Card processing, recurring billing, and Clover hardware for lawn care and landscape companies. Set up around route billing, estimates that turn into invoices, and a crew leader collecting on a driveway.
No statement itemizes any of this. It shows up as invoices still sitting open in November.
Forty properties cut on a Tuesday and forty invoices typed on Tuesday night. Charges that run on their own are the difference between getting paid on schedule and getting paid whenever somebody in the office has an hour.
A price goes out for a retaining wall and the paperwork rides around in a truck. Work that was quoted, approved, and completed but never billed is the most expensive paperwork in the trade.
The crew finishes and drives to the next stop, and the invoice goes out that evening or the next week. Every day between the work and the ask is another day the balance can age.
Volume in this business can triple between March and July. A processor that never underwrote you for that pattern can hold funds in your biggest month, which is the month you can least afford it.
We start from how the crews actually work, then match the hardware and the program to it. These are the setups that commonly fit a lawn care or landscape business.
A Clover Flex rides with the crew leader and takes the card at the property, with a receipt printed on the spot. Most processors lead with a countertop system, which is the wrong shape for work that happens on a lawn.
Weekly, biweekly, and monthly maintenance charged automatically against a stored card, so the route bills itself and a failed card gets flagged instead of discovered in the fall.
The quote you sent becomes the invoice you send, with a payment link on it, so approving the work and paying for it are close together rather than a month apart.
Hardscape, planting, and irrigation jobs put material on your card before anyone is paid. A deposit taken when the job is booked, and the balance against the same card at completion.
An annual plan paid up front is fine. Payments collected more than twelve months ahead of the work are not boardable, so a multi-year prepay is out and we build the plan to sit inside that line.
Post a card price and a cash price. The terminal applies the correct total, so the processing cost sits in the card price instead of your margin.
We mean likely literally. A two-truck mowing operation and a design build company running installs need different setups, and the right answer starts with how much of your year is maintenance.
What you need depends on how much of your money is collected at a property and how much is billed from a desk. Most companies in this trade land on some version of these three.
The crew leader takes the card at the property while the customer is standing on the lawn looking at finished work, and the receipt prints there. It runs on cellular data, so it works at a job site with no wifi and no office anywhere near it. When a second crew starts collecting on its own, a second handheld beats passing one device between trucks all week.
Plenty of companies sell mulch, stone, salt, or bagged material off the yard, and somebody has to ring that up. The Compact takes almost no counter space, runs the same item list as the trucks, and puts walk-in material sales into the same day's totals as the route work.
Whoever runs the office needs one place to send invoices, take a card over the phone, and set up the recurring charges for the maintenance route. Estimates, change orders, and the balances still open in January all come out of the same screen.
If none of these match how your company actually collects, tell us and we will spec something that does.
Routes, crew assignments, and job notes stay where your team already has them. We handle the processing, the recurring billing, and the follow-up around them.
You post a card price and a cash price. The handheld in the truck works out the correct total at the property, so the cost of accepting cards sits in the card price rather than in a bid you already sharpened to win.
Both prices are on display before a customer reaches the counter, which is why almost nobody asks about it.
The terminal applies the right total. Your team keeps doing what they already do.
Program setup, signage, and terminal configuration are handled as part of onboarding rather than left to you.
Numbers we made up, arithmetic you can follow, so a monthly processing bill stops being a mystery.
The figures are made up but realistic for a maintenance-heavy month, and the math is 85 times 420, then 3.2 percent of that total. Effective rates move with card mix, ticket size, and the program you choose, which is why we quote from your actual statement rather than from a number on a website.
Actual savings depend on your card mix, average invoice, and the program you choose. We will quote your specific number from a recent statement rather than a range from a website.
Some will ask, mostly on the larger install invoices rather than on a weekly cut. This is easier in your trade than in most, because the price is agreed in writing before any work happens.
Both prices go on the quote the customer signs, so the number is settled before a truck ever pulls up. Nearly every complaint about this comes from finding out at the moment of payment, and an estimate is not the moment of payment.
A maintenance customer sees the same charge every week. They ask in the first month, they pick card or check, and then it stops being a topic. The ones who care will move to a check and keep the account, which is a fine outcome.
On a hardscape job in the thousands the gap is real money and the customer will do the math. Have the answer ready and be willing to take a check on the large ones. The prices are posted either way, so the decision sits with the customer rather than with your crew leader.
Cajoon handles the messages that keep a route full and an estimate from going cold. None of it requires anyone to be sitting at a desk when it goes out.
The phone rings while you are on a mower or under a truck. An automatic text goes back within seconds asking what they need, so that caller is still yours instead of ringing the next company on the search results.
Most quotes are not turned down, they are forgotten. A short message a few days after you send one gets a yes or a no, and either answer is better than a proposal sitting in a folder until August.
The best moment to ask is the day the customer walks out and sees the finished patio. An automatic request that day gets a different review than one sent three weeks later, and it goes out without you remembering to ask.
Cleanups, aeration, mulch rounds, and winter services all have a window. One message to the customers who bought it last year, sent while the window is open, is the cheapest work on your calendar.
An online application that takes about five minutes.
We confirm the program and finalize the rate sheet with you.
Your Clover devices arrive configured for your business.
Plug in, run a test ticket, and you are live.
Not necessarily, and there are usually two documents to check rather than one. The processing agreement and any terminal lease often carry separate exit terms held by separate companies. Get both, plus the early termination figure in writing, and we will tell you plainly whether the monthly difference covers the cost of leaving now.
The card price and the cash price both appear on the estimate and on the invoice, and the system applies whichever one matches how they pay. A customer who mails a check pays the cash price. A customer who taps at the truck or clicks the link pays the card price. Nobody in the office calculates anything.
No. Routes, crew assignments, and job history stay in the software your team already opens every morning. What changes is how a payment runs and how the maintenance charges repeat. Tell us what you use and we will confirm what connects and what stays manual before you sign, not after you have moved.
No. Nothing can be collected more than twelve months ahead of the work, so a three-year prepay is not boardable. A full season or a year paid up front is fine, and a longer agreement billed monthly is fine. If collecting several years at once is central to how you sell, tell us early and we will be straight about where the line sits.
It can, and it is worth raising before you apply rather than after. A sharp jump in volume on an account underwritten for a quiet winter is exactly what triggers a review or a hold. We tell underwriting what your season looks like up front so the busy months are expected instead of investigated.
Mostly. It runs on cellular data or wifi, and coverage at most residential properties is fine. Where there is genuinely no signal, an offline mode can store the transaction and send it when the device reconnects, but you carry the risk that the card declines after the crew has already left. On a large job, take payment where you have coverage.
You do not need a sales call to get a number. We read your most recent processing statement and tell you what you are actually paying, line by line, including anything sitting in a reserve because of how your season runs.