In this article:
What are Production Rates?
Production Rates help you estimate materials needed and man hours for jobs. These formulas will calculate quantity for an item (not price), and ensure easy and accurate estimating.
The formulas generally take some measurement such as square feet of a property and then divide by a factor to figure out either how long that service will take (labor hours) or how much material would be used for that service.
⚠️ Only a SingleOps employee is able add/edit Production Rates. Contact support, your Implementation Specialist or CSM for assistance.
Set Up Production Rates
Contact support, your Implementation Specialist or CSM to create the production rate in your account.
Since production rates are used to determine the quantity of an item, you will need to associate the production rate to an item.
Edit the desired item, and apply the production rate. Follow this link to learn more about Item Settings.
💡 One production rate can be used multiple times across multiple items. However, each item can only be associated to 1 production rate. For example, I can apply ( square feet / 1000 ) production rate to my Apple Scab item and my mowing item. I cannot apply both ( square feet / 1000 ) production rate and ( square feet / 5000 ) production rate to the mowing item.
Use Production Rates
Once the production rate is created and added to an item, you will be able to put it in action.
When an item with a production rate is added to a job, you will now see a Recalculate Quantities option below the item list.
Fill in Custom Input fields or Input Variables by clicking on the quantity of the item
Select Recalculate Quantities
Quantity of item will populate base on production rate formula
Common Conversions
Example | Equation |
Cubic Yards to Square Feet | ( square_feet * depth / 27 ) |
Square Yards to Square Feet | ( square_yards * 9 ) |
Square Feet to Acres | ( square_feet / 43560 ) |
Common Examples
These are baseline rates that will help you get started. You need to adjust these rates to your equipment and conditions. You should not use these rates for bidding purposes until you verify that they work for your company.
IPM/Turf/Fert
You spray 1 ounce per 1000 sq ft. Apply a production rate of square feet / 1000 on your material line item. Sales rep simply adds square footage, and SingleOps will estimate ounces.
Installs/enhancements
Determine how much rock/mulch material is needed for different sq ft at different depths. Apply a production rate with a depth variable. Sales rep enter sq ft in depth field.
Mowing/Maintenance
On average you mow 5000 sq ft in one hour. Apply a production rate of square feet / 5000 on your labor line item. Sales rep simply adds square footage, and SingleOps will estimate Man Hours.
Turf Mowing
We recommend establishing several levels of difficulty, such as easy, moderate and difficult.
Easy | Moderate | Difficult |
Wide open mowing, few obstacles, flat, able to operate | Some obstacles, moderate sloping, smaller pieces, | Many obstacles, sloped, and or much turning, |
Size Mower | Rate |
21" Mower |
|
Easy | 12,500 Sq. Ft/hr |
Moderate | 10,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
Difficult | 7,500 Sq. Ft/hr |
36” Walk-behind with push trim mower |
|
Easy | 25,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
Moderate | 22,500 Sq. Ft/hr. |
Difficult | 20,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
42”-48” Walk-behind with push trim mower |
|
Easy | 35,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
Moderate | 31,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
Difficult | 27,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
52-61” Walk-behind with trim mower |
|
Easy | 50,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
Moderate | 45,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
Difficult | 40,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
52-61” Rider with trim mower |
|
Easy | 65,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
Moderate | 57,500 Sq. Ft./hr |
Difficult | 50,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
72” rider with trim mower |
|
Easy | 90,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
Moderate | 80,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
Difficult | 70,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
💡 The above times are from arrival at the job and include unloading and loading the equipment for departure.
Turf Edging
There are two types of edging. Hard Edging which is along paved sidewalks and curbs or paved bed edges. Soft edging is along bed edges that are not paved. It assumes using a bed edging machine not a wheeled walk behind edger.
Hard Edges | 9,000 Lin. Ft./hr |
Soft Edges | 4,000 Lin. Ft./hr |
String Trimmer Work
This is work that is done with a string trimmer such as trimming around obstacles(posts, lights etc). The bed edger is much faster and the string trimmer should only be used where a bed edger is inappropriate.
Trim edges | 1,500 Lin. Ft/hr |
Obstacles | 50-75/hr |
Blower Clean-up
There easiest way to do this is by computing the linear ft. of hard edges and multiplying it by 3 feet to arrive at a square footage number. If there are wider areas you can increase the square footage.
Back Pack Blower | 25,000 Sq. Ft/hr. |
Policing or Trash Pick-up
Light Trash | 80,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
Moderate Trash | 40,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
Heavy Trash | 20,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
Bed Detail
Bed detail includes weeding, etc. It assumes that it is done on a regular basis and will not require heavy weeding.
Ground Cover, shrub beds | 6,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
Slopes | 3,000 Sq. Ft/hr |
Bed Edging
Hard Edges | 9,000 Lin.Ft/hr |
Soft Edges | 4,000 Lin. Ft/hr |
Color Beds
Natural pruning with hand pruners or loppers. Based on square feet of shrub bed area.
Shrub Pruning | 3000 Sq. Ft/hr. |
Individual Shrub Pruning Small | 15/hour |
Individual shrub Pruning Medium | 10/hour |
Individual Shrub Pruning Large | 6/hour |
Hedge Pruning
Calculate the surface area to be hedged in square feet. The surface area is measured by measuring length X height X width and add the ends of each section.
Regular hedging (Power shears) | 1,500 Sq. Ft/hour |
Difficult hedging (ladder required) | 500 Sq. Ft/hour |
Tree Pruning
Pruning of small trees, including removal of eye level branches
and suckers.
Eye level branches | 6 Trees/hr |
Shaping Small Trees (under 12 ft) | 4 Trees/hr |
Irrigation System
Check and Adjust | 8 Valves/hr. |
Spot Spray
Back Pack Sprayer | 1000 Sq. Ft/hr |
Fertilizing
Granular fertilizer applied with a push spreader
Apply Fertilizer | 43,000Sq.Ft/hr |
Spread Mulch
Time to spread is affected by how far mulch must be moved to be spread. The below rate assumes the mulch does not have to be moved more than 100 ft.
Hand spread | 2.5 Cu. Yds/hr |