Lawn Care Profit Calculator
See what is actually left from a job after labor, drive time, equipment, materials and overhead. Your own numbers drive every result.
Enter the real numbers
These are example values, not industry benchmarks. Replace them with your costs.
How the Lawn Care Profit Calculator Works
Enter what you actually collect for one job, then count the time and cost of completing it. The dashboard subtracts crew labor, allocated drive time, fuel, materials, disposal, overhead, and any advanced expenses. Unlike a pricing calculator, it evaluates the price you already charge. Unlike an estimate calculator, it is for your own business analysis, not a customer quote.
Lawn Care Profit Formula
Profit margin = job profit ÷ revenue × 100
Markup = job profit ÷ total job cost × 100
If revenue is zero, margin is undefined; if cost is zero, markup is undefined. When processing or commission fees are percentages, those fees also change as the price changes.
Profit Margin vs. Markup
If a job costs $40 and the customer pays $60, profit is $20. Margin is 33.3% because $20 is one-third of the selling price. Markup is 50% because $20 is half of the cost. They answer different questions, so the results show both.
What Costs Should You Include?
Labor: Count the whole crew and include a fair cost for your own work, even if you do not pay yourself through payroll. Drive time: Allocate the travel associated with this stop. Fuel and equipment: Include fuel, blades, wear, maintenance and depreciation. Materials and disposal: Include anything consumed or hauled away. Overhead: Assign a portion of insurance, software, phones, marketing and licenses. Add payment processing, subcontractors or custom items when relevant.
How to Calculate Profit Per Job
Add on-site labor and drive labor to all other per-job costs. Subtract that total from the amount paid by the customer. A $60 visit with $35.92 in costs leaves $24.08 in profit, not $60. If costs exceed revenue, the result is a loss, even if you still have cash coming in.
How Drive Time Affects Profit
Travel consumes crew time that cannot be spent serving another customer. A 20-minute drive for one worker at $25/hour costs $8.33 in labor; cutting the allocated drive to 5 minutes saves $6.25 per visit. A dense route can improve profit without changing the customer price. The comparison above uses your actual crew and labor rate.
How to Calculate Profit Per Hour
Divide profit by on-site plus allocated drive hours to see profit per crew clock hour. Revenue per crew clock hour uses the same elapsed time, not each worker's wage. For comparing crews of different sizes, revenue per crew labor hour divides revenue by elapsed hours multiplied by crew size.
Recurring Lawn Care Profit
Weekly work uses 4.33 visits per active month; every-two-weeks work uses 2.165. Seasonal visits use the weeks of service you enter, with monthly work approximated using 4.33 weeks per month. Annual profit assumes that season repeats once per year. Set 52 weeks for year-round service, and use retention years for an optional estimated customer lifetime profit, not customer lifetime value.
Worked Example: A $60 Mowing Visit
One worker spends 45 minutes on site and 10 minutes driving at $25/hour. That is 55 ÷ 60 = 0.9167 crew hours and $22.92 in labor. Add $8 in fuel/equipment and $5 in overhead: total cost is $35.92. Job profit is $60 − $35.92 = $24.08. Profit margin is about 40.1%, markup is about 67.1%, and profit per crew clock hour is about $26.27. These rounded display values come from unrounded calculations.
Common Profit Mistakes
Do not treat revenue as profit, assign zero cost to owner labor, forget the drive between customers, or overlook equipment wear and overhead. Compare profit dollars and profit per crew hour as well as margin. A recurring customer can still lose money if the route is inefficient or the price no longer covers the work.
Profit calculator FAQs
How do I calculate lawn care profit?
Subtract all job costs from the customer's payment. Include on-site and drive labor for the crew, supplies, fuel/equipment, disposal, allocated overhead, and any other costs that belong to that visit.
What is a good profit margin for a lawn care business?
There is no universal number. A useful margin depends on your service mix, labor, equipment, overhead, customer travel, and business model. Compare your own margins with the dollars and crew time each job produces.
How do I calculate profit margin?
Divide profit by customer revenue and multiply by 100. A $20 profit on $60 revenue is a 33.3% margin. When revenue is zero, margin has no meaningful percentage.
What is the difference between profit margin and markup?
Margin divides profit by the selling price; markup divides it by cost. If cost is $40 and price is $60, profit is $20, margin is 33.3%, and markup is 50%.
Should I include my own labor as an expense?
Yes. Assigning a realistic hourly cost to your own time shows whether the job produces profit beyond paying you for the work, even if you do not run payroll for yourself.
Should drive time be included in lawn care profit?
Yes. Allocate travel time to the job and multiply it by the whole crew's hourly labor cost. Route time reduces the profit and crew hours available for other jobs.
How do I calculate profit per mowing job?
Enter the actual mowing revenue and the time for mowing, trimming and travel. Include the crew's hourly cost, fuel, equipment wear and your share of overhead, then subtract total cost from revenue.
How do I calculate monthly lawn care profit?
Multiply profit per visit by visits per active month. For weekly work this tool estimates 4.33 visits; for every two weeks, 2.165. Actual calendars and skipped visits will differ.
How do I calculate seasonal lawn care profit?
Estimate the visits in your season from its length and service interval, then multiply by profit per visit. For 32 weekly visits at $25 profit each, the seasonal estimate is $800.
How do I know if a lawn care customer is profitable?
Compare what they pay with the labor, travel and other costs incurred at each visit. Also review seasonal profit and profit per crew hour; a customer with a positive job margin may still use too much route time.
What is the break-even price for a lawn care job?
It is the price that covers the costs entered without profit. If fees are fixed, this equals total job cost. When processing or commission is a percentage of revenue, the calculator increases break-even to cover those fees at the break-even price itself.