Landscaping Estimate & Bid Template

Free landscaping estimate & bid template (Excel): phase-grouped lines, a formula-driven materials + labor + equipment + markup + overhead + margin + tax roll-up, and a signature line. No signup.

Line items (overwrite the example)

Example lines — overwrite with your own. Each line: (Qty × Unit price) + (Labor hrs × Loaded rate).

Phase	Description	Qty	Unit	Unit price	Labor hrs	Loaded rate	Equip?

Loaded rate = wage + payroll tax + workers' comp + benefits — not bare wage.

Markup, overhead, profit & tax

Material markup

Applied to the materials subtotal. Typical 20–30% — a starting point, not a prescription.

Overhead basis

% of total % of labor Fixed $

Overhead / contingency

Typical 5–10% of total. Switch the basis to enter % of labor or a fixed $.

Profit margin target

Margin grossup: price = cost / (1 − margin). Typical residential 15–25%.

Tax rate

Default blank. Verify the rate and what's taxable for your area.

Deposit requested (optional)

A static deposit line — not a payment engine.

Download the Excel bid workbook Phase-grouped · formula-driven roll-up · blank + sample-filled · no signup

A preview of the downloadable bid. Edit a line or a markup/overhead/margin/tax field on the left to see the roll-up update, or download the full Excel workbook to fill in your own header and signature.

Landscape Estimate / Bid Company · address · phone · email · license # · Client · property address

Estimate — Date — · Valid until —

Scope of work

Full scope per site walk — edit in the workbook.

Payment terms / notes

50% deposit to schedule, balance on completion. Estimate valid 30 days.

Client signature Date ____________

Print or save

How the bid roll-up is computed

Each line totals (Qty × Unit price) + (Labor hrs × Loaded rate). The materials, labor, and equipment subtotals then roll up through markup, overhead, a profit-margin grossup, and tax to a grand total — the corrected landscape-bid identity:

total_cost = materials + labor + equipment + overhead   (then markup + margin)
materials subtotal = Σ (Qty × Unit price)  over non-equipment lines
labor subtotal     = Σ (Labor hrs × Loaded rate)  over all lines
equipment subtotal = Σ (Qty × Unit price)  over equipment-flagged lines
markup             = markup % × materials subtotal     (materials only)
overhead           = basis × cost            (% of total / % of labor / fixed $)
cost subtotal      = materials + labor + equipment + markup + overhead
pre-tax subtotal   = cost subtotal / (1 − profit margin)   (margin grossup)
tax                = tax rate × pre-tax subtotal
grand total        = pre-tax subtotal + tax

The markup (20–30%), overhead (5–10%), and profit-margin (15–25% residential) defaults are editable starting points, not prescriptions — adjust them to your market; the roll-up recomputes from your own numbers. Equipment-flagged lines route their materials portion to a separate Equipment subtotal (their labor still counts as labor). Tax defaults to blank — verify the rate and what's taxable for your area. Every money figure is rounded to 2 decimals for presentation. (WE-2: six example lines at a 25% markup roll up to $10,812.50; WE-4: $2,000 materials + 10 h × $60 labor, 10% overhead, 20% margin → $3,575.00.)

Nothing is saved. There is no saved-estimate library, no auto-numbering across sessions, no customer database, no payment capture, and no e-signature — just a bid document you fill in and hand off.

A landscape bid is the priced offer you hand the homeowner or property manager the same day you walk the site: every phase of the job — site prep, hardscape, softscape, irrigation, lighting, drainage, cleanup — broken into lines that roll up to a subtotal, markup, overhead, profit, tax, and a grand total they can sign. This is a free, no-signup Excel workbook: download it, type your lines, and the sheet totals everything automatically.

Phase-grouped, with the math wired in

Most free landscape templates make you choose between completeness and a clean column model. This combines both: a single phase-grouped sheet where each line is Phase · Description · Qty · Unit · Unit price · Labor hrs · Loaded rate · Equipment? · Line total, and the line total is a live formula — (Qty × Unit price) + (Labor hrs × Loaded rate). The phase cell is a dropdown seeded with the ten standard phases plus Other, and six example lines ship greyed in so you see the shape before you overwrite them. Get the quantities right before you price them — the material takeoff list template rolls a whole property’s dimensions into one buy list you can drop straight into the materials lines here.

The roll-up at the bottom is all formulas, not typed numbers: materials, labor, and equipment subtotals, then a material markup, overhead, a profit-margin grossup, and tax, ending at the grand total — plus a deposit line, a balance, and a client signature line. Flag a line as Equipment and its materials portion routes to a separate equipment subtotal (its labor still counts as labor), so the total follows the standard landscape identity: materials + labor + equipment + overhead, then markup and margin.

Editable defaults, not baked-in quotes

The markup (25%), overhead (8%), and profit margin (20%) that ship in the sheet are editable starting points, not industry benchmarks — adjust them to your market and the roll-up recomputes from your own numbers. The loaded labor rate is defined in the sheet (wage + payroll tax + workers’ comp + benefits, not bare wage) so you don’t quote labor short, and the tax rate defaults to blank — never assume a jurisdiction.

The preview on this page lets you edit the lines and the markup / overhead / margin / tax knobs and watch the roll-up update before you download.

What it is — and isn’t

This is a bid document you own and reuse offline, not estimating software. It is a starting point you adapt — not financial, tax, or legal advice; the pricing ranges are editable defaults, not quotes; verify the rates, markup, and tax for your area. The optional license-number field is organizational only and confers no regulatory sufficiency.

Nothing is saved. There is no saved-estimate library, no cross-session auto-numbering, no customer database, no payment or deposit capture, and no e-signature — just a clean workbook you fill in and hand off. For fast on-screen math, the landscaping estimate calculator is the interactive counterpart; when the job is approved, turn these lines into a bill with the invoice template generator.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a landscaping bid stay good before the quoted price expires?

That's your call, but plant stock, mulch, stone, and fuel costs all move with the season, so an open-ended quote is risky. Add a valid-until line to the bid — a fixed window from the bid date — and note that prices may be re-quoted once it lapses. If a homeowner signs weeks later and your costs have shifted, re-run the figures in the landscaping estimate calculator before you commit to the old number.

Should I collect a deposit, and how does it show up on the bid?

Many landscapers take a deposit to cover plant orders and material drops before a crew mobilizes, but whether you do — and how much — is a business decision, not a fixed rule, so treat any deposit figure as an editable starting point. The workbook already carries a deposit line that subtracts from the grand total to leave the remaining balance; spell out when it's due and whether it's refundable in your service agreement, not just on the bid.

The client wants extra plants or beds once the crew is on site — do I just edit the bid?

No. Leave the signed bid as the record of what was originally agreed, and document the added scope separately so there's never a dispute over what was priced when. Put the new plants, beds, or hardscape on a change order the client approves before work continues, then fold the approved amount into the final invoice.

Once a homeowner accepts the bid, how do I turn it into a job and then a bill?

The accepted bid is your scope. From it, hand the field team a work order so they know exactly which phases and lines to execute, then bill the finished job — plus any approved change orders — with the invoice template generator. Carrying the same line items from bid to work order to invoice keeps the numbers consistent end to end.

How we choose and check our formulas