The job that felt fine
The crew was on the Wetherby job for nine days. It was quoted at six and a half. Everyone knew it was running over, because the owner kept hearing about the clay and the tree roots, but nobody knew by how much or which part of the job was the problem. The customer was delighted. The job made very little.
The next quote for a similar garden went out at six and a half days again, because there was no record telling anyone otherwise.
Why you cannot see it
Most landscaping businesses do know roughly which jobs went badly. What they lack is the detail: whether it was the dig out, the walling, the paving or the planting that took longer, and whether that happens every time or only on clay. Without that detail, the quote rates never improve.
- Quotes hold a total, or a few lines, not the labour allowed for each element.
- Crew time is recorded as hours per day per person, not against parts of the job.
- Materials used are not compared with what the quote allowed.
- Job reviews happen, if at all, when the final invoice goes out.
- Site conditions that cause overruns, such as clay, roots and access, are not recorded.
What hidden overruns do to the business
An overrun on one job moves the start date of every job after it, so customers down the list wait longer. Crew days spent on overruns are days not billed elsewhere. And when quotes keep using the same labour allowances, the same elements keep overrunning, so the problem is priced into every new job. The business can be busy all year and still wonder where the profit went.
The job costing we build
- The accepted quote is split into elements, such as excavation, sub-base, walling, paving, turf and planting, each with the crew days and materials it allowed.
- The crew leader logs the day on their phone against the elements worked on: roughly how much time went on each, plus materials used from the van or yard.
- A short list of reasons can be tapped when something takes longer: ground conditions, access, weather, customer changes, waiting for materials.
- The owner's screen shows each live job with quoted and actual days per element, and flags any that are running over while there is still time to act.
- When the job closes, a one page summary compares the whole job with the quote.
- Across many jobs, the system shows which elements usually overrun and by how much, and in which conditions, so the next quote uses better numbers.
| Element | Quote holds | Crew records |
|---|---|---|
| Excavation | Days allowed, spoil volume | Days spent, skips used, ground type |
| Sub-base | Days, tonnage | Days, tonnage delivered |
| Walling | Days per metre | Days, blocks used |
| Paving | Days per square metre | Days, slabs and bedding used |
| Planting and turf | Days, plants and rolls | Days, items used |
The breakdown is kept rough on purpose. Crews will not record time to the quarter hour, and they do not need to for the numbers to be useful.
What you learn by the end of the season
During a job, the owner sees an overrun on day four instead of day nine, and can talk to the customer about ground conditions or move people around. After a season, you have evidence rather than a feeling: perhaps walling on clay sites takes consistently longer than you allow, or small jobs with poor access cost more than their size suggests. That evidence goes straight back into your quoting rates.
Does this sound familiar?
- You know some jobs lost money but not which part of the job caused it.
- Crew time is recorded per day, not per job element.
- Quotes use the same labour allowances they did years ago.
- Overruns are discovered after the final invoice.
- Busy seasons do not produce the profit you expected.