visits it can be a large share of the job.
2. Put your pay on top of payroll costsEmployer taxes, workers' comp and liability, as a percent of pay. Take yours from your own payroll and insurance.
3. List materials with their unitsCubic yards of mulch, each for shrubs, feet of edging. For bulk material, area x depth / 12 / 27 gives cubic yards.
4. Add equipment and overheadFuel, machines, trailer and dump fees for this job, then a percent for the office, insurance and everything else.
5. Price it, then check the minimumDivide by one minus your margin. For recurring visits, set a minimum charge so a small lawn still pays for the stop.

A worked example

Refreshing a front bed, with made-up prices. These are the numbers the worksheet opens with, so use your own.

After the job, compare the hours and materials you really used with this estimate. That difference is what to change in the next quote.

Landscaping software, in early access. What Trades has.

Trades is built for home service companies generally, not as dedicated lawn care software. These parts carry over to landscaping and lawn care, and every one is in early access.

• Customers and their sites

  Jobs, visits, invoices, estimates and plans on each customer, with a separate site for each property.

• Estimates they sign

  Good, better and best options, signed from a link on their phone.

• Invoices they pay

  Deposit, progress and final payments, paid by card through your own Stripe account.

• Dispatch and a phone app

  Drag work onto a technician, then On my way, a job timer and before and after photos in the field.

• One technician's route

  Reorders a technician's visits for the day to cut drive time, without breaking an arrival window. Visits with a fixed time or more than one technician stay put.

• Service agreements

  Agreements for a customer or one site, and plans billed on a schedule with visits booked from a reminder.

• Job costs

  A worksheet for what one productive hour really costs, with a starting value for landscaping's insurance that you can change. A price book, purchase orders and timesheets by job.

Want your own customers and jobs in it? Trades has a practice app to look around, and early access opens a few companies at a time.See Trades

More free calculators

• Food cost calculatorYour food cost percentage for a period, and the same for one plate.
• Recipe cost calculatorCost per portion from pack prices, with unit conversions and trim loss.
• Cake pricing calculatorA price from supplies, your hours and overhead, per cake and per serving.
• Startup cost calculatorOne-time costs, months of runway and a cushion, against the cash you have.
• Restaurant labor cost calculatorLabor cost percentage, cost per shift and sales per labor hour.