Landscaping is two businesses in one: the big one-off projects (a new patio, a full re-grade) and the steady monthly maintenance that keeps the lights on. Fee-Lion lets you quote the project, bill the maintenance on autopilot, and track every bag of mulch and mile of travel so you know exactly what each property earns you.
Quote the one-off jobs
For a design-and-install or any project with a clear scope, start with an estimate. Click Estimates in the left sidebar and build it out the way the job actually breaks down.
- Add tasks for labor — “Bed prep, 6 hrs” or “Planting crew, 8 hrs” — priced as hours times your crew rate.
- Add fees or units for materials and equipment — “Mulch, 12 yards”, “Stone delivery”, “Skid-steer rental” — priced as quantity times rate.
- Apply a surcharge for a tricky access site, or a discount if you’re bundling work. Set tax and a deposit % so you collect before you buy materials.
- Send it. Your client opens a magic-link portal — no login, no password — reviews the numbers, and approves with one click.
Once they approve, one button turns that estimate into an invoice (or a project, if the install is big enough to track). The invoice carries a Pay button, and when the client pays by card the money lands in your Stripe account, not ours.
Tip: Always set a deposit on install jobs. Collecting 40–50% up front means the mulch, sod, and stone are paid for before they ever hit your truck. Set a house default under Settings → Preferences → Estimates so every quote starts there.
Bill maintenance on a recurring schedule
Weekly mows, seasonal cleanups, and fertilizer programs shouldn’t need a fresh invoice every month. Set them up once and let them run.
- Go to Invoices and create a recurring invoice for each maintenance client.
- Choose the cadence — monthly is typical for a flat-rate maintenance contract.
- Invite the client to turn on auto-pay so the card runs automatically and you stop chasing checks.
From then on the invoice generates and sends itself, and for auto-pay clients the payment clears on schedule. Your spring rush gets a lot quieter when fifteen properties bill themselves on the first of the month.
Log materials and travel so you see real margin
The number that matters isn’t what you billed — it’s what you kept. Capture your costs as expenses and attach them to the property’s project.
- Record materials (mulch, plants, fertilizer, stone) under Expenses and mark them billable when a client agreed to cover them.
- Log mileage and travel as an expense too — drive time to a far property eats margin fast, and now you can see it.
- Use attribute an expense to a project so every cost rolls up to the right job.
Then open Reports. The margin view shows revenue minus expenses per project, so you can finally tell the profitable accounts from the ones that only look busy. If a property is all drive time and cheap mulch with thin margin, that’s your cue to re-price at renewal.
Tip: Set recurring expenses for things like a monthly dump-fee or equipment lease so they’re never forgotten when you tally a job’s true cost.
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