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Landscaping invoicing

Invoicing a landscape install, from the first stake to the last plant

A new front bed, a paver patio, twelve arborvitae along the fence: an install is days of work and a truckload of material, and the bill has to account for all of it. Workeey turns the estimate you priced into the invoice in one tap, then lets you change what changed in the yard before you send it. Here's how to bill an install so the client can check every line. The rest of the toolkit is on landscaping software.

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Start from the estimate, then fix what changed

Most installs were priced before a shovel went in the ground. If you built the estimate in Workeey, one tap turns it into the invoice, numbered on its own, so you never retype a plant list you already typed once.

Then walk the yard and compare it with the paper: two more hydrangeas the client asked for on day two, seven yards of mulch instead of five, three stumps instead of one. Every line has a quantity and a rate, so the totals redo themselves. If the job changed a lot, tell the client before the bill arrives.

  • The client, address, lines, tax and site photos carry over
  • Change the quantity where the yard took more or less
  • Add a line for each extra the client asked for
  • Remove what they decided against, like the boulder

How to invoice a landscape install

Work in this order and the invoice reads like a walk around the yard:

  1. Turn the estimate or the finished job into the invoice. Client, address, lines, tax and photos come with it.
  2. Put the design time first: the site visit, the drawing, the plant list, as hours or a flat design fee.
  3. List the plants by size and count. One line per kind: '3-gal boxwood', quantity 9, at your installed price each.
  4. List the bulk material in the unit you bought it. Mulch and soil by the yard, edging stone and pavers by the bag or the pallet.
  5. Add the labor and equipment: install hours, the day you rented the mini skid steer, the dump fee.
  6. Write the plant warranty in the invoice's notes, so the terms travel with the bill.
  7. Bill the balance: lines that add up to what is left, the deposit you took written in the notes.
  8. Set the due date and send it. It's emailed from the app with a pay link once you've connected Stripe.

What a landscaping bill should show

An install bill gets questioned line by line, so it should answer the questions first. For a blank one, there's a free landscaping invoice template; for the price before the job, see estimates.

Whether you add sales tax to your labor depends on your state and on the job: a repair, an installation or new construction. See sales tax on labor in every state, with each state's own guidance linked.

  • Your business name, phone and email
  • The client's name and the property address
  • An invoice number and the date
  • Plants by name, size and count, at your price
  • Mulch, soil and stone by the yard or the bag
  • Labor and design time on their own lines
  • Tax, the total and the due date, with the plant warranty in the notes under them

Materials by the yard, the bag and the plant

Landscape materials come in three units. Bulk goes by the cubic yard: 6 yards of hardwood mulch is a quantity of 6 at your price per yard, backed by the supplier's delivery ticket. Bagged goods go by the bag: polymeric sand, pea gravel, river rock. Plants go by the each, grouped by kind and pot size, because nobody can count 'shrubs, $1,140' but anybody can count nine boxwoods in the bed.

Decide once whether your plant price includes planting. Many landscapers bill an installed price per plant, covering the plant, the hole, the amendments and the first watering, and keep labor for everything else. Others bill plants at cost plus markup and planting by the hour. Both work; mixing them on one invoice is how a client ends up thinking you charged twice. Our guide to markup vs margin shows why a 30% markup is not a 30% margin.

Design time is billable time

The evening you spent on a planting plan is work, and it belongs on the bill. Put it on its own line, 3 hours at your design rate or a flat design fee, so it isn't buried in the plant prices where it makes your boxwoods look expensive.

If your deal is that the design fee comes off the install when the client hires you, write that on the estimate. Bill the install with the fee already taken off (a line can't subtract), and write “Design fee of $300 credited, as agreed” in the notes, so the client sees the promise kept.

Sometimes the client takes the plan and hires the cheaper guy. That's why the design visit should be its own job: when it's done, one tap turns it into a small invoice of its own, and you're paid for the drawing whether or not the install happens.

Plant warranty wording that holds up

A plant guarantee you said out loud is one you'll argue about in August. Write it in the invoice's notes, which print under the total:

"Trees and shrubs we planted are guaranteed for one year from the install date. If one dies, we replace it once, at no charge for the plant or the planting. The guarantee needs regular watering as instructed and doesn't cover drought, frost, deer, or plants moved by anyone else. Annuals, perennials and seed are not guaranteed."

Change the length and the exclusions to match your own rule. What matters is that the client paid an invoice that said it, with the install date on the same page, and the job photos on it settle 'it was already dying when you put it in'.

A job that runs for days: one invoice or one per stage

An install is rarely one day. Put each day on the schedule as its own job, demo and grading Monday, the patio Tuesday and Wednesday, planting Thursday, so you can see the week and move a day when the rain comes. Then choose how to bill it, and tell the client which before you start.

For a job of a week or less, one invoice at the end is the cleanest: build it from the estimate, add what changed, send it when the last plant is in. For a big job that runs over weeks, bill by stage: an invoice for the hardscape when it's finished, another for the planting when it's done.

Each is its own invoice with its own pay link, and you send each one yourself; nothing goes out on a timer. Stage billing keeps money coming in while you're paying the stone yard and the nursery.

The deposit, and getting the rest paid

On a big install you'll want money before you buy plants. Your deposit percent prints on the quote PDF, but Workeey doesn't collect or track the deposit, so take it your usual way. On the final invoice the lines add up to the balance (a line can't subtract), and the deposit's amount and date go in the notes, which print under the total. Or bill the deposit as its own invoice first.

Connect Stripe once and the invoice carries a pay link for card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or US bank; a small processing fee applies to online payments (payments). A check at the final walk? Mark it paid and tap Send receipt. For a bill that goes quiet, switch on reminder texts for that invoice: up to eight, daytime only, and STOP ends them; the free plan includes 10 a month (reminders). Weekly mowing is on invoicing for lawn care.

More for landscapers: pages and free templates

How do I invoice materials like mulch and pavers?

Each material on its own line in the unit you bought it: mulch and soil by the cubic yard, pavers by the pallet or square foot, bagged stone by the bag. Quantity times your rate gives the line total.

Should design time go on a landscaping invoice?

Yes, as its own line, either hours at your design rate or a flat fee. If the fee comes off the install when the client hires you, say so on the estimate, bill the install with the fee already taken off, and note the credit in the invoice's notes.

What should a plant warranty on an invoice say?

How long it lasts from the install date, what you'll replace and how many times, what the client must do, like watering as instructed, and what isn't covered, like drought, frost or deer.

Can I bill a big landscaping job in stages?

Yes. Each day of the install is its own job, and you can send one invoice at the end or one invoice per finished stage, like the hardscape and then the planting. You send each one yourself; Workeey never bills on a schedule.

Is there a free landscaping invoice app?

Workeey is free forever with no card needed, with unlimited invoices, each emailed with a pay link. The free plan also includes 10 reminder texts a month, and a small processing fee applies only to online payments.

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