A new lawn care customer is worth taking on if the revenue they add per extra route hour beats your cost per route hour by your margin target. Count the on-site time plus only the extra drive time they add, not the route average. A stop that is cheap to reach can beat a pricier one down a long detour.
Most margin guides for lawn care talk about the whole business: price per square foot, target profit, overhead. That helps you quote. It does not tell you whether the 25-minute weekly stop at the far end of a cul-de-sac belongs on Tuesday's route. The question is marginal, and the answer needs three numbers you may not have written down yet: your cost per route hour, your revenue per route hour, and the minutes each new address adds.
Cost per route hour, from your own records
A route hour is any hour the crew is working a route, whether mowing or driving. Its cost has three parts.
- Labour. Burdened wages for everyone on the crew, not the wage on the payslip. The tutorial on the labour burden rate for a trades firm shows how to build that figure from payroll.
- Vehicle and equipment. Fuel, mower and trimmer wear, blade sharpening, trailer, insurance on the vehicle. Divide a year of these by the year's route hours.
- Overhead share (optional for this test). Software, phone, accountancy, insurance not tied to the crew. Leave it out of the per-stop test and cover it with your margin target, or the numbers double-count.
An illustration with invented figures. A two-person crew, each with a burdened cost of $32 an hour, comes to $64 an hour. Vehicle and equipment costs add $16 per route hour. So direct cost per route hour is $80. This is the number a new stop has to beat before it makes a penny of profit.
Revenue per route hour on the route you already run
Take a typical day. Say the crew serves 18 stops at an average of $55, so $990. On-site time totals 6.0 hours and drive time totals 1.5 hours between stops and to the first stop, so the route takes 7.5 hours. Revenue per route hour is $990 / 7.5 = $132. Profit before overhead per route hour is $132 - $80 = $52, or 39 per cent of revenue.
That 39 per cent is the figure to protect. It also gives you a standard to compare a new customer against. A stop whose revenue per added route hour is well under $132 drags the route's average down; one near or above it improves it. Anything below $80 loses money outright, because it fails to cover direct cost.
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Buy nowThe per-stop test, with three candidates
For a new address, you need: the price per visit, the on-site minutes, and the extra drive minutes it adds to the route. Then three sums:
- Added route hours = (on-site minutes + extra drive minutes) / 60.
- Added cost = added route hours x cost per route hour ($80 here).
- Profit per visit = price - added cost. Revenue per added route hour = price / added route hours.
Here are three candidates, all invented, for the same route.
| Candidate | Price per visit | On-site | Extra drive | Added cost | Profit per visit | Revenue per added route hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A: on the route | $55 | 25 min | 4 min | $38.67 | $16.33 | $113.79 |
| B: down a detour | $55 | 25 min | 18 min | $57.33 | -$2.33 | $76.74 |
| C: big lot, detour | $90 | 45 min | 18 min | $84.00 | $6.00 | $85.71 |
Candidate A earns $16.33 a visit, about 30 per cent of the price. Candidate B loses $2.33 each visit: the identical $55 and 25 minutes, but a detour turns profit into a loss. Candidate C pays more in absolute terms and barely clears cost, because most of the extra $35 is eaten by 20 more minutes of work. The decision is not about customer size. It is about time.
Setting the price that makes a stop work
If you still want candidate B, work backwards. With a target of 25 per cent margin on price, the price needed is added cost / (1 - 0.25). For B: $57.33 / 0.75 = $76.44, so quote $77 a visit. If the customer will pay it, you have a good stop. If they will not, you have your answer without guessing. Tell them the price without apologising and without a long explanation. A short line is enough: "That's the price for a visit to your address on our routes."
A scoring sheet that goes beyond the arithmetic
Profit per visit is the main test, but it misses things that matter over a season. A simple scoring sheet adds them. Each factor gets a score from 0 to 2, multiplied by a weight you choose. These weights are illustrative; set your own.
| Factor | Weight | Score 0 | Score 1 | Score 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profit per visit versus target | 4 | Below break-even | Positive but below target | At or above target |
| Extra drive time | 2 | Over 12 min | 5 to 12 min | Under 5 min |
| Neighbours on route or likely to join | 2 | None | One nearby | Two or more |
| Season length and agreement | 1 | One-off | Season, no commitment | Season, agreed schedule |
| Access and site problems (gates, slopes, pets) | 1 | Several | One | None |
The weights add up to 10, so the maximum is 20. A rule of thumb a crew can use: 14 or more, take it; 9 to 13, take it only at a higher quote; below 9, decline politely. Candidate A, with one neighbour nearby, a season agreed without a schedule and no access problems, scores 4 x 2 + 2 x 2 + 2 x 1 + 1 x 1 + 1 x 2 = 17. Candidate B at $55 scores 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 2 = 3 if no neighbours are near, so it is a decline at that price, while at $77 the profit score rises to 2 and the total becomes 11, which fits "take it at a higher quote". The neighbours factor carries real weight, because a cluster of three customers on one street turns one expensive detour into three cheap stops.
Building the sheet with ChatGPT or Copilot in Excel
This is a spreadsheet task, and an assistant is good at laying one out. Keep your customer names out of it; use "Stop A" and "Stop B". If you use Copilot in Excel, it appears in the side pane for eligible Microsoft 365 plans, and Excel's older =COPILOT() function was retired in September 2026, so do not build around it. Check Microsoft's current page for which plans include the side pane.
Build a lawn care customer-scoring sheet. Inputs in cells at the top: cost per route hour ($80),
target margin (25%). One row per candidate stop with columns: price per visit, on-site minutes,
extra drive minutes, added route hours, added cost, profit per visit, margin on price,
revenue per added route hour, price needed for target margin, then five score columns
and a total using these weights: 4, 2, 2, 1, 1. Give me the formulas for row 6.
Do not invent any figures; leave input cells empty.A realistic reply gives formulas such as added route hours as (on-site minutes + drive minutes) / 60, profit as price minus added hours times cost per hour, and price needed as added cost divided by one minus target margin. What you would check, using the three candidates above as a test: enter candidate A and confirm the sheet returns $16.33 profit and $113.79 revenue per added route hour; enter B and confirm the loss of $2.33 and the $76.44 target price. If it does not, a formula is wrong, usually percentages typed as 25 instead of 0.25 or minutes divided by 100.
The sheet can also feed a customer reply. Once the price is set, a quick prompt can write the quote message. The tutorial on answering every lawn care quote request fast covers sending it before the customer calls someone else.
Measuring the extra drive, which is where most errors come from
The input people get wrong is drive time. They use an average, for example the 5 minutes between stops across the day, and the new customer seems cheap. What matters is how many minutes the new stop adds to the whole route. To measure it, load the day's stops in a route planner or a maps app, note the total drive time, add the new address, let the planner reorder, and note the new total. The difference is the extra drive. A planner may reorder only certain visits: Jobber's route optimisation, for example, reorders visits marked as "anytime" and not fixed-time ones, so check that the stops are set to flexible before you trust the new total. The tutorial on lawn care software pricing for a small crew covers which plans include route tools.
Example: a stop that is cheap because of its neighbours
Say a candidate is a $45 visit with 20 minutes on site, 14 minutes of extra drive, and no profit at first glance: added hours 0.567, cost $45.33, profit -$0.33. But two houses on the same street have both asked for quotes. If both join at $45 each, the street costs one 14-minute detour for three stops, about 4.7 minutes each. Each stop now adds about 24.7 minutes (20 on site plus its share of the drive), or 0.411 hours, at a cost of $32.89, and yields $12.11 profit, a 27 per cent margin. The first stop alone fails; the trio clears a 25 per cent target. So the rule: take the first only if you will quote the other two this week and you accept the loss if they say no. Decide the cut-off date now and write it in the notes.
Example sheet outcomes after a month
An illustrative month for a crew that applies the test to every enquiry: 14 enquiries, 6 quoted at the normal price and taken, 4 quoted at a higher price (two accepted, two said no), 3 declined by the crew, and 1 deferred until a neighbour joined. The six taken at the normal price averaged 28 per cent margin, the two who accepted a higher price averaged 26 per cent, and the route average held at 38 per cent. Nothing here is a benchmark; it shows the kind of record to keep. After three months you can see which areas and street types always fail, and stop spending time on quotes for them.
Taking every enquiry and driving the profit away
Imagine a crew that took every enquiry because "more customers is better". Revenue climbed for two seasons, but the owner found that the crew finished late and overtime appeared on the payroll. The cause was a scatter of far-flung stops, each adding twenty minutes of drive, which together came to the equivalent of several working days a month of driving that nobody billed. The cure was to price a surcharge for distant addresses, decline the lowest-priced ones and fill the days with a tight cluster of neighbours. Revenue fell slightly, profit rose, and the crew went home earlier.
Weekly, fortnightly and one-off customers
The per-visit test treats every visit as equal, but frequency changes the picture in two ways. First, a fortnightly customer's grass is longer, so on-site time per visit rises, often by a quarter or more in fast-growing months. Measure it on your own jobs rather than assuming. Second, a fortnightly stop gives you half as many visits over which to recover the fixed cost of the detour.
Take candidate B again, now fortnightly at $65 a visit with 32 minutes on site and the same 18-minute detour. Added hours are 50 / 60 = 0.833, added cost is $66.67, profit per visit is -$1.67. Per month (about 2.17 visits) that is a small loss of about $3.62. Quoted weekly at $55 it lost $2.33 a visit across 4.33 visits, about $10.09 a month. So the fortnightly version loses less per month, which sounds like an improvement but is only a smaller loss. Compare both to the price that clears your margin: at 25 per cent, the fortnightly visit needs $66.67 / 0.75 = $88.89.
One-off customers, such as a first-time overgrown clean-up, belong in a separate test. They carry higher on-site time per square foot, extra disposal cost and no future visits to share the drive. Price them by the hour of crew time with a minimum charge, and treat conversion to a regular customer as a bonus rather than part of the sum.
One candidate's decision record, filled in
Keeping a written record of each decision is what makes the sheet improve over time. An illustrative entry:
- Stop: new address, east side of the route; enquiry by web form.
- Inputs: $55 weekly, 25 minutes on site, 18 minutes extra drive, two neighbours have asked for quotes.
- Result: profit -$2.33 a visit; score 7 at $55 (the two likely neighbours add 4 points), 15 at $77.
- Decision: quoted $77; customer accepted; both neighbours quoted $60 and one accepted. Review in six weeks.
- Review note: with the neighbour joined, extra drive per stop fell to 9 minutes, and profit per visit on the $77 stop was $31.67.
The last line shows the value of coming back. The review uses the same arithmetic with the new drive figure, so the evidence builds without extra work. After a season you will know whether your assumptions about neighbours join up, and whether your "take it and hope" stops ever paid.
Where the test breaks down
Four limits are worth stating. First, it uses direct cost, so an overhead-heavy firm needs a higher margin target to cover the cost of running the office. Second, it treats time as the only scarce resource. In peak season the crew is full, and the real alternative to a new stop is another customer who would fill the same minutes at a higher price, so the bar rises. In the slow season the alternative is idle time, so the bar falls. Third, it ignores the value of a long relationship: a customer who stays five years and refers neighbours is worth more than the first-season profit. Fourth, it ignores your price list. If the existing customers pay $55 and you quote this one $77, you may need a sensible explanation if neighbours compare notes. A distance-based visit fee, stated openly, avoids awkward conversations.
When existing stops fail the test, the answer is not always to drop them. The tutorial on writing a lawn care price increase letter covers raising prices on a stop that no longer pays. For wider ideas on what to automate in the business, see five jobs a lawn care firm can hand to AI.
Two habits keep the sheet honest. Update the cost per route hour whenever wages, fuel or insurance change, and at least once a season, because a stale figure makes every candidate look better or worse than it is. And log the actual minutes on site for the first three visits to each new customer: if the real time is ten minutes more than you assumed, rerun the sums and, if needed, send a short note adjusting the price. A fair adjustment, explained once in plain words, is easier than months of quiet losses on a stop you never revisited.
Running the test on the phone
Keep a short script by the phone so that whoever takes the enquiry can apply the test in a couple of minutes. Ask for the address, lot size or time on site you would expect, and whether they want weekly or fortnightly visits. Check the address against the route map for extra drive minutes, enter the three numbers into the sheet, and read out the price it returns. If you are taking calls while on the job, a short note to yourself is enough: address, price, minutes, and whether neighbours are near. The decision takes two minutes and removes the habit of quoting by feel. If you would like help setting this up for your own route, that is what my AI implementation consultation covers, through the contact page.
Questions about lawn care route profitability
What is revenue per route hour?
It is a route's total billed revenue divided by every hour the crew spends on it, including driving between stops. It is more honest than revenue per mowing hour because drive time is paid and cannot be billed.
Should I turn down a customer who loses money on paper?
Not automatically. Either quote a price that clears your margin target, or accept the stop only if neighbours are likely to follow and fill the gap. Decide in advance how many months you will wait, and record the decision.
How do I measure drive time between stops?
Use the extra minutes the stop adds to the route, not the average. Map the route with and without the new address in a route planner or a maps app, and note the difference in total drive time.
Can Copilot or ChatGPT do the scoring for me?
They can build the sheet and the formulas and review your inputs. The figures themselves must come from your records, and you should check every formula against a stop you have worked by hand.
Further reads
- AI Route Planning for Landscaping Crews: Time and Fuel Savings — Planning the whole day's route once the customers are chosen.
- Pricing Lawn Care From Satellite Measurements: Can AI Do It? — Estimating on-site time from a satellite measurement before visiting.
- Jobber for Lawn Care: Quotes, Autopay and the AI Receptionist — Sending the quote and taking autopay in Jobber.
- Lawn Care Contract Template: Clause Checklist and an AI Draft Check — Putting the agreed schedule and price into a season contract.
- Pool Route Software: Can AI Plan Routes and Stop Density? — The same stop-density question for pool service routes.
- Landscaping Estimate Template: Itemise Labour, Plants and Waste With AI — Itemising labour, materials and waste in an estimate.
- Software for Lawn Care Automation: Which AI Features Are Worth Paying For — Which automation features are worth paying for.
- AI Receptionist for Lawn Care: Handle the Spring Sign-Up Rush — A sign-up script for lot size, frequency and start date, with price-range wording, waitlist and transfer rules, and a rush budget using Jobber's $29 add-on.
- Eight Lawn Care Marketing Ideas for Spring, Written With AI — Eight spring lawn care campaigns with prompts, sample messages, a worked pre-booking plan, a February calendar and the email and text consent checks.
- Garden Maintenance Contract: What Each Clause Is For, Drafted With AI — A clause-by-clause walk through a garden maintenance contract for a two-person business, with the reason for each clause and prompts to draft it in ChatGPT.
- How to Price Garden Maintenance: Visit Rates and Seasonal Extras With AI — A six-garden route shows what travel really costs, then builds visit rates, hedge and leaf-clearance extras and a monthly plan from your own times.
- Landscape Business AI: Work Out Job Profit by Crew From Timesheets — A worked month for a three-crew landscaping firm: timesheet and materials exports, margin by job type and crew, and the checks to run before acting.
- Lawn Care Promotion Ideas: Aeration and Overseeding Offers With AI — Aeration and overseeding offer scripts for existing lawn care customers, segmented by crew notes, with an AI tone check so nothing sounds pushy.
- Solar Panel Cleaning Business: Quote and Route Jobs With AI — A worked pricing sum by panel count and access class, plus where AI helps with quotes, route clustering and recurring-plan reminders.
- Bin Cleaning Business: Route Pricing and Subscription Reminders With AI — Price a bin cleaning route by stop density, structure per-bin plans, send reminders and reschedule for weather, with worked numbers and AI prompts.
- Pet Waste Removal Business: Weekly Plans, Pricing and Routes With AI — Price weekly pet waste plans from your own time per stop, then use AI for routes, gate notes and plan wording.
- AI Tools and AI Development: The Complete 2026 Guide — the AI hub, including every tutorial in the AI-for-business series.
Sources: Microsoft Copilot in Excel help pages for current availability; Jobber help pages on route optimisation limits. Every wage, price and time in the worked sheet is illustrative.