Landscaper annual accounts: garden installation, maintenance and plants

The short answer

Many landscapers are a sole proprietorship or vof and are not covered by Title 9; a landscaper's BV is. Installation projects that span the year boundary you account for under RJ 221: in proportion to progress, or without profit if the result cannot yet be estimated. Maintenance is turnover in the period of performance. Plants are carried at cost or at the lower net realisable value.

Updated 30 October 2026

Key facts

First the legal form

Many landscaping businesses are a sole proprietorship or vof. These are normally not covered by Title 9 and do not file annual accounts with the KVK; they prepare a balance sheet and profit and loss account for the income tax return. The worked example assumes a BV.

Installation: a project under RJ 221

A garden, roof garden or business site that you install on commission is a project in progress as soon as execution runs past the balance sheet date. Project revenue falls under RJ 221; RJ 270 applies only to separate deliveries and services outside the project (RJ 270, paragraph 103).

• Result can be estimated reliably: revenue and costs in proportion to the performance delivered (RJ 221, paragraph 301). Measure progress by work carried out, not by instalments paid.
• Result cannot yet be estimated: revenue up to the amount of the costs incurred that you can probably recover, without profit (paragraph 314). With many short projects you may always use this method for practical reasons, if it does not materially distort the picture (paragraph 316).
• Expected loss: immediately and in full as an expense, even if the work has yet to begin (paragraphs 323 and 324).

For a landscaper with mostly jobs of a few weeks, the second rule is often the workable one: profit on completion, and until then revenue and costs equal. Record the choice and apply it every year; changing method is allowed only for well-founded reasons (art. 2:384(6) DCC).

Maintenance: per visit or per period

Garden maintenance is a service. If you bill per visit, the turnover is earned when the visit is done (RJ 270, paragraph 115). With an annual contract for a fixed amount, straight-line allocation is the starting point, but the guideline allows a different allocation if it better reflects the actual effort (paragraph 120). In landscaping that is often the case: the work is concentrated in the growing season. If you invoice a winter package in advance in the autumn, the part you still have to carry out on 31 December appears on the balance sheet as an amount received in advance.

Plants, materials and machines

Plants and trees that you have bought for a job or for sale are inventory. They are living plants and therefore not agricultural inventories within the meaning of RJ 220 (paragraph 101): valuation at current value is not permitted. You value at acquisition cost and write down what can no longer be sold because of frost, drought or disease (art. 2:387(2) DCC). Assess that by the condition on the balance sheet date: losses from frost in January belong to the new year. Paving, soil and wood that are already at the customer's site but have not yet been used do not count as progress.

Mini excavators, mowers and trailers are tangible fixed assets. Depreciate over the useful life (art. 2:386(4) DCC) and allow for a residual value if you trade in machines. If you subcontract groundwork, chain liability for payroll taxes may apply: the Belastingdienst gives land cultivation as an example of work of a physical nature.

Worked example: a business garden of € 40.000

A fictitious landscaping BV installs a business garden for € 40.000. On 31 December 75% has been carried out, the client has paid € 20.000 in instalments and the project costs are € 24.000.

In both cases the balance is an asset: the BV has performed more than it has invoiced.

Four mistakes in landscaping

• Treating instalments paid as turnover or profit.
• Putting installation and maintenance for the same customer on one percentage of completion.
• Leaving dead or unsaleable plants at purchase price.
• Booking a machine as consumables.

Size class of the landscaper's BV

For the landscaper's BV the class follows from balance sheet total, turnover and staff. Seasonal workers count in the average over the financial year, not by the summer headcount. Check the limits at the size criteria and do the audit requirement check.

Sole proprietorship, vof or BV in Jaarrekening.io

For the sole proprietorship and the vof, the bookkeeping and taxes are intended in Jaarrekening.io; the annual accounts route follows Title 9 and is there for the BV. It reads in the trial balance as an XAF audit file or as an Excel or CSV file. You book the project balances and the write-down of plants yourself beforehand.

Sources

• Art. 2:384 DCC: accounting policies
• Art. 2:386 DCC: depreciation
• Art. 2:387 DCC: impairments
• RJ-Uiting 2020-15: Guideline 221 Projects in progress
• RJ-Uiting 2020-15: Guideline 270 The profit and loss account
• RJ-Uiting 2017-4: draft guideline 220 Inventories
• Belastingdienst: subcontracting brochure (2026)
• KVK: file annual accounts or not

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