Landscape estimating
Landscape estimates you can trust
Build the estimate from your own price book, in square feet, yards and linear feet. Level Yard works out the labor, materials and margin as you go, and the customer approves it from their phone. Once it's approved, the estimate becomes the job's budget.
Backyard paver patio
Margin 44.2%, goal 45%. Team only: 52 labor hours, cost $3,790. Nudge the price or trim the hours before you send.
- Your prices from your own price book
- Kits add a whole patio in one go
- Margin checked against your goal
- Approved from the customer's phone
Your price book
Every price already knows what it costs you.
Each item in your price book has a selling price and a cost, in the unit you sell it by: square feet, cubic yards, linear feet, tons or each. The cost splits into labor hours, equipment and subcontractors, and materials are the rest.
Labor is priced at your own hourly rate, and each division (maintenance, installs, hardscape) can have its own. So when you put 300 square feet of pavers on an estimate, Level Yard already knows the hours, the materials and what the job will cost you, before you've done any math.
Change a price next spring and the estimates already out keep the price they were sent with. Each line keeps its own copy.
How an estimate works
From the site visit to an approved job.
- 1
Add the work. Pick items from your price book, or add a kit: a paver patio per 100 square feet, a planting bed, a spring cleanup. A kit puts every line in at once, with the quantities you set.
- 2
Check the margin. Beside the customer's total, for your team only: labor hours, materials, equipment, subs, cost and margin. Green means it meets the division's goal, amber means within 10 points of it, red means further off.
- 3
Send it. The customer gets a text and an email with a link. No app and no account: they open it on their phone, look it over, ask a question or tap Approve.
- 4
Approved means approved. If you changed the estimate after they opened it, Level Yard asks them to look again before the approval counts. Nobody approves a price they never saw.
- 5
It becomes the job. The approved estimate turns into a work ticket with an hours budget. The crew clocks against it, and you can see if it's running over while it's still running. A deposit invoice can follow, using the rule you set for that division.
Also on the estimate
The parts that usually live in a spreadsheet.
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Deposits and sales tax
- A deposit rule by division: a percentage, with a minimum amount
- Each line taxable or not, so lawn care and new installs can share one estimate
- Tax-exempt customers keep their certificate on file
- Tax is never counted as revenue in the margin
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The marked map and maintenance
- Mark the plants and beds on an aerial photo of the yard for the customer to approve with the price
- A season of maintenance sold on one estimate becomes an agreement with its visits on the schedule
- Won and lost estimates stay on the pipeline, with the reason a job was lost
Questions
What owners ask about estimates.
Can we use our own prices?
Yes. Level Yard prices everything from your own price book: your selling prices, your costs and your labor rate. We bring your price list in when we set up your trial.
What is a kit?
A saved group of price-book items with quantities, such as a paver patio per 100 square feet. Adding a kit to an estimate adds every line at once, so a patio quote takes a minute, not twenty.
How is the margin worked out?
Labor is the hours times your labor rate, plus equipment, subcontractors and materials from the price book. Margin is the customer total minus that cost, as a share of the total, before sales tax. It's checked against the margin goal you set for each division.
Does the customer need an app or an account?
No. They get a text and an email with a link, and the estimate opens in their phone's browser. They can approve it or send a question from there.
What if I change my prices later?
Estimates already sent keep the prices they were sent with. Each estimate line keeps its own copy of the price-book numbers.
What happens when an estimate is approved?
It becomes a job with an hours budget taken from the estimate. The crew's clocked hours count against that budget, so you can see a job running over while it's still running.
Early access
Try it on your next estimate.
We're setting up a limited number of Pennsylvania landscaping companies before the season starts. We bring your price list in with you, so your first estimate uses your own numbers.
- Free during early access
- Your price list and customers brought in
- Estimates, crews and invoices in one place