Fieldwynn
Fieldwynn
Search tools…

Route Valuation Calculator (Pool, Lawn & Pest)

What is a service route worth? MRR times a factor-driven multiple, with a low–high range. Pool uses the published 6–12× band; lawn and pest take your own market multiple. No login.

Which route are you valuing?
Trade

Pool routes are the one trade here with a published multiple of monthly recurring revenue: 6–12× is the range both PoolFounder and Skimmer report, against the flat 10× the PoolDial calculator applies. The base starts at 8×, the low end of the 8–10× PoolFounder gives as typical.

Recurring revenue
Revenue basis

Number of recurring pool-service accounts on the route.

Recurring service only — exclude one-off repairs and retail.

Route quality (what moves the multiple)

These five factors nudge the multiple up or down from a base of 8× — by −3.0× at worst and +4.0× at best.

Annual customer retention
50 %

% of accounts on autopay / card-on-file.

60 %

% of accounts on a written service agreement.

Route density

How clustered are your stops? Self-reported — not from GPS.

Who runs the route?

Estimated route value

—

estimated route value

Computed MRR

—

Selected multiple

—

Export
How this is calculated

Route value is monthly recurring service revenue (MRR) times a quality multiple. MRR is accounts × average monthly billing (or the MRR you type directly) — recurring service revenue only; one-off repairs and retail are excluded so the base isn't inflated. 

MRR        = accounts × avg billing/account   (or typed MRR)
multiple   = base  (pool: 8.0 · lawn/pest/other: yours)
           ± retention tier   (−1.5 … +2.0; the dominant lever)
           ± autopay coverage (+0.5 if ≥80%, −0.5 if <30%)
           ± contract coverage(+0.5 if ≥80%, +0.25 if ≥40%)
           ± route density     (+0.5 tight, −0.5 sprawled)
           ± owner-dependence  (−0.5 owner-run, +0.5 techs-run)
multiple   = clamp(multiple, 6, 12)           ← POOL ONLY (ceiling 12)
value      = MRR × multiple
range      = MRR × (multiple ± 0.5)

The factor ladder is the difference between this and a flat-10× black box: it explains why the multiple landed where it did. Retention is the largest lever — a strong 85–90% book earns more than the bottom of the average band. Across all five factors the ladder can move a base by −3.0× at worst and +4.0× at best.

What the trade selector changes — and what it deliberately doesn't

A pool route, a mowing route, and a pest bond book all price on the same engine: monthly recurring revenue times a multiple set by how much of that revenue survives the handoff. That engine — the five-factor ladder above — is identical for every trade, which is why the selector changes the labels and the numbers around it but never the method.

What the selector does change is where the base comes from, because only one of these trades has a published one:

  • Pool service. The one trade with a published multiple of monthly recurring revenue. Both PoolFounder and Skimmer report routes trading at 6–12× monthly service revenue, against the flat 10× the PoolDial calculator applies; the base starts at 8×, the low end of the 8–10× PoolFounder gives as typical, and the result is clamped to 6–12×. Pool also gets the two published cross-checks: $800–$2,000 per account (PoolFounder) and the brokered structure where the buyer pays around twelve months of revenue while the seller nets around ten (Skimmer). Background: how to value a pool service business.
  • Lawn & landscape. No published MRR multiple for lawn routes exists the way it does for pool — lawn valuation is quoted on seller's discretionary earnings, a different basis that cannot be dropped into an MRR engine. So the base is yours to supply, and neither pool cross-check is shown. Where to get a defensible figure: how to value a lawn care business.
  • Pest control. Same position, plus a wrinkle of its own: a bond book is an asset and a re-treatment warranty at once, and the pool band accounts for neither. Bring your own market multiple and subtract for open warranty exposure — how to value a pest control business walks through what a buyer underwrites.
  • Any other recurring route. Same engine, your multiple, no borrowed bands.

Withholding the pool numbers from the other trades is the whole point of the selector. Reusing a 6–12× band under a pest label would be a fabricated pest multiple by a quieter route, and a fabricated multiple is worse than a blank field — it reads as authority while being unverifiable. The same reasoning is why the route density and stops-per-day calculator ships its lawn and pool presets empty.

Whichever trade you pick, the multiple is only half the picture. Retention is the ladder's dominant lever, and the customer lifetime value estimator puts a dollar figure on what one kept account is actually worth. If a pre-sale price rise is on the table, the price increase impact calculator shows the break-even churn, so you lift revenue without thinning the very book you are about to sell.

A number is not a deal. What a pool route buyer diligences, how the payment is usually structured and what a clean handover of accounts looks like are walked through in selling a pool service business, and the same transaction read from the other side, including what a seller's multiple hides, is covered in buying a pool service route.

Frequently asked questions

How do you value a pool route?
On monthly recurring service revenue times a multiple, not on gross sales. Pool is the one trade here with a published band: PoolFounder and Skimmer both report routes trading at 6–12× monthly service revenue, with 8–10× typical, while the one dedicated calculator most owners find online applies a flat 10×. This tool starts at 8×, then moves the multiple on retention, autopay coverage, contract coverage, route density, and whether the owner runs the route — and clamps the result to 6–12×. If you are weighing buying a route against building one from scratch, the pool service startup cost calculator prices the other side of that decision.
Can I use this for a pest control route valuation?
Yes — pick Pest in the trade selector. The engine is the same, because a bond book prices the same way a pool route does: monthly recurring revenue times a multiple set by how much of that revenue survives the handoff. What changes is the base. No published multiple of monthly recurring revenue exists for pest routes the way it does for pool, so the tool asks you for your market multiple instead of borrowing the pool band, and it hides the two pool-only cross-checks rather than reusing them under a pest label.
What is a lawn care route worth?
The same arithmetic applies — monthly recurring revenue times a quality-adjusted multiple — but lawn valuation is usually quoted on seller’s discretionary earnings, which is a different basis and cannot be dropped into an MRR engine. So this tool publishes no lawn multiple. Select Lawn, enter the multiple routes in your market actually trade at, and the five quality factors adjust it up or down from there.
Why does the tool refuse to give me a lawn or pest multiple?
Because we could not source one, and a fabricated multiple is worse than a blank field: it reads as authority while being unverifiable. Only the pool band, the $800–$2,000 per-account band, and the 12-months-paid / 10-months-netted deal structure come from published sources, so only pool gets them. Everything else about the calculation — the five-factor ladder and the ±0.5× range — is method, and applies to every trade identically.
What moves the multiple most?
Retention, by a wide margin. It is the only factor on the ladder worth up to 2.0×, because churn lowers both the sustainable revenue a valuation stands on and the multiple a buyer will pay on it. Autopay coverage, written-contract coverage, route density, and owner-dependence each move it by 0.25× to 0.5×. Across all five the ladder can shift a base by −3.0× at worst and +4.0× at best.
Does one-off repair and retail revenue count?
No — enter recurring service revenue only. Padding the base with callbacks, repairs, and retail inflates the number and will not survive a buyer’s diligence, because that work does not repeat for the next owner. The whole point of an MRR multiple is that it prices the revenue a buyer can actually keep.

Sources

  1. Pool route calculator (flat-10× method). PoolDial. Retrieved .
  2. Pool route valuation — 6–12× quality ladder + cross-checks. PoolFounder. Retrieved .
  3. How to buy a pool route 101 — 6–12× recurring service revenue. Skimmer. Retrieved .

How we choose and check our formulas

Get early access

Fieldwynn is the field-first app we are building for small crews — simple in the truck, powerful in the back office. It is not out yet; join the early-access list and be first when it launches for your trade.