Bookkeeping for lawn care and landscaping companies on QuickBooks Online.
Books and Trucks does monthly bookkeeping for lawn care and landscaping companies in QuickBooks Online, from $599 a month, with Jobber Books plans for shops on Jobber, and cleans up all past books free when you start.
Weekly mowing routes, install jobs, crew hours, equipment payments and a slow winter all have to land in the books correctly. We close your books every month in QuickBooks Online, file your sales tax, and put the numbers in one dashboard.
Checked by the Books and Trucks team.
Booked calls: weekdays, 9am to 5pm Eastern. By phone, or 30 minutes on Teams.
Not ready for a call? Get a free look at your books
Three things lawn care and landscaping owners tell us about their books
“Summer pays the bills, and by February the account is running thin.”
“I cannot tell if the maintenance contracts or the install jobs make us more money.”
“Mulch, fuel and nursery receipts end up stuffed in the truck door.”
How we set up the books for a lawn care or landscaping company
Maintenance contracts and installs kept apart
Weekly mowing and maintenance income goes to its own income account, separate from installs, hardscape jobs and one-off cleanups. Your monthly reports then show what each line of work brings in.
Mulch, sod, plants and fertilizer
Materials go to their own cost accounts, apart from fuel, repairs and overhead, so you can see what the materials for the month really cost.
Mowers, trucks and trailers
Equipment bought on a loan is recorded as an asset with the loan beside it, and each payment is split into principal and interest. Your CPA gets a clean equipment list for depreciation at year-end.
Business and personal spending separated
When the business card also paid for groceries or the family car, we record those charges as owner draws instead of expenses. Your profit then shows what the business made, and your CPA does not have to sort it out in April.
Subcontractor W-9s and 1099s
We keep a W-9 on file for each tree, irrigation or hardscape crew you pay as a subcontractor and track what you pay them, so the year-end 1099 list is ready for you or your CPA. For payments made in 2026, a Form 1099-NEC is due once a subcontractor is paid $2,000 or more in the year, up from $600.
Sales tax on services and materials
Some states tax lawn care and landscaping services, some tax only the plants and materials you sell, and some treat an install differently from maintenance. We set up QuickBooks to follow the rules in each state you work in and file the returns.
Three plans for lawn care and landscaping companies
Every plan side by side, with what each one includes, is on the bookkeeping pricing page. Run more than one trade? We also keep books for general contractors and septic and pumping companies.
Three steps, and the first two are free
- 1
A free look at your books
With read-only access, we show you where your books are behind or do not match, within three business days. No charge, no obligation.
- 2
A short call
You tell us how the shop runs today: which software, how many trucks, how far behind the books are. We tell you plainly whether we are a fit and agree the fee in writing.
- 3
Handover in 30 days
We take over from your current setup, clean up all your past books at no charge, and your dashboard is live by the end of the first month.
After that, the month runs the same way every time. We categorize every transaction, reconcile every bank and card account, and file sales tax for the states you work in. Then you get thirty minutes with your accountant on what the numbers say and what to do about them.
We work inside the software you already use
QuickBooks Online
We work inside your own QuickBooks Online file as an accountant user. You keep ownership and full access, and Intuit does not count an invited accountant toward your user limit.
Source: Intuit, Invite accountant users
Your dashboard
The X INFIN portal, which we build and run, puts revenue, cash and receivables on one screen, read from your QuickBooks file.
What you see every morning
These figures are from the live portal of our HVAC client, a company on ServiceTitan and QuickBooks Online. Lawn care and landscaping companies get the same dashboard, built from their own books. Read their story
Not ready for a call? Get a free look at your books.
Leave your details and we email you within one business day. You give us read-only access, and within three business days you see what is behind and what it would take to fix.
Free guides
Reference pages for trade shop owners
- Contractor sales tax by stateIs labor on HVAC, plumbing and electrical work taxed, and who pays tax on materials? Every state, linked to the state's own guidance.Open the guide
- Chart of accounts for trade shops75 accounts for QuickBooks Online with the right types and detail types, ready to import, plus what ServiceTitan needs mapped.Open the guide
- ServiceTitan to QuickBooks export errorsWhat the common ServiceTitan to QuickBooks Online export errors mean and how to fix them, plus refunds, sales tax and moving from Desktop.Open the guide
- Why Jobber payouts don't match bank depositsHow Jobber Payments payouts, fees, tips and refunds land in QuickBooks Online, the five usual causes of a mismatch, and a monthly checklist.Open the guide
- Jobber to QuickBooks sync errorsWhat the common Jobber to QuickBooks Online sync errors mean and how to fix each one, in the order the sync runs, plus legacy errors.Open the guide
- Jobber Bookkeeping or an outside bookkeeper?What Jobber's own bookkeeping add-on covers, which shops it suits, and when an outside bookkeeper on QuickBooks Online fits better.Open the guide
- How much does a bookkeeper cost for a trade shop?Hourly, in-house, flat monthly firms, Jobber Bookkeeping, QuickBooks Live and six trade specialists, side by side, each price linked to its source.Open the guide
- Housecall Pro to QuickBooks Online: what syncs and how to clear the alertsWhat the one-way sync sends and leaves out, the settings to check first, and the nine sync alerts with the fix for each, from Housecall Pro's own help pages.Open the guide
- Job costing in QuickBooks Online for contractorsThe plan you need, how Projects, labor cost rates, billable expenses and progress invoicing work, and the six things QuickBooks cannot do, from Intuit's own pages.Open the guide
- QuickBooks for plumbers: how to set it upThe plan, a class and income account for each kind of plumbing work, parts and truck stock, deposits, backflow tests, subcontractor 1099s and the monthly close.Open the guide
Sales tax by state
Is your labor taxed? It depends on the state.
Each guide covers labor, materials, filing and the common mistakes for contractors in that state, with every rule linked to the state's own source.
Straight answers before you book
What does bookkeeping cost for a lawn care or landscaping company?
Our fee is fixed each month and agreed in writing before we start. On QuickBooks Online it starts at $599 a month for the monthly books, bank and card reconciliation, reports, sales tax filings, a dashboard and a monthly call. More crews, more transactions or more sales tax returns move the fee up. Month to month, cancel any time.
Do you work with lawn care and landscaping companies today?
Lawn care and landscaping is a new trade for us. Our trades client today is an HVAC company in the US, on QuickBooks Online. A lawn care or landscaping company's books use the same QuickBooks setup, with maintenance contracts, materials, equipment loans and a seasonal year added. You start with a free look at your books, so you can judge our work before you pay anything.
We run Jobber. Do you work with it?
Yes. On our Jobber plans we match Jobber and QuickBooks Online every month: Jobber Payments payouts tied to your bank deposits, with card fees, tips and refunds booked to the right accounts. Jobber Books starts at $599 a month. Jobber Books Pro starts at $995 a month and adds job costing, payroll and bill pay.
How do you handle the slow winter months?
Your dashboard shows cash and what customers owe you every morning. On the monthly call we look ahead at what the slow months will need: the crew you keep on, equipment payments and insurance. If you plow snow in winter, that income goes to its own account, so you can see what it adds.
We just bought a mower on a loan. How is that recorded?
The mower goes on the books as equipment and the loan as a liability. Each monthly payment is split between the loan balance and the interest, and only the interest counts as an expense. At year-end your CPA uses the equipment list to work out depreciation.
How do you handle mulch, sod and plant purchases?
Supplier bills and card charges at the nursery or supply yard are entered every month and coded to material cost accounts. Your monthly reports then show what materials cost next to what you billed.
Do you file sales tax on lawn care and landscaping?
Yes. We file sales tax for the states you work in. Some states tax lawn care and landscaping services, and others tax only the plants and materials you sell. In some states a new patio or planting bed is treated as construction while regular maintenance is not. We set up QuickBooks to follow the rules where you work.
Our books are months behind.
Most new clients start that way. The free look shows how far behind things are. When you start with us, we clean up all your past books in QuickBooks at no charge, however far back they go.
Who actually does the work?
A named bookkeeper on our team handles your account every month, and a senior accountant reviews the numbers before your monthly call.
How do you get access?
You invite us as an accountant user in QuickBooks Online, under Settings and Manage users. Intuit does not count accountant users toward your plan's user limit. You can remove us at any time.
Can you run payroll too?
The QuickBooks plan covers the books, reports, sales tax filings and the dashboard, without payroll or bill pay. If you run Jobber, the Jobber Books Pro plan adds payroll for hourly crews and seasonal staff. Otherwise, tell us on the first call.
I already have a CPA.
Good. We do the monthly books, your CPA does the tax return, and we send them clean, reconciled books at year-end.
What if it does not work out?
Month to month, cancel any time. You keep your QuickBooks file and your data.
Talk to us about your lawn care books
No obligation.
Booked calls: weekdays, 9am to 5pm Eastern. By phone, or 30 minutes on Teams.