Lawn care and landscaping businesses
See which lawns really make you money.
Your crew is paid from the moment the truck leaves the yard, and on a spread-out round a big share of that day often goes on driving. None of it is on an invoice. Yardstick puts that time back on the lawns that caused it, so you know which ones to reprice before renewals go out.
- You put in
- Each day's route: the lawns, what each one pays, and how long your crew was out.
- You get
- What every lawn really earns once the drive time is counted, the money-losers listed first, and a fair price for the next one.
$59 a month after 14 days free, no card.
What it looks like
An example Tuesday: a crew of two, eight and a half hours yard to yard, twelve stops.
| Stop | Price | Costs | Keeps | Should be |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fenced back yard | $55 | $69.65 | -$14.65 | $87.06 |
| Cul-de-sac | $50 | $62.32 | -$12.32 | $77.90 |
| Ranch house | $50 | $62.32 | -$12.32 | $77.90 |
| Rental house | $50 | $62.32 | -$12.32 | $77.90 |
| Corner lot | $45 | $54.99 | -$9.99 | $68.73 |
| Duplex | $45 | $54.99 | -$9.99 | $68.73 |
The 6 worst of 12 stops shown, worst first.
Repricing that book to 20% would be worth about $8,184 over 26 visits.
Those figures are worked out by the same code you would be running, from one made-up day. Yours will look nothing like them — that is rather the point. The day assumes $18.00 an hour in wages plus 30% for payroll tax and workers' comp, $750 a week of overhead, $1,000 a week for the owner and a 20% target margin. The 30% is close to the trade's own worked example, $20.00 an hour to $26.08 (Source: Aspire's pricing guide, 2026).
Try it free for 14 days
What it does
It puts the driving back where it belongs.
Your crew is paid from the moment it leaves the yard. On a spread-out round a big share of that day often goes on driving, hooking up and fueling, and none of it is on an invoice. Put in one day's route and every one of those minutes lands on the stops that caused it — so a $50 lawn twenty minutes out stops looking like a $50 lawn.
It sorts your whole book worst first.
Every stop, with what it really costs to service, what it keeps, what it pays for an hour of crew time, and what it would have to go to. That last figure is the one that makes two different lawns comparable: a $40 yard ten minutes away can be worth more than a $70 one across town, and nothing else on your screen will tell you that.
It prices the next one before you quote it.
Minutes on site, minutes getting there, how many people. It gives you a number and a floor it must not go below. Thirty seconds, standing in somebody's driveway.
It counts what a spreadsheet leaves out.
The drive between lawns. Crew size — three people on a twenty-minute lawn is an hour of wages. What a crew member really costs: $20 an hour is about $26 once payroll tax and workers' comp are on. Overhead — the truck, the mowers, the insurance — which a per-hour figure often leaves out. Your own pay. And it keeps margin and markup straight: a 20% markup is only a 16.7% margin.
Source for $20 to $26: Aspire's pricing guide, 2026.
What it is not
- It is not scheduling software and it is not invoicing. It does not replace LawnPro or Jobber, it does not route your crews and it never sends a bill.
- It does not talk to your customers. Nothing here goes to anybody else, ever.
- It does not tell you what to charge. It tells you what a stop costs you and what it would take to make money on it. Whether you put the price up is your business — and some of them will walk.
- It is not a one-off calculator. Those ask you to guess at your costs once and then forget them. This works from the days you actually ran.
Questions
What do I need to put in?
One day to start: how long the crew was out, yard to yard, how many people were on it, and each stop with its price and roughly how long it took. Then your costs once: wages, overhead and what you pay yourself — or, if your crew splits the cash instead of drawing wages, what gets spent a month and how many share what is left. A clipboard and fifteen minutes is plenty.
Can I bring in my customer list?
Yes, as a CSV file, which LawnPro, Jobber and any spreadsheet can save, or by pasting rows copied from a spreadsheet. It works out which column is the name, the address, the price, the minutes and the date, and shows you what it found before anything is kept. No export has the hours yard to yard, so days brought in wait for you to put those in.
How does it work out what a stop costs?
An hour of crew time is your wages, payroll tax and workers' comp, overhead and your own pay, over the hours you are paying for. Each stop is charged its time on the lawn plus an even share of the time the day did not spend on a lawn: driving, hooking up, fueling. The truck drives as far to a small lawn as to a big one. If your crew splits the cash instead, each lawn shows what it paid each person for each hour it took, driving included.
Does it change anything in LawnPro or Jobber?
No. It reads a file you download. It never connects to another program and never writes to one. It does not schedule, route or send invoices.
Can I try it before I sign up?
Yes. Try it with sample numbers opens the real app with one made-up Tuesday in it: twelve lawns and a crew of two. Nothing you do there is kept. Try it with sample numbers →
What happens after the 14 days?
It is $59 a month. No card is asked for to start. If the free days end before you put a card on, the tool pauses; nothing is deleted, and a card opens it straight back up where you left it.
How do I stop paying?
On your account page, Manage billing opens Stripe's billing page, where one button stops it. It ends at the close of the month you have paid for and you are not charged again. There are no refunds: the 14 free days are there so you can try it on your own round first.
Who can see my figures?
They are kept on the JTS server in a folder of their own that no other account can reach. They are never sold, never shared, and never used to compare you with anyone. We look at them only to answer something you have asked or to fix a fault.
Does it contact my customers?
No. The names and addresses you give your lawns are kept only so you can tell them apart on your own screens. Nothing is ever sent to your customers.
Can I get my figures back out, or have them deleted?
Yes. Email yardstick@jtsapps.com and we will send you a copy of everything in your account, or delete it all. A deletion is done within 30 days.
Who makes it?
JTS, a small software business in the US. Questions? Email us at yardstick@jtsapps.com. A person reads every message.
The rest of the JTS tools
One trade each, and the same idea every time: one number you have never had, worked out from what you already know.