Overhead!!

[picframer]

Originally Posted by Steve I think that is fantastic you do that. Would newer lawn care companies have a tough time doing that though? Keeping track of different job categories to see which category they tend to make more money on and which they lose money on? Gosh we have to know, it is critical as to whether we survive or not. If we are working our butt off and barely making ends meet then we need to know before the repo guy comes calling and what can we do to fix it. You can make it as simple as you want but everyone of us should be keeping some type of accounting and it should be updated no less than every three days, it honestly doesn't take that long. Many use Quick Books which is excellent and easy to learn, personally I use Simply Accounting which too is easy but very powerful and a little harder to learn however even if you have to pay someone to do the initial set up it would be in my opinion my first investment. I have the Gopher Software however I couldn't do the tax the way it needs to be done and I need to be able to pull data and run it in Excel which I use to analyze the profit per job, by employee, by crew etc. Your financial statement is a road map, you know where you want to go however without the map you will never know if you are getting there or even close to the mark. It's great having money in the bank account however where and which jobs is generating the best cash flow and which ones are an issue.

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Andy
Halifax, Nova Scotia

[clean_cut]

Lawn care business tips

Originally Posted by bnclawncare I am looking for a "template" or preferably an 'Excel worksheet" that I can use to calculate my overhead expences. Does anyone have a sheet that automaticly calculates this when you enter in the numbers and that is willing to share? Thanks in advance. Try this, I hope it helps, I didn't make it, so don't give me all the credit You could substitute your own info in there to fit your personal needs, and there is an Employee table on page 2.

Attached Files

Overhead-Cost-Breakdown.xls (35.0 KB, 167 views)

[Steve]

Oh that is very interesting!

In that chart, is fuel cost for the lifespan of that piece of equipment?

[clean_cut]

Originally Posted by Steve

Oh that is very interesting!

In that chart, is fuel cost for the lifespan of that piece of equipment?

I'm guessing so, pretty neat little chart though, you'd have to modify it to fit you needs.

[Steve]

For the newer lawn care business owner, what should they be focused on getting out of using such a spread sheet?

Should they be focused on finding what their monthly expenses are or is it more important for them to know what their hourly expenses are so they can take that into account when bidding?

Or are they equally important?

Clean_cut,

I made one similar to that but not nearly as detailed in the job area.

One thing I would suggest is to find out from your dealer what kind of life expectancy the machine has. There are a few things that I think are missing on determining the machine cost.

Here is what I think is missing:

• How many hours per year that you expect to use it,
• How much the yearly maintenance costs are estimated at,
• How much your yearly fuel cost will be,

By knowing how many hours your machine is expected to last, and by knowing how many hours per year you anticipate the machine to run, you can get a better idea of how much the machine will cost you per year.

Example: Original cost for a trimmer: $350, Expected fuel cost per year $155.40 (from spreadsheet), Yearly maintenance cost, includes a yearly tune-up $125, Misc costs (string, heads, etc) $25.

Now lets say you expect to use the trimmer 600 hours per year and expect the trimmer to last 1800 hours, you figure the costs like this:

$350 base cost divided by 3 years (1800 hours life expectancy, 600 hours use expected per year) = yearly base cost of $116.67 + $155.40 + $125 + $25 =$422.07 is your yearly cost. However, since you expect to use the trimmer 600 hours per year, you have to divide the $422.07 by 600 hours = $0.7034 cost per hour.

I am working on a combined spread sheet to help realize the cost per machine per hour, per year, and per job. If it works like I hope, you would be able to add all this up to see what your cost is per job, add the profit per hour you need and then to see what you need to charge to make a profit.

Any ideas on what all equipment, and how many of each, you guys would want to see added (truck/trailer, mowers, trimmers, blowers, edgers, chain saws, push mowers, etc)?

I enjoy making spread sheets and happen to have a few minutes on my hands since I just had my wisdom teeth removed (ouch)...

[Steve]

Any ideas on what all equipment, and how many of each, you guys would want to see added

I haven't played around much with spread sheets and making things with them, but can't you set it up where the user can add as many items as they want?

Originally Posted by Steve

I haven't played around much with spread sheets and making things with them, but can't you set it up where the user can add as many items as they want?

Essentially, yes. However, the formula has to be entered for each individual item. You can only copy and paste the formula if the formula remains in the same position from where you are copying from and pasting to. Example, you copy a formula that looks like this "=F39*C51", which is an actual formula from the spreadsheet I am working on, but where I need to paste it to, the formula must look like this "=F42*C51". If you notice, the "C51" needs to remain the same but when you copy and paste without modifying this, it will look like this "=F42*C54". This will prevent the formula from being accurate and thus, some of the formulas must be individually input. For each individual machine that is entered, you need to add specific formulas. Later tonight I will try to post the spreadsheet I have made so far, using some ideas from the one posted above.

At this point I am still trying to learn some of the formatting techniques (I am learning everything on my own with no book or help. lol).

Ok, tell me what you guys think of this spreadsheet. I think the formulas are correct. There is a lot of formula to make all the pages work together and I think they are all correct. Let me know.

The first page lets you insert times to get a real quick estimate on how much to charge, based on time to do the job.

Next page lets you figure out how much your machines cost to operate per hour and per year, based on how much you expect to use them per year. You can insert how much fuel you expect to use, how much you expect the maintenance to cost, and other variables. When its all said and done, it will figure up how much the machine will cost per year and then per hour of operation. Of course most of this information is simply an estimate since the maintenance cost, fuel cost, etc will vary by your use. There are a number of machines listed, including your vehicle. The first time you will need to change the names of your equipment to reflect what you have. You will have to change these names on the first 3 pages. Otherwise, only change the content in the green boxes.

Third page lets you determine exactly how much it will cost to do a job, again, based on length of time to do it. I included a minutes to hour conversion tool to help you with the times. There are fields for several equipment types where all you have to do is enter how long each machine will run and it will do the rest. You can choose how many visits per month and this will help you determine your monthly invoice amount. It gives you options on how much profit you want to make. Then it shows you how much you need to charge to reach your profit goals. It gives you a net profit per month and net profit per hour read out. This page I basically took from the spreadsheet posted above.

The last page is a very simple page that lets you insert your employee wages costs. You will have to change the number of employees and how much you pay each one.

In order for everything to be accurate, you MUST insert certain info, including employee wages, machine base costs, etc. or NONE of it will be accurate. Some of this info you may have to guess at until you get soem experience and see how much your maintenance costs will be, etc. Keep in mind that the current figures are completely arbitrary and have no intentions of being accurate. You may notice too that many of the cells have pop up "note" windows with instructions and/or detailed explanations.

Any green cell that is not applicable, simply insert "0" in them or the spreadsheet will give you inaccurate info.


Good luck and enjoy! This will also be posted on my forum.

[bnclawncare]

The sheet looks great. When fiquring your charges, where do you start including phone bills, office supplies, other supplies that are not directly charged back to the customer, etc.. All of this, to me, should get reclaimed some how through out the year, correct?