Lawn Care Business Apps You Need to Grow Your Business

iOS, Android, and desktop, starting at $19/month

Jobber allows you to run your entire lawn care or landscaping business from a phone, tablet, or computer. How? By offering every function you need to run your business in one single ecosystem. Jobber allows you to:

• Track client information with a CRM
• Make notes and attach photos regarding client properties to their accounts
• Share information with your team instantly on their mobile devices
• Schedule and notify your crews
• Follow-up with clients before appointments, after quotes, and more
• Optimize routes and day sheets with GPS
• Quote clients and get their signed approval
• Invoice clients and track invoice status
• Get paid with ePayments and track unpaid invoices
• Look more professional than your competitors

It’s voted #1 most popular and affordable field-service software for a reason! You can try it for free to see for yourself.

iOS, Android, and desktop, starting at $13/month

Running an efficient and accountable lawn care business can’t be done without great accounting software. You need an option that can work in the field and the office, which is why we recommend QuickBooks. It’s cornerstone to your accounting, bookkeeping, and reporting so you can manage invoices, expenses, margins, payroll, and more. Plus, it integrates with field service management apps, like Jobber.

iOS, Android, and desktop, free

Your business is weather-dependent––it’s just a fact of life in lawn care. If you’re going to do things right, then you need constant access to local weather conditions hour by hour and day by day at your fingertips. Without it, your scheduling (and rescheduling) will be a challenge.

We like The Weather Channel app especially because it offers push notifications. If you don’t see a severe weather alert, or an unexpected chance of rain, then your crew will. Plus, you’ll get access to other important details to help you plan your schedules and dispatching such as sunrise and sunset, wind speeds, temperature, visibility, humidity, and more.

iOS, Android, and desktop, free

If you’re planting or maintaining flower beds, working with mulch or fertilizer, spreading grass seed, and all that other fun stuff, then you’re going to want to be precise with your measurements. Over-use materials, and you’ll be bleeding money in weeks.

You need an app that helps you measure lawn and flower bed sizes and helps you calculate the volume of those spaces. Area Volume Calculator is the perfect app for you. It’s completely free and offers 170+ geometric shapes to calculate. You can choose what material you’d like to fill your shape with, from wood, to liquid, to almonds! There are 1500 materials to choose from. Plus, this app offers Metric and Imperial units.

Alternative options: Geometry Bundle for iOS

iOS and Android (free apps with purchase of device)

Ideally, you’ll want to use a field service management software that offers GPS features to help you track your team. If you want to get very granular and track each crew by coordinates by the minute, then you should invest in the FleetSharp app. It comes complimentary with the FleetSharp GPS tracking system. If you’re ready to get your mileage, gas-use, and travel margins down to a science then use FleetSharp to locate, monitor, and track your vehicles’ mileage. Another great feature is that it offers mobile alerts for unsafe driving behavior or excessive idling.

Alternative options: Jobber GPS Tracking or MileIq

Electronic payments make collecting money after a job undeniably easy and flexible. Some ePayment apps, such as Jobber Payments, integrate with your field service management software to make accepting payments part of your everyday workflow at an affordable price (as low as 2.7% + $0.30 per transaction).

We love Jobber Payments because you can accept credit cards at a job-site immediately after you’re done working, or even days after you’ve sent your client their invoice. Plus, you’re able to track when your invoices are paid and even send clients a follow-up reminder to ask for payment. You can also vault your clients’ cards, which allows you to charge your clients again and again, all they need to do is approve the payment.

Other options include: Square, Stripe

iOS and Android, free with upgrade plans

If you’re the type of business owner who wants everything to be online, then you need to start using GSuite. Get all your documents on the cloud with Google Drive, and create files online that your entire team can access. GSuite offers spreadsheets, a word processor, slide presentations, a calendar, and email. You can buy a GSuite plan to get more cloud storage, an email domain, and mobile device management. The best part is that you can easily create, edit, and view files on mobile devices.

Other options include: DropBox, Microsoft Office

iOS and Android, free

The moment you have one employee is the minute you need to start thinking critically about team communication. Things can get complicated and lost in translation when you have a growing team. We recommend using a communication app like Slack to help keep your team in the loop.

With Slack, you can share files and images with your team. You can communicate one-on-one, in groups, or to the entire team using channels and chats. Slack offers voice and video call features along with IM chatting. It’s the best group chatting app out there, as far as we’re concerned––we use it too!

Other options include: Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger

Available on iOS, free

The last thing you want to do is treat a plant with fertilizer that shouldn’t be treated. If you don’t know what plans you’re dealing with, then this can get tricky. You can always Google it, but what if you don’t recognize what you’re dealing with?

Leafsnap is your back pocket field guide and best friend in this scenario. It will help you identify plant species just by photographing their leaves. It’s a helpful tool that you can use in the field to identify shrubs, perennials, trees, and more.

Other options include: Landscaper’s Companion, Smartplant

iOS, starting at $45 per month

Positive online reviews are the cheapest, most reliable, and most effective way to grow your plumbing business. Why not use an app that can help you automate how you collect reviews from happy customers?

Review automation software like NiceJob makes gathering reviews as simple as possible, while giving your clients a great experience while they do it. Most home service pros rely on positive reviews to grow their business, and consumers rely on client reviews to make confident buying decisions. Try an app that can help you grow your business and empower prospects to choose you over your competitors.

Other options include: Broadly

iOS and Android, advertising services available

Speaking of online reviews, why not use a review platform to generate leads and business? Yelp is a great option for lawn care business owners who care about their reputation to build their business. Yelp is great because you can use it in the field and in the office. It offers business information, photos, client reviews, and a link to your website. Plus, you can receive client messages through the app, promote your business with priority ads, and get audience analytics for your business profile so you can see how you’re doing online.

Other options include: Eden, TaskRabbit, Angie’s List, Thumbtack

Mobile-friendly software with a free basic plan

MailChimp is one of the most popular marketing automation solutions for small businesses. Features include email automation, newsletter automation, and email address segmentation. With it you can design beautiful branded emails and send targeted messages to prospects and existing clients. Make strategic marketing decisions based on specific event triggers such as recurring work, seasonal sales, special offers, or service agreement updates so you can grow your business. If you’re ready to try out email marketing, Mailchimp is a beginner-friendly option to dip your toes into.

Other options include: SendJim

iOS and Android, free

If you loved graphic design, then you’d be a designer! Fortunately, you don’t have to love graphic design or be a designer to create your own marketing materials on Canva. It’s a very user-friendly design tool to help you create your own beautiful logos, flyers, business cards, and social media images. This is a must if you truly care about growing your business and getting more clients.

Canva offers templates as well as blank slates so you can use anything you create in your email, social media, or door-to-door campaigns. Announce new services, special offers, or just keep your clients up-to-date on your company with beautifully designed flyers. Best of all, it’s free!

iOS and Android, free

Social media networks all offer free app versions of their websites.Social media marketing is a fantastic avenue to explore if you’re trying to grow your business. You can use them to show off your work, connect with your community, chat with prospects, and host client reviews. Each of them is good for a specific function, so do your research before you dive in. You don’t need to use all of these apps to market your business––one will do the trick, and is usually enough to handle for one person. We recommend lawn care business owners try using a Facebook Business Page or an Instagram Business account first before trying the others out.