TreeBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

Billing Stump Grinding: Add-On, Separate Job, or Its Own Invoice?

Stump grinding is one of the most profitable things a tree company does, and one of the easiest to bill badly. It often happens on a different day than the removal, sometimes with a different crew, and occasionally gets forgotten entirely. How you bill it depends on how you run it.

Why Stump Grinding Needs Its Own Plan

In Invoicing Trimming and Pruning Jobs When the Scope Changes on Site we talked about capturing work that changes on site. Stump grinding is a special case of that problem because it is so often split from the main job.

Some companies grind the same day with a grinder on the trailer. Others send a grinding crew a week later, after the utility locates come back. Some customers decide they want the stump gone only after they see it. Each of those leads to a slightly different billing setup.

Stump grinding also has its own risk factors: buried utilities, irrigation lines, rocks and surface roots that run under walkways. Those can change the time a stump takes, and they deserve a note on the job. When something slows the grinder down, the invoice should be able to explain why.

Option 1: Add-On to the Removal Invoice

If the stump is ground the same day as the removal, the simplest approach is a line on the removal invoice: Stump grinding, 30-inch stump, back yard. The customer gets one invoice, one payment, one receipt.

This works well when:

• The grinder is on site with the removal crew
• The customer approved grinding on the original estimate
• There is no reason to delay, such as waiting for locates

The risk is the reverse case: grinding is on the estimate, the removal is invoiced, and the grinding happens later and never gets billed. If the work is split, the invoice should be too.

If the estimate included grinding but the customer declines it on the day, note that too. Removing the line from the invoice with a short explanation, such as stump grinding declined by customer, keeps the record honest and avoids a confusing invoice that does not match what was approved.

Option 2: A Separate Job Under the Same Client

When grinding happens on another day, create it as its own job in the Stump Grinding category, tied to the same client and property. It shows up on the job board, gets scheduled like any other work and gets completed in the crew app.

Then invoice it when it is completed. That way the removal invoice goes out and gets paid right away, and the grinding invoice follows when the grinding is done. Nothing waits on anything else, and nothing gets lost because it lived only in somebody's memory.

Separate jobs also help with crew planning. A grinding crew can work through a route of stumps from several removals in one day, each job with its own property notes about access, gate codes and where the stump sits. Each completed stump is then ready to bill on its own.

Option 3: Grinding-Only Customers

Plenty of customers call just for stump grinding. Maybe a previous company left the stumps, or the homeowner cut the tree themselves. These are usually small, quick jobs, which makes payment friction a bigger problem: chasing a small invoice can cost more than it is worth.

For grinding-only jobs, collect quickly. Ask for card on file when the estimate is approved, or send the invoice the moment the job is complete so the customer can pay online. If you require prepayment for small jobs from new customers, TreeBossPro supports prepayments.

Grinding-only customers are also a good source of future work. Someone who calls to grind an old stump often has other trees that need attention. Have the crew note anything worth quoting, and send an estimate for pruning or removal while the customer is thinking about their yard.

Pricing Lines That Make Sense

However you schedule it, the invoice line should explain the price. Most companies price by stump diameter, with adjustments for access, surface roots and grinding depth. Write the line so the customer can see the basis: Grind 2 stumps (24 inch and 18 inch), surface roots to 6 inches below grade.

Add a separate line if you charge for chip cleanup or backfill. Some customers want the grindings left to fill the hole. Others want them hauled away. Noting which was done avoids a follow-up call.

If you grind roots along with the stump, say so. Root grinding often takes as long as the stump itself, and customers who see a line for it understand why the total is higher than they expected for a single stump.

Never Lose a Stump Again

The most common stump grinding billing problem is not price. It is simply forgetting. A stump approved on an estimate in April, ground in May by a different crew, invoiced never. Keeping grinding as its own job category makes it visible: you can look at reports and see what grinding was completed and what was invoiced.

Reports by job category make this easy. When Stump Grinding is its own category, you can compare completed grinding jobs against invoiced ones at a glance. Anything completed but not invoiced is money waiting to be collected.

Pick the approach that matches how you work, use it every time and make sure the job record ties it together. For how jobs, estimates and invoices connect in one system, see stump grinding and removal billing in TreeBossPro.