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For tree services: crew hours, loads and stump inches on one quote

Pruning, removals, storm work, stump grinding: a tree job is quoted from things that grow with it. Hours for the crew, hours for the climber, loads hauled away, and the stump by the inch. TailGateBid puts those on a quote your customer signs on their phone.

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The work

The arborists' own association lists what a tree service does: pruning, tree removal, emergency tree care after a storm, planting, plant health care, and cabling and bracing for weak limbs (International Society of Arboriculture, Why Hire an Arborist). Add stump grinding, and chipping and hauling what comes down.

How a tree job is sized

  1. The tree is sized by its trunk. Foresters measure diameter at breast height, 4-1/2 feet above the ground: University of Missouri Extension, How to Measure Trees and Logs (G5050).
  2. No diameter tape? Wrap any tape round the trunk at that height and divide by 3.14. The same guide gives the reason: a circle's circumference is its diameter multiplied by 3.14.
  3. In the sample below, the crew is charged by the hour for each person: the people on site times the hours they are there is the hours on the quote.
  4. What leaves the yard is counted in loads, and the stump in inches across.

An example with made-up numbers, not a going rate

Say a tape reads 88 inches round the trunk at breast height. Divided by 3.14, that is a 28 inch tree. Say it takes 3 people 4 hours on site: 12 hours of ground crew on the quote, beside the climber's own hours.

A removal quote, worked through

Sample

Sample Tree Service

Take down the oak beside the driveway

  • Ground crew, 3 peopleQty 12 hours$780.00
  • Climber and riggingQty 4 hours$440.00
  • Brush and wood chipped and hauled awayQty 2 loads$360.00
  • Stump grindingQty 32 inches$160.00
Subtotal
$1,740.00
Sales tax (7.25%)
$0.00
Total
$1,740.00

Only you see this part. Your customer never does.

What it costs you
$966.00
What is left for you
$774.00

You keep about $44 of every $100

A sample with made-up prices, which are not a going rate. Four lines, four things that grow with the job: the ground crew and the climber by the hour, the hauling by the load, the stump by the inch across. No line here is ticked as taxed, so the sales tax line reads $0.00; whether your state taxes this work is yours to check. At these made-up costs the job leaves $774.00, about $44 of every $100.

What TailGateBid does for a tree service

  • The quote, with the tree on it

    Add the photos you choose to the quote, so there is no doubt which tree and which limbs. Grinding the stump can be an add-on the customer ticks. They sign on their own phone. How a quote is built and signed.

  • Bid Partner on the walk-through

    While you are still looking up at the tree, take a few photos and tell Bid Partner in a sentence or two what the customer asked for. It drafts the quote and prices it from your rates. No rate set yet? It carries on with a typical price, labelled "Typical", for you to replace with your own, and your figure is used from then on. The customer sees nothing until you press Send.

  • The crew, the day and the invoice

    Once the quote is approved, the job waits for a day and a crew on the schedule. "I am on my way" emails the customer who is coming. On the Crew and Shop plans each person's day sits side by side on a board: what a crew gets. A finished job becomes an invoice in one tap, and you record the payment when it comes.

  • A tree service website

    The website that comes with every account, hosted at no extra cost, shows the services you offer, a before and after of a job once the customer has agreed to it, and the reviews you approve. A visitor can send a request with photos of the tree, and it reaches you by email. What is on the website.

What Bid Partner is not

  • It is not a safety inspection. What is safe to climb, rig or drop is your call, on site.
  • It makes mistakes. Check every number before you send the quote.

Your hour, and your price

If your hour has to carry a truck, a chipper, saws and insurance, work out what it really costs you with the hour calculator. Then the job price calculator shows what a price leaves once the job is paid for.

Then put the price on paper: what goes on an estimate, in order, with one filled in.

This page is about one trade. TailGateBid works the same way for any other, and Bid Partner is built to price a job in any of them: how it works for your trade.

Sources

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Quote the next tree while you are still standing under it.

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