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Payments

How do we work out rates?

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We have a duty to provide the best service we can for a reasonable price. 

 

We need to charge rates that allow us to pay our staff a living wage, ensure we have good tools in working order.  We also need to ensure that we have a good profit margin so we can reinvest in our company to improve our services. We also need to allocate money towards insurance, software, training etc.

 

We essentially need to charge a reasonable price to make sure our customers receive a reliable, high quality service.

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On an initial visit one of our team will let you know the hourly rate for your garden and this will be followed by a welcome email detailing specific costs and details about our services.

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The pie chart below shows how the rates we charge gets divided up.

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Why are other companies cheaper?

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Having spoken to new customers who have had cheaper gardeners these are some of the reason for this,

 

  • They pay staff badly

  • They don't pay staff holiday pay

  • They don't pay income tax or avoid vat registration

  • They don't pay for insurance

  • They don't pay for software to manage jobs or invoice accurately

  • They don't provide appropriate PPE and uniform

  • They simply charge too little meaning they take on too much work and can't fulfil their obligations

  • They hide charges in materials or overcharge for time

  • They don't train their staff

  • They fly tip

  • They avoid paying staff pensions

  • They sack staff at the end of a season to save money over the winter period.  This means they have high turnover of staff so no consistency 

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What do you charge?

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Every 6 months we calculate how much it costs us to deliver 1 man hour of work.  We use a profit and loss statement generated from our accounting software for accuracy.

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In order to make a reasonable profit our rates start from £35 + vat per man hour for larger gardens with reduced daily travel times.

 

We charge £40 + vat per man hour for small gardens with a visit time of 30 minutes with 2 men.

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For waste disposal we charge £15 + vat per bulk bag of green waste and £4 + vat per small bulk bag/ black bag.

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For smaller amounts of materials we charge a 20% mark-up.  For example weedkiller, fertiliser and compost etc.

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For large materials orders we encourage our customers to purchase directly from suppliers.

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How do you keep track of billable hours?

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Every member of our team fills in a timesheet app that is linked to our accounting system.  For each visit they log what they did in the garden, start and finish time, materials used and any waste removed. 

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Is there a minimum charge per visit?

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Yes, the minimum charge is one man hour.

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How can I pay?

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We ask that invoices are paid within 2 days.  We find that 99% of customers pay by direct bank transfer, a few pay by direct debit and the others pay by cheque or cash.

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How often do you send out invoices?

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We send out invoices by email after each visit.

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What happens if I think my invoice is incorrect?

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We are not perfect and small mistakes do happen very occasionally.  We itemise the invoices so that if a mistake happens we can pick this up quickly and sort it out.

 

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