Landscaping estimating software that wins more jobs

A landscaping price is built from five pieces:

1. Labor: the crew hours for each part of the job, times a rate that covers your costs.
2. Materials: soil, sod, mulch, plants, irrigation parts and hardscape, plus a markup.
3. Equipment: the skid steer, sod cutter, trencher or plate compactor, owned or rented.
4. Disposal: old turf, soil, roots and debris hauled away.
5. Risk: what you can't see until you dig, and the plants you guarantee.

What goes on a landscaping estimate

These are the lines a typical residential landscape install carries, and how each is usually counted. BuildWell has no built-in lines for planting, sod or irrigation, so the AI drafts the lines and their hours, and you set them.

Labor and materials keep their own units

In BuildWell, the work on each line is counted by the piece, the square foot or the linear foot, and materials keep their own units. Sod is square feet, edging is linear feet, and a tree is one piece.

A mulch line can be square feet of bed with cubic yards of mulch in it.

Hardscape has built-in lines

Hardscape is the one part of landscaping BuildWell's built-in lines do cover. Its concrete and masonry work includes a paver patio on a sand bed and a segmental block retaining wall.

The AI uses those lines when they match what you describe.

Measure, then add for waste and depth

Area drives most of a landscape price. Measure beds, lawn and patios on site, and convert to the units you buy:

• Mulch and soil: area times depth gives cubic yards. A bed mulched 3 inches deep takes twice the mulch of one mulched 1.5 inches deep.
• Sod: add a little for cuts along curves and edges.
• Pavers and wall block: add for cuts and breakage, and remember the base: gravel and sand under a patio are material and labor too.

Enter quantities after waste, so what you order matches what you priced.

Your labor rate covers more than wages

A crew member's wage isn't your labor rate. Your rate has to cover:

• wages, payroll taxes and workers' comp
• liability insurance
• trucks, trailers and equipment, owned or rented
• the hours spent designing, bidding and picking up material

Then it needs a profit.

How BuildWell prices each hour

BuildWell builds each hour's price in three steps:

1. Wage: a local wage from Bureau of Labor Statistics data. BuildWell's wage data covers construction trades, so landscaping lines start from a construction wage, not a landscaping worker's wage.
2. Overhead: your labor overhead, which starts at 100% and doubles the wage.
3. Markup: your labor markup, which starts at 20%.

What a front-yard install's labor comes to

Example: Say a crew member costs you $22 an hour in wages. Use your real number. Say a front-yard install takes a three-person crew two days, 48 crew hours:

• Wages: 48 × $22 = $1,056
• With 100% overhead: $2,112
• With 20% markup: $2,534.40 for labor

Materials, equipment and disposal come on top.

Price materials and plants, then mark up

Price soil, sod, mulch and hardscape at what they cost near the job this week, and plants at what your nursery charges you. Then add a markup that covers:

• pickup and delivery
• the plants that don't survive the truck
• the time spent choosing them

Material markup starts at 20% in BuildWell; change it on any estimate.

If the homeowner is buying the plants themselves, mark them client-supplied. They're listed so the scope is clear, but not charged.

Equipment, disposal and what's underground

• Equipment: put rented machines on the estimate as their own lines, with delivery. If you own them, build their cost into your rate.
• Disposal: price dump fees and the trips to get there. Old sod and soil are heavy, and loads add up.
• Underground: rock, roots and buried debris slow digging. Say what's included, and how you'll price what you find. Call 811 before you dig, every time.

Put plant guarantees in your terms

Decide whether you guarantee plants, for how long, and on what condition, such as the homeowner watering as instructed. Write it in your terms and price it in your materials markup, so a replacement shrub doesn't come out of your profit.

The guide to pricing landscaping jobs prices a front-yard refresh line by line from your own crew hours.

Pay depends on the season and the work

What landscapers earn depends on the season and the mix of work. Pay varies between metro areas and with experience. Install work pays differently from maintenance.

Many landscaping businesses have a long busy season and a short slow one. Owners earn the margin between what they charge and what the work costs, which is why your labor rate and your materials markup matter more than any wage table.

Self-employment tax is 15.3% of net earnings

As a sole proprietor or single-member LLC, you pay self-employment tax on your net earnings: 15.3% in total.

• Social Security, 12.4%: applies to net earnings up to the Social Security wage base, which is $184,500 for 2026.
• Medicare, 2.9%: applies to all of it.
• Deduction: you can deduct half of the self-employment tax on your income tax return.

That's on top of federal and state income tax. Set aside part of every deposit and final payment.

Pay quarterly estimated taxes

No one withholds tax from what clients pay you, so the IRS expects payments during the year on Form 1040-ES. They're usually due in mid-April, mid-June, mid-September and mid-January.

Track these deductions

Landscaping businesses commonly deduct:

• tools and equipment, and equipment rentals
• the business share of trucks and trailers
• fuel
• insurance and license fees
• dump fees
• phone and software

Keep receipts and log mileage as you go.

Send a 1099-NEC to crews and subs you pay

If you pay an unincorporated subcontractor for services, you'll generally need to send them a Form 1099-NEC. For payments made in 2026 and later, that applies once you've paid them $2,000 or more in a year, up from $600 before 2026.

Collect a Form W-9 before you pay anyone. Whether a crew member is a contractor or an employee depends on how you direct the work, not on what you call them.

Sales tax rules vary by state

States treat landscaping differently:

• some tax plants and materials
• some also tax landscaping services
• some treat hardscape as a real property improvement with its own rules

Check your state's revenue department. In BuildWell, sales tax applies to materials only, not labor, at the rate you set. If your state taxes the service too, ask a tax professional how to charge it and show it on your invoices.

This is general information, not tax or legal advice. A tax professional who works with contractors can tell you what applies in your state.