What goes on a landscaping estimate
Install and design work is where a landscaper estimates. The variables are not the plants — those have a price — but access, disposal and what is under the surface. A yard with no side gate and a dumpster that has to sit on the street is a different job from the same yard with a driveway, and the estimate is where that difference becomes visible.
- The area, measured, and what is being done to each part of it
- Plants and materials by name and quantity, since substitutions move the price
- Machine hire, and whether the access allows the machine you priced
- Disposal: how much is going, and whether it is charged by load or by weight
- The ground conditions assumed, and what happens if you hit rubble or clay
- Aftercare — watering, establishment, the first cut — in or out
- How long the price holds, given that planting is seasonal
The sample line items and example prices this sheet opens with are on the landscaping invoice template — the same table, which is about the trade rather than about this paper, so it lives in one place rather than on all six. Working out the price itself? The markup calculator turns your cost and markup into the figure to put on the estimate, and shows the margin it leaves.
What you get
A PDF, and a link your customer can open in any browser. Word and Excel versions are not available yet — if a spreadsheet is what you need, this is not yet the tool for it, and saying so is cheaper for both of us than you finding out after typing everything in.
Pick how it looks
Six looks, from a plain classic sheet through a bold top band to a shop ticket, and your initials go on automatically until you upload a logo. See all six.
How to send it
Most customers want the paper on their phone, so the estimate goes out by WhatsApp, text or email, or as a link that needs no app and no account on their side. Or download the PDF to print it or keep it for your own records.
Questions
How do I price a yard I have not dug?
Price what is above ground and name what is below. Rubble, clay, old concrete and tree roots are what turn a two-day job into a four-day one, and an estimate that says what it assumed about the ground has somewhere to go when it is wrong. One that says nothing has agreed to find out at its own expense.
Should aftercare be included?
Say which, because the customer assumes it is. New planting dies without watering and a dead bed looks like your fault regardless of who was meant to water it. Either include the first season and price it, or exclude it and write down what they have to do.