“There’s an app for that™,” stated one of many world’s greatest tech corporations. And garden care isn’t any exception.
Should you’re spending extra time managing workers than tending lawns you then may need an issue.
And whereas apps can’t do garden look after you, they may help in some ways, from simplifying scheduling to calculating prices and sharing nice evaluations.
Right here’s a listing of our high 10 advisable apps in 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 makes a speciality of scheduling, time monitoring, and group communication, even throughout a number of areas.
So you possibly can spend much less time worrying about logistics, and extra time truly constructing what you are promoting.
7 methods apps may help you handle your garden care enterprise
Listed here are some nice ways in which apps may help what you are promoting 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 in 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 regulate labor prices and keep away from time theft. Homebase and Harvest excel on this.
Enhance buyer communication — Giving purchasers first impression is vital, and it is best to at all times reply helpfully and promptly from the primary inquiry to the ultimate overview. Jobber is a good choice right here.
Estimate materials prices — Making certain your garden care enterprise is worthwhile means appropriately estimating which supplies you want. Apps like Space Quantity Calculator and Turf Remedy may help calculate area dimension, and purchase the correct quantity of product.
Determine pricing and revenue — Value your companies appropriately to make sure revenue with apps like Revenue Margin Calculator. Tweak labor prices, overheads, and bills for greatest outcomes.
Establish several types of crops and their situation — Even consultants can use some assist generally, 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 work out the subsequent steps.
Share nice evaluations 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 pictures and movies of your work. Whereas NiceJob collects and shares constructive evaluations for word-of-mouth referrals and on-line bookings.
The shortlist: The ten greatest garden care enterprise apps
Homebase: For scheduling, distant time monitoring, and group communication
Jobber: For buyer communication
Harvest: For time monitoring and invoicing
Revenue Margin Calculator: For easy revenue calculations
Space Quantity Calculator: For simple quantity calculations
LeafSnap: For fast plant identification and care
Turf Remedy: For easy fertilizer calculations
FieldScout: For soil and plant diagnostics
NiceJob: For buyer evaluations and referrals
CompanyCam: For discipline job monitoring by way of pictures and video
Homebase: For scheduling, distant time monitoring, and group communication
Homebase is an all-in-one app designed for small enterprise house owners who handle a group of hourly-based workers. It makes individuals administration a lot simpler, so you possibly can schedule and observe your garden care jobs, pay your group members precisely, and management labor prices.
How does it profit garden care companies?
Homebase is a one-stop store for all group administration points of your small garden care enterprise. Not like some, its cell app presents almost the entire similar performance as its desktop model, so you should use 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 robotically. There’s no want for a separate device, and it’s all performed on the identical platform.
Hiring and onboarding together with pre-written job templates, jobs board posting, job promotion, and applicant monitoring.
Group communication to empower workers to share helpful job suggestions and hand over notes between shifts, for a greater neighborhood, improved working circumstances, and better productiveness — even when workers aren’t working in the identical location
Worker happiness together with shout-outs for a job properly performed, which boosts motivation, and the choice for employees 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 knowledge 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 device, are utterly free to make use of. Nonetheless, if you wish to maximize effectivity and get essentially the most out of your complete software program, we provide the next worth choices.
Primary: Free for one location and as much as 20 workers. It contains primary 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, group communication, efficiency monitoring, superior time monitoring and scheduling, and entry to dwell 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 value controls, and enterprise insights.
Customers may also save 20% on their general value 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 closing fee. You may ship quotes by textual content and e-mail, comply with up simply, and save hours on invoicing.
How does it profit garden care companies?
Jobber has all kinds of options throughout shopper messaging, invoicing, and communication.
Cellular 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 employees and prospects
Skilled quotes despatched by textual content message and emails
Job monitoring to observe bills and ongoing notes
Card reader and on-line fee system
Shopper knowledge storage and full shopper 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 shopper 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 kind.
Join: $19 per 30 days for one to 5 customers. Every part in Core, plus automated reminders and funds, customized varieties 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 too strive 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 makes a speciality of time monitoring (and says it leads to 80% much less admin), however now it additionally helps 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.
Cellular, desktop, and browser time monitoring wherever you and your group are
Device integration for seamless time clocking and integration
Automated reminders for employees to assist guarantee correct monitoring and breaks
Price range updates and value monitoring to maintain initiatives on observe
Group capability monitoring to make sure no-one’s over- or under-worked
Time evaluation to see which initiatives are impacting prices essentially the most
Detailed filters that can assist you make data-driven selections
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 initiatives. All options.
Professional: $12. Consists of limitless “seats” and limitless initiatives. 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 internet revenue margin. Not strictly an app, however a web based device from communication platform Jobber, it really works on telephones, tablets, and desktops.
How does it profit garden care companies?
Revenue Margin Calculator helps you to enter 4 completely different figures after which provides 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 trade, your internet revenue margin is probably going about 10-20%.
The calculator:
Helps you to add labor, materials, and overhead prices
Components within the service worth you cost your purchasers
Reveals you the way a lot revenue you’re incomes on accomplished jobs
How a lot is it?
It’s free. Jobber additionally presents a free bill template which you can 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 simple 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 device is straightforward to make use of and works like a calculator. You sort in your dimensions, and it provides you the consequence.
Options embody:
The flexibility 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 straight
Calculation strategies for partial measurements, e.g. in the event you solely have the radius measurement
Materials selector that features 1,500 supplies, resembling 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 fast plant identification and care
Leafsnap is an intuitive app that turns your smartphone digicam into an analytical lens. Snap a photograph of a plant and the app identifies it, and provides you a step-by-step information on learn how to care for 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 a straightforward however highly effective technique to establish crops and know what you’re coping with in a backyard. Options embody:
A database of 32,000 varieties of crops from internationally
Reminders in your day by day plant-care duties
Recommendation on one of the simplest 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 flawed could 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 charge choices
A “remedy journal” to observe the merchandise utilized
A price calculator to maintain initiatives on observe
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 provide it its full title, could sound difficult 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 Shade Index) and, by means of your cellphone’s digicam, 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 in your cellphone’s digicam, to assist create the right coloration reference
Timestamp and GPS log info (if Location Companies are enabled), to be used with different applications if you want
The flexibility 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 evaluations and referrals
What’s higher than a contented garden care buyer? A cheerful 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 evaluations even simpler. Designed for native companies that depend on word-of-mouth, it helps you get extra evaluations, extra referrals, extra internet presence, and extra gross sales.
How does it profit garden care companies?
The NiceJob platform splits its options throughout six classes: evaluations, referrals, websites, social proof, insights, and presents. These embody:
The flexibility to share evaluations on-line and get excessive rankings on engines like google
Automated constructive overview sharing on social media to drive engagement
Automated referral invitations for purchasers to share suggestions to others
Evaluate and referral requests by way of textual content for straightforward communication
Microsite internet builder designed for small enterprise house owners to generate extra direct bookings
Social Proof web site widget to embed constructive evaluations by yourself web site
The flexibility 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 prospects you have got per yr. It additionally has a restricted free choice, regardless of what number of prospects you have got.
Free: $0. Evaluate and referral requests, and exhibits evaluations by yourself web site. Buyer administration.
Develop: $75 per 30 days for as much as 2,500 prospects. Every part included in Free, plus automated evaluations and referral requests, automated social sharing, and workers leaderboards.
Develop + Websites: $75 per 30 days for as much as 2,500 prospects, plus $399 arrange payment. Every part in Develop, plus a web site, private web site coach, search engine marketing optimization, and advertising analytics.
NiceJob additionally presents a 14-day free trial. Obtainable on iOS.
10. CompanyCam: For discipline job monitoring by way of pictures and video
CompanyCam goals to make it simpler to handle and file progress in a discipline job enterprise. As its title suggests, it focuses on managing pictures, movies, chats, and initiatives below a single digital umbrella, so you possibly can share progress, scan paperwork, and enhance advertising.
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 indicate particulars in 4K
Picture annotation to take photographs and add textual content, drawings, and useful notes
Doc scanning to seize PDFs and different useful papers
Report templates to save lots of time on monitoring initiatives
Offline mode, to maintain initiatives transferring even in the event you don’t have a sign
Venture administration, together with maps, labels, contact particulars, and GPS stamps to remain centered
Customized checklists and to-do lists to share venture progress
Integrations with instruments together with Jobber and Salesforce for a complete tech stack
Excessive-res pictures and movies to indicate 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 initiatives and storage. Actual-time pictures, checklists, templates, web site venture widget, PDF photograph experiences.
Premium: $34 per person per 30 days. Every part in Professional, plus brand stickers, 4K movies and high-quality pictures, 10-minute movies, chat, e-mail, and cellphone help, plus onboarding assist
Enterprise: Value on request. For 50+ customers. Every part in Premium, plus quarterly enterprise evaluations, 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: The perfect garden care enterprise apps
Once you use apps to automate your garden care enterprise, you possibly can spend extra time specializing in truly caring for lawns (and fewer time on admin.)
Relying in your wants, an app like Jobber may help 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, properly, calculating revenue.
Then there’s NiceJob and CompanyCam, which allow you to doc and share your work in the absolute best gentle, for efficient advertising and wonderful on-line evaluations.
And for an all-in-one app, you possibly can select Homebase to handle priorities like scheduling, time monitoring, and group communication. It additionally provides you must-have instruments like payroll, hiring, HR administration, labor value controls, and compliance, all below 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 the whole lot, however the fewer you must juggle, the higher.