route sheets?/palm pilots?

[TheLawnBoy]

Hi all, i was just wondering what you use to keep track of the customers that you are supposed to be doing each day.

The way i work right now is the night before i hop on the computer and copy out by hand who is up for the next day. Should really invest in a printer or get my dads but that seems like a bit of a waste to be printing out a list everyday. Especially because after five or six pages:rolleyes: the stupid thing runs out of ink and it costs a fortune to get a little bottle of ink.

I was wondering if any of you use a handheld computer like a palm pilot or just how you keep your lists straight.

Thanks,
Andrew

[danthemowerman]

if i can't remember them I just right them down and either tape the list on my 1 gal. gas can or on the gan can of my wb. I walk or ride my sulky to all of my account in a 1/2 mile area

[crazygator]

I'm using the old way, paper, but I would like to get a palm. Import and export to main computer would be handy but also costly. If you keep a good written log then you should be fine. Unless you have so many account that you get lost, then time for the palm!

[Fine Lines Lawn]

:eek:

You don't have a printer? How do you send invoices?

I schedule the entire week on the preceeding weekend then print out a work sheet for each crew for each day.

Get a printer. Saves a lot of time and ink isn't that expensive.

[guntruck]

We use Lawn Monkey which is synced to our palm pilots (m505's) and thats what we use for everything, routes and daily work. Its all in LM we just sync it every morning and walaaa!! Its in there ready to go, then we punch in all the times of every job and it tells us how much time was spent on each job etc etc, really nice.

[TheLawnBoy]

Thanks for the ideas! I looked at the lawn monkey software it looked pretty good. Maybe next year. As for invoices when the time comes i just put them on disk and take them to the computer in the next room with the printer. I guess i will be moving that in here soon. ;)

Andrew

[little green guy]

I just print out a list for the week of lawns and then when we cut a lawn we put the date infront

[whitleys]

We built a simple data base in Office 97 Access. Print out list of lawns up for the coming 1-7 days, mark time in and time out as we do them, enter the times at the end of the day back into the data base. At end of week; print off work list to pay the kids; at end of the month, print off a log and bill all customers from quick books. Works for us.:)

[GreenQuest Lawn]

In the Spring I print up mowing cards for each customer. On it it has the name, place for the date, time in, time out, a spot to check what I did that week,(I.e mow, edge, prune, ect.). Then I separate them into days. This way at the end of the year I can see how much time was spent and see if i need to raise prices or not.

By the way if anyone would like to see it E-mail me:)

[lawnMaster5000]

well first off get a laser printer, high up-front cost but way cheaper on ink

and second i just print up a list of all jobs each week. The list is broken down into prefered days, and as i complete a job just put a date in front. Also can use this to mark payments.

If I get added jobs as the week goes just hand write them in with the rest of the list. Works great for me - I use QB 2001

At the end of the week i just go thru and record my weekly log. If you are handling large # of clients i would recomend computerizing daily.

[Got Grass?]

I jsut keep a Spreadsheat print out of my lawns with:
Addr. name. How Often $ Special requests/notes

Then the weeks for the month. Put the day of the week I cut in or S for skip.

[OBRYANMAINT]

i print up a weekly list that is in order by day..if behind or ahead you start where you left off....my program...groundskeeper pro has a daily list function but the week changes so much i like to have them all out in front of me in the field

[Premo Services]

I purchased the pilot and did a demo of lawn monkey, which was great. Next season I will have the lawn monkey. I now use the memo pad on it for what I have done at the jobs. Also I have a mileage program on the pilot, really makes the calculations easy, and get reports on what miles were for business or personal. If I have extra or one time jobs to do , I schedule them in the date book with alarm, and it reminds me that I have extra work to do that day.

[AltaLawnCare]

I used to use a spread sheet print out from Excel.
Now I use an appointment/organizer software I found in Office Max, it only cost around $30.00. Each week I print out the week ahead, it prints out in calendar form - so it doubles as a calendar also. I keep the print out on my clip board in the truck. It's a metal clip board made to hold forms, where I keep blank proposal sheets.
With the schedule print out in the seat, I can jot down mileage on the particular day also.
If I miss a mowing, the software will automatically ask to rescedule to task for today, and roll it over.
If I mow it, I open the software, check the item as "done" and tell it to schedule it again how ever many days ahead.
I also put the number count of the cut per this year next to the name, so I can keep track of how many times I'm cutting this particular property. :)

[AztlanLC]

Just remember if you use a Palm Piloto to sync. every night cause if something happens you'll loose your data and belive me it happens specially in this kind of work, if you can, buy a lock for it and keep it in the truck all the time, put a string to the little plastic pen and don't leave it in the sun.

[lawrence stone]

Those palms and handsprings are already antiquated.

The Compac I-pac is now on the market. This is a REAL computer with a windows operating system.

They are going to be the hot item for X-mas.

Then of course a better version will be introduced in Jan. and the models on the market now will then be half price.

[Guido]

I made it a simple as possible in case I wasn't going out cutting with the guys for any reason.

I made a list (I had ALL weekly customers) of all my regular maintenance customers and started at the top and worked down. You just start where you left off the day before. Take 2 days off(and go to work landscaping of course!), and start back up again.

It was an excel spreadsheet with 4 columns. #1 was blank for me to fill in the date, #2 was blank to fill in time started, #3 was blank to fill in the time completed and #4 had the customers name.

Simple, and anyone could have figured it out without any trouble if I was ever in a bind.

Just take all the info and input it into my database twice a week.