Garden care is billed by time, not by project
A gardener’s week is usually a round of regular clients: two hours here every fortnight, three hours there once a month. Weeding, pruning, deadheading and tidying change from visit to visit, so most gardeners charge by the hour. New lawns, paving and planting schemes are projects, and the landscaping invoice for installs and lawn care fits those better.
Record hours to the quarter and list the tasks underneath. ‘Garden maintenance, 2.5 hours: weeded front beds, pruned roses, cut back flax’ shows the client what their time paid for.
Minimum visits and travel
A 30 minute job costs you almost as much travel as a three hour one. Many gardeners set a minimum visit, such as one hour, or add a travel charge for clients outside their usual area. Put either on its own line rather than quietly rounding the hours up, so the client can see the rule you applied.
State the minimum in your terms when a client first books, then use the same wording on every invoice.
Plants, mulch and green waste on a gardening invoice template
Anything you buy for a client should have its own line with a quantity: six punnets of seedlings, 1.5 cubic metres of bark, two bags of compost. Decide whether you charge at cost or add a margin for collecting and handling, and keep that consistent. Green waste is billed per trailer load, per bag or per bin.
The prices below are examples in New Zealand dollars before GST, to show the unit. Your region, the season and dump fees all change them.
| Line item | Charged by | Example price |
|---|---|---|
| Garden maintenance, weeding and pruning | Per hour | $58 |
| Minimum visit | Per visit | $70 |
| Hedge trimming, powered tools | Per hour | $65 |
| Bark mulch, supplied and spread | Per cubic metre | $95 |
| Seedlings | Per punnet | $7.50 |
| Green waste to transfer station | Per trailer load | $60 |
One invoice a month for regular clients
For clients on a weekly or fortnightly round, one invoice at the end of the month keeps paperwork down for both of you. Give each visit its own line with the date and hours, then add supplies and green waste underneath. If rain cut a visit short, bill the time actually worked and add a note.
The hourly invoice layout works well if all you bill is time.
GST for New Zealand gardeners
You must register for GST once turnover from your gardening reaches $60,000 in the last 12 months, or you expect it to in the next 12. Below that, registration is optional. If you are not registered, do not add GST to your prices, and a plain ‘Invoice’ title is the clearest choice.
Once registered, GST is 15% and your GST number is your IRD number. Inland Revenue sets what the client must be given by value:
- $200 or less: your name, the date, a description and the amount.
- Over $200: add your GST number and either the amounts before GST, the GST and the total, or the total with a statement that GST is included.
- Over $1,000: for a GST registered client, also their name and one identifier, such as an address or email.
See the New Zealand tax invoice template for the layout, or how to add GST to an invoice for the sums.
Gardener invoice mistakes
Hourly garden bills are trusted when the client can picture the work, and doubted when they cannot. Most problems come from vague time lines and supplies that never made it onto the invoice at all. Check these before you send.
- Hours with no tasks. ‘3 hours’ alone invites a question; three tasks under it do not.
- Plants bought on your card and forgotten. Keep receipts in the van and add them the same day.
- Rounding up every visit. If you round, say so in your terms.
- A dump fee you absorbed. Your green waste line should cover what the transfer station charged you.
Open the sample month of visits
Download the template as Word, Excel or PDF, or load the gardener invoice sample in the generator. It opens a Hamilton client’s October with two maintenance visits, pruning, bark, seedlings and a trailer of green waste, with GST at 15%. Edit the dates and hours and download a PDF.
Bigger trees need different pricing, which the arborist and tree removal invoice covers. You can also price a new client with the garden quote template on WhizQuote, or see every design on the invoice templates page.
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