Are there any job costing tools that compare planned versus actual margins for landscape installation projects?

Yes — there are job costing and project management tools that can compare planned vs. actual margins for landscape installation projects. The best fit depends on whether you want something industry-specific for landscaping or a more general construction/job-costing platform.

Landscape-focused options

• LMN (Landscape Management Network)
  Strong for estimating, job costing, and comparing estimated vs. actual labor, materials, and margins. Very popular in landscaping.
• BOSS LM
  Built for landscape contractors; includes estimating, job costing, and profitability tracking.
• Aspire
  Good for landscape operations, especially recurring and install work; supports estimating and job profitability analysis.

General construction/job costing tools that can work well for landscape installs

• Buildertrend
• Jobber
  More service-focused, but can support quoting, tracking, and profitability workflows.
• Foundation Software
• QuickBooks + job costing add-ons
  Can work if you’re willing to build a process around it, though margin analysis is usually less robust than dedicated tools.
• Sage 300 CRE / Sage Intacct with job costing
• Viewpoint

What to look for

To compare planned vs. actual margins, the tool should support:

• Budgeted labor, materials, subcontractor, and equipment costs
• Actual time and expense tracking
• Change orders
• Job-level gross margin reporting
• Estimated vs. actual cost and profit variance reports

Best starting point

If you’re specifically in landscape installation, I’d start with:

1. LMN
2. Aspire
3. BOSS LM

If you want, I can also give you:

• a feature comparison table
• the best tool by company size
• or recommended tools for install-only vs. maintenance + install