Bookkeeping

Most landscaping businesses run their books somewhere else — a shoebox, a spreadsheet, or a bookkeeper who sees the year in March. LawnLedger can do the whole thing, so the invoice you sent and the payment that cleared and the fuel you bought are all one story.

You can use as much or as little of this as you want. Connecting a bank account and categorizing transactions is useful on its own. The full double-entry ledger is there when you’re ready for it.

Where to start

Connect your bank

Link an account through Plaid so transactions arrive on their own instead of being typed in. This is the step that makes everything else less work.

Transactions and categorization

What to do with the transactions once they land: categorize them, split them, match them to invoices and expenses, and teach LawnLedger to do it for you next time.

Reconciliation

Prove that what LawnLedger thinks you have matches what the bank says you have, one statement at a time.

Money going out

Expenses

Fuel, materials, subcontractors, equipment repairs — what you spent, what job it belonged to, and the receipt to prove it.

Bills

What you owe vendors and when it’s due. Different from an expense: a bill is a promise to pay later, and it sits on your books until you do.

Job costing

What a job actually cost you once labor, materials, and equipment are counted — and whether the price you charged was right.

The books themselves

Chart of accounts

The list of buckets everything gets sorted into. LawnLedger ships a sensible one for landscaping; you can add to it.

QuickBooks sync

If your accountant lives in QuickBooks, keep the two in step — customers, invoices, payments, and items.