Job costing software for landscaping contractors
Commercial landscaping bills an install, then a warranty and maintenance period. CFOS for QuickBooks costs plants, crews, watering and replacements to the job. A job that looks finished can't keep spending without you seeing it.
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How landscaping bills and where the money leaks
Commercial landscape install usually bills on a schedule of values with a monthly pay app and retainage. Lines follow the scope: soil and fine grading, trees, shrubs, sod or seed, mulch and edging, and hardscape when it's in your contract. Maintenance is a separate contract or a recurring line billed monthly, with enhancements like seasonal color priced as extras.
The leak is that install bills early and the warranty spends late. Trees and shrubs that die in the warranty period are replaced at your cost, and watering the job until acceptance is often on you too. Retainage commonly waits until the owner accepts the work or the warranty ends, so the last check can come a season or more after the crew left.
Material and timing are the other soft spots. The nursery substitutes a size or a variety, topsoil import comes in over the quantity you bid, and the GC pushes planting into hot weather that needs more water and more replacements. Other trades park and drive on finished sod and beds, and without a signed T&M ticket you repair them at your own cost.
How landscaping costs split and what CFOS tracks
A landscape job spends on plant material, soil and amendments, mulch and stone, crew labor, equipment like skid steers and trucks, water and watering trips, and subs for tree spade work or hardscape. Plant material and labor are the two big numbers. The watering and warranty costs are small per trip and large over a season.
CFOS reads your jobs, cost codes and vendors from QuickBooks Online and compares actual cost to the estimate by cost code, updated every hour. Nursery invoices and soil tickets emailed to your bills inbox are read, coded to the job and checked against the PO. A substitution or an overage on the bill is easy to spot against the order.
If you set up install, watering, warranty replacement and maintenance as separate cost codes, each one has its own budget and actual. Skid steers, trucks and water trailers get an equipment daily rate charged to the job on each day they're on a daily. You see whether the warranty you priced matches what you're spending.
Workflow from the field to the office
The crew lead fills out a daily with the crew, the equipment and photos of what was planted. Field time is approved and goes to QuickBooks Payroll, coded to install, watering or maintenance. A watering trip is a short visit, and the daily keeps it on the right job.
When the GC adds a planting bed, swaps a species after approval or asks you to redo sod another trade damaged, a T&M ticket goes on the daily. The GC signs it on site and it becomes a change order draft for the next pay app. Photos from before and after the damage go with the ticket.
The PM builds the install pay app from the schedule of values, and maintenance can be set up as recurring lines. CFOS lays out the G702 and G703 with retainage tracked on each line. Pay app due dates send reminders to the PM, so a small monthly maintenance bill doesn't get forgotten.
What the owner sees every month
Each month the PM enters cost to complete on each job, including the watering and warranty still to come, and you approve it. The WIP schedule shows over and under billing by job. A job that billed its last install line in spring still counts the replacements due before the warranty walk.
The CEO Report grades your gross margin, overhead and net profit before taxes against the published average for landscaping and the CFOS target for your size. It tells you if your plant markup and crew rates cover the whole job, warranty included. The 13 week cash forecast reads your QuickBooks and pay apps and marks the lowest week, which helps in spring when nursery bills come due before the first pay app is paid.
AR aging and a collections list keep retainage held for the warranty from being forgotten. You can ask Claude or ChatGPT about your own jobs, like how much last year's warranty replacements cost. It reads your numbers and can't change them.
Landscaping cost codes, matched to QuickBooks
Each group below is one set of cost codes in CFOS. Bills, time and equipment post to them. QuickBooks keeps the books underneath, so your bookkeeper sees the same numbers.
| Cost code group | What goes on it |
|---|---|
| Soil and fine grading | Topsoil import, amendments, fine grading and bed prep. |
| Trees | Trees by caliper, staking and guying, tree spade or crane time, and planting labor. |
| Shrubs and perennials | Shrubs, grasses, perennials and annuals by container size, with planting labor. |
| Sod and seed | Sod by the square foot or pallet, hydroseed, seed, erosion blanket and the labor to install it. |
| Mulch, stone and edging | Mulch, decorative rock, steel or plastic edging and weed barrier. |
| Hardscape | Pavers, walls, steps and base when they're in your scope, or the sub who builds them. |
| Watering until acceptance | Water truck or trailer trips, water cost and labor to keep plants alive before the owner accepts the job. |
| Warranty replacement | Dead plants replaced within the warranty period, the material and the trip. |
| Maintenance | Mowing, pruning, cleanups and seasonal visits billed on a maintenance contract. |
| Damage repair and extras | Sod and beds repaired after other trades, tied to a signed T&M ticket and change order. |
How landscaping contractors do, by revenue
Each row shows the all-trade average, this trade's average and the CFOS target where one is published. These are the numbers your own job costing gets graded against. Net profit is before taxes in every row.
| Revenue | Overhead | Gross margin | Net profit, before taxes |
|---|---|---|---|
| $1M to $5M | 15.1% all-trade average 15% Landscaping 14.1% CFOS target | 22.1% all-trade average 22% Landscaping 25% CFOS target | 7% all-trade average 7% Landscaping 11% CFOS target |
| $5M to $10M | 14.1% all-trade average 14% Landscaping 13.1% CFOS target | 23.4% all-trade average 23% Landscaping 26% CFOS target | 9.4% all-trade average 9% Landscaping 12.9% CFOS target |
| $10M to $25M | 13.1% all-trade average 13% Landscaping 12.1% CFOS target | 24.6% all-trade average 24% Landscaping 27.1% CFOS target | 11.5% all-trade average 11% Landscaping 15% CFOS target |
| $25M to $50M | 12.1% all-trade average 12% Landscaping | 25.7% all-trade average 25% Landscaping | 13.7% all-trade average 13% Landscaping |
Gross margin and overhead come from figures CFMA, Jones Maresca and other sources publish by trade and size. Net profit is computed, not surveyed: net profit = gross margin minus overhead. Nothing comes out for taxes, interest or other income and expense, so it is a before tax figure, on the same basis as CFMA's net income before taxes.
CFMA's 2025 medians are 7.1 percent before interest and taxes and 6.7 percent net income before taxes. Gross margin minus overhead leaves out interest and other income and expense, so a figure here can come in a little above or below a reported net income on the same business.
Above the $10M to $25M band the gross margin and overhead rows are a modeled extension of the same curves. They have not been reconciled against the licensed CFMA Benchmarker, so read those bands as a model and not as a survey result.
Problems landscaping contractors write to us about
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We email you when CFOS for QuickBooks opens, plus a few updates before then. Your address stays with Run On CFOS. One click unsubscribes.
30 days free, a 90-day money-back guarantee, and cancel anytime. It opens January 2027. We email you the day it opens.
What landscaping contractors ask
How do I track warranty replacements on a job that's already billed?
Set up warranty replacement as its own cost code on the job. Bills and crew time keep posting to it after the last pay app, and the monthly cost to complete counts what's left. The WIP schedule keeps the job open until the warranty is done.
Can I bill install and monthly maintenance on the same contract?
Yes. Set up the schedule of values with the install lines and maintenance as recurring lines. CFOS builds the pay app each period and tracks retainage on each one.
What about watering before the owner accepts the job?
Code watering trips to their own cost code, with the crew and truck on the daily. You see what watering cost against what you priced. If the GC delayed acceptance, a signed T&M ticket turns the extra trips into a change order draft.
How do I check nursery bills against what was ordered?
Email nursery invoices to your bills inbox. CFOS reads them, codes them to the job and checks them against the PO, so a substitution or a higher price is caught before it's paid. You decide whether to accept it or ask for a credit.
Does CFOS replace QuickBooks Online for my landscaping company?
No. QuickBooks Online keeps your books, and CFOS works on top of it. It reads and writes jobs, cost codes, vendors, bills and invoices, so there's no migration.
- Job costing software that runs on QuickBooks
- One price. Every module. Priced by your revenue.
- Use all of it, or just the part you need
- Job costing software that runs on QuickBooks
- One price. Every module. Priced by your revenue.
- Use all of it, or just the part you need
- Landscaping benchmarks
QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Run On CFOS isn't affiliated with Intuit.