“There’s an app for that™,” stated one of many world’s largest tech corporations. And garden care isn’t any exception.
If you happen to’re spending extra time managing workers than tending lawns then you definitely may need an issue.
And whereas apps can’t do garden take care of you, they can assist in some ways, from simplifying scheduling to calculating prices and sharing nice opinions.
Right here’s an inventory of our high 10 advisable apps on your garden care enterprise.
And, as a result of we all know small companies depend on nice individuals, we’ve began with our personal app, Homebase, which focuses on scheduling, time monitoring, and workforce communication, even throughout a number of areas.
So you possibly can spend much less time worrying about logistics, and extra time really constructing your corporation.
7 methods apps can assist you handle your garden care enterprise
Listed here are some nice ways in which apps can assist your corporation run extra effectively and save hours of time and stress — so you will get on with the garden care.
- Schedule workers members — Create simple, quick, and correct schedules on your garden care workers with apps like Homebase, so everybody is aware of the place they must be and when.
- Simplify time monitoring — Simply file working hours, even for distant and distributed groups, to manage labor prices and keep away from time theft. Homebase and Harvest excel on this.
- Enhance buyer communication — Giving purchasers an excellent first impression is essential, and it is best to all the time reply helpfully and promptly from the primary inquiry to the ultimate evaluation. Jobber is a good choice right here.
- Estimate materials prices — Guaranteeing your garden care enterprise is worthwhile means accurately estimating which supplies you want. Apps like Space Quantity Calculator and Turf Remedy can assist calculate house measurement, and purchase the correct amount of product.
- Determine pricing and revenue — Worth your providers accurately to make sure revenue with apps like Revenue Margin Calculator. Tweak labor prices, overheads, and bills for finest outcomes.
- Establish various kinds of crops and their situation — Even specialists can use some assist typically, and apps like LeafSnap and FieldScout allow you to use your cellphone to investigate the well being of lawns and crops, so you possibly can determine the following steps.
- Share nice opinions and drum up word-of-mouth enterprise — Don’t let your garden care enterprise be the neighborhood’s best-kept secret. Apps like CamCompany allow you to take and share photographs and movies of your work. Whereas NiceJob collects and shares constructive opinions for word-of-mouth referrals and on-line bookings.
The shortlist: The ten finest garden care enterprise apps
- Homebase: For scheduling, distant time monitoring, and workforce communication
- Jobber: For buyer communication
- Harvest: For time monitoring and invoicing
- Revenue Margin Calculator: For easy revenue calculations
- Space Quantity Calculator: For straightforward quantity calculations
- LeafSnap: For immediate plant identification and care
- Turf Remedy: For easy fertilizer calculations
- FieldScout: For soil and plant diagnostics
- NiceJob: For buyer opinions and referrals
- CompanyCam: For discipline job monitoring by way of photographs and video
Homebase: For scheduling, distant time monitoring, and workforce communication
Homebase is an all-in-one app designed for small enterprise homeowners who handle a workforce of hourly-based workers. It makes individuals administration a lot simpler, so you possibly can schedule and monitor your garden care jobs, pay your workforce members precisely, and management labor prices.
How does it profit garden care companies?
Homebase is a one-stop store for all workforce administration points of your small garden care enterprise. Not like some, its cellular app presents practically the entire identical performance as its desktop model, so you should utilize it even when within the discipline (or yard) on a job.
The stand-out options embody:
- Scheduling app for automated and simple shift creation, so you possibly can schedule workers with out clashes, on the go
- Time clock and timesheets for correct hourly monitoring, compliant working hours, much less workers burnout, much less time theft, and managed labor prices
- Payroll for fast and simple funds that take timesheets and create correct wages routinely. There’s no want for a separate instrument, and it’s all finished on the identical platform.
- Hiring and onboarding together with pre-written job templates, jobs board posting, job promotion, and applicant monitoring.
- Staff communication to empower workers to share helpful job ideas and hand over notes between shifts, for a greater group, improved working situations, and better productiveness — even when workers aren’t working in the identical location
- Worker happiness together with shout-outs for a job nicely finished, which boosts motivation, and the choice for workers to money out wages early if wanted
- HR & compliance with federal, state, and native legal guidelines, and the power to handle HR documentation and delicate information in a single place
- Integrations with main instruments like QuickBooks and Toast, so you possibly can stay productive together with your present enterprise instruments
How a lot is it?
Homebase’s app, and scheduling and timesheet instrument, are fully free to make use of. Nevertheless, if you wish to maximize effectivity and get essentially the most out of the whole software program, we provide the next value choices.
- Primary: Free for one location and as much as 20 staff. It contains fundamental scheduling and time monitoring, worker administration instruments like Messaging, point-of-sale integrations, and entry to e-mail help.
- Necessities: $24.95 per 30 days per location. Every part in Primary, plus payroll integrations, workforce communication, efficiency monitoring, superior time monitoring and scheduling, and entry to stay help.
- Plus: $59.95 per 30 days per location. Every part in Necessities, plus hiring instruments, retention and efficiency monitoring, day off controls, and departments and permissions.
- All-in-one: $99.95 per 30 days per location. Every part in Plus, with HR and compliance, new rent onboarding, labor price controls, and enterprise insights.
Customers also can save 20% on their total price after they join an annual plan.
Obtainable on iOS and Android.
2. Jobber: For buyer communication
Jobber goals to enhance customer support and communication, from preliminary inquiry to ultimate fee. You possibly can ship quotes by textual content and e-mail, observe up simply, and save hours on invoicing.
How does it profit garden care companies?
Jobber has all kinds of options throughout consumer messaging, invoicing, and communication.
- Cell app designed to work on the go when within the discipline
- On-line quote requests and jobs bookings for purchasers
- Automated garden care job scheduling to assist plan your day and embody breaks
- Job reminders and appointment notifications for workers and clients
- Skilled quotes despatched by textual content message and emails
- Job monitoring to observe bills and ongoing notes
- Card reader and on-line fee system
- Consumer information storage and full consumer historical past
- Automated follow-ups to shut jobs or remind purchasers to pay
- Batch invoicing for quick billing
How a lot is it?
Jobber has 4 ranges of paid plan.
- Lite: $19 per 30 days for one person. Limitless consumer messaging, quotes and invoices, and on-line funds.
- Core: $56 per 30 days for one person. Every part in Lite, plus job scheduling and administration, reporting, and on-line request type.
- Join: $19 per 30 days for one to 5 customers. Every part in Core, plus automated reminders and funds, customized types and schedules, and integration with accounting and automation instruments.
- Develop: $280 per 30 days for one to fifteen customers. Every part in Join, plus quote add-ons, automated quote follow-ups, two-way textual content message, and lead administration.
You can even attempt it free for 14 days. Obtainable on iOS and Android.
3. Harvest: For time monitoring and invoicing
Launched in NYC in 2006, Harvest was one of many first mobile-friendly time trackers. It nonetheless focuses on time monitoring (and says it leads to 80% much less admin), however now it additionally enables you to ship invoices, create experiences, and monitor budgets. Harvest additionally has a rising vary of integrations and a forever-free plan.
How does it profit garden care companies?
Harvest’s options are cut up throughout three foremost classes: time monitoring, experiences, and invoicing.
- Cell, desktop, and browser time monitoring wherever you and your workforce are
- Software integration for seamless time clocking and integration
- Automated reminders for workers to assist guarantee correct monitoring and breaks
- Price range updates and price monitoring to maintain tasks on monitor
- Staff capability monitoring to make sure no-one’s over- or under-worked
- Time evaluation to see which tasks are impacting prices essentially the most
- Detailed filters that will help you make data-driven choices
- Invoices created precisely with time monitoring
- On-line funds and easy accounting with integrations like PayPal, Stripe, and QuickBooks
How a lot is it?
There are two choices.
- Free: $0. Consists of “one seat” (or person), and two tasks. All options.
- Professional: $12. Consists of limitless “seats” and limitless tasks. All options.
Harvest additionally presents a 30-day free trial. Obtainable on iOS and Android.
4. Revenue Margin Calculator: For easy revenue calculations
Revenue Margin Calculator helps service companies with hourly workers to calculate their web revenue margin. Not strictly an app, however an internet instrument from communication platform Jobber, it really works on telephones, tablets, and desktops.
How does it profit garden care companies?
Revenue Margin Calculator enables you to enter 4 completely different figures after which offers you your revenue and markup. This implies you possibly can add up prices, labor, and overheads, and see the place you’re overspending or not charging sufficient. Relying in your business, your web revenue margin is probably going about 10-20%.
The calculator:
- Permits you to add labor, materials, and overhead prices
- Components within the service value you cost your purchasers
- Reveals you ways a lot revenue you’re incomes on accomplished jobs
How a lot is it?
It’s free. Jobber additionally presents a free bill template that you would be able to full and ship to purchasers, when you’ve labored out your prices and the way a lot revenue you wish to make.
5. Space Quantity Calculator: For straightforward quantity calculations
With one other clear title, this app works on smartphones and tablets, and helps you calculate the realm quantity of a 3D form. That is good in case your newest garden care or landscaping job requires you to clear or fill an area. It additionally calculates by space (2D) or quantity (3D), utilizing presets. And it’s free.
How does it profit garden care companies?
The instrument is simple to make use of and works like a calculator. You sort in your dimensions, and it offers you the end result.
Options embody:
- The power to enter depth, peak, and width dimensions
- 170+ preset shapes like cylinder or dice, plus subshapes like parallelepiped (3D parallelogram)
- Swipe by means of classes and shapes to pick or sort to look instantly
- Calculation strategies for partial measurements, e.g. for those who solely have the radius measurement
- Materials selector that features 1,500 supplies, reminiscent of metals, wooden, soil, or liquids
- Calculations in metric and inches, from millimeters to miles
- Illustrations of the shapes and clearly labels dimensions to assist understanding
How a lot is it?
Free to obtain and use. Obtainable on iOS and Android.
6. LeafSnap: For immediate plant identification and care
Leafsnap is an intuitive app that turns your smartphone digital camera into an analytical lens. Snap a photograph of a plant and the app identifies it, and provides you a step-by-step information on how you can deal with it. Plus, LeafSnap is aesthetically pleasing and addresses its customers as “plant lovers,” which is a pleasant contact.
How does it profit garden care companies?
LeafSnap is an easy however highly effective option to establish crops and know what you’re coping with in a backyard. Options embody:
- A database of 32,000 sorts of crops from the world over
- Reminders on your day by day plant-care duties
- Recommendation on one of the best ways to {photograph} your crops
- Step-by-step care guides for every plant
How a lot is it?
There are two methods to make use of LeafSnap.
- Professional: Free to obtain and use. Consists of advertisements and limits on plant identification and care guides.
- Premium: $5 per 30 days or $26 per yr. Removes advertisements. No limits on plant identification or step-by-step care guides. Entry to the complete plant database, and superior identification.
Obtainable on iOS and Android.
7. Turf Remedy: For easy fertilizer calculations
Determining fertilizer is essential for a garden care specialist, since getting it mistaken will be costly and harmful. This app lets you calculate the granular and liquid fertilizer utility charges of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (Okay), and goals to assist garden care companies prepare workers and calculate quotes. Because the app’s creator says: “Say goodbye to lengthy, drawn out, mind-numbing math!”
How does it profit garden care companies?
The app has a number of highly-focused options, together with:
- Granular or liquid calculation fee choices
- A “remedy journal” to observe the merchandise utilized
- A value calculator to maintain tasks on monitor
How a lot is it?
The app prices $0.99 to obtain, for all options. Obtainable on iOS and Android.
8. FieldScout: For soil and plant diagnostics
FieldScout, or FieldScout GreenIndex+ Turf to present it its full identify, could sound sophisticated however its goal is straightforward. It gauges turf well being by measuring its relative “greenness” (or chlorophyll content material.) The app makes use of what it calls the DGCI (Darkish Inexperienced Coloration Index) and, by means of your cellphone’s digital camera, helps you identify your turf’s well being, so you possibly can resolve your subsequent steps when caring for a turf garden.
How does it profit garden care companies?
The app is comparatively easy to make use of, with options together with:
- A white stability lock on your cellphone’s digital camera, to assist create the proper shade reference
- Timestamp and GPS log info (if Location Companies are enabled), to be used with different packages if you want
- The power to mix a number of samples right into a single computation
- Picture pairing for comparability of various sections of turf
How a lot is it?
The app prices $49.99 to obtain and use, for all options. Obtainable on iOS.
9. NiceJob: For buyer opinions and referrals
What’s higher than a contented garden care buyer? A contented garden care buyer that tells everybody how nice your work is and will get you numerous new enterprise! And this app makes getting and sharing nice opinions even simpler. Designed for native companies that depend on word-of-mouth, it helps you get extra opinions, extra referrals, extra net presence, and extra gross sales.
How does it profit garden care companies?
The NiceJob platform splits its options throughout six classes: opinions, referrals, websites, social proof, insights, and presents. These embody:
- The power to share opinions on-line and get excessive rankings on serps
- Automated constructive evaluation sharing on social media to drive engagement
- Automated referral invitations for purchasers to share suggestions to others
- Assessment and referral requests by way of textual content for simple communication
- Microsite net builder designed for small enterprise homeowners to generate extra direct bookings
- Social Proof web site widget to embed constructive opinions by yourself web site
- The power to supply presents for purchasers, together with tokens and thank yous, to construct loyalty
- Employees leaderboards to encourage “pleasant competitors” amongst workers members
How a lot is it?
NiceJob costs its month-to-month packages relying on what number of clients you will have per yr. It additionally has a restricted free choice, regardless of what number of clients you will have.
- Free: $0. Assessment and referral requests, and reveals opinions by yourself web site. Buyer administration.
- Develop: $75 per 30 days for as much as 2,500 clients. Every part included in Free, plus automated opinions and referral requests, automated social sharing, and workers leaderboards.
- Develop + Websites: $75 per 30 days for as much as 2,500 clients, plus $399 arrange price. Every part in Develop, plus an internet site, private web site coach, search engine marketing optimization, and advertising and marketing analytics.
NiceJob additionally presents a 14-day free trial. Obtainable on iOS.
10. CompanyCam: For discipline job monitoring by way of photographs and video
CompanyCam goals to make it simpler to handle and file progress in a discipline job enterprise. As its identify suggests, it focuses on managing photographs, movies, chats, and tasks beneath a single digital umbrella, so you possibly can share progress, scan paperwork, and enhance advertising and marketing.
How does it profit garden care companies?
CompanyCam makes use of cloud storage to handle each side of its instruments. Options embody:
- Video seize, to point out particulars in 4K
- Picture annotation to take pictures and add textual content, drawings, and useful notes
- Doc scanning to seize PDFs and different useful papers
- Report templates to avoid wasting time on monitoring tasks
- Offline mode, to maintain tasks shifting even for those who don’t have a sign
- Mission administration, together with maps, labels, contact particulars, and GPS stamps to remain centered
- Customized checklists and to-do lists to share undertaking progress
- Integrations with instruments together with Jobber and Salesforce for a complete tech stack
- Excessive-res photographs and movies to point out off your outcomes and get extra bookings
How a lot is it?
CompanyCam presents three tiers of pricing.
- Professional: $24 per person per 30 days. Consists of limitless tasks and storage. Actual-time photographs, checklists, templates, web site undertaking widget, PDF photograph experiences.
- Premium: $34 per person per 30 days. Every part in Professional, plus emblem stickers, 4K movies and high-quality photographs, 10-minute movies, chat, e-mail, and cellphone help, plus onboarding assist
- Enterprise: Worth on request. For 50+ customers. Every part in Premium, plus quarterly enterprise opinions, locked contract charges, onboarding coaching, success supervisor, and VIP chat, e-mail, and cellphone help.
CompanyCam additionally presents a 14-day trial of its Premium plan. Obtainable on iOS and Android.
From Harvest to Homebase: One of the best garden care enterprise apps
If you use apps to automate your garden care enterprise, you possibly can spend extra time specializing in really caring for lawns (and fewer time on admin.)
Relying in your wants, an app like Jobber can assist you enhance buyer communication, get on-line quotes, and ship invoices promptly. There’s Harvest for time monitoring and budgeting; LeafSnap for step-by-step guides to stunning crops; and Revenue Margin Calculator for, nicely, calculating revenue.
Then there’s NiceJob and CompanyCam, which allow you to doc and share your work in the very best gentle, for efficient advertising and marketing and wonderful on-line opinions.
And for an all-in-one app, you possibly can select Homebase to handle priorities like scheduling, time monitoring, and workforce communication. It additionally offers you must-have instruments like payroll, hiring, HR administration, labor price controls, and compliance, all beneath the identical digital roof. So you possibly can handle your individuals, simply in addition to you handle your crops.
As a result of there could also be an app for just about every little thing, however the fewer you’ll want to juggle, the higher.
