The old way: clipboard in the yard, type it up at home, email a PDF, wait, build the job by hand, chase the check.
Now you walk the yard, talk into your phone, and send the estimate before you're back in the truck.
The hard part isn't typing. It's trusting your number.
My rates: $100 an hour per person, $125-150 for landscape labor, $100 an hour per machine, $50 a yard run. The math is in What to charge.
The five-minute estimate flow
1. Walk the property and talk it through
Open the assistant. Hit the mic, or type it. Talk like you'd talk to a crew member: "Dale Whitlock's back yard is a jungle: brush, overgrowth, thorn bushes. One-time cleanup, $350." Snap photos of the yard while you're talking. Done.
2. It writes the estimate
Say your price as you talk. It lays out the lines and does the math. Leave the price out and it asks, or suggests one and tells you. You fix what's off.
3. AI drafts the cover message
When you send, it drafts the note that goes with it. You skim it and send.
4. One tap to send
It goes by email, or by text from your business line. They tap Accept on their phone.
5. Accepted? Convert it to the schedule.
Tap Convert to Services. Pick the property it suggests. Tap Create. The job goes on the schedule with the client and price from the estimate.
6. Done, then Bill
Mark it done. Tap Bill. The card on file is charged. Stripe pays out on its schedule.
Coming from Jobber? Here's how the two compare.
What you need to make this work
- Cards on file from day one. The whole loop breaks if you finish the job and then start a 14-day collections process (how I get cards on file).
- One app from estimate to invoice. If an accepted estimate doesn't become a scheduled job, and a done job doesn't become an invoice, you have three apps, not a system.
Where Grass Go fits
Talk it in, send it, convert it, mow it, Bill it. One app, on iPhone, Android or the web. It costs nothing to run. Grass Go takes 0.7% only when a client pays by card.