Estimates that become scheduled work and paid invoices.
An estimate is only useful if it survives the journey to getting paid. SodStack builds quotes from your own service catalogue, turns the approved ones into scheduled jobs, and raises the invoice from the work — so the same numbers travel the whole way without being retyped.
Estimate #2041
Harbor Ridge Property Co.
From quote to paid, once
- 1
Pull from your catalogue
Your services and standard rates are defined once. Building an estimate is picking from them, not retyping prices you half-remember.
- 2
Send it the same day
Priced, itemised and legible. The business that quotes first usually wins the job.
- 3
Schedule the work
An approved estimate becomes a job on the calendar with the client and site already attached.
- 4
Invoice from the job
The invoice is raised from the work that was actually done, so the numbers match what you quoted.
Find out whether the job actually made money
Quoting is guesswork until you know what the last one cost. Expenses are logged against the job, so the estimate you write next spring is based on your own numbers rather than a feeling about how the season went.
- Log materials, subcontractors and disposal against the job as they happen
- Compare quoted against actual before you price the next one like it
- See which services make margin and which ones you keep underquoting
The usual problem
Crews underquote the same service for years because nobody ever compares the quote to the cost. The job feels busy, the season feels good, and the margin quietly sits at nothing on a third of the work.
Common questions
- How should I price landscaping jobs?
- Most crews price from a service catalogue with standard rates, then adjust for site conditions. The part that gets missed is checking afterwards whether the job made money. SodStack tracks expenses against the job, so you can compare what you quoted with what it cost.
- Can I turn an estimate into an invoice?
- Yes, without retyping it. The line items carry over, so the invoice matches the estimate the client approved — which is usually where disputes come from.
- Do estimates work for recurring maintenance?
- Yes. Seasonal contracts and one-off design-build work are both built from the same catalogue of services and rates.
- Can the client pay from the estimate?
- Once it becomes an invoice, yes — invoices can be sent for online card payment through Stripe, and synced to QuickBooks so the books stay current.