When you hire a commercial landscape company to maintain your landscape, there are many things that you will have to determine up front as you plan your contract with them, such as how often they will mow, how often they will fertilize, apply weed and insect control, how they will take care of your shrubs and trees, and how many seasonal plantings they will do. And that doesn’t include wintertime! When snow arrives, snow removal and deicing need to be done too.
The billing method is an important part of the contract that needs to be arranged with the lawn care company and different companies offer different billing schedules. At Bluegrass, we offer a couple of options to make the billing process more convenient for our customers.
Batch Billing
Most of our customers prefer the convenience of batch billing. We work with you to come up with a concise contract for the services you expect with a fair price. We then divide the contract by the number of months we’ll be working on your property (8-12 months). If there are extra jobs that come up along the way, we will bill you per occurrence as each task is completed. Batch billing is great for clients who have a strict budget for their landscape maintenance as the bill will be the same throughout the contract period. “Maintenance” on your bill consists of several line items that equal the total contract price. Each line item is broken down and shows a “per occurrence” price and how many occurrences you are scheduled for so you’ll know exactly what will be done to your property. Each batch will indicate which portion of the total bill you’re paying. For example, if you have an 8-month contract, your first bill will be “Batch 1 of 8” and will be ⅛ of the agreed upon contractual total.
Per Occurrence
You can choose to receive a bill each month for those services performed on your property only during that month. Some clients prefer this method as a way to closely monitor the services that were completed. However, more work is typically done during our busy spring and fall periods resulting in heavier bills for those months than in the summer months which is why most clients prefer the even monthly payments that come with batch billing.
Work Order
Work orders are done when there’s work that is outside the scope of the normal contract work. This could be a tree that needs to be removed, building a retaining wall, installing a new walkway, or repair work like fixing a broken irrigation system. Sometimes a deposit may be required for work orders.
Snow and Ice Removal
We provide superior snow and ice removal and deicing services as well and have two billing options for those services.
Batched Seasonal Contract
Like for our landscaping clients, a seasonal contract offers a set price for the entire season divided into monthly installments. No matter if we have no snowstorms or 50, the contract price remains the same. Again, this option is convenient for the budget-conscious.
Per Event
Most of our clients prefer to be billed after each snow or ice event, that way they’re not paying for snow removal on lighter snow years. You can choose an hourly contract in which you pay a price for every hour put into clearing your property, per inch (2-inch, 3-inch) which would mean there is a set price for every inch of snow, and per push which is a price for every session clearing snow.
We work with our customers to find the most convenient way to pay for our professional services. You’ll almost love receiving a bill from us!
Call Bluegrass today at (314) 770-2828. We’d love to hear from you!
