IndustriesGardening
Gardening business software for visits and projects
Business Genie is gardening business software built around route optimization: schedule garden maintenance and planting work, send each crew to its gardens in the shortest-drive order, then invoice and get paid — on the web and in the iOS and Android app.
Plans from $50 a month · One month free · No credit card
Sample day, simulated: a gardener and a helper in one truck, six gardens, on a town grid of mile blocks at 26 mph.
Sample day · Gardening · 1 crew of two
Stop 6 · 2:49 pm–3:29 pm
Design visit, booked online
Lantana Dr · 40 minWindow 9 am–12 pm · missed by 2 h 49 min
A new bed along the house wall, measured and walked with the customer, the afternoon sun and the soil looked at. Booked online last night.
done 3:29 pm · 1 late–
A gardening day, as booked
A gardening day is not a lawn round. On this sample day a crew of two sees six gardens, from 40 min on two rose beds to 2 h 30 min planting a new bed: 7.3 hours of work, with the driving in between.
The planting is first because it has to be: the plants go in before the heat. The maintenance gardens follow in the order the customers asked for a slot, and the design visit is last, because the customer booked it online last night, in a morning slot. On paper it is six stops. On the road, the truck crosses town four times.
As booked: 1 h 39 min of driving, the design visit reached at 2:49 pm for a 9 am–12 pm window, the last garden done at 3:29 pm.
The same six gardens, routed
Business Genie puts the day’s gardens in the order that drives least, and keeps the time windows you promised and the length of every visit.
The planting still goes first: its window says so. The design visit moves up to 9:21 am, inside the 9 am–12 pm slot the customer picked. In this sample the same six gardens take 1 h of driving instead of 1 h 39 min, every window is kept, and the last one is done at 2:50 pm instead of 3:29 pm.
10:15 am, a garden to tidy before a party
A regular customer calls: they have people coming on Saturday and the front beds are full of spent flowers. Could someone come by today?
Add the visit and the rest of the day re-routes around it, keeping the windows already promised. The crew gets turn-by-turn directions to the next garden.
In this sample it fits in between Chuparosa Ln and Jojoba Rd, at 11:17 am, and the day is done at 3:40 pm. Taken straight after the garden in hand, with the rest as booked, the day runs to 4:14 pm.
Both ends of a project, in one day
The day opens with a planting the customer has already said yes to, and its second stop is a design visit that will become the next estimate.
Both are jobs on the same schedule as the maintenance gardens. The design visit came in through online booking; the planting started as an estimate with a deposit, written from a planting plan like the one below.
A planting project, from the plan to the deposit
Project work in Business Genie starts as an estimate that can take a deposit. The customer accepts it and pays the deposit, the planting goes on the schedule as a job, and when the bed is planted the balance is invoiced from the job.
Customers pay the invoice by card, Apple Pay, PayPal, Venmo or Cash App (payments), and invoices sync to QuickBooks Online.
Planting plan · sample · front bed, Penstemon Way
- Comes out: 3 overgrown shrubs
- Goes in: drawn at its spread when grown
Estimate · sample prices
Bought with the deposit
- ATexas sage, 5 gal3 × $32$96.00
- BRed yucca, 5 gal2 × $36$72.00
- CAngelita daisy, 1 gal4 × $12$48.00
- DBlackfoot daisy, 1 gal5 × $12$60.00
- Compost, worked in1 cu yd$65.00
- Decomposed granite top-dress1.5 tons, 2 in deep$120.00
- Old shrubs dug out and hauled3 shrubs$60.00
- Planting2 gardeners × 2.5 h × $55$275.00
- Total$796.00
Deposit 65% · $517.40Paid when the customer accepts. It covers the plants and materials ($461.00) before they are bought.
Balance · $278.60Invoiced from the job when the bed is planted.
Sample project and prices, for illustration only: 14 desert plants in a 22-foot front bed.
Gardening jobs, and how long they take
The work a gardening business books, and how long each job takes once the crew is there. Business Genie keeps the length you set for each job when it routes the day.
- Garden design visits30–60 minGarden design visits×1
- Pruning and shrub shaping45–150 minPruning and shrub shaping×1
- Garden maintenance40–180 minGarden maintenance×3
- Weeding and mulching1–3 hWeeding and mulching×1
- Seasonal cleanups2–5 hSeasonal cleanups–
- Planting and bed renovation2–8 hPlanting and bed renovation×1
Garden design visits
A walk round the garden with the customer: the beds measured, the light and the soil looked at, and the planting talked through before the estimate is written.
Pruning and shrub shaping
Shrubs and hedges shaped with hand shears or a hedge trimmer, dead and crossing wood cut out, roses pruned in their season, and the cuttings raked out of the beds.
Garden maintenance
Beds weeded, spent flowers deadheaded, perennials cut back and shrubs tidied, and the clippings bagged and hauled away. The same gardens come round every week or two, and each takes as long as its beds do.
Weeding and mulching
Beds weeded down to the soil, the edges recut, and mulch or decomposed granite spread to an even depth round every plant.
Seasonal cleanups
In spring or fall: the beds cleared, perennials cut to the ground, leaves raked out, and the garden set up for the season ahead.
Planting and bed renovation
The old plants dug out, compost worked into the soil, the new plants set out to the plan, planted, watered in and top-dressed. Usually quoted first, from a planting plan, with a deposit.
Questions about gardening business software
- Can gardening business software handle both maintenance visits and planting projects?
- Yes. In Business Genie both are jobs on the same schedule. A planting or renovation project usually starts as an estimate, which can ask for a deposit; a maintenance visit goes straight onto the calendar. Both are invoiced from the job.
- Does Business Genie plan the drive between gardens?
- Yes. Route optimization is on every plan: it orders each crew’s day by the drive, keeps time windows and visit lengths, splits visits across your team, re-routes when a visit is added, and gives turn-by-turn directions.
- Can customers book a garden design visit online?
- Yes. With online booking, a customer books the visit themselves and it lands on your schedule, ready to assign to a gardener or a crew.
- How much does it cost, and is there a free trial?
- Plans start at $50 a month. The first month is free and needs no credit card, and the Business Genie team sets up your account and moves your customer list over for free.
Route your own gardening day
Put in your own gardens, how long each visit takes and the windows you promise, and Business Genie puts them in the order that drives least, and re-orders it when a call comes in.
The first month is free and needs no credit card. The team sets up your account and moves your customer list over at no charge, and route optimization is on every plan, from $50 a month.