Fernwood Landscape Studio
Industry
Landscape architecture
Team
9 people
City
Denver, CO
On Tarn since
June 2023
Amara Osei
Founder, Tarn customer
missed payroll runs since joining
payment schedules renegotiated
shorter wait for stage payments
At a glance
Company
Fernwood Landscape Studio
Plan
Growth
Connected
Harbor Bank
Ledgerly
Invoicely
Northwind Payroll
Good projects, slow money
Fernwood designs public courtyards, school grounds and private gardens. A typical project runs nine months and is billed in four stages, with most of the fee due after design development. Public clients often pay 45 to 60 days after an invoice is approved.
Payroll, on the other hand, runs every two weeks. In 2022 Amara delayed her own salary five times so the team could be paid on time, and she was signing projects without knowing which of them would leave a hole in the spring.
Every stage, and what happens if it slips
Each project’s fee schedule lives in Invoicely, and Tarn reads every stage as an expected payment. Before signing a new project, Amara opens a scenario with the proposed schedule and switches on a 45-day delay for the client.
If a slip would take payroll under the floor, she asks for a larger deposit or splits the biggest stage in two. Clients have accepted every revised schedule so far, because the reason is concrete.
Fernwood’s fee schedule for a courtyard project, with a 45-day delay tested against payroll.
Amara Osei
Founder
Schedules that fit the studio
Fernwood renegotiated three payment schedules in its first year, moved its standard deposit from 10% to 20%, and cut the average wait for a stage payment from 58 days to 37.
The studio has not missed or delayed a payroll run since joining, and Amara has been paid on time every month.
The numbers, before and after.
Measured by the team, comparing the year before Tarn with the year since.
Measure
Before Tarn
With Tarn
