Quick answer: NextMinute is proud to announce we're a Gold Sponsor of Master Landscapers South Australia (MLSA), the peak body for the landscaping industry in Adelaide and regional SA. It sits alongside our partnership with The Landscape Association over in NSW and the ACT. The short version of why: landscaping is construction work, the blokes and women doing it have been handed software built for someone else's day, and MLSA is the mob doing something about the state of the trade in SA.
We're backing MLSA
We've come on board as a Gold Sponsor, in with Jeffries, Bunnings, Waterpro, Cavpower and a fair few others who put their weight behind South Australian landscaping.
MLSA does the boring, important stuff. They're the assessing authority for Trade Recognition Certificates in SA, so if you want your skills on paper, that's who you go through. They run the Awards of Excellence across 24 categories. They put on Lunch Bites sessions, they've got apprenticeship and career pathways pulling new people into the trade, and they're the ones you ring when a licensing question or an insurance headache or a client dispute lands on your desk at 4pm on a Friday.
None of that runs on goodwill. So we've chipped in.
Here's why
We had options. Plenty of industries will take a sponsor's money. We went with landscaping, and here's the reason.
Say "landscaper" to most people and they picture someone on a mower. The MLSA members we deal with are running excavators, laying drainage, building retaining walls, pouring and paving, putting in irrigation and decks, then planting the thing out. Jobs that run four weeks, eight weeks, twelve. Three or four of them on the go at once.
That's a builder's job, with plants at the end of it.
And for years the trade's been sold software built for service work. Quote it, knock it out, invoice it, home by four. Perfect if you're a sparky doing six callouts a day. Not much chop when:
- The job runs two months and you're billing in stages, not one invoice at the end.
- The client decides the retaining wall wants to be a course higher, and that variation either gets quoted or it comes out of your back pocket.
- There's a bobcat on hire, three pallets of pavers and a subbie chippy on the deck, all piling cost onto a number you quoted eleven weeks ago.
- A week of rain wipes out the program and the whole build sequence shuffles right.
- You don't know if you made a dollar on it until it's finished and it's too late to care.
That last one comes up in nearly every yarn we have with a landscape crew. It's the reason back-costing works the way it does in NextMinute: estimated against actual, labour and materials, while the job's still open and you can still do something about it.
Backing MLSA is us putting our hand up and saying this trade's been overlooked for too long, and we're not just passing through.
What it means if you're an MLSA member
Mention you're an MLSA member and you'll get what we give every trade body we work with: unlimited onboarding, training and support from our Sydney team, and a 10-day free trial to see whether NextMinute suits how you run jobs. No credit card, no lock-in.
Worth knowing too: MLSA's big night of the year, the 2026 Awards of Excellence Gala Dinner, is on Saturday 14 November at the Ian McLachlan Room, Adelaide Oval. If you've built something you're proud of this year, get it entered.
And if you're working in SA and you're not a member yet, have a look. It covers landscape designers, residential and commercial contractors, garden maintenance contractors, suppliers and educators, and you get the awards program, the Find A Professional directory that customers actually search, the training sessions, and someone to ring when you need an answer. It's all on the MLSA website at landscapesa.com.au.
MLSA isn't where this started
We've been working with the landscaping trade for a while now and, if we're honest, we've been too quiet about it.
We're an official partner of The Landscape Association across NSW and the ACT, which got going this year after we got talking to their CEO Jodie Dean at Sydney Build. In March we were Gold Sponsor of their Women in Landscaping Brunch, which was a cracker of a morning and long overdue recognition for the women running these businesses, on site and behind the desk.
Mostly though, we've listened. A lot of what's in NextMinute for landscaping is there because a landscaper told us it needed to be:
- Jobs staged the way you actually build them. Excavation, prep, drainage, paving, planting, finish, with the crew and subbies scheduled across it so you know who's where next Tuesday.
- Hire and materials landing on the job. Bobcat, tipper, pavers, soil, plants, all sitting against the job as cost while it's running instead of turning up in a shoebox in July.
- Timesheets done on site. The crew puts hours on the job from the phone, so your labour cost is real and your Sunday night is your own.
- Variations that get billed. Quote the change, get it signed off, invoice it. Not "we'll sort it at the end", because you won't.
- Straight into the books. Two-way sync with Xero and MYOB, so nobody's typing invoices twice.
Laura and Daniel at Vast Landscapes in Sydney put it better than we could. Quoting used to keep them up past midnight. It's an hour or two now. Their words: "Honestly, it saved our marriage."
FAQs
Is NextMinute a sponsor of Master Landscapers South Australia?
Yes. NextMinute is a Gold Sponsor of MLSA, alongside Jeffries, Bunnings, Waterpro, Cavpower and others. We're also an official partner of The Landscape Association covering NSW and the ACT.
What is Master Landscapers South Australia?
MLSA is the peak industry body for landscaping in Adelaide and regional South Australia, representing landscape designers, residential and commercial contractors, garden maintenance contractors, suppliers and educators. It's the assessing authority for Trade Recognition Certificates in SA, runs the 24-category Awards of Excellence, and looks after training, career pathways and member advice on licensing, insurance and disputes.
When is the 2026 MLSA Awards of Excellence Gala Dinner?
Saturday 14 November 2026, at the Ian McLachlan Room, Adelaide Oval. Entries and tickets go through MLSA.
Does NextMinute work for landscaping businesses?
Yes, and it's built for the design-and-build end of the trade: staged job planning, hire and material costs tracked against the job, site timesheets, variations, progress invoicing and live back-costing. Plans start from $199 a month plus GST for a crew of 3 to 9, and every plan gets every feature.
Is NextMinute any good for garden maintenance rounds?
Not really, and we'd rather tell you now than after you've signed up. If your week is a run of short repeat visits, a dispatch-style app will suit you better. NextMinute is built for crews with several multi-week builds on at once.
Find out more
Landscaping is construction work, and the bodies backing the trade deserve backing themselves. That's the whole reason we're behind Master Landscapers South Australia, and we reckon it's money better spent than most.
If you're running a landscape build crew and you're still finding out whether a job made money after the last plant's in the ground, grab our free landscaping pricing template, or take NextMinute for a 10-day free trial. No credit card, and a local crew who'll get you set up properly.
