Industries / Tree service
Tree service software for estimates and crews
Business Genie is tree service software built around route optimization: quote the job with a deposit, schedule and route your crews, 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 morning · Tree service · A crew and an estimator
- Storm path
- Crew
- Estimator
- The day before the storm
- Called in today
As booked: the crew’s palms and a stump, done by 11:09 am; the estimator’s four visits, done by 1:30 pm. The storm came through at 8:40 pm last night.
Sample morning, simulated: one crew and one estimator on a street grid of one-mile blocks at 26 mph. The storm, the calls, the streets and the customers are made up.
The week before · last night at 8:40 pm
A tree company’s day, at two speeds
A tree company’s week runs at two speeds. The crew’s jobs hold the bucket truck, the chipper and three people for hours each; the estimator’s visits are half an hour, spread across town, each in a window the homeowner picked. Both were booked last week.
In Business Genie both run from one schedule. Homeowners book an estimate visit online in a window they choose, and the crew’s jobs go on the calendar with how long each takes. Route optimization puts each day in the shortest order: the crew leaves the yard at 6 am, before the heat, and the estimator at 7:44 am, in time for the first window.
Then, at 8:40 pm last night, a monsoon storm crossed the service area from the southeast, and by 9:05 pm it had gone. In the morning the phone rings from inside its path.
6:35 am · the first call · to the crew
A mesquite across a driveway
“A mesquite split down the middle overnight and half of it is across our driveway. We can’t get the car out.”
After the 6:35 am call, on the clock
A tree blocking a way out is a crew job, and the office promises the crew by 10 am. The crew is 23 min into the HOA’s palms, and that job stays theirs: add the call in Business Genie and route optimization re-orders the rest of the day from the job in hand. The mesquite comes next — the crew is there at 8:51 am — and the palms by the pool and the stump move back 1 h 39 min.
7:50 am · the second call · to the crew
A limb through a patio cover
“A eucalyptus limb came down through the patio cover and it’s hanging on the frame. Nobody’s hurt.”
After the 7:50 am call, on the clock
Promised by 12 pm. Sent straight to the limb, ahead of the mesquite, the crew would be 1 h 14 min late on the mesquite’s promise and the truck and chipper would drive 31 miles. Routed, both promises are kept and the drive is 23 miles: the mesquite at 8:51 am, the limb at 10:37 am, then the palms by the pool and the stump.
The crew sees the new order on the phone, with turn-by-turn directions to the next stop, in the iOS and Android app. Dispatch works from the web or the app.
8:30 am · the third call · to the estimator
Not every storm call is a crew job
“Our palo verde went over in the wind and it’s leaning on the back wall. Can someone look at it today?”
After the 8:30 am call, on the clock
A tree resting on a wall has to be looked at and priced before anyone climbs it — what holds it up, what it would take with it, how to rig it down — so this call goes to the estimator, promised by 12 pm. Added to the estimator’s day, it lands between the 8–10 am and 9–11 am visits: there at 8:35 am, and every window the homeowners picked is still kept.
The proposal can go from the yard, with a deposit the homeowner pays when they accept.
The day, with the storm in it
Three calls by 8:30 am, every promise kept
The whole day, on the clock
The crew’s day now runs to 2:53 pm instead of 11:09 am, 3 h 44 min longer: 3 h 30 min on site at the two storm jobs, the rest driving to them. The estimator’s day still ends at 1:30 pm, with one more proposal to write.
Crews clock in and out with GPS time tracking in the app, so a long storm day’s hours are recorded at the job, and how a week of bids and crew jobs fits together is on the tree service scheduling software page.
One removal, from the estimate to the invoice
A removal like this one — a dead Aleppo pine priced in the yard, held with a deposit, taken down on the crew’s day and invoiced before the truck leaves — is the estimate, the schedule and the invoice in one app.
Sample job: the customer, the dates and the prices are an example. Each stop links to the page that follows it in full.
- 1
Mon, Jan 12 · 10:40 am
The estimate, priced in the yard
The estimator measures the pine — 58 ft, 26 in at the stump, leaning over the back wall — and the proposal goes from the phone before leaving the yard, with a deposit request.
Proposal $2,054 · deposit $500
Tree service estimate software
The next day
- 2
Tue, Jan 13
The deposit holds the crew’s day
The homeowner accepts and pays the deposit by card. A removal takes the whole crew, the chipper and the log truck, so it holds the crew’s Tuesday.
$500 paid
Payments: card, Apple Pay, PayPal, Venmo, Cash App
7 days later
- 3
Tue, Jan 20 · 7:30 am–1:15 pm
The crew’s day
On the crew’s schedule and in its route with the rest of the day. The pine comes down in eight pieces from the top, the stump is ground out, and the wood goes to the curb.
Tree service scheduling software
On site 5 h 45 min
- 4
Tue, Jan 20 · 1:22 pm
Invoiced from the truck
The invoice goes before the crew drives off. The homeowner pays the balance by Venmo at 2:05 pm, and it syncs to QuickBooks Online.
$1,554 balance paid
Tree service invoicing software
3 days later
Fri, Jan 23
Automated follow-up
4 days later
Tue, Jan 27
Automated review request
Tree jobs, and how long each one takes on site
A tree company books jobs of very different lengths: a half-hour estimate visit, and a removal that holds the crew and the chipper for most of a day. Every job goes on the schedule with its length, and route optimization plans the day around those lengths and the homeowners’ windows.
On one clock of 0 to 7 hours, each block is one of this page’s eleven sample jobs, as long as it took on site: the storm morning’s, in blue where the storm added it, and the removal above. The bracket under them is how long a job of that kind usually runs. Sample figures; every company’s own will differ.
Estimate visit
Walk the property with the homeowner, look up at the tree, measure it and note what it could land on — a roof, a wall, a power line — and how the wood gets out to the street. Then price it.
30 min · four booked visits
45 min · palo verde leaning on the wall · the 8:30 call
Stump grinding
The grinder takes the stump down below the ground, and the grindings are raked back into the hole or hauled away.
45 min · ash stump from last month’s removal
Palm trimming
Dead fronds, seed pods and fruit stalks come off each palm, from the bucket truck or on climbing spikes, and go through the chipper at the curb.
1 h 15 min · two date palms by the pool
2 h 30 min · hOA entrance, eight palms
Storm cleanup
A tree or limb the storm brought down is cut off whatever it landed on — a driveway, a car, a patio cover, a roof — and chipped or hauled away. What blocks a way out or rests on a house goes first.
1 h 30 min · mesquite across the driveway · the 6:35 call
2 h · limb through a patio cover · the 7:50 call
Tree removal
The tree comes down in pieces from the top; what would land on something is lowered on a rope. Brush goes through the chipper and the trunk is cut into rounds for the log truck.
5 h 45 min · the dead Aleppo pine, above
Also on the same schedule
Arborist consultation, trimming and pruning and lot clearing — none of them in the sample morning, each booked with its own length. A lot clearing usually runs over more than one day.
Arborist consultation
Trimming and pruning
Lot clearing
Questions tree companies ask
- Can I take a deposit on a tree removal estimate?
- Yes. Estimates and proposals in Business Genie can ask for a deposit, which the customer pays when they accept the work.
- Does tree service software help with urgent jobs added during the day?
- In Business Genie, adding a job to a crew’s day re-routes the rest of that day automatically, and the crew opens the new job in turn-by-turn directions. Route optimization is on every plan.
- Can my crews clock in from the app?
- Yes. Business Genie includes GPS time tracking, so crews clock in and out from the iOS or Android app.
- How much does it cost, and is there a free trial?
- Plans start at $50 a month. The first month is free with no credit card, and setup and moving your customer data over are done by the Business Genie team at no charge.
More for tree service companies
- Tree service estimate softwareThe removal priced from the tree, with a deposit.
- Tree service scheduling softwareBids and crew jobs on one schedule.
- Tree service invoicing softwareInvoiced from the truck as the crew packs up.
- GPS time tracking for crewsClock in and out from the job.
- Job cost calculatorWhat a job costs you before you price it.
- Job pricing calculatorA price from your costs and the margin you want.
- Landscaping softwareFor crews that mow, plant and maintain.
- Business Genie pricingPlans from $50 a month.
Quote, schedule and bill tree work free for a month
What it costs
- Plans from
- $50 a month
- Route optimization
- Every plan
- First month
- Free, no credit card
- Setup and moving your customers over
- Free
The Business Genie team sets your account up — your services, your crews, your customers — and you run your first tree jobs on the web and in the iOS and Android app.