Am I Charging Enough to Mow?

Most lawn care operators underprice mowing. Not because they don't care — because they've never had a clear way to see whether a $45 mow actually makes money after paying the crew. Lawnager gives you two tools to answer this question: the Profitability report and the AI quote estimator.

Step 1: Check Your Actual Profit Per Account

The Profitability tab in Reports shows you what each customer account actually costs you in labor — and what margin you're earning.

1. •Go to Reports in the left nav.
2. •Click the Profitability tab.
3. •Set your date range (try Last 90 Days to get a meaningful sample).
4. •Scan the customer list for accounts highlighted in red or amber — these are your thin-margin accounts (under 30% margin).

What the numbers mean:

• •Revenue — what you charged the customer
• •Labor Cost — actual time on site (from crew check-in/out) × crew hourly wage
• •Gross Profit — revenue minus labor cost
• •Margin % — profit as a percentage of revenue

A mow that takes your crew 75 minutes but you charged for 45 is losing money on every visit. The Profitability report makes this visible.

Tip: Profitability only calculates for jobs where your crew used check-in/out. Jobs without time data show as "untracked" — not assumed free. If you're missing a lot of data, make sure your crew is using the field app to check in and out on each job.

Common pitfall: Crew hourly wages must be set on each crew member's profile for the math to work. Go to Crew, click a crew member's card, and confirm their Hourly Wage is filled in.

Step 2: Download the Data for a Closer Look

Once you've identified problem accounts, export the full list.

1. •On the Profitability tab, click Export CSV.
2. •Open in Excel or Google Sheets.
3. •Sort by Margin % ascending to see your worst performers at the top.

This gives you a prioritized list of accounts to reprice at renewal.

Step 3: See What You Should Be Charging

If you find accounts that are underpriced, use the AI quote estimator to see what market rate looks like for that property.

1. •Go to Quotes and click New Quote.
2. •Select the customer and Mowing as the service.
3. •Let the AI fill in estimated labor hours and materials based on your service area.
4. •Compare the AI's suggested price against what you're currently charging that customer.

If there's a meaningful gap, it's time to send a revised quote or update the customer's recurring rate.

Tip: Set up your Materials & Supplies catalog first (Settings → Materials) so the AI uses your actual costs, not generic estimates. This makes the suggested pricing much more accurate.

Step 4: Fix Thin-Margin Accounts

Once you know which accounts to reprice, you have a few options:

• •Send a revised quote — Create a new quote for the customer with updated pricing. The customer receives it through the portal and can accept with an e-signature.
• •Offer a service package — Sometimes customers accept a price increase more easily when it's framed as a seasonal package. Go to Packages and create a mowing bundle at the corrected rate.
• •Review the job duration — If margin is thin because jobs are running long, check whether the crew is spending extra time on that property. You may have a scope problem, not a pricing problem.

Quick Reference: Healthy Mowing Margins

• •30–40% margin — Acceptable. Watch for scope creep.
• •40–60% margin — Healthy. You have room for fuel, equipment wear, and overhead.
• •Under 30% margin — Review pricing. This account is likely costing you more than you realize.
• •Under 0% margin — You're paying to service this customer. Reprice immediately or part ways.

Remember: The Profitability report only accounts for labor cost today. Materials and overhead aren't factored in yet — so your true margins are actually lower than what's shown. Build in a buffer when setting prices.