Landscaping Work Order Template

An estimate tells the customer what you plan to do. A work order tells the crew. It is the page a foreman carries to the property, and it answers the questions that stall a job: where is it, what exactly are we doing, what do we bring, who do we call, and how do we know we’re done. A good work order is short enough to read in a minute on the tailgate and complete enough that the office never has to be called. This template covers the job from dispatch to sign-off. Copy it into a doc or a form, and keep one master.

The work order template

Job header

• Work order #: [WO-0001]
• Job name: [Short, specific, such as “Spring cleanup and mulch, Oak St”]
• Date scheduled: [Date] · Arrival window: [Time to time]
• Crew: [Crew name or foreman] · Crew size: [X]
• Prepared by: [Office contact] · Office phone: [phone]
• Linked estimate or contract: [Estimate # / contract #]

Customer and property

• Customer: [Name] · Phone: [phone] · Preferred contact: [call / text / email]
• Service address: [Street address]
• Access: [Gate code, lockbox, side entrance, where to park the trailer]
• Pets, kids, and quirks: [Dog in back yard, customer works from home, HOA rules on work hours]
• Is the customer home? [Yes / No / Check before starting]

Put the access note first. Crews lose more time to a locked gate than to anything in the scope.

Scope of work

List the tasks in the order the crew should do them. Use a checkbox for each so the foreman can tick as they go.

• [Task 1, such as “Mow, edge, and trim front and back lawn”]
• [Task 2, such as “Cut back perennials in front beds”]
• [Task 3, such as “Remove debris and haul to [location]”]
• [Task 4, such as “Spread [X] cubic yards of mulch, [X] inches deep”]
• [Task 5, such as “Blow all hard surfaces clean”]

Not included: [Anything the customer may ask about that is out of scope, such as “tree work, fence line brush, back slope”]

If the customer asks for extra work on site, the foreman does not start it until the office has priced it. Use the change section below.

Materials and equipment

Item	Quantity	Source	Notes
[Mulch, color]	[X] cu yd	[Supplier / yard]	[Delivered / loaded at shop]
[Plants]	[X]	[Nursery]	[Sizes, hold at gate]
[Fertilizer / seed / sod]	[X]	[Shop]	[Application rate]
Equipment	[Mower, trimmer, blower, wheelbarrow, dump trailer]	[Truck #]	[Fuel, blades]

Check the list the night before. A work order that says “bring 6 yards of mulch” only helps if the mulch was loaded at 6:30.

Time and labor

Crew member	Start	End	Hours
[Name]	[Time]	[Time]	[X]
[Name]	[Time]	[Time]	[X]
Total labor hours			[X]

• Estimated hours: [X] · Actual hours: [X]
• Reason for any difference: [Weather, access, extra debris, customer request]

Recording estimated and actual hours on every order is the cheapest way to find out which jobs make money. After a month of work orders, you’ll know where your estimates run light.

Safety and site conditions

• Walked the site and noted hazards (slopes, holes, wasps, wires, water)
• Marked or confirmed irrigation heads, lighting, and other known lines
• Protective equipment on and equipment checked
• Traffic and pedestrian areas protected (cones, signs) where needed
• Hazards or notes: [Free text]

Changes and extra work

• Change requested by: [Name] · Time: [Time]
• Description: [What the customer asked for]
• Office approval: [Name] · Price or hours: [$XX / X hours]
• Customer agreed to the change before work started

Unwritten “while you’re here” requests are how a profitable job turns into a free one. The rule is simple: write it down, price it, then do it.

Photos

• Before photos taken (wide shots of each area and any existing damage)
• After photos taken (same angles)
• Photos of any damage, hazards, or problems found
• Photo notes: [What the photos show]

Take the before photos before touching anything. They protect you on a damage claim, and they make a good record for a customer who says nothing was done.

Completion checklist

• All scope items finished or noted below
• Debris removed and the site left clean
• Gates closed and latched
• Customer or neighbor notified of completion, if no one is home
• Equipment loaded and secured
• Not completed, and why: [Weather, access, materials, customer request]
• Follow-up needed: [Return visit, quote for extra work, repair, none]

Sign-off

• Crew lead: ______________________ Date: ________
• Customer: ______________________ Date: ________ [or “Customer not home. Completion text sent at [time].”]
• Office reviewed: ______________________ Date: ________

Three versions of the same work order

Recurring maintenance stop. Strip it to the header, access notes, task checkboxes, and a one-line completion note. For a weekly route, the crew should be able to finish the paperwork in under a minute per stop. Put the permanent property notes in the customer record and reference them, rather than copying them onto every order.

Install or project day. Use the full template. Add the plan or sketch as an attachment, a materials list tied to the delivery, and a milestone note linking back to the payment schedule in the landscaping contract. Install days need the most careful materials and change sections.

Cleanup or one-time job. Add a debris section: what gets hauled, where it goes, and the disposal cost. Add an extra line for the customer’s expectations about leaf, brush, and bed condition, since a cleanup is the job where “done” is the most subjective.

What to change for your business

• Decide who owns the document. The office writes it, the foreman carries it, and one person checks it afterward. Without that review, the hours and photos never get used.
• Keep it to one page when you can. A crew that dreads the paperwork will skip it. Cut any field nobody reads.
• Match it to your estimate. Use the same service names as the landscaping estimate template so the work order, the quote, and the bill all describe the job in the same words.
• Standardize your route stops. Planning the order of stops is a separate problem; our guide on how to schedule landscaping crews covers it.

How to use this template

Copy this into a doc, a form, or a printed pad, and fill in the brackets from the signed estimate or contract the night before. Hand it to the foreman with the day’s route. At the end of the day, collect the hours, photos, and any change requests, then use them to write the invoice; the landscaping invoice template pulls from the same details. Foremen who carry the work order well tend to become good leads, and the landscape foreman job description lays out what to look for. When paper stops keeping up, scheduling and routing in the software puts the day’s stops in route order for each crew, and the crew mobile app carries the visit details, photos, checklist, and signature on the crew’s phone.