Free tool
How Many Weekly Mowing Accounts Can Your Crews Hold
Enter your crew count, mowing days, on property time and drive time between stops to see how many weekly accounts your route can carry before the days run past dark.
Free tool, no sign up
What Should Your Season Mowing Package Cost
Enter your loaded crew hour cost, the visits you commit to, your cleanup hours and materials, and see the season price and per visit price that hit your target margin.
A season package is not a discount on per cut mowing. It is a defined amount of crew time plus materials, sold once, at a price that has to carry your overhead through a slow August and a wet June. The way to build it is from the bottom: count the crew hours the agreement commits, add the materials you will actually buy, then mark it up to the margin your shop needs to survive the offseason.
The number most owners get wrong is crew hour cost. It is not the hourly wage on the crew leader's check. It is wages plus payroll taxes, workers compensation, the truck and trailer, fuel, blades, mower replacement reserve and the share of your office and insurance that hour has to carry. In most small US lawn operations that lands well above what the owner guesses, which is exactly why the season looks profitable in March and thin in October.
Your result
Crew hours committed
28.0
Total on property crew hours this agreement obligates you to deliver.
Direct cost of the season
$2,356
Crew time plus materials before any margin is added.
Season package price
$4,284
The full season number to put on the agreement the homeowner signs.
Equivalent price per mowing visit
$153
Useful for sanity checking the package against local per cut rates.
These figures cover crew time and materials on one property, so add your office overhead and sales cost before you decide the price is high.
Getting Crew Hour Cost Right Before Anything Else
Take one crew for one full season and add everything that crew consumed: wages for every person on it, payroll taxes, workers compensation premium, the truck payment and its insurance, fuel for truck and mowers, blade and belt replacement, and a real reserve for replacing that zero turn in five years. Divide by the billable field hours that crew actually delivered, not the hours it was clocked in. The gap between those two numbers is usually drive time, shop time and rain.
Owners who do this exercise for the first time are typically surprised in the same direction. A crew leader making twenty two dollars an hour with a helper rarely costs less than sixty five to eighty dollars an hour loaded once the truck, the trailer and the mower reserve are in there. Price a season off the wage instead of the loaded cost and you will work all summer to fund someone else's equipment.
Turning the Number Into an Offer a Homeowner Signs
The calculator gives you a season price. What closes deals is how you present it. Write the visit count, the mowing height policy, the mulch allowance in yards, and the cleanup window on the same page as the price. A homeowner comparing three quotes will pick the one they can actually understand, and vague scope is what makes people ask for a per cut rate instead.
Show the per visit equivalent only if it helps you. In markets where neighbors trade per cut prices at the mailbox, the equivalent number can defuse the comparison. In markets where the value is the guaranteed spot on a Tuesday route and a cleanup that actually happens in November, leading with the season number keeps the conversation where you want it.
Questions about this calculator
Should the mulch allowance be inside the season package or quoted separately?
Both work, but inside the package sells better because it removes a second decision in April. Write the allowance in cubic yards with a clear rate for anything beyond it. That way a customer who wants twelve yards instead of six is a simple add rather than a renegotiation.
What target margin should a small lawn operation use?
Gross margin on field work in the low to mid forties is a common working target for small US mowing operations, since office overhead, sales time and owner pay still have to come out of it. Run your own year end numbers rather than trusting any rule of thumb. If your margin target leaves nothing after overhead, the target is wrong, not the market.
How do I handle a property that needs more cuts in a wet year?
Write a visit range into the agreement, such as twenty six to thirty cuts, and price at the midpoint. Then a heavy June and a dry August average out instead of turning into two awkward conversations. Charge a stated rate for visits beyond the top of the range.
More free tools and working documents
Working document
The Preseason Signup Checklist for Lawn Care Owners
Work these four stages between November and March and you will start the season with a committed route instead of a phone list.
Put that season number on a signed agreement
The figure this calculator just gave you is a quote until a homeowner puts their name under it. In a short demo we drop your result into a season agreement, attach the deposit, and generate the recurring visits so the property lands on a named route day that shifts when four rain days stack up. Bring one address and see it go from a number to a scheduled cut.