Groundcut
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Instant quotes for lawn care — built into the booking platform, not bolted on

Other lawn-care quoting tools fall into two camps. Traditional field-service platforms treat every quote as homework — the customer submits a form, then you sit at your laptop or visit the property to measure, build the quote, and send it back for approval. AI parcel-measurement tools automate the measurement step, but they're typically measurement bolt-ons — you still need a separate CRM, scheduler, and payment stack to actually book a job. Either way, you're running multiple tools and doing work on every quote.

Groundcut does it differently. We auto-quote by measuring the actual mowable lawn — parcel boundary minus driveway, roof, and tree canopy — not the lot size. Instant for the customer, no work for you, and the price reflects what your crew will actually mow. When the satellite read isn't clean enough for the model to be confident, your customer draws their own lawn on satellite so they tell you exactly what they want mowed — still instant, still no owner work. Only oversized properties land in your inbox as pre-traced custom-quote requests. And every path runs inside the same booking, billing, and dispatch platform — not bolted onto a separate CRM, scheduler, and payment stack.

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Three paths, one booking funnel

Every customer enters at the same address field. Where they land depends on the property — and you don't have to think about it. The flow picks the right path.

  1. 01

    Auto-quote from parcel data

    Customer types in an address. We pull the parcel boundary, overlay satellite land-cover data to isolate the mowable turf from driveway, roof, and tree canopy, and price the actual lawn — not the lot. They see a satellite of their property with the lawn outlined and a quote on the spot. One tap to accept, one tap to checkout. No drawing, no waiting on you to get back to them.

  2. 02

    Customer-drawn lawn

    When the parcel data isn't clean enough to auto-quote — rural lots with pasture, dense suburban lots where the satellite read is too coarse for the lot size, properties with mixed use, heavy tree cover — the customer draws their actual lawn on satellite. Quote updates live as they trace. This is the precision tool: the customer outlines exactly what they want mowed, in the same session, no operator round-trip. We use it only when it makes the quote better than the auto-model would.

  3. 03

    Custom-quote request

    When the property is larger than your auto-quote ceiling (a tenant-controlled max-price setting), the booking flow hands the customer to you instead of guessing a price. They fill out a quick contact form. The job lands in your inbox as a pre-traced estimate request — polygon already attached, would-have-been auto-quote noted in the staff message. You send a real quote; the customer accepts through the standard quote-acceptance flow.

Margin protection on every path

Eight built-in guardrails apply across auto-quote, trace, and custom-quote requests. Every one of these is already running on every booking.

  1. 01

    Minimum price floor

    Every service has a starting price. If the auto-quote or polygon math undercuts it (small front yard, sliver lot), the customer pays your floor. Most operators set this at $40–$50 for residential mowing. No quote ever ships below your floor.

  2. 02

    Auto-quote ceiling (max_price)

    Above this price, the booking flow refuses to instant-quote and routes to a custom-quote request instead. You're not silently capping a $400 job at $200 — you're seeing the real number on your end and sending a deliberate manual quote. Operators see the would-have-been auto-quote in the request notes.

  3. 03

    Target hourly rate warning

    You set the hourly rate you need to clear. If a quote (auto or polygon) won't get there, a warning surfaces on the operator queue before dispatch. No surprise unprofitable jobs on the schedule.

  4. 04

    Surcharges for overgrown, cleanup, and hauling

    Set surcharges for overgrown lawns, cleanup, or hauling. The booking page asks customers to flag conditions up front — and if they don't, your crew can flag them on arrival. The surcharge rolls into the price automatically.

  5. 05

    What was quoted is locked and visible to your crew

    Whether the customer accepted the auto-quote, edited the boundary, or you sent a manual quote, the lawn polygon and price are saved with the job and shown to your crew on the job card. When they arrive, they see exactly what was agreed to. Real mowable area bigger? That's your evidence for an on-site adjustment.

  6. 06

    On-site price adjustment with customer signature

    Every job in the crew app has an Adjust Price button. Enter the new price, pick a reason, and for any increase, get the customer's signature on the screen. The signature is required and saved with the job. Every increase documented at the time.

  7. 07

    Paid at booking — no chasing invoices

    The customer pays the full quoted price at the moment of booking. Money in your bank account before the crew leaves the shop. On-site increases auto-charge the same card with the customer's signature on file; if the auto-charge fails, your crew collects on the spot.

  8. 08

    Per-zone minimum job value

    Each service-area zone has its own minimum job value. Customers too far away to book a $40 mow profitably don't see available slots until their quote clears the zone's minimum. No 25-mile drives for a small job.

Why three paths beat one

Auto-quote when the data is clean. Most residential addresses have clean enough parcel boundaries and satellite land-cover data that we can isolate the mowable turf — minus driveway, roof, and canopy — and price it instantly. The customer sees a number on the satellite, accepts, and pays — without you doing any quoting work. Tools that treat every quote as a manual ticket (customer submits a form, you measure later, you send a quote, customer accepts or ignores) lose bookings to slower turnaround and pay you in homework on the ones that do convert.

Customer-drawn lawn when the data isn't. When the satellite read isn't clean enough for our model to be confident (rural lots with pasture, dense suburban lots where the land-cover read is too coarse for the lot size, mixed-use properties, heavy tree cover), we hand the customer the trace tool so they outline what they actually want mowed. Letting the customer define the scope themselves is more accurate than any auto-measurement when the imagery is ambiguous — and it puts the customer in control of what gets quoted instead of trusting a model on edge-case data. Still instant, still no quoting work for you, and the number reflects the real job.

Custom-quote request when it's too big to auto. When the property is larger than your auto-quote ceiling, the booking flow stops trying to quote it. The customer fills out a contact form; the job lands in your inbox as a pre-traced lead with the polygon attached and the would-have-been auto-quote noted in the staff message. You send a real quote. No silent capping; no $400 jobs being booked at $200.

Eight guardrails on every path.Floor catches anything drawn or modeled too small. Auto-quote ceiling catches anything too big. On-site price adjustments with signature handle the cases where reality differs from what was quoted. The realistic upside for a customer trying to game the trace path is $10–$30 — and most won't draw a deceptive shape and then sign a price-increase form when the crew shows up.

Big or unusual jobs route to in-person estimates

Not every job belongs on the instant-quote flow. Multi-acre properties, brush clearing, commercial sites, anything where you genuinely need to walk the lot — set those services up as in-person estimates instead. The customer requests an estimate with photos and notes, you visit, fill in your line items and a deposit amount, and send them a real quote. The deposit gets charged through the same payment flow; the rest is invoiced when the job is done. No instant-quote risk on jobs that don't fit the model.

Instant-quote FAQs

How is this different from AI parcel-measurement tools?+
AI parcel-measurement tools are bolt-ons — they automate the measurement step, but you still need a separate CRM, scheduler, and payment stack to actually book a job. You're paying two subscriptions and stitching workflows together. Groundcut auto-quotes from parcel data inside the same platform that handles booking, recurring billing, dispatch, and the crew app. One bill, one system, one customer record. Auto-measurement is also only as good as the imagery — when ours isn't confident, we hand the customer the trace tool so they outline what they want mowed; when an AI tool isn't confident, there's no fallback path that keeps the customer in the funnel.
How is this different from traditional field-service tools with manual quoting?+
Traditional field-service platforms treat every quote as homework. The customer submits a quote-request form with their address and contact info; you measure the property, build a quote, and send it back for approval — either on-site during a visit or back at the office. By the time the round-trip finishes, a real chunk of leads have already booked with someone else. Groundcut auto-quotes on the spot — for properties where the satellite land-cover read is clean, the customer never waits, and you never touch the quote. For the properties where the data isn't clean, the customer draws their own lawn on satellite and books in the same session. The only quotes that come to your inbox are oversized properties that genuinely need your judgment.
Won't auto-quote get the price wrong?+
Only when the data's thin. The eligibility gate is conservative on purpose — we reject the auto-quote when the parcel is multi-building (apartments, duplexes), oversized for the auto-quote ceiling, or when the satellite land-cover read isn't confident enough about how much of the lot is actual mowable turf. Rejected addresses fall through to the trace flow, where the customer outlines the actual lawn. False positives (auto-quote sent on wrong data) are much more expensive than false negatives (customer traces when they didn't need to), so the gate errs toward "let them trace."
What about properties that are too big for instant quoting?+
They hit the auto-quote ceiling (your max_price setting) and route into the custom-quote request flow. The customer fills out a short contact form; the job lands in your inbox as a pre-traced estimate request with the polygon attached and the would-have-been auto-quote noted in the staff message. You review, fill in line items + deposit, and send a real quote. The customer accepts through the same quote-acceptance flow as an in-person estimate. No silent capping; no $400 jobs being booked at $200.
Won't customers just draw a small lawn to pay less, when they do trace?+
On the trace path: they can try — the safeguards above are why it doesn't work. Drawing tiny just hits your minimum price floor. The crew sees exactly what was drawn when they arrive — if the real mowable area is bigger, they adjust the price on-site with a signature, and the extra charges to the same card on file. The realistic upside for trying to game it is usually $10–$30 — and most people won't draw a deceptive shape and then sign a price-increase form when the crew shows up. On the auto-quote path: the customer never draws at all, so there's nothing to game.
What if the customer outlines exactly the area they want mowed, even if their lawn is bigger?+
That's the right outcome. What they drew represents what they want mowed, not their whole property. If a customer only wants the front yard, they outline just the front. You know the scope before you arrive, and pricing the rest is a separate conversation if they ask later.
How does the on-site price adjustment actually work?+
When your crew shows up and sees the lawn is overgrown, bigger than what was quoted, or the customer added scope, they tap Adjust Price in the crew app. They enter the new price and pick a reason from a dropdown (Overgrown, Larger area than quoted, Additional cleanup, etc.). For any increase, the customer signs on the screen with their finger. The signature is saved with the job. Price decreases don't need a signature.
What if the satellite imagery is wrong or out of date?+
Satellite imagery gets refreshed on a regional schedule. New construction sometimes shows a vacant lot when a house actually exists. The trace tool works either way — the customer outlines the lawn as it is today, even if the image is six months old. New construction is the only place this comes up regularly, and it usually clears up within a year.
Is there an audit trail if a customer disputes a price adjustment later?+
Yes. Every price adjustment is logged with who made it (which crew member), the price before and after, the reason, and the time. The customer's signature is saved with the job. If a customer disputes the charge with their bank, you have: the original quote and polygon, the price they paid at booking, the reason for the adjustment, and their signature on the new amount. Stronger evidence than most field-service tools provide.

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