SideWRK is a cheap invoicing app for landscapers who work on the side.
This invoicing app for landscapers prices a yard the way you sell it: a flat price for each visit on the route, and the sod, mulch and dump fees on lines of their own when you install. Five jobs a year are free; after that it’s $19 a month.
A tired front lawn stripped out and replaced with sod. The whole estimate is further down.
Six yard jobs and their starting prices
Most landscaping on the side is one of two kinds of work. The route is mowing and trimming, sold at a flat price per visit. The install is a cleanup, a bed of mulch or a new lawn, quoted once with the materials on it.
| Job | Starting price |
|---|---|
| Mow & edge | $55 a visit |
| Irrigation check | $95 |
| Hedge & shrub trim | $180 |
| Spring / fall cleanup | $350 |
| Mulch install | $480 |
| Sod / seeding | $900 |
| Custom work, by the hour | $55/hr |
A one-off spring or fall cleanup defaults to ~$350, quoted once and billed when the yard is done.
Those are the prices a new landscaping account starts with, and the landscaping row of our 2026 Side-Work Rate Report carries the same $55 an hour, with 70% of a typical ticket paying for your time. The first three priced jobs on that list, mow and edge, spring or fall cleanup and mulch install, open as go-to jobs on your Jobs board. Tap one and the estimate is written; change any price to yours.
A hedge and shrub trim, estimated at $180
A boxwood hedge along the front walk and four overgrown shrubs under the windows. The clippings leave with you.
| Trim the hedge, shape the shrubs, rake out the beds | $130 | |
| Haul the clippings, green-waste tip fee included | $32 | |
| Fuel, bar oil and trimmer line | $18 | |
| Total the customer approves | $180 | |
| Materials cost (you), private | −$32 | |
| Est. profit | $148 |
Your time is $130 of the $180, close to the 70% a typical landscaping ticket runs. The tip fee and the fuel are small, and they’re the two costs that come out of your own pocket when nobody writes them down.
Set the weekly mow up once
A route customer is the same visit at the same price, every week or two. On that customer’s screen, Set up recurring takes the visit’s lines, how often you come (weekly, every 2 weeks, monthly or every so many days) and the date of the first visit. When a visit comes due, a pre-filled job shows up in your jobs, ready to do and bill. Start this visit now makes one early, and a plan can be paused for the winter and picked back up in spring.
Each visit is a job of its own. On the free plan it counts as one of your five jobs once you send it, print it or take a payment on it, so a weekly route outgrows the free plan after five visits and runs on the $19 a month from there.
Each property is saved with its address, its service plan, whether it has irrigation, and a note for the gate code and the dog. The same customer can have the house and a rental across town, each saved as its own property.
Landscaping prices by the job, so the work menu in Add work is a list of services with a price each: tap Mow & edge and $55 fills in. Change it before you add it and tick Save as one of my services, and next time a starred Mow & edge with your price sits above the menu. The $55 an hour only applies to custom lines you bill by time.
A two-minute mow on a tiny lot still costs you the drive. Set a minimum for landscaping in Shop, and a job that comes in under it gets a Shop minimum line in one tap.
Landscaping
The first stripe of the season, the edger on the walk, the trailer full of clippings.
Per visit on the route. Line by line on the install.
The homeowner approves the number from their phone before the sod truck shows up.
Sod on a front lawn, estimated at $900
A patchy 400 sq ft front lawn. The old turf comes up, the ground is raked and graded, and new sod goes down the same day.
| Strip the old turf, rake out and grade | $360 | |
| Lay, roll and water in the sod | $270 | |
| Sod (sq ft) | 400 × $0.55 | $220 |
| Starter fertilizer | $20 | |
| Old turf to the green-waste yard, at cost | $30 | |
| Total the customer approves | $900 | |
| Sod cost (you), private | −$162 | |
| Est. profit | $738 |
Labor is $630, the same 70% share. The sod is the big cost: $220 billed and $120 out of your pocket. The dump fee goes on at exactly what the yard charged, so it neither pads nor eats your profit.
Price the cut from the size of the lawn
The visit price follows the size of the turf. Our lawn care calculator multiplies the grass in square feet by a price per square foot, then adjusts for the service and how often you come. Its starting setup is an 8,000 sq ft lawn at $0.006 a square foot, which is $48 for a weekly standard cut, with a $45 floor under any visit.
| If the visit is | The calculator multiplies by |
|---|---|
| Mow only, no trim or edging | 0.85 |
| Every 2 weeks instead of weekly | 1.25 |
| A one-time cut | 1.5 |
| Overgrown, double cut and haul-off | 1.8 |
Don’t know the size? The calculator has a link to measure the lawn from the satellite. Inside a job, Build it with the takeoff calculator opens the same calculator with a Measure button in its bar, and Add to this estimate drops the result into the job.
To get the square footage without walking the yard, trace the lawn on the satellite with the free measuring tool; it needs no account.
Customer plants, sod warranties and what you spray
- Plants the customer bought go on the estimate at $0. Mark the line customer-supplied and that prints beside it, so nobody wonders later who paid for the dead hydrangea.
- A note under the work prints on the estimate and the invoice. The app’s example for landscaping is “No warranty on new sod/plantings without customer watering.” Put yours there before they approve.
- Extras can be optional. Mark the aeration or the bed edging as an optional add-on and the customer can take it or skip it on the approval page; the total moves with what they pick.
- If you spray or fertilize, each job has a place to log the application: what kind, the product, its EPA registration number, the amount and rate, the area, the target, and who applied it with a certificate number. The product and its EPA number print on the job’s paperwork. SideWRK keeps the record and doesn’t check anybody’s license.
$19 a month, or $190 a year. Five jobs a rolling year are free and need no card. SideWRK takes no cut of what the customer pays you.
Start freeBefore the first mow of the season
Can I bill a lawn per visit instead of by the hour?
Yes. Landscaping lines are a quantity and a price each, so Mow & edge goes on as one visit at $55. The hourly rate is only for custom lines you bill by time.
Will my weekly customers show up on their own?
Yes, once you set up recurring on the customer. Pick how often and the first visit, and a pre-filled job lands in your jobs each time one comes due. Pause the plan for the winter and resume it in spring. Each visit is its own job, so on the free plan it counts toward your five once it is sent, printed or paid.
What do I charge for a one-off cleanup?
A one-off yard cleanup starts at ~$350 in the app. Change it to what your yards actually take, and the haul and dump fee go on as lines of their own.
Can I charge for the dump run?
Yes. Put the tip fee on as its own line at what the green-waste yard charged, with the same amount as your private cost. It shows on the invoice and leaves your profit alone.
Can the customer turn down part of the estimate?
Yes. Mark a line optional and they can accept or skip it when they approve on their phone. The total follows what they choose.
Where do I log a weed or fertilizer application?
On the job. Log the application with the product, its EPA registration number, the amount, the rate and the area, and the product and its EPA number print with the job. SideWRK records it; it doesn’t verify a license.