Financial Planning for Landscapers
Helping Landscapers to Build Wealth and Prosperity
Busy and quiet seasons, maintenance alongside construction work, and any crew or gear in the business all connect. We’ll help you budget for each, alongside an accountant, from your first season to your own business.
Our Financial Advice Team Is Here to Help You
We Can Help You
- Build a buffer for the quiet months from what the busy seasons bring in
- Get ready for tax time, even when it lands in the off-season, alongside an accountant
- Budget regular maintenance income alongside construction jobs paid in stages
- Weigh what a structural landscaping licence would change for the business and the household
- Plan a seasonal crew’s wages and super into the cashflow before the busy months
- Size ute, trailer and machine loan repayments to what the quieter months bring in
- Review cover for heavy outdoor work, and again as your duties move to design or quoting
- Set a retirement plan that weighs any value in a maintenance round beside super and savings
Who We Help
- Apprentices in landscape construction or horticulture
- Landscape gardeners on wages building and planting for a landscaping business
- Lawn and garden contractors running a regular maintenance round
- Landscape construction businesses laying paving and turf, and building walls and decks
- Owners taking on a crew for the busy months of the year
- Landscapers stepping up to licensed structural work
- Maintenance businesses holding council, strata or commercial contracts
- Landscapers moving off the tools into design, quoting or supervising
What we advise on
How Our Advice Works for Landscapers
Cashflow & Financial Wellbeing
What could the busy season set up for the rest of your landscaping year?
Planning the busy months around the quiet ones can turn a good season into a steadier year at home.
We’ll set up a budget for your landscaping year with you, so the busy seasons can carry the quieter months.
Where your work follows the seasons, any loan repayments, insurance premiums and household bills still arrive every month. Where a business has both, regular maintenance income can be set against the fixed costs first, with construction jobs that pay in stages planned on top. If you employ a crew, from 1 July 2026 their super must generally reach their fund within 7 business days after payday.
Together, we’ll work through:
- A month-by-month budget for the landscaping year, showing which months carry the costs of the others
- Regular maintenance invoices from a lawn and garden round, counted first when the household budget is set
- Construction jobs paid by deposit and in stages, with materials costs held back from each payment before it’s spent
- Your own pay from the business, kept at one steady amount from the busiest month to the quietest
- Repayments on a ute, trailer, mowers or a skid steer, planned for the quietest month, with any loan through a broker
- A busy-season crew budgeted before the work peaks, including casual loadings, with super due within 7 business days of payday from 1 July 2026
- The renewal date of any large maintenance contract, marked in the plan with savings sized to what it brings in
- A cash buffer sized to the length of your quiet season, rebuilt each year from the busy months
Tax & Wealth Strategies
Could tax time arrive with the money already put away from the busy months?
Setting a share aside while the work is busy can have the tax ready well before it’s due.
Together, we’ll map the tax side of your landscaping year, so the end of June is planned for in the busy months.
Ryker’s financial advisers plan tax and set tax structure and strategy, working alongside your accountant, who prepares and lodges your return. The financial year ends on 30 June. If your quieter months fall around then, year-end decisions, such as any super contribution you’d like counted in that year, can come up while less work is coming in.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Tax money built up through the busiest months and held apart from the buffer, with an accountant estimating the amount
- A super contribution you plan to deduct, paid in time to count before 30 June, with an accountant confirming the claim
- A mower, trailer or machine bought for the business, with the timing and its tax treatment decided with an accountant
- The business structure, reviewed with an accountant as a crew grows or before you apply for a structural licence
- Any financial reporting a contractor licence requires, prepared by an accountant and planned around the business’s year
- Your last two tax returns, which a lender may read for an equipment or home loan, discussed with a broker first
- Any PAYG instalments the ATO sets, planned from busy-month takings with each due date marked in the budget
- A profit estimate for the year drawn up in May, giving an accountant time to advise on purchases and contributions
Personal Insurance & Protection
How could part of your income keep coming in if illness or injury kept you off the tools?
After a waiting period, income protection can pay part of your income, so regular bills at home can still be paid.
We can weigh income protection, life cover and TPD with you for heavy outdoor work such as digging, lifting and paving.
Moneysmart says income protection usually replaces a percentage of your pre-tax income, and most policies offer a waiting period between 14 days and two years. When you apply, insurers usually ask about your age and job, so the digging, lifting and any machine work you do is part of the picture. The insurer sets the terms and decides any claim.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Questions about your landscaping duties, such as paving, walls and any machine work, answered with reasonable care on an application
- How many weeks any savings could last, used to choose the waiting period before income protection begins paying
- Cover reviewed when your work moves from digging and laying to designing, quoting or supervising jobs
- TPD, as the policy defines it, and life cover, sized to any home loan, gear finance or family who rely on you
- Cover in a super account fed by casual or seasonal work, and what it costs over long gaps
- How an insurer may measure a business owner’s income for income protection, such as profit after business expenses
- A client’s fence, pipes or paving damaged during a dig, which is a matter for business liability insurance, not personal cover
- Injuries on the job to any crew you employ, handled through compulsory workers compensation and separate from your own cover
Superannuation
Through busy and quiet seasons alike, how could your super keep building?
Contributions planned around your whole year, not only the busy months, can help your balance grow over a working life.
We can map, with you, who pays your super on wages, on ABN work and in a business of your own.
On wages, your employer generally pays super into your fund. On a contract, a business may still have to pay super if you’re paid mainly for your labour. If you trade as a sole trader or in a partnership, no employer pays your super, so contributions are yours to plan, through the quiet months as well as the busy ones.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Super shown on each landscaping payslip, then traced to your fund so every pay period is accounted for
- Any casual work you pick up in the quiet months, with its super paid into a fund you choose
- Your own contributions as a business owner, planned for the busy months and kept going through the quiet ones
- Concessional contributions from every source counted against the yearly cap, which is indexed, so a top-up stays within it
- Super left in a fund from a casual or seasonal job, brought together once you know which account holds the cover you want
- Super for anyone you hire for the season, including subbies whose work is mostly labour, confirmed with an accountant or the ATO
- Any insurance inside your super, and whether its cover and premiums still suit heavy outdoor work
- Contributions for a spouse in the business, if you have one, so their retirement savings build alongside yours
Financial Planning & Advice
From a first mower to licensed builds, which step in your landscaping work would you like to plan next?
Each step can be planned before you take it, with household and business goals weighed side by side.
We can set out a financial plan, or Statement of Advice, for home and business, reviewed as your work changes.
Landscaping can change shape over a working life, from an apprenticeship to a maintenance round, a construction crew or design work. Structural work above a set value can need a contractor licence in some states, and where a licence sets minimum financial requirements, drawings and gear purchases can affect the figures the business must keep. The regulator sets those rules and an accountant prepares any reporting, while we plan the household side with you.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Adding construction jobs to a maintenance round, with the extra gear, crew and cashflow the builds would need
- The step up to licensed structural work, with any financial requirements set by the regulator and reported by an accountant
- Household goals and business goals set out side by side, with a date and an amount for each
- A large contract won or lost, met with a fresh look at the budget, cover and savings
- Review points tied to a first season with a crew, a structural licence or a new machine
- Time off in the quieter weeks, costed into the year as its own line in the budget
- A move into garden design or quoting, and the training, time and change in pay it brings
- Moving from residential gardens to commercial or strata maintenance, with the contract terms, payment cycles and costs weighed in the plan
Retirement & Aged Care
When the digging and lifting are behind you, what would you like your days to hold?
Super and savings, plus any value in a round you could sell, can give you choices about when to stop.
We’ll go through a retirement plan with you that weighs which parts of the business could have a buyer.
A maintenance round with regular contracts may have a buyer, while design-and-construct work can depend more on the person doing it. Super and savings can form the base of retirement income either way. Preservation age is 60 for anyone born from 1 July 1964, and super can generally only be accessed once you meet a condition of release, such as ceasing employment at 60 or over.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Super and savings outside the business as the base of retirement income, with a target set for each
- Your preservation age, 60 for anyone born from 1 July 1964, used as a date in the plan for winding back the work
- A move into design, quoting or lighter maintenance before stopping, and the income each stage could give
- Winding the business down over a few seasons, compared with selling it in one step
- Selling a maintenance round as a going business, with an accountant checking eligibility for the small business CGT concession rules, which continue past 1 July 2027
- The ute, trailer, mowers and machines at the end, sold, kept or passed on, with any tax on a sale worked out by an accountant
- Maintenance contracts handed to a buyer or a staff member, with the timing planned around your own finish date
- Your super invested to suit the years left until you stop, and how you’d like to draw on it after
Property Investment Advice
Where could a home or an investment property fit into a year that runs by the seasons?
Checking repayments against your quietest stretch of work can show what purchase the whole year could carry.
We can test a home or investment purchase with you against the quiet months, with a broker arranging any loan.
A lender decides how it reads seasonal or self-employed income, and a broker compares lenders and arranges any loan. Repayments run every month, so the budget is tested on the months when less work comes in. Borrowing to invest can magnify losses as well as gains, and the loan must still be repaid if values fall.
Together, we’ll work through:
- Income that changes with the seasons, read by each lender in its own way, with a broker comparing lenders before you apply
- A loan size worked out from the slowest stretch of your landscaping year, rather than its peak
- Storing gear, soil and pavers at home, and what using part of a property for the business may mean for tax, with an accountant
- A deposit topped up after each busy season from whatever is left once tax and the buffer are funded
- Renting a yard for the ute, trailer and machines, compared with buying a home that has room for them
- A move closer to the suburbs you work in, weighed on price against the fuel and travel time it could save
- Residential investments, which from 1 July 2027 can be negatively geared only if newly built, or held or under contract at the 12 May 2026 announcement
- Holding an investment for the long term, with the CGT change for gains after 1 July 2027 explained before you buy
Your Landscaping Finances, Worked Through Together
The Quiet Months Planned For
A budget and buffer set up with you, so the busy seasons can carry the quieter ones.
Tax Time Planned Ahead
Tax money and any year-end contribution planned through the year, with an accountant on the return.
Maintenance and Construction Income
Regular maintenance invoices and staged construction payments, each given its place in the budget.
The Licence Step
What a structural landscaping licence could change at home and in the business, with an accountant on any reporting.
Paying a Seasonal Crew
Wages and super for a busy-season crew, planned into the cashflow before the work peaks.
Gear Repayments All Year
Ute, trailer and machine repayments sized with you to the months when less comes in.
Cover for Heavy Outdoor Work
Income protection, TPD and life cover weighed for digging, lifting and paving, with the insurer deciding the terms.
What a Round Could Be Worth
Retirement planned on super and savings, beside any value in a round or contracts you could sell.
Proactive, Holistic, and Experienced Financial Planning
Landscaping is work you can stand back and look at: a garden that fills in over the years, a new courtyard, a lawn a family uses every weekend. It takes skill, a good eye and long days outdoors, season after season. We’ll take the time to understand how your year runs and what you’d like your money to do for you, then help you build a plan around the way your work and income change with the seasons.
The busy months can do more than keep the business going. They can help you put something away for a home, a break when the work is quieter, a business that grows at the pace you choose, or more freedom later on. If others rely on your income, we’ll include them in the plan too. Whatever you’re building, we can review the plan with you each year and as the business changes, so it stays matched to the goals you set.
Every financial decision impacts the next
Your Financial Life Is Connected
Great advice starts with understanding the bigger picture. Every stage of life presents new opportunities and challenges, from buying property and changing careers to growing your family, planning for retirement and protecting what matters most. At Ryker, we help connect every piece of your financial world into one clear strategy.
Your
Wealth
- Property & Investing
- Career & Income
- Tax Strategy
- Insurance & Protecting Your Family
- Super & SMSF
- Wealth & Investments
- Life Events & Changes
- Business & Wealth
- Legacy & Future Wealth
- Retirement Planning
Frequently Asked Questions
We’re invested in your long-term success. What we do is personal, and we take it personally.
Your financial decisions connect, so we consider the parts of your financial life that are relevant to the advice you need:
- Property & Investing
- Career & Income
- Tax Strategy
- Insurance & Protecting Your Family
- Super & SMSF
- Wealth & Investments
- Life Events & Changes
- Business & Wealth
- Legacy & Future Wealth
- Retirement Planning
This is how we help you make decisions today with your longer-term goals in view.
Everybody’s situation is different, so we listen first, understand what matters to you and explain your options clearly before we make a recommendation.
Start with the months themselves. Setting out which months bring in the most, and which bring in the least, shows how much the busy season needs to carry.
From there, a plan can include:
- A buffer sized to the length of your quiet season, saved from the busy months.
- Your own pay from the business kept at a steady amount through the year.
- Any gear repayments and insurance premiums tested against the quietest month, not an average one.
- Where you have both, regular maintenance work set against the fixed costs first, with construction jobs planned on top.
We can build that plan with you and review it after each season.
Your accountant and financial adviser bring different expertise to the same decisions. Your accountant can advise on tax reporting, structures and consequences; we help you plan how cashflow, debt, super, investments and protection work towards your goals. We can coordinate before important decisions.
What an accountant does
- Prepares and lodges tax returns, BAS and financial statements
- Advises on tax structures such as companies, trusts and partnerships
- Manages bookkeeping, payroll and ATO compliance
- Provides tax advice on the consequences of a transaction
What a financial adviser does
- Sets a long term strategy across retirement, investing and cash flow
- Builds wealth from early in a working life, starting with cash flow, a first home and super
- Recommends specific super funds, investments and personal insurance
- Operates under an Australian Financial Services Licence, which is required to give personal advice on financial products
- Handles retirement planning, Centrelink and aged care strategy, and estate planning considerations
Professional roles and authorisations matter. We provide financial advice within our authorisations and work with your accountant for specialist tax advice and lodgements.
Where they work together
- Tax position. Your accountant confirms your marginal rate, deductions and carried forward losses, which shapes decisions on super contributions, investment structures and the timing of asset sales.
- Business and entity structures. Your accountant advises on the structure itself and your financial adviser works within it for investments, insurance and succession planning.
- Cash flow. Your accountant’s figures can help us understand what’s available for debt repayment, protection and longer-term goals.
- Before key decisions. We can coordinate with your accountant on contributions, asset sales and other material choices in time to consider relevant tax consequences.
It helps to plan for tax during the busy months, while more is coming in. Points worth working through:
- A share of busy-season income moved to a separate account for tax, with the amount estimated by an accountant.
- Any PAYG instalments the ATO sets, given a place in the budget.
- Any deductible super contribution you’d like counted in the year, made in time and confirmed by an accountant.
- Equipment purchases, with the timing and tax decided with an accountant.
Ryker’s financial advisers plan tax and set tax structure and strategy, working alongside your accountant, who prepares and lodges your return.
In some states, structural landscaping such as retaining walls, paving, decks and pergolas needs a contractor licence once a job is above a set value. Where a licence sets minimum financial requirements, the business must keep meeting them while it holds the licence, so drawings and gear purchases can affect its figures.
The regulator in your state sets the rules, and an accountant can prepare any financial reporting. We can plan the household side with you: what you draw from the business, the buffer you keep, and how bigger jobs paid in stages change your cashflow.
You may. The ATO says that if you pay contractors mainly for their labour, they’re treated as employees for super, and it doesn’t matter if they have an ABN. Whether a contract is mainly for labour depends on its terms and how the work is paid, and an accountant or the ATO can confirm each worker’s status.
From 1 July 2026, employer super must generally reach the worker’s fund within 7 business days after payday. We can plan with you the cashflow for a seasonal crew’s wages and super, so the busy months are budgeted before they start.
A general insurance broker can arrange cover for the business, such as public liability, tools, equipment and vehicles. That cover is for damage, theft or claims from others, and it isn’t designed to replace your own income if you’re ill or injured.
Advice looks at personal cover: income protection, which can pay part of your income after a waiting period, and life and TPD cover, as the policy defines it, if others rely on you. We can work through those with you beside any business cover you hold, then compare suitable options. The insurer sets the terms and decides any claim.
It may be. Maintenance rounds and contracts can be bought and sold, and what a buyer would pay may depend on the contracts in place, how long clients have stayed and how much of the work relies on you. Design-and-construct work can depend more on the owner, so it may be harder to sell.
Because a sale isn’t certain, we’d usually plan retirement on super and savings first, with any sale as an addition. Small business CGT concessions may apply to a sale, with an accountant confirming eligibility. We can plan with you how a round, super and savings could fit together.
Yes. Busy season or quiet, first year on the tools or years into running a round, the conversation starts with where things are now.
There’s no cost for the initial conversation. Any advice after that is a paid service, with its scope and fee agreed with you in writing first.
It helps to bring your last two tax returns, your fund’s latest statement and any insurance policies you have, plus a note of your busiest and quietest months. We can meet in person or online.
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Whatever’s on your mind, we’re here to help. You’ll speak with an authorised financial adviser who’ll listen first and get to know what matters to you.
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