How to make an invoice for landscaping services

If you work as a landscaper, you’ll be aware that every job is different. Given the demands of each job — from a small yard to large back garden — you need to understand how to invoice for landscaping services to ensure that you get paid the right amount at the right time. Without that, your cash flow will suffer, and your business will be in trouble. The good news is that the latest technology and a payment solution like GoCardless can be combined to make invoicing simpler than it’s ever been.  

Using landscaping invoice software

The problems with sending an invoice for a landscaping job are the kind that impacts all types of businesses. If you don’t invoice correctly and take advantage of the latest technology, your business will suffer. On average, SMEs in the UK are paid 18 days late, and any small business owner will tell you that individual late payments can soon snowball to cause huge problems. The overriding issue facing any business using a traditional landscaping invoice is that it leaves them in the dark about when the payment will reach them. This makes it harder to budget and plan your spending going forward. The good news is that GoCardless offers a way of solving this problem.

A landscaping invoice that works

Using GoCardless to collect invoice payments means that they are taken directly from a customer’s bank account, rather than the business waiting for the customer to take action. As a result, according to a study by IDC, customers who accept GoCardless payments on their online invoices can expect to be paid up to twice as fast.

A landscaping invoice example 

It’s always helpful to have a single template for a landscaping invoice and then alter the details of each invoice to match the circumstances of the job itself. The information which needs to feature on a landscaping invoice includes the following: 

• the name of your business — your name if you are a sole trader — and your contact details 

• the services provided – such as laying turf, paving, trimming hedges – and the price charged for each service, either as a whole or an hourly rate 

• a description of any materials used, including the amount and overall cost of each 

• the name, address and contact details of the client 

• the total due when all services, labour and material are added up 

• the payment methods you are willing to accept 

• details of any policy you have regarding late payment fees or interest charges 

Invoices that are detailed will reduce the chances that customers will question the amount they are being asked to pay, and you are more likely to receive your payment sooner. By using landscaping invoice software, you can build a database of information that will make it easier to track late payments, organise the information needed to fill your tax return, and monitor exactly how much money is coming into your business. 

Here at GoCardless, we offer a downloadable invoice template which can be tweaked and altered to suit the specific requirements of your landscaping business. You can link to it here.     

We can help

GoCardless is a global payments solution that helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of financial admin your team needs to deal with. Find out how GoCardless can help you with one-off or recurring payments.