Crews leave the yard at dawn, work a dozen properties and race the weather. Track hours by property, pay travel time right and plan the season with real numbers.
The H-2B program that many landscapers rely on is capped at 66,000 visas per fiscal year, split between the two halves of the year. Seasonal crews still need the same clean records; see starting a landscaping business.
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A typical maintenance crew meets at the yard, loads mowers and trailers, drives to the first property and works a route of 8 to 15 stops. Installation crews may spend days on one site. The work is outdoors and weather-dependent, so plans change daily. Paper timesheets filled in by the crew leader at the end of the week cannot show which properties are profitable or how much time is spent in the truck.
See our travel time pay guide.
Many landscaping companies rely on seasonal workers, including through the H-2B temporary non-agricultural program. H-2B employers must meet program requirements such as paying at least the offered wage, offering a minimum number of hours under the three-fourths guarantee, keeping accurate records of hours offered and worked and providing earnings statements. Check current Department of Labor guidance for the program. For all seasonal hires, see our seasonal onboarding guide.
Our heat illness checklist and landscape maintenance checklist help organize daily routines.
Crews clock in at the yard on a kiosk or with the EZTime app, with GPS stamps at each property and geofences around regular sites. Hours are tagged by property or client with job and client tracking, so you see the real labor on each contract. Tasks with photo proof show completed work to customers, announcements by app or SMS reroute crews when weather changes, and labor rule alerts warn about overtime and missed breaks. The app is available in English and Spanish, among other languages.
Once you have a few weeks of hours by property, compare each contract’s price with its actual labor cost. Properties that take longer than estimated, often because of slopes, gates, obstacles or demanding customers, should be repriced at renewal. Use the lawn care pricing calculator and our landscaping estimate guide to set prices that cover travel and overhead.
A lawn care company runs four maintenance crews of three, each serving about 12 properties a day. Hours by property show that 18 of 160 weekly accounts take more than 50% longer than priced, mostly large lots with hand trimming. Travel accounts for about 22% of paid crew time because routes zigzag across town. The owner regroups routes by neighborhood, reprices the 18 slow accounts at renewal and drops two that will not accept the new price. Revenue per crew hour rises by about 12% over the season.
The company and numbers are fictional.
Use last year’s hours by week to plan hiring, overtime and equipment for spring cleanup, peak mowing, fall cleanup and snow season if you offer it. Know when crew sizes need to grow, which weeks drove overtime and how much rain delayed work. If you run snow removal in winter, see our snow removal crew guide.
Crew leaders run the day in the field: they decide the order of stops, handle customer questions and make sure equipment comes back. Give them a clear view of their crew’s hours, property list and tasks, and make them responsible for approving the day’s time before the crew leaves. Recognize crews that finish routes efficiently with good quality, and look at the data together when a route runs long rather than assuming the crew was slow.
Generally yes, if crew members are loading equipment or receiving assignments.
Yes, for non-exempt workers, travel between job sites during the day is generally working time.
Daily hours offered and actually worked, pay rates, earnings and deductions for each H-2B worker, kept so the three-fourths guarantee can be checked. Confirm details with current DOL guidance.
Use GPS-stamped clock-ins and tasks with photo proof at each property.
Yes, but federal rules bar workers under 18 from certain hazardous equipment, and younger teens have further limits.
Yes. Each crew member can choose Spanish, and the app also comes in English, French, Russian and Arabic.
Decide in advance whether crews wait, switch to indoor shop work or go home, and record the time accordingly. Time spent waiting when required to stay is generally paid.
Start a trial or book a short demo. Plans start from $2 per employee per month.