We check out some essential invoicing takeaways for you to bring back to your landscape business. Download a free invoice template for future landscaping and lawn care jobs.
Invoicing is the most necessary evil to every landscaping, lawn mowing, or maintenance job. The Green Industry is tough if you can’t get paid by your customers and some landscape and lawn care companies lack a quick and efficient invoicing system. Without submitting accurate, transparent, and timely invoices, that gap further punishes them financially with an unpredictable cash flow situation. That further stunts growth towards purchasing equipment and hiring new employees or even entire crews.
We’ll cover the essentials you need to develop strong landscaping invoices.
In this article, you’ll learn:
- What’s needed in an invoice?
- What types of service invoice templates are needed for landscape and lawn care businesses?
- How to send invoices to clients
- Should your invoice be in landscape or portrait layout
- Generating effortless invoices with software
What’s needed in an invoice?
A standard invoice can be reused for any industry, whether it’s in the skilled trades through landscaping and lawn care or if it’s general labor focused like cleaning services or selling materials. Once you build a single invoice, your company can take that and generate folders worth of templates to build from. The key is making that single master invoice to build from, so here are some key pieces of information you’ll need in an invoice:
- Company information
- Company name
- Address
- Phone number
- Website (if applicable)
- The word “Invoice” in large lettering
- Invoice number
- Invoice date
- Bill type:
- Account number
- Period beginning
- Period ending
- Settlement date
- Payment date
- Bill to:
- Name and/or company
- Address
- Phone number
- Itemized list
- Date
- Location
- Account Activity/Services Provided
- Hours/Quantity
- Rate
- Total
- Total costs
- Subtotal
- Tax
Invoicing is the end process of developing a trusting relationship with your customer. Providing a transparent, accurate, and concise invoice is the view into goods and services your landscaping or lawn care business has provided. The last thing your business needs is a customer disputing every line item in an invoice further delaying payment. Make sure to take the time and care needed to ensure your cash flow is uninterrupted.
We have included a standard invoice template that you can download and customize to fit your landscaping or lawn care business. Download your landscaping invoice template here.
What Types of Service Invoice Templates are Needed for Landscape and Lawn Care Businesses?
Templating processes like estimating or invoicing can save your landscape or lawn mowing business hours in a work week. As is with most companies, there may be multiple services that you can offer to customers in an effort to upsell. Here are some examples of landscaping and lawn care services you can create invoice templates for to speed up the process:
Landscaping service examples:
- Design
- Construction
- Maintenance
- Softscaping
- Hardscaping
- Snow and ice removal
- Spring Cleanup
- Fall Cleanup
- Mulching
- Holiday yard decoration
Preemptively including typical services, functions, and goods your business provides can help speed up the invoicing process. It’s much easier to duplicate a template invoice and to delete line items as they fit into your billing structure.
How to Send Invoices to Clients
Sending out invoices and receiving payments have evolved over the years. Businesses continue to transition from using postage services and have begun integrating software or email into the invoicing and payments process. Here are some methods landscaping or lawn care businesses use to send invoices out to clients:
- In-person
- Postal services
- Courier
- Business management software | Desktop or mobile
The only sure-fire way to ensure your invoice gets into the hands of the customer is to deliver it in person. In reality, nobody has time for that. Save time and money by automating your invoices through business management software like LMN.
Should Invoices Have a Landscape or Portrait Layout?
Printing documents come in two variations: landscape or portrait. A landscape layout is printed horizontally, whereas portrait layouts are printed vertically. Make sure all invoices are printed vertically in a portrait layout to avoid any possible accounting issues on the customer-side. Portrait also allows for more line items to be included on a single page, and line item notes to give additional context for charges can be placed below if needed.
Generate Effortless Invoices With Software
Landscapers want to be on the field instead of in front of their computer. Invoicing is a time consuming task that needs to get done, but that doesn’t mean it has to be done by you. Save yourself time by generating invoices automatically through business management software for your landscape or lawn care business.
Invoices are generated from the initial estimate and are easily customizable with a click of a button. Using landscaping software like LMN can save your business up to 27 hours a month on streamlining the invoicing process alone. That gives you or your business time to take on more pressing tasks like the actual on-site work at hand, chasing more sales, or freeing up more personal time to avoid landscape burnout.
Take that first step towards effortless invoices by booking a demo with the LMN Team.
