Think about Software when Hiring a Gardener or Groundskeeper

The decision to hire a gardener or groundskeeper is principally about finding someone who has a green thumb, basic landscaping skills, and the underlying botanical knowledge to take the vision you have for your property and turn it into a reality. However, like most everything in today’s economy, both finding these services and delivering the results is better with software support.

Looking for metrics-driven grounds keeping software? Adkad Technologies is one of the industry leaders. Looking for form filing or payroll software when hiring a groundskeeper—either as an independent contractor or as an employee? Advanced Micro Solutions (AMS) has your answer. But to this point, you need to know, first and foremost, what type of groundskeeper to hire.

Hiring Lawn Care Companies vs. Self-Employed Gardeners vs. Groundskeeper Employees

We like to tell people that there are three different ways to hire a gardener/groundskeeper/landscaper. The best choice for your residence depends on what type of services and the service schedule you’re looking for:

1. You can hire a purely commercial landscaping and lawn care company. These companies can offer great solutions for large, one-time projects and/or basic lawn care services. This is the easiest and most popular choice, but you’ll also be limited by the specific costs and service packages offered by these companies.
2. A self-employed gardener typically offers greater attention, responsiveness, and flexibility than a large, commercial company. You, as a homeowner, can negotiate the service fees/hourly wages when hiring a gardener. What’s more, the gardener will learn the intricacies of your property, inside and out. They’re also likely to have a few personal touches or signature features that set their style of gardening services apart from the competition. Like the big commercial companies, self-employed gardener will usually provide their own supplies, including software technologies, and use their own landscaping methods for achieving the desired result with your yard.
3. Finally, you can hire household employee(s) for intensive and extensive gardening and grounds keeping services. In these cases, the home or estate owner furnishes the supplies for the household employee (including the software that manages the grounds keeping schedule). The owner/employer will have to file a W-2 and Sch H Form 1040—more on this in a moment—but this type of employer/employee relationship also allows the owner to dictate more of the specific methods used to maintain the grounds. This type of position used to be more popular, but there are still plenty of household groundskeeper positions out there.

It’s also true that—much like nanny and housekeeping services—that the head groundskeeper position has morphed into something of a jack-of-all-trades. You can find professionals to handle your pool and spa maintenance, dog park, animal sanctuary, stables, you name it. More than for just traditional “estates,” you may also be looking to hire a groundskeeper for your co-op, co-housing, rental property, or small business.

W-2/1099 Software for Employees and Independent Contractors

Maybe you’re a landscaping company trying to figure out how to classify your workers.
Maybe you’re the accounting professional for a co-op or small landscaping business. Or maybe you’re a household employer looking for help preparing and filing Form 1099-MISC (for independent contractors) or W-2 and Sch H Form 1040 (for employees). Either way, AMS has versatile, user-friendly accounting software for payroll and 1099 & W2 Software for filing forms. And we do it a better price than the competition.