Many lawn care and landscaping businesses add snow removal to keep crews and trucks earning through the winter. The work is different from mowing in one important way: you can't predict how much of it there will be. That makes two things matter more than usual: how you price and how you record each visit.
This guide covers both. It's written by FieldReady Digital, a maker of spreadsheet templates, not a plow operator, so it focuses on the numbers and the record-keeping. Use it as a framework and fill it in with your own costs and local knowledge.
The three common pricing methods
Per push (per visit). You charge a set amount each time you plow or service a site.
- Client risk: in a heavy winter with many visits, their bill climbs and is hard to budget.
- Contractor risk: low on volume, since more work means more pay. But you need a clear definition of what counts as a "push", and one-visit charges must cover travel and setup.
- Works best when: you can document every visit clearly.
Per inch (or per snowfall tier). The charge depends on how much snow fell or was cleared, usually in depth ranges such as 2–4 inches.
- Client risk: bills vary with the weather, but each charge is tied to something they can check.
- Contractor risk: disagreements over measurement. Whose ruler, which location, what time? Without a written method, every invoice can be argued.
- Works best when: you and the client agree in advance how depth is measured.
Seasonal (flat contract). The client pays a fixed amount for the season, often in installments.
- Client risk: low. They know the cost upfront, though in a light winter they may feel they overpaid.
- Contractor risk: high. A heavy season means far more visits for the same money. A light season is profitable, but you can't count on one.
- Works best when: you know your costs well and can afford a bad year.
None of the three is "best". Many contractors use different methods for different sites. What matters is that each price is based on your own numbers.
Build prices from your own costs
Don't start from what you think competitors charge. Start from what a visit costs you:
- Labor: crew hourly cost, including taxes and overtime for overnight storms, multiplied by the expected time on site.
- Equipment: an hourly cost for each truck, plow or spreader that covers fuel, wear, repairs and eventual replacement.
- Salt and ice melt: material cost per application, based on how much the site actually uses.
- Minimums: a minimum charge per visit, so short stops still cover travel and setup.
- Overhead: insurance, phones, software, office time and anything else you pay whether or not it snows, spread over your expected work.
- Margin: the profit you add on top. Decide on a target and check every price against it.
Once you know the cost of one visit to a site, you can turn it into each pricing method. Per push is cost plus margin. Per inch means estimating how time and materials change at different depths. Seasonal means estimating how many visits a season brings, then deciding how much risk you're willing to carry if the actual count is higher. Compare all three for the same site side by side before you quote.
What to log on every visit
A visit log is your proof that the work happened. Record each visit as it happens, not from memory at the end of the week:
- Date and start/end time, including visits that run past midnight
- Site, using a consistent name for each property
- Conditions such as snow, ice or freezing rain
- Inches measured using your agreed method
- Services performed, such as plowing, shoveling or salting
- Salt used
- Crew on the job
- Notes, for example a blocked lot or a car left in the drive
- Photo reference number, linking to the photos on your phone
Why it's worth the effort:
- Invoice backup. Each charge on an invoice points to a dated, timed visit.
- Disputes. When a client asks whether you really came at 3 AM, you have times, conditions and photo references instead of guesswork.
- Season review. At the end of winter the log shows what each site really took.
Decide how inches are measured, and how to handle multi-visit storms
If you charge per inch, write down the method before the first storm:
- Where depth is measured, for example on site or from a named public weather source
- When it's measured: at the start of the visit, at the end of the storm, or another agreed point
- How depth ranges are rounded and which tier applies
Long storms raise a second question. If you plow at 4 inches and come back after another 4, is that two visits at 4 inches or one 8-inch event? Each visit is logged separately, so if you add up inches across visits, a single storm can look like more snowfall than actually fell. Agree with each client in advance whether a multi-visit storm is billed per visit or per event, and make sure your notes show which visits belong to the same storm.
Have your service agreements reviewed by a qualified professional. This article isn't legal advice.
Track salt like the expense it is
Salt and ice melt can quietly eat into margin. Record the amount used at every visit, by site. Over time you'll see which properties use far more material than you priced in, whether a crew is applying more than needed, and how much stock to order mid-season. If salting is billed separately, the log also backs up those charges.
Run an end-of-season review
When the season is over, go through the log site by site:
- How many visits did each site actually take?
- How did the totals compare with what you billed under each site's pricing method?
- Did any seasonal contract lose money? What would per-push or per-inch pricing have brought in?
- How much salt did each site use compared with your estimate?
- Do the totals in your summary match the visit log?
Those answers are the basis for next year's quotes, and they come from your own records rather than guesses.
Get a ready-made log
FieldReady Digital makes the Snow & Ice Service Log + Pricing Calculator ($15, one-time digital download). It includes:
- A service log for up to 500 visits
- A sites list for up to 100 properties, each with a size tier and pricing method
- Charges calculated from each site's pricing method: per push, per inch or seasonal
- A calculator that compares the three methods side by side for one site, with a margin check
- A per-site season summary that checks totals against the log
- A printable blank field log
Both a workbook with fictional sample data and a blank workbook are included.
- Product: https://payhip.com/b/6OAQN
- Store: https://payhip.com/FieldReadyDigitalStore
Good to know:
- All rates are your own inputs. No market rates are included or suggested.
- Results are estimates, so always review prices and invoices yourself.
- It's not a contract and not legal, insurance or liability advice.
- There are no automatic alerts or notifications. Totals update when the file is opened or recalculated.
- It has been tested in LibreOffice only and hasn't yet been verified in Excel or Google Sheets.
To keep plows and spreaders serviced, FieldReady Digital also makes the $19 Lawn Care & Landscaping Equipment Maintenance Log: https://payhip.com/b/GiEVS