Landscape Contractors

Accounting and Tax Services for Landscape Contractors

Running a landscaping business goes beyond creating beautiful lawns or well-designed outdoor spaces. It requires key decisions and attention to detail to keep things running smoothly, like handling the financial and tax needs unique to your industry. Whether you’re figuring out how to classify employees vs. contractors, dealing with the ups and downs of seasonal cash flow, or sorting out revenue recognition, the accounting side can become complicated.

By partnering with Mowery & Schoenfeld, you’ll get an advisor who truly understands landscaping, which can make all the difference in helping your business reach its full potential.

Jeffery Mowery >

Managing Partner, Founder

Anthony Cullotta >

Assurance Partner

Thomas Keenan >

Partner, Assurance Services Leader

Insights

Cash Flow Management: A Complete Guide for Businesses >

Helping You Plan for Your Seasonal Business

Seasonal impacts make cash planning essential for landscaping companies. Forecasting income and expenses is necessary to ensure you have enough liquidity during your off-peak periods. Another strategy is to build cash reserves during your high revenue months to better manage those cash-flow fluctuations. With effective planning through our business advisory services, you can enjoy operational stability year-round, and you’ll be less likely to need short-term financing to get through any dips in business.

Learn more about business advisory services

Services Designed for You

Our team has 30 years of experience assisting businesses through our comprehensive services. We work with landscape contractors of various sizes, providing holistic advisory support in many key areas, including:

Accounting, assurance, audit, and tax services for compliance and insights
Reduced tax obligation and strategic business planning
Tax return preparation, planning, projections, and advisory
Internal control assessment and advisory services
Integration of accounting technology systems
Forecasting and financial projections
Job costing and project profitability analysis
Employee benefit and compensation plan audits and consulting
Management advisory services
Business and equipment valuations
Transaction structuring and planning
Due diligence
Succession planning
Individual tax services for stakeholders
Payroll and sales tax
Seasonal cash flow planning and management

Cash Basis vs. Accrual Accounting: Which Method Fits Your Landscaping Company

The size of your landscaping business affects which accounting method — cash basis or accrual — is best for your company. If you’re a smaller business with simpler finances, the cash basis method, which records revenue when payment is received and expenses when paid, is typically used. While this is a simple method of revenue recognition for service businesses and can make tax prep easier, it can also obscure the true financial picture during peak season.

Larger landscaping contractors with more complex projects generally use the accrual accounting method, which recognizes revenue when work is completed and expenses when incurred. Accrual accounting offers a more accurate view of profitability by matching revenue to the jobs that generated it, giving you more insights into your financial health. Once your business hits a certain revenue amount, the IRS requires accrual accounting. (The gross receipts threshold is $32 million for 2026, adjusted annually for inflation.) This method also can create tax liabilities before cash arrives, often making it tricky to manage your cash flow in slow seasons.

If you’re thinking about getting a bank loan, securing bonding, or planning for a future sale, you’ll also need to switch to accrual accounting. Lenders and buyers want to see financials that use the accrual method, with clear job costing and margins, so starting early gives you a big advantage.

Our advisors help clients with landscaping financial reporting and evaluating which method aligns with their current size, growth trajectory, and tax strategy, ensuring the right foundation for financial decision-making. We set up systems for financial statements to fit your needs. Profit and loss statements, for example, help you spot problems early by showing you trends. We also outline any tax implications of accounting method changes so you can be prepared.

How to Keep Cash Flowing Through the Off-Season

When you make most of your annual revenue between April and October, you experience tighter cash flow during the winter. Despite having the same fixed costs — such as leases, insurance, and equipment loans — you see a dip in money coming in. Our advisory team can help you implement strategies to manage the seasonality and maintain sustainable growth, including offering prepaid service contracts or services like snow removal or holiday lighting during the winter.

We monitor estimated vs. actual costs for labor, materials, supplies, and other direct expenses in real time to identify discrepancies and improve project management. Off-season financial planning moves like line-of-credit management or creating seasonal business cash reserves can also help alleviate the impact of these revenue swings.

Need to budget for equipment purchases or maintenance during your slow period? Our advisors empower you to plan your cash flow management accordingly and keep your finances steady. We’ll work with you to build cash flow forecasting models, set up the right credit facilities, and create a financial plan that fits your unique revenue cycles. Plus, we’ll guide you on how to manage working capital specifically for seasonal businesses, so you’re always prepared. This accurate recordkeeping improves your decision making when it comes to things like job costing, crew efficiency, and investments in your business in the future.

Tax Planning Strategies That Save Landscaping Companies Real Money

Our team delivers proactive tax planning for landscaping clients. Together, we can choose the right landscaping business entity structure for your company, set quarterly estimated tax strategies, optimize your tax savings, and ensure multi-state payroll compliance if you operate in multiple locations.

We also guide you through leveraging Section 179, which lets you deduct the full purchase price of qualifying equipment in the same tax year it’s put into service. Landscaping companies can get significant tax savings through Section 179 expensing and bonus depreciation on trucks, mowers, skid steers, and other equipment. For example, commercial mowers and zero-turn equipment can typically have their full cost deducted in the year of purchase instead of being spread over 5-7 years.

Another tax planning consideration is proper worker classification. When you have a mixed team of employees and contractors, it’s important that you follow classification rules to avoid penalties. If you misclassify a W-2 employee as 1099 contractor, you risk being held liable for employment taxes and could be fined. Misclassification is a serious problem because affected employees may not receive minimum wage and overtime pay that they are entitled to get. Your landscaping business also might benefit from payroll system setup that integrates with your accounting system to make record keeping quicker and easier.

Talk to a Mowery & Schoenfeld advisor who works with landscaping contractors to set up your financial statements, organize job costing, create cash flow management strategies, and ensure your accounting and tax planning align with your business goals.