Industry focus
Agricultural and Landscaping Accounting
Farms, nurseries, lawn care companies, tree services, and irrigation contractors: we file your Schedule F, capture fuel tax credits, and manage seasonal payroll so your business grows as well as your crops.
How we work with this industry
Growers, nurseries and landscaping contractors deal with seasonal labor, equipment that has to be tracked as an asset and recovered on purpose, and a sales tax question that turns on what exactly is being sold and to whom. Cash flow is uneven by nature, which makes estimated payments easy to get wrong. We keep the books through the season and set the estimates against what the year is actually doing.
The first thing we usually rebuild is the equipment schedule. Trucks, trailers, mowers, skid steers and irrigation gear tend to get coded to supplies on the invoice line, which leaves no asset record, an overstated expense in one year and nothing to work from when the machine is sold or traded. We put a real fixed asset schedule in place and decide the recovery treatment with the whole year in view rather than at purchase.
The season itself is a labor and job costing problem. Crews ramp up and down, work moves between properties, and a route that feels profitable can be carrying a job that is not. We run the payroll and its filings on schedule, track cost by crew, route or property in QuickBooks, and set the estimated payments against what the season has actually produced instead of against last year’s result.
What We Do
What We Handle for Growers and Landscapers
The work that keeps a seasonal business readable, from crew payroll through the equipment schedule and the annual return.
Crew Payroll Through the Season
Pay runs as the crew size moves, plus the right federal return for the work being done: farm and nursery labor reports annually on Form 943, landscaping and maintenance crews quarterly on Form 941. We sort which of your crews is which, handle the state reporting and the W-2s, and work out which coverage thresholds your season actually crosses, because seasonal is not informal and the tests for farm labor are their own.
Job, Route and Crew Costing
QuickBooks set up so labor, materials and equipment time land against the property or route that consumed them, which is the only way to see which work is worth keeping.
Equipment and Vehicle Depreciation
A fixed asset schedule for trucks, mowers, trailers and irrigation equipment, with the repair against improvement call made on purpose and the recovery method chosen with the full year in view.
Sales Tax on Plants, Materials and Labor
Whether a job is taxable can turn on how the contract is written and who the customer is. We look at your actual contracts, keep the exemption and resale certificates on file, and handle the DR-15.
Fuel Used Off the Highway
Fuel burned in mowers, tractors and other off-road equipment can carry a credit claimed on Form 4136, but only with usage records that hold up. We set up the tracking so the claim is supportable.
Schedule F, Schedule C and Estimates
Farming and landscaping do not always report on the same schedule, and the difference matters. We file the right one and reset the estimates as the season develops.
Common Problems
Where Grower and Landscaping Books Go Wrong
Four failures that show up again and again in seasonal, equipment-heavy businesses.
Equipment Expensed at the Invoice Line
A machine coded to supplies leaves no asset record, distorts the year it was bought, and leaves nothing to calculate from when it is later sold or traded in.
Crews Paid Outside the System
Cash payments leave the business exposed on its own filings, leave workers without an earnings record, and, just as practically, leave you with no labor cost to attach to any job.
Exemption Certificates Never Collected
Selling wholesale or to an exempt buyer without the certificate on file puts the tax back on the seller. The certificate is easy to collect at the sale and hard to chase afterward.
Estimates Set From a Different Season
Payments based on last year’s result during a strong season build a shortfall you meet in the slowest part of the following one, which is exactly the wrong time to find it.
Services we offer in this industry
The services most often used by businesses in this industry. Each one is led by an Enrolled Agent.
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Common questions
Questions we hear in this industry
Straight answers, from an Enrolled Agent.
Contact Us
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