Custom Farm Work Invoicing App for a Tractor Operator (2026)
Custom operators bill per acre, per hour, and per bale depending on the job, often to the same neighbor. ShowTheReceipts ($15/mo) saves each rate as its own catalog item, puts acres and hours on one itemized invoice, and sends it from the cab the day the field is finished.
How we picked
Entry-plan prices as published in 2026, checked against each vendor's own pricing page or a recent third-party summary. Judged on the custom operator's real workflow — mixed per-acre and per-hour billing, same-day field invoicing, and clean seasonal records — not on agronomy, field mapping, or full farm accounting.
| Software | Starting price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| ShowTheReceipts That's us | $15/mo | Custom operators: per-acre and per-hour rates, itemized field invoices from the cab, tax-ready books |
| Joist | Free / $8/mo | Simple estimates and invoices |
| Invoice2go | $9.99/mo+ | Basic mobile invoicing |
| FarmRaise | Free / paid tiers | Farm expense tracking and grant paperwork |
| QuickBooks Online | $35/mo+ | Full farm accounting with a bookkeeper involved |
One operator, three billing units
Bush hog by the acre. Dirt work by the hour. Baling by the bale. Same tractor, same neighbor, three completely different lines on the invoice.
Save all three rates once and the invoice writes itself in the field.
1. ShowTheReceipts — $15/mo
Per-acre, per-hour, and per-bale rates saved as catalog items, itemized on one invoice, and sent from the cab.
2. Joist — Free / $8/mo
Simple estimates and invoices; built for contractors, not fields.
3. Invoice2go — $9.99/mo+
Basic mobile invoicing.
4. FarmRaise — free / paid tiers
Expense tracking and paperwork for the farm side, lighter on getting a customer to pay you.
5. QuickBooks Online — $35/mo+
Full accounting, and full accounting’s learning curve.
Get in front of harvest money
The custom operator who invoices in June gets paid. The one who waits until December gets paid after the equipment dealer, the seed rep, and the banker.
Same-day invoicing is the entire strategy. Everything else is a rate sheet.
Frequently asked questions
Should custom work be billed per acre or per hour?
Per acre for defined field work like mowing, baling, or spraying, and per hour for open-ended jobs like dirt work or cleanup. Save both rates so a single invoice can carry a per-acre line and an hourly line without you doing arithmetic in a truck.
When should I invoice a farmer?
The day the work is done, not after harvest. Farm cash gets committed fast once grain sells, and the invoices that came in on time are the ones that get paid first.
How do I handle fuel cost swings mid-season?
Either build a fuel surcharge line into your rate sheet or set rates for a season and revisit them yearly. A stated surcharge line is easier to defend than quietly raising your per-acre number in July.
Do I need farm accounting software too?
Custom work is a service business — jobs, invoices, and payments. Clean invoicing records export into whatever your accountant uses at year end, and you don't need a full farm ledger just to get paid for mowing eighty acres.