Industries / Landscaping
Landscaping software for route-based crews
Business Genie is landscaping software built around route optimization. It puts each crew’s properties in the shortest-drive order, keeps the time each job takes, re-routes the day when a job is added, and lets you invoice and get paid from the property, on the web and in the iOS and Android app.
Plans from $50 a month · One month free · No credit card
Three people in one truck
A landscaping crew is two to four people in one truck with a trailer behind it, and all of them ride to every property. So the drive between jobs is never one person’s time. On a crew of three, every minute of driving is three minutes on the time sheets.
The day here is one enhancement crew’s: beds cleaned out and mulched, hedges shaped, a drip line fixed, color planted, granite spread and a monthly visit. Six jobs and 6 h 55 min of work on site, with a row on the clock for each seat. The jobs are the same blocks on all three rows, and so is the driving.
Booked in the order customers said yes
An enhancement crew’s day is booked over a couple of weeks, in the order customers say yes: the mulch sold at the spring walk-through, the hedges from an email, the drip line found on a maintenance visit. Put on the day in that order, the truck crosses the metro and back with a trailer behind it.
Driven in that order, the day is 1 h 48 min of driving and the last job is done at 3:13 pm. With three in the truck, that is 5 h 24 min of paid time spent on the road.
Sample day, simulated: one crew of three, six jobs and one call, on a one-mile street grid at 26 mph. Driving is counted to the last property.
The same day, routed
Business Genie’s route optimization orders the day automatically, by the drive. It keeps the time each job takes and any window a customer asked for (the side yard on Saguaro Blvd opens at 10 am), and puts the same six jobs in the order the streets give them: 51 min of driving, done at 2:16 pm.
Across three seats that is 2 h 51 min of paid crew time back, from one crew on one day of the sample. With more than one crew, the same routing splits the day’s jobs across them.
A valve stuck open at 11:25 am
A customer on Juniper Way calls: a valve is stuck open, the zone will not shut off, and water is running down the gutter.
Add the job and the rest of the crew’s day re-routes around it. The crew finishes the mulch on Mesquite St, is on Juniper Way at 11:52 am and done for the day at 3:05 pm. Taken next with nothing re-ordered, they would have reached the valve at 12:33 pm and finished at 3:53 pm.
The crew lead’s phone has the new order, with turn-by-turn directions to the next property.
Route your own crew’s day
Route optimization is on every plan, from $50 a month. The first month is free with no credit card, and the Business Genie team sets up your account and moves your customer list over at no charge.
Landscaping jobs, timed for the crew
Every landscaping job has a length, and it is a length for the crew that does it. Business Genie keeps the time each job takes when it routes the day, so a two-hour mulch job and a forty-minute monthly visit are never treated as the same stop. The ranges here are the sample’s, for three people working the property together; the crew time beside each is what lands on the time sheets.
Bed cleanup and mulch
1.5–3 h on site · 4.5–9 crew-hoursWeeds pulled and the beds edged, then the mulch comes off the trailer by the wheelbarrow and goes down two to three inches deep, pulled back off the trunks and the house.
Sample day · Mesquite St · Front beds, 4 yards of mulch · 120 min
Shrub and hedge pruning
0.75–2 h on site · 2.25–6 crew-hoursHedges sheared to a line, shrubs thinned by hand, the dead wood cut out, and the clippings raked up and loaded on the trailer.
Sample day · Cottonwood Ln · Hedges along the drive · 60 min
Irrigation repair
0.5–1.5 h on site · 1.5–4.5 crew-hoursFind the broken head or the leaking drip line, dig it out, replace the part, then run the zone and watch every emitter come on.
Sample day · Agave Ct · Two drip lines chewed through · 45 min
Planting and seasonal color
0.75–2 h on site · 2.25–6 crew-hoursPlants set out in the bed where they go, holes dug, planted at grade, backfilled and watered in; the empty pots go back on the trailer.
Sample day · Ocotillo Rd · Six flats of color at the entry · 60 min
Rock and decomposed granite
1–3 h on site · 3–9 crew-hoursWeed barrier down where the ground is bare, the rock wheeled in from the pile at the curb, spread, raked to grade and wet down.
Sample day · Saguaro Blvd · Granite in the side yard, gate open after 10 · 90 min
Maintenance visit
0.5–1 h on site · 1.5–3 crew-hoursThe weekly or monthly visit: trim what has grown, pull the weeds, blow off the walks and the drive, and check the irrigation controller.
Sample day · Palo Verde Dr · Monthly visit · 40 min
Design-and-install work runs for days rather than hours, on one property; a landscape design firm’s week puts those days beside the route days. Mowing-only crews have their own page: lawn care software, where the day is the mowing list.
One job, from the estimate to the payment
The mulch on Mesquite St, the first job the sample day booked, as the customer saw it: sold at the spring walk-through with a deposit, paid for after the crew left.
Enhancement and install work is sold before it is scheduled. The estimate goes out from the walk-through, and when the customer accepts it they pay the deposit you asked for, before the mulch is ordered.
Also in Business Genie
Sample proposal · sample prices
Questions landscapers ask
What is landscaping software?
Landscaping software runs the office and field work of a landscaping business in one place: scheduling crews, routing them between properties, estimating, invoicing and taking payment. Business Genie is field service management software for contractors, built around route optimization — schedule and route your crews, then invoice and get paid, on the web and in the iOS and Android app.
Does Business Genie plan routes for landscaping crews?
Yes, on every plan. It orders each crew’s day automatically by the drive, splits the day’s jobs across crews, keeps time windows and job durations, re-routes when a job is added, and gives the crew turn-by-turn directions to the next property.
Can I take a deposit on design and install work?
Yes. Estimates and proposals in Business Genie can ask for a deposit, so the customer pays it when they accept the work.
How do landscaping customers pay?
From the invoice, by card, Apple Pay, PayPal, Venmo or Cash App. Invoices and payments sync to QuickBooks Online.
How much does landscaping software from Business Genie cost?
Plans start at $50 a month, with route optimization on every plan. The first month is free with no credit card, and the Business Genie team sets up your account and moves your data over at no charge.