How landscapers normally break the money out
A landscaper's invoice is usually either a recurring per-visit maintenance charge or a one-off project priced by crew hours plus materials and disposal. Keeping those apart is what stops the customer asking what the total covered.
Step by step
- 1Say which property and which visit the invoice covers. "Weekly maintenance — 4 visits, April" is far easier to approve than "lawn care."
- 2Keep recurring maintenance and one-off projects on separate lines, or separate invoices. Customers budget for them differently.
- 3Bill crew time as crew hours, not "labor" — three crew for four hours reads as a real number.
- 4List plants, mulch, sod and stone at supplied cost, and dump or haul-away fees separately. Disposal is the charge customers query most.
- 5For treatments, note the product applied and your applicator license number, then send the invoice at the end of the month for maintenance accounts.
When to send it
Monthly in arrears for recurring maintenance accounts, on completion for installs and cleanups. Monthly billing gets paid more reliably than per-visit slips.
Maintenance customers who pay by card on file almost never go late. For check payers, a statement on the first of the month plus a text at day 21 clears most of it.
Common questions
- Should I invoice per visit or monthly?
- Monthly, with the visit dates listed. Fewer invoices, fewer missed payments, and the customer can see exactly what they got.
- How do I charge for hauling debris away?
- As its own line with the volume or number of loads. Dump fees are a real cost and customers accept them when they are shown, not when they are hidden in labor.
- Can I bill for a visit the customer skipped?
- Only if your terms say so. Put the skip and cancellation policy in your terms, then apply it consistently.
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