Landscaping paperwork, done properly

Landscaping bids split into two businesses with different paperwork: installs, which are projects, and maintenance, which is a recurring agreement. The estimate that causes trouble is the install that promises plants without saying who waters them. State the plant warranty, tie it to a written watering requirement, and price maintenance visits as their own agreement rather than a favor attached to the install.

Pick your document

  • Landscaping estimate

    An estimate is your best professional judgment of what a job will cost, given before the work starts.

  • Landscaping quote

    A quote is a fixed price for a defined scope of work — the number does not move unless the scope does.

  • Landscaping invoice

    An invoice is the request for payment once the work is done — the document that actually gets you paid.

What belongs on landscaper paperwork

  • Plant sizes by container, since a 3-gallon and a 15-gallon shrub are different jobs
  • Soil amendment, drainage and grading — the below-ground work customers cannot see
  • Measured beds and plant counts by species and container size
  • Irrigation zones and controller, if included, and who winterises
  • Where each plant went, by bed, so a warranty replacement is findable a year later
  • Planting date, which is when the warranty period and the watering obligation start

How landscapers price work

Installs price by material plus crew day; maintenance prices per visit or per month with a seasonal schedule. Margin on installs is mostly in material markup and crew efficiency, which is why accurate square footage and access notes matter more here than hourly rate. Maintenance contracts price best annually and billed monthly, so winter months are not a cash trough.

The builder ships with 12 landscaping line items to start from, grouped into 2 sections. Edit the rates once and they save to your own price book.

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Questions

How long should a plant warranty be?
One growing season is the common default, and it should be written as conditional on the customer watering per your instructions. Unconditional plant warranties are how landscapers end up replacing shrubs that died in an August with no irrigation, so state the watering requirement on the estimate rather than mentioning it at handover.
Should landscaping maintenance be a separate agreement?
Yes. Install and maintenance have different scopes, different billing rhythms and different cancellation terms. Bundling them makes the install look expensive and the maintenance look free — price them as two documents and both become easier to sell.
What should a planting invoice list?
Plants by species and container size, with the planting date. That is the record a warranty claim runs against, and it is also what a client needs when they want three more of the same shrub next spring and cannot remember what you put in.