Landscaping quote template and how to price landscaping jobs

How landscapers usually price a job

Landscapers usually price surfaces per m², fencing and walls per metre or per panel, aggregates and spoil per tonne or per load, and labour and machines by the day. A garden build often uses all of them.

How to price landscaping jobs, step by step

Price a landscaping job from the ground up: measure, decide the build-up, work out quantities, then add materials, labour, plant and waste. Most underpriced garden jobs forget what goes under the surface and what has to leave the site.

1. Survey and measure. The area, levels and falls, drainage, and access: can a machine get in, and how far is the barrow run? Ask the customer where underground services run before you plan any digging.
2. Decide the build-up. Dig-out depth, sub-base, membrane, laying course, surface and pointing; or for fencing, the post, panel and height.
3. Work out the quantities. Area times depth gives the volume to dig out and to fill. Use your supplier's figures to turn volume into tonnes, and allow for cuts and waste.
4. Price materials and add markup.
5. Labour days for each stage: dig-out, sub-base, laying, pointing and clearing up.
6. Plant and waste: machine hire, skips or grab lorries, and muck-away loads.
7. Add VAT if you are registered.

Markup and margin

VAT

Add VAT only if you are VAT registered. GOV.UK says you must register if your taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000, measured on a rolling 12 months rather than your tax year. The standard rate is 20%, but some goods and services carry a reduced or zero rate, so check GOV.UK's VAT rates if you are unsure. If you are not registered, say on the quote that no VAT is charged.

What to include on a landscaping quote

A landscaping quote should show the customer what goes under the surface as well as what they will see on top.

1. Your details, including your VAT number if you are registered.
2. A quote number, the date and a valid-until date.
3. The customer's name and the site address.
4. The scope, area by area, with measurements and the build-up.
5. Levels and drainage: which way water will run.
6. The materials, with product names or the customer's chosen samples.
7. What is not included, such as planning applications, moving underground services, plant aftercare or work beyond the boundary.
8. A price breakdown: materials, labour, plant and waste.
9. VAT, or a line saying no VAT is charged.
10. Payment terms, how changes are handled and how to accept.

Extras, variations and ground conditions

Write on the quote that ground conditions you could not see, such as buried rubble, roots or unexpected services, will be shown to the customer and priced before you carry on.

• Buried rubble, old foundations or large roots.
• Underground pipes or cables in the way.
• Drainage problems once the ground is open.
• The customer changing the paving or fence after ordering.
• Days lost to weather.

Note each change with the price and the customer's agreement.

Deposits, payment terms and how long the quote lasts

Put the deposit, any stage payments, the due date for the balance and a valid-until date on every quote. Customers rarely argue with terms they agreed before you started. They argue with terms they first hear about on the invoice.

Deposits and stage payments

How much deposit you ask for is your decision, but tie it to something real, such as paving, fencing or aggregates you are ordering for that job. Citizens Advice tells customers that if a deposit is worth more than the work done so far, they can propose a figure and ask for the difference back, so a deposit that matches what you have spent on their job is easier to defend than a round number. On a full garden build, link stage payments to finished stages, such as dig-out and sub-base done, rather than to dates.

When the balance is due

Write the due date in plain words, for example "balance due within 7 days of completion", and say how to pay. If your customer is a business, GOV.UK explains that on late business-to-business payments you can claim interest at 8% plus the Bank of England base rate, plus a fixed sum of £40, £70 or £100 depending on the size of the debt. If no payment date was agreed, the payment counts as late 30 days after the customer gets the invoice or you finish the service, whichever is later.

How long the price stands

There is no fixed rule, so choose a period and write a valid-until date on the quote. Material prices and the season both change, and a clear date stops an old price being held against you. Citizens Advice says a trader generally cannot raise an accepted quote just because their own costs have gone up, so that date is what protects you if a customer comes back months later.

Rules landscapers should know before quoting

Driveways, boundary walls and waste are where landscaping meets the rules.

Paving a front garden

In England, the Planning Portal says planning permission is needed if more than five square metres of a front garden is covered with a traditional impermeable surface that does not let water run to a permeable area. Check this before you quote a front driveway, and say on the quote who is responsible for any application.

Garden walls on a shared boundary

GOV.UK says neighbours must be told about work on or near a shared boundary or party wall in England and Wales, and that party walls can include garden walls, though not wooden fences. Agree with the customer who handles it.

Taking waste away

If you take waste away in your van, check your registration. GOV.UK says a business that transports waste in England must register as a waste carrier, and that registration usually costs nothing if you only carry waste you produce yourself. Put disposal on the quote as its own line so the customer can see it.

Put it in writing, and know the cancellation rules

Send every quote in writing and get the acceptance in writing too: a signature, an email reply or an online accept button. Citizens Advice describes a quote as a promise to do the work at an agreed price, and an estimate as the trader's best guess at the cost. If you can see and price the whole job, call it a quote. If part of it cannot be known until you start, say so, and either call it an estimate or quote the known part and list your assumptions.

If you agree the job with a customer in their home, it is usually an off-premises contract. Business Companion, the Chartered Trading Standards Institute's guidance for businesses, says the customer then normally has 14 days to cancel a contract for services, starting the day after the contract was made. If you do not give them the cancellation information, that period can be extended by up to 12 months. To start inside the 14 days, the customer must expressly ask you to in a durable medium such as an email, and if they then cancel they pay for the work done up to that point. Contracts of £42 or less are exempt.

Common landscaping quote mistakes

Landscaping jobs lose money underground and on the way to the tip.

• Pricing the surface and forgetting the dig-out and sub-base.
• Underestimating muck-away.
• Ignoring access for machines and barrows.
• No levels or drainage on the quote.
• No allowance for weather or the season.
• Not saying who handles planning for a front driveway.
• Not stating what aftercare the customer is responsible for.

Quote on site with Graft'd

Graft'd is a quoting, invoicing and job app for UK tradespeople. Talk or type the job and it builds the quote with a plain-English scope of works for you to check. Parts are priced from supplier guide prices or your own rates, and it is set up for the way landscapers price, per m², per panel, per day or per job. Your customer accepts the quote online, you invoice in one tap and get paid through your own payment link, and Graft'd chases late payers for you. Job notes, photos and receipts stay with the job, and CIS and the VAT reverse charge are handled on invoices.

It runs in your phone's browser, so there is nothing to download from an app store.