You’ll get expert help and step-by-step guidance to get started quickly. Landscape scheduling software from Aspire helps by letting you drag and drop work tickets to create and edit your schedule. You can toggle between week and month views to see capacity and push schedule updates to the mobile app, so your team is always where they need to be. Landscapers should be thinking of their accounting and bookkeeping more than just on Tax Day on April 15th.
Reasons for Starting a Landscaping Business
Having a social media presence is a great way to reach a wide variety of people. You can showcase your work by sharing pictures on social media and you can also choose to use paid ads to boost your visibility. Purchasing second-hand equipment can also be a helpful way to save money. This is especially true for your work vehicle since there are usually multiple options.
The accrual basis accounting method is more concerned with when revenue and expenses are earned rather than paid. With cash basis accounting, revenue and expenses are recorded when they hit the bank bookkeeping for landscaping business (e.g., when you receive payment for a service or pay off a bill). Solid bookkeeping practices are vital to the health of any landscaping business. Bookkeeping—or managing your financial accounts—may look different depending on the scale of your operation, but it’s an aspect of the company that you shouldn’t neglect.
Bookkeeping and Accounting Tips for Landscaping Businesses
You want to make business decisions like investing in more assets and hiring employees, but the fear of your business failing keeps you up at night. When it comes to monthly tasks, you should double-check your expense record in a process called reconciliation to ensure nothing was missed. It’s also important to send invoices at the end of every month to ensure timely payment and make sure that all of your bills are paid in full at the same time every month. The most important numbers for your business, and ones you should be intimately familiar with, are your profit and loss statements. Either yearly or quarterly, you should create a forecast and budget for your operations based on how much you spent and earned during the previous business period.
Creative Professionals
Sandra Habiger is a Chartered Professional Accountant with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Washington. Sandra’s areas of focus include advising real estate agents, brokers, and investors. She supports small businesses in growing to their first six figures and beyond. Alongside her accounting practice, Sandra is a Money and Life Coach for women in business.
If you’re hiring employees, you’ll also need to factor in their wages when estimating your startup costs. You’ll have to pay a fee to register your business, which will vary depending on your state. You’ll also need a landscaping business license and you may need special licensing for some services, like for example pesticide application. Save 10+ hours/week on business admin with the highest-rated job management software for tradespeople.
- Eliminating manual updates streamlines and expedites making informed decisions.
- When operating a landscaping company, it can be challenging to keep up on the books.
- Managing operating expenses will help you better forecast your cash flow to meet your financial obligations and stay profitable.
- Something to take into consideration is which method provides the best tax breaks available for your industry.
- Whether you’re on a trial, or a long-standing customer, you’ll speak to a live human in just a few rings.
And don’t forget less apparent overheads like marketing expenses, software subscriptions like Quickbooks (for accounting), and utility bills, which also contribute to your total overhead. These costs aren’t always obvious but are necessary for the business to operate and will impact your gross profits. Your cash flow statement is a statement that records the cash your business has coming in and out of your accounts. If you ever want to scale your landscaping business up, investors will want this statement to look at how you manage your money. Accrual basis accounting takes a slightly different approach by counting money and expenses when they are earned. This accounting method will take more involvement from you, but it will give you a clearer picture of your business’s future.
Sharing positive testimonials from customers can help promote trust and reliability. You can ask clients to review you on Google, Yelp, and other platforms, or you can ask for testimonials that you can share on your business website and social media. When selecting a business name, look for something that makes it clear what you offer and where you are. For example, including ‘landscaping’ in the name immediately lets potential customers know what you do.
Navigating the Terrain: Bookkeeping Tips for Landscapers
If you have a broad customer base and bring in large amounts of revenue every year, you probably work with a CPA or in-house financial staff. Even if you’re handling that side of the business yourself, it’s often something you want to deal with as quickly as possible and move on. By submitting the form, you agree that we may contact you, by SMS, at the phone number and email address you shared in order to provide updates on your request and/or marketing purposes. The content provided on this website is for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal, tax, or professional advice. While we strive to maintain accurate and current information, business regulations and requirements vary by jurisdiction and are subject to frequent changes.