Grounds ToolkitBusiness Profitability
Does This New Property Fit, Operationally and Financially?
Enter the property, your crew, a price you're considering, and what's already on your schedule this week. This combines cost, margin, and capacity into one recommendation: accept, reprice, or a likely capacity conflict.
How this is calculated
This engine chains together the toolkit's core math: mowing and trimming time (Mowing Time and Crew-Hours), labor cost (Job Labor Cost), a minimum price at your target margin (Minimum Profitable Job Price), and weekly capacity (Weekly Route Capacity). The recommendation compares your proposed price against the minimum price, and your committed hours plus this property's time against available weekly hours. Like the Mowing Time and Crew-Hours calculator this builds on, it assumes one mower runs while the rest of the crew handles trimming and cleanup at the same time, so crew size scales labor cost and capacity used, not how fast the mowing itself gets done.
The four possible recommendations
- Acceptable: the price clears your target margin and capacity has room.
- Acceptable if repriced: capacity has room, but the price falls short of target margin.
- Likely capacity conflict: the price is fine, but the week is already full.
- Reprice and check capacity: both the price and the schedule fall short.
Common mistakes
- Accepting a property based on price alone without checking if the week has room for it.
- Treating "acceptable" as a guarantee the customer will pay, it only reflects your own cost and capacity math.
- Forgetting equipment, materials, or travel cost in the advanced settings, which understates total cost.
Frequently asked questions
What makes this different from the other calculators?
This combines mowing time, labor cost, pricing, and weekly route capacity into one recommendation, rather than answering just one piece. Use the individual calculators when you only need one number.
What does "capacity conflict" mean?
It means the property's estimated service time, added to hours you already have committed this week, would exceed your available weekly hours, based on the workdays and hours per day entered.
Does "acceptable" mean the customer will pay this price?
No. It means the price and capacity numbers you entered are internally consistent with your target margin and available hours. It says nothing about customer acceptance, competition, or your local market.
What is not included in this calculation?
Seasonality, contract length, customer relationship value, and how firm your other commitments actually are. Treat the recommendation as a starting point, not the full business decision.