Landscape Contractor Tools FAQ's

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We have a Design/Build Group and a Garden Center. Does the product handle both types of business? We also sell wholesale to other Landscape companies in the area.

I need a simple method of job costing to determine my profitability. How difficult is it to get this information. I don't want to employ 3 industrial engineers just to run job costing.

Yes, you have the option of deleting the database but most people find it quite complete. More than likely you will want to add local varieties and speciality items. Pricing is also something you may want to adjust but that is also very easy. Go to the main menu under Inventory, then select "Pricing Adjustments".

This software product supports 4 price levels. They are known as MSRP, Retail, Wholesale and Planted. Customers have a normal price level assigned to them, but that can be overridden at the time of sale. These price levels can be automatically computed based on cost or from another price, or as a percentage of another price.
They can then be rounded as desired, all automatically.
Also, on the "Planted" price you can specify that a percentage is non-taxable labor.

Selling prices can be adjusted automatically by specifing a range of items or a group of items such as all perennials, or all shrubs or a range of items within a group. They can all be updated by a dollar amount or a percentage.

There are no limits to the size of the database and the size of the database has very little impact on processing speed. Obviously, some reports will take longer to print if they have 25,000 lines to print or 1000 lines to print.

During normal operation, i.e. placing orders, invoicing, paying vendors, processing cash receipts the reaction time is almost instantaneous, regardless of the size of the database. With thousands and thousands of transactions things like running long reports could take 3 to 4 seconds before returning an answer.
Statement processing with 1000 customers takes about 8 seconds.

Actually, there is very little for the end-user to do to email an estimate. After it is prepared simply click the button for "Estimate" printing and check the box for a PDF document. Click on the document just created and it will open in PDF format automatically. From there you can print it, re-print it, view it on the screen, or eMail it.

Configuring a multi-user system is not a 1 sentence answer. We have a more detailed outline under the "Tips & Tricks" section but as a general guideline, do purchase a stand-alone server and server software to perform this function. I understand that some software developers say that any computer can be the server and although technically correct, it is a recipe for disaster.
We regularly configure servers and workstations for prospective clients as part of a bundle of software and hardware products. We can also work with your local IT support person on this. Contact us for more details.

Yes you can. The tricky part is how to print it and you have a multitude of options. In todays world many home owners have a wireless network and a wireless printer. They will tell you how to access it and print directly to it. Another option is to email it to them.
If your customer has wireless Internet access you can simply connect to it and email the document across the room.
Another alternative, you can purchase a service now that provides roving Internet access. This can serve as both your primary and roving access methods. The availability of these services depend on your geographical location.

The entire product was designed to handle this exact situation because so many potential users are engaged in exactly that type of business. The Landscape Design/Build group uses different screen layouts to enter there orders. The screen formats designed to be used at the customer counter are designed much differently and they handle both the retail and wholesale business.

No, not all. This is a function of network design layout. You must be capable of running network cable between the buildings and there are some length limitations, but this is not generally a problem. To cross public roads can present an issue. You can also look at high speed wireless, especially if you have line-of-sight access.

Yes, you can specify "Reporting Divisions" within the main configuration menu. You assign a name to each such as "Garden Center", "Retail Sales" or "Design/Build". During the sale process you can change this entry. Sales reports, as well as Purchases are available by "Reporting Division".

There was a great deal of analysis and design time put into our job costing routines. How to keep it simple but effective. The end result allows you to compare the original estimate against what was billed and what was actually consumed, both labor and materials. If desired, a single click allows you to record the estimated as actual, then you need only update those items where a deviation existed to get your comparatives. The system does allow very detail input of both labor and materials if you so choose to use it.

We recommend a 19" theater style monitor. This is a good compromise on size vs. space occupied. The Point-of-Sale is designed to work with touch screen or keyboard/mouse or a combination. We feel and recommend a combination to achieve the highest productivity at the counter. Today, several hardware manufacturers are coming out with touch screen monitors that look just like a conventional monitor and are priced much better than the traditional touch screen monitors. These will become more popular as time goes by and of course the price will continue to trend downward also.

Very little. You simply purchase an additional workstation license and configure the new PC into your excising network. Point the database to the server thru the setup routines and you should be ready to go. Printers, etc. must also be configured as would new users that may be running the new station.

The system will accept any printer with a standard windows driver available. Some of the more sophisticated printers (industrial grade) do require very specialized setup but that is not normally the case here. After setup set your new printer as the windows default. If you have questions regarding a specific printer send us an email.

That's quite simple. Go into the admin menu and on the 2nd tab, Control Info, check the box that says "Record statements as PDF documents". When you run statements a PDF document will be created for each document and will be emailed on the next scheduled email process.

Our Design/Build group would like to prepare there estimates in groups, such as "Back Yard", or "Patio Area" or "Front Entrance way". That way the client can easily identify the work involved for each area and the cost of each. Does this software allow this?

Yes, we call them "Job Elements". As a designer assembles the estimate he can easily see what is in each element, the cost and profit margin of each and can even specify if they want detail pricing to show on the proposal or only at the Job Element level..