Landscape construction - issued 2012

Industry overview

Businesses in this industry provide outdoor landscape construction services for residential, commercial and public premises.

These benchmarks do not apply to lawn mowing and garden services or businesses that only provide fence construction services.

Performance benchmarks

These performance benchmarks are developed using information reported on income tax returns and activity statements for the 2009-10 year. Performance benchmarks are updated annually.

To review a comparison of previous years benchmarks, refer to previous year.

These benchmarks show a number of different financial ratios of business income to business expenses, to help businesses compare their performance against similar businesses in an industry.

The key benchmark ratio for this industry is labour to turnover. This ratio is likely to be the most accurate predictor of business turnover. For businesses that do not report labour or only report a small amount, total expenses to turnover can be used to predict turnover.

Businesses operating outside the key benchmark may be contacted by us. During an audit, if a business does not have records to support their reported income and expenses, we may use benchmarks and other information available to assess the profits of the business.

For information about calculating benchmarks, refer to Small business benchmarks.

Key benchmark ratio	Annual turnover range
	$50,000 - $200,000	$200,000 - $500,000	More than $500,000
Income tax return
Labour/turnover	10% - 22%	17% - 28%	22% - 33%
Average labour	23%	24%	28%
Total expenses/turnover	57% - 73%	73% - 84%	81% - 90%
Average total expenses	65%	78%	85%
Activity statement
Non-capital purchases/ total sales	45% - 61%	51% - 64%	53% - 65%

Benchmarks are published as a range representing the ratios reported by businesses grouped either side of the average. Publishing benchmarks as a range allows for variations across financial years, regions and business models.

The following benchmarks are made available as a guide for businesses to review their performance and business practices against other similar businesses.

The following expenses are not reported by every business, so one or more of these benchmarks may not apply to an individual business.

Benchmark ratio	Annual turnover range
Income tax return	$50,000 - $200,000	$200,000 - $500,000	More than $500,000
Cost of sales/turnover	22% - 38%	30% - 41%	33% - 45%
Motor vehicle expenses/turnover	6% - 10%	4% - 6%	3% - 4%