MowProHQ Blog/Pricing
Cash vs Card Pricing for Lawn Care Businesses
How to set cash and card prices for lawn care so processing costs do not erase your margin.
Card payments are convenient. They are not free. If your $90 mow nets $86 after processing and you priced the job as if it were cash, the fee came out of labor, fuel, or the raise you were going to give yourself in August.
This guide is the policy version of that math. Dual pricing exists so service businesses can keep a cash/check rate and a Regular card total without turning payday into an argument. You will calculate a fair card number, put it on every quote and invoice, and teach a two-sentence customer explanation. For the rest of the rate card, see how to price lawn care jobs.
Why dual pricing exists for service businesses
Lawn care collects in three messy ways: cash in the driveway, checks that arrive late, and cards that settle overnight. Each has a cost. Cash has counting and deposit time. Checks have float and bounce risk. Cards have a percent plus a fixed fee - and they usually get you paid faster.
If you publish one price and accept cards, you are choosing who pays the fee:
- You pay it - margin shrinks on every swipe.
- Everyone pays it - cash customers subsidize card customers.
- Card payers pay it - Regular vs Cash, stated up front.
The third option is cash-discount dual pricing. Regular is the advertised card-inclusive total. Cash is the discounted total for cash or check. It is not a surcharge line item that appears as “card fee $3.60” under a $90 mow. Some states restrict surcharge framing. Cash-discount dual pricing (Regular vs Cash) is legal in all 50 states when you keep that framing.
Processing is not the only cost of “free” cards
Chasing unpaid invoices also costs money. A card link on the invoice often beats a check that sits on a kitchen counter. That is why invoicing speed and collections still matter even when you offer Cash prices. Dual pricing does not replace a pause policy. It stops the fee from silently eating the jobs that do pay.
What customers actually compare
Homeowners compare the number they remember. If your competitor texts “$80” and you say “$80 cash or Regular on the card,” you are not losing because of ethics. You are losing if you hid the Regular number until swipe time. Publish both. Let them choose.
| Policy | What the customer sees | Risk |
|---|---|---|
| One price, you eat fees | $90 always | You fund processing |
| One price, everyone pays card cost | $94 always | Cash buyers overpay |
| Dual pricing | Regular $94 / Cash $90 | Arguments only if you hid it |
| Surcharge line | $90 + $3.60 fee | Framing and compliance headaches |
Use the dual-price row. Skip the surcharge row.
How to calculate a fair card total
Work backwards from the cash number you actually need. That cash number should already clear your cost floor and target margin - do not dual-price a rate that was already too low. Get the cash floor from the hourly rate calculator; card math starts after.
The arithmetic
For a percent fee p and a fixed fee f:
Regular ≈ (Cash + f) / (1 - p)
Then round to a clean number you can say out loud.
Worked example at 4% + $0.30
You want $90 cash on a weekly stop.
- Start: (90 + 0.30) / (1 - 0.04) = 90.30 / 0.96 = $94.06
- Round Regular to $94 or $95
- Net if they pay Regular $94 by card at 4% + $0.30: 94 - (3.76 + 0.30) = $89.94
You kept the cash job. The card job did not donate four dollars.
Same job at 3.5% + $0.30
- (90 + 0.30) / (1 - 0.035) = 90.30 / 0.965 ≈ $93.58
- Round Regular to $94
- Net: 94 - (3.29 + 0.30) = $90.41
The plan rate matters once card volume is real. A shop running $12,000 a month on cards saves about $60/month on a 0.5 point gap before the fixed fees - enough to notice, not enough to rebuild the company around. Do the math on your volume; see free vs paid software when the rate is part of an upgrade decision.
Example card-cost table (illustrative)
| Cash price | Fee assumption | Suggested Regular (rounded) |
|---|---|---|
| $45 | 4% + $0.30 | $47 |
| $90 | 4% + $0.30 | $94 |
| $90 | 3.5% + $0.30 | $94 |
| $180 cleanup | 4% + $0.30 | $188 |
| $400 commercial | 4% + $0.30 | $417 |
Round in your favor on small tickets. A $0.40 shortfall on a $45 add-on is a bigger percentage leak than the same miss on a $400 invoice.
Mixed payments
If they pay $50 cash and the rest by card, processing should apply to the card portion only. The invoice should show that split so “Amount due $0” and “Paid” cannot disagree. Do not invent a third price at the door.
Checks
Treat checks as Cash if that is your policy - and say so. A check is not a card. It also is not cleared funds until it clears. For new or risky accounts, you can require cash or card and still keep dual pricing. That is a risk rule, not a fee rule.
Putting the policy on quotes and invoices
If the first time they see Regular is on the card keypad, you created the argument. The policy has to survive the whole path: estimate, accept, job, invoice, portal, receipt.
Quote language that holds up
On every written quote:
- Show Regular and Cash totals.
- One sentence: “Cash price is a cash/check discount. Regular is the card price. This is not a surcharge line.”
- Repeat it on recurring plans, not only on one-offs.
If two estimators write two policies, you do not have a policy.
Invoice and portal
The invoice must match the quote. If the plan was $90 Cash / $94 Regular, do not send a $90 invoice and then add a fee at pay time. Customers remember the first number they were shown.
The customer portal should show the same pair. A portal that only shows Regular trains cash buyers to complain. A portal that only shows Cash trains card buyers to feel tricked at checkout.
Signs and driveway talk
A truck magnet or invoice footer is enough:
Cash/check: Cash price. Cards: Regular price. Same work.
You do not need a legal essay on the mower deck. You need consistency.
Recurring invoices
Weekly plans are where sloppy dual pricing dies. If January invoices said $90 and May card checkouts say $94 with no Regular on the PDF, you will hear about it. Update plans when you change rates. Give notice the same way you would for any price raise.
Customer conversations that stay calm
Most pushback is surprise, not philosophy. Handle it like a scope question.
The two-sentence version
- “The Cash price is the discount if you pay cash or check.”
- “The Regular price is what you pay with a card so processing does not come out of the visit.”
Then stop talking. Extra justification sounds like you are hiding something.
If they say “the other guy doesn’t charge extra”
Ask what the other guy’s scope and payment methods are. Many “cheaper” quotes are cash-only, missing blow-off, or missing the first-cut cleanup. You are allowed to say no to matching a number that ignores fees and scope. Lot-size quoting plus dual pricing is a package. Do not break only the fee half.
If they want you to eat the fee “just this once”
That is a discount. If you grant it, record it as a discount with an end date - not as a silent keypad markdown. Crew-level “just make it $90” on a card is how your reports lie and your margin disappears.
Commercial AP departments
Commercial buyers often must pay by card or ACH on a portal. Show Regular as the invoice total they can key into AP. If they pay Cash/check, they get the Cash total. Do not send a surcharge addendum their AP system cannot code. Dual pricing on the face of the invoice is easier for them and safer for you. More on those accounts: commercial vs residential ops.
Edge cases worth deciding once
| Situation | Default |
|---|---|
| Deposit by card | Regular math on the deposit amount |
| Autopay / card on file | Regular unless they switch to cash |
| No-show fee by card | Regular on that fee |
| Refunds | Refund the method they used; do not invent a new spread |
| Owner friends | Written comp or discount - still pick Regular or Cash |
No-shows and deposits belong in the agreement before the first visit. Weather does not change the payment method math; it changes whether the visit happened. See weather reschedules.
Matching software to the policy
A dual-price policy that lives in your head will fail the first week a helper sends invoices. Software should:
- Store Regular and Cash on the quote
- Carry both to the invoice and emails
- Show both on the customer portal
- Record cash, check, and card without a side spreadsheet
- Charge card fees only on the card portion of a split payment
If you are still typing two totals into a Word invoice, someone will ship the wrong one.
Processor choice is not the policy
Cards can run through NMI (Omega Bank Card) or Stripe. The policy is Regular vs Cash. The processor is how Regular gets collected. Pick one processor in settings and stop running two keypads “depending on the day.” Two processors is how deposits disappear.
In MowProHQ, NMI rates follow the software plan: 4% + $0.30 on Free, 3.5% + $0.30 on Growth and Pro. Stripe uses Stripe’s own rates plus a platform fee. Cash and check stay free of processing. Do not invent a third rate at the truck.
Recording payments accurately
Day-of cash still has to hit the invoice the same day. A Regular invoice marked unpaid while $90 sits in the console is how you send a rude reminder to a customer who already paid. Collections start with honest books.
When to revisit the math
Revisit Regular totals when:
- Your processor rate changes (plan upgrade, or you switch processors)
- Your cash rate card changes
- Ticket sizes shift (more $40 add-ons, more $400 commercial)
Do not tweak Regular per customer because one of them “knows a guy.” That is not dual pricing. That is haggling.
A clean policy is boring on purpose. Boring is what gets you paid without a Saturday argument.
How MowProHQ helps
MowProHQ is built around cash-discount dual pricing: Regular vs Cash on quotes, invoices, emails, and the customer portal - legal in all 50 states, not a surcharge line. Cards run through NMI (Omega Bank Card) or Stripe. Free includes dual pricing, invoicing, and the portal with NMI at 4% + $0.30; Growth ($39/mo) and Pro ($89/mo) drop NMI to 3.5% + $0.30. See pricing or get started when you want the fee math to live on the document, not in a driveway debate.
Frequently asked questions
- Should lawn care businesses charge more for card payments?
- If you accept cards, processing has a real cost. The clean approach is cash-discount dual pricing: publish a Regular (card) total and a lower Cash price. That is not a separate surcharge line. It is two prices for two ways to pay.
- Is cash-discount dual pricing legal for lawn care?
- Cash-discount dual pricing - Regular vs Cash - is legal in all 50 states when it is framed as a discount for cash, not as a tacked-on credit-card surcharge line. Keep the same language on quotes, invoices, and the portal.
- How do I calculate the card price from my cash lawn care rate?
- Start from the cash total you need to keep. Add the processor percent and the per-transaction fee so the net after processing still hits your cash number. Round to a clean Regular total and print both numbers every time.
- What card rates do lawn care companies typically pay?
- It depends on the processor and plan. In MowProHQ, NMI (Omega Bank Card) is 4% + $0.30 on Free and 3.5% + $0.30 on Growth and Pro. You can also connect Stripe. Cash and check are not charged processing fees.
- How should I explain cash vs card pricing to a customer?
- Say it once, early: the Cash price is the discount for cash or check; the Regular price is what you pay with a card. Point to the quote. Do not negotiate the difference away job-by-job unless you are intentionally discounting margin.
- Should I bake card fees into one lawn care price instead?
- You can, but then cash customers subsidize card customers. Dual pricing keeps the cash/check rate honest and lets card payers cover processing. Either policy works if it is consistent. Mixed policies create arguments.
- Do deposits and autopay change cash vs card math?
- A card deposit or stored card will hit the Regular total unless you collect cash. Write that on the quote. Partial cash plus partial card should charge processing only on the card portion, and the invoice should show the split.
