What does that $200 job really leave you?

Two jobs can bring in the same revenue and leave very different results. Before changing a price, choose one normal visit and collect its time records, materials used and selling price. Keep every number on the same basis: one visit, the whole project, or the same billing period.

Fictional teaching example, not industry averages. Estimated job operating profit after the costs below; not take-home pay or a tax calculation.

1. Count paid time around the job, too.

Use worker-hours: two people working for one hour equals two worker-hours. Include the job’s share of drive time, loading, unloading and cleanup. Assign shared route travel consistently so the same minutes are not charged to several properties.

At a fictional $40 wage per worker-hour, Job A uses 2.25 worker-hours: 2.25 × $40 = $90. Job B uses 3.75: 3.75 × $40 = $150. Those hours can include different people; total their individual time and pay if their wage rates differ.

Wages are only part of employing someone. Employer payroll taxes, workers’ compensation and benefits can add to that cost. Our illustrative 20% adds $18 to A and $30 to B. Calculate your rate from your own payroll costs; don’t add a burden percentage again if your hourly rate already includes it. Account for paid non-job time once, through the labor rate or overhead. Include a realistic cost for your own field work rather than treating it as free.

2. Use materials consumed and equipment used.

Assign materials at your cost, including relevant delivery and waste. A bulk purchase is not all used on the first property. Our two visits each use $15; yours might use none.

For owned equipment, build an hourly rate from two parts:

The $8 comes from an illustrative $8,000 annual ownership-cost budget divided by 1,000 expected machine-hours. It represents depreciation or planned equipment replacement cost recovery. The $12 covers fuel, maintenance and consumables such as blades or trimmer line. One machine-hour on either visit costs $20. For multiple machines, calculate each and add them.

Use a realistic annual ownership budget based on useful life and expected resale value. Recover ownership once: don’t count the whole purchase price, loan principal payments and depreciation as three separate job expenses. If a rental price already covers a cost, don’t add it again.

3. Give truck and trailer costs their own place.

Our example spreads $10,000 of annual business-use truck and trailer costs across 10,000 business miles: $1 per mile. Ten allocated miles costs $10. The pool includes the ownership recovery, fuel, maintenance, insurance and registration we chose to recover this way.

Crew drive-time wages are already in labor. Truck fuel belongs here; mower fuel belongs in equipment operating costs. A management vehicle assigned to overhead should not also be allocated as a job truck.

4. Spread the remaining overhead over realistic work.

Office work, software and the yard still need paying for. Our remaining annual overhead is:

• $24,000 for administrative/non-job pay and associated employer costs.
• $12,000 for yard and office costs.
• $6,000 for software and phones.
• $6,000 for bookkeeping and general business insurance.

That is $48,000. Equipment, truck expenses and employer costs already counted above stay out of this pool. Use your actual expense categories, including marketing or other indirect costs when applicable.

The annual hours must use the same definition as the job hours. In this example, four field workers × 40 working weeks × five days × five job-assigned hours per day equals 4,000. Those five hours include allocated travel/setup; they are not five mowing hours plus uncounted travel. Reduce the estimate for realistic weather, leave and other non-job time. Fewer recoverable hours means more overhead per hour.

This is one practical allocation method for similar work. Equipment-heavy and labor-heavy services may need separate pools. Reconcile the totals with your business accounts: an allocated rate is a planning estimate, not a new bill you paid.

5. Use the result to find the cause.

Revenue minus all modeled costs gives A a $20 profit and B a $70 loss. Profit divided by revenue gives 10% and −35%. In this example, extra labor and the overhead assigned to that time explain the difference. Don’t assume a slow crew: check the estimate, access, route, service requirements and actual records.

A practical change might be grouping nearby stops, preparing materials before departure, quoting actual trimming and access time, or charging separately for an agreed extra service. If efficient delivery still cannot support the price, discuss a sustainable price, a genuinely different agreed service, or whether the work fits your business. Compare local offers on scope and reliability as well as price.

Where does LawnPro fit?

Use your existing job, time and expense records as evidence. Check what a report actually includes before calling its result complete profit. Writing a cost breakdown in an estimate note does not make those numbers part of a calculation; entering one total cost only uses the total you supplied.

You do not need to create a separate bookkeeping expense for every modeled overhead or equipment allocation. Keep real transactions recorded accurately, and use the calculator for the fuller planning analysis where your report does not include it. Adding modeled allocations as extra cash expenses can double-count costs already in the books.

Review common recurring jobs before renewals, after meaningful cost changes, or when actual work repeatedly exceeds the estimate. Use the resulting rates and time standards for routine quotes. Large, unfamiliar or risky one-off projects deserve their own detailed estimate and progress checks.

Next: Which job should get the next crew slot?