Yardbook

Yardbook makes it easy for owners of lawncare and landscaping businesses to manage administrative tasks and organize schedules. The feature-rich application is available on desktop, web and mobile devices.

Company Profile

https://www.yardbook.com

Yardbook is a cloud-based SaaS service for landscaping and lawn care businesses. The software is designed to help with the management of administrative tasks, such as invoicing, customer management and more.

There is no mobile or desktop Yardbook app. Instead, the entire application is web-based and accessible via any internet-connected device, which includes mobile devices and desktop PCs.

The robust application helps streamline management tasks, keeps businesses organized and improves the customer experience.

Yardbook states that more than 20,000 businesses are using its platform, which has been featured on:

• TechCrunch
• Landscape Management
• Entrepreneur
• Inc.
• Yahoo! News

Yardbook aims to be a one-stop-shop solution for the management of lawn care-related businesses.

Yardbook Features

Yardbook has an extensive list of features that help with the management of your business’s finances, jobs, customers and employees. All of these features allow business owners to manage their most important tasks from one centralized location.

Yardbook’s features include:

Track Jobs

With Yardbook, you can track and schedule jobs quickly and easily. Through calendar view, you get a complete overview of the month to see which jobs you have scheduled. You can also choose List and Assignment view to get a more detailed look at the jobs ahead.

Quick buttons at the top of the page allow you to:

• Add a new job
• Add a new task
• Add a new visit
• Filter your jobs
• Edit your calendar settings

In calendar view, you can click on scheduled jobs to get more information, including:

• Job description
• Type of work
• Customer address, name and phone number
• Time and date
• Crew assignments
• Invoice information
• Customer forms

You can also change the status of the job to “canceled” or “completed” with the click of a button.

Crews can clock in for a job, or timesheets can be added manually.

Yardbook’s job tracking is robust and intuitive, making it easy to streamline job scheduling and keep your schedule organized.

Manage Sales and Leads

Yardbook offers a variety of features that can help you better manage your sales and attract new customers. These features include:

Creating a Business Profile

With Yardbook, you can create a business profile that showcases your work and makes it easy for prospects to contact you directly.

Yardbook profiles allow businesses to:

• Target their service areas
• Accept credit card payments for quicker payments
• Offer coupons and other promotions
• Swap referrals with others in the business

A business profile on Yardbook will help with brand building and expose your business to more potential customers in your target area.

Create Estimates

Through Yardbook, you can create and send estimates in just a few clicks.

• Add the customer’s name
• Choose products and services to add from your catalog of services
• Add comments and messages
• Include your company name and logo
• Add discounts and payment terms

Creating estimates is quick and easy with this robust solution. Once completed, estimates can be sent to customers via email or printed and handed over manually or through the mail.

With the click of a button, you can also:

• Transform estimates into invoices
• Schedule jobs included on the estimate
• Create similar estimates for other customers

You can also view all of your outstanding estimates in a convenient list for easy management.

Invoicing

Yardbook’s Invoices tab allows you to see all of your invoices at a glance and take action right from the main dashboard to save time. You can also view more details about invoices and create new ones with ease.

Clicking on an invoice will bring you to the customer’s page and invoice tab. From here, you can create new invoices or adjust pending invoices.

You can also click on the Settings tab to adjust the settings for your invoices, including its appearance, payment terms, convenience fees, automation settings and more.

Customer Management

Yardbook makes it easy to manage customers. You can add their information manually, or import from a file.

From the main customer dashboard, you can view the most important information for each listing:

• Name
• Address (along with a Google Maps link to their location)
• Email address
• Phone number

You can also automate some tasks from this main dashboard. For example, clicking on the mail icon next to the customer’s email address will open a dialog box asking if you want to automatically email the customer when a job is complete.

You can add tags to customers, too.

Clicking on a customer’s name will bring up their profile. Here you can view:

• How many properties they have
• How many activities they have
• How many payments they’ve made
• How many invoices you’ve sent
• Notes
• Discounts for the customer
• Payment terms

Under the invoices tab, you can:

• Record payments
• Edit invoices
• Create recurring invoices
• Send invoices to the customer

There are also tabs to add:

• Before and after photos
• Estimates
• Customer forms
• Notes and other attachments

You can also view the customer’s timeline to see what jobs you’ve completed, estimates, invoices and more. From here, you can also send emails and text messages to the customer.

Calculators, Lot Measurements and To-Do Lists

Yardbook provides helpful calculators to determine how much material you’ll need for jobs, including:

• Mulch
• Topsoil
• Gravel
• Plants
• Fertilizer

All of these calculators are accessible from the main dropdown menu.

Yardbook recently added a “lot measurement” feature, which allows businesses to calculate measurements of properties remotely. This feature uses Google satellite imagery to help with material and service calculations.

Along with calculators and lot measurements, you can also access and create to-do lists right from the main menu. Add important tasks quickly and view them anytime you need.

Equipment Management

With Yardbook, you can also create an inventory of your equipment and manage it from one platform.

Each equipment listing includes the:

• Serial number
• Model number
• Purchase date and price
• Storage location

You can also assign equipment to employees or crews with the click of a button. You can schedule maintenance for equipment and click “Check Out” to set the equipment to “in use” status by an employee or crew.

The main equipment dashboard allows you to see all of your equipment and its availability at a glance.

Chemical Application Tracking and Management

With Yardbook, business owners can track chemical applications quickly and easily. From the main Chemicals dashboard, you can:

• Add chemical application records
• Setup chemicals

When adding a new record, you can record the:

• Property address
• Date
• Start and end times
• Weather conditions
• Chemical details
• Application area
• More

You can also download your chemical application list as a CSV for easy management and use in other applications.

Expense and Vendor Management

With Yardbook, owners can track their expenses and manage their vendors with ease.

Detailed expense recordings allow you to add:

• The expense date
• Who was paid (store or vendor name)
• The amount
• Category (dump fees, materials, etc.)

Vendors can also be added with just a few clicks for easy management and recording. Add their name, address, email and any other relevant notes.

Catalog of Services and Inventory

Yardbook’s Catalog of Services feature is helpful for creating estimates and invoices. Simply add your services and/or products to your catalog along with their price and other relevant details, like sales tax.

When creating estimates and invoices, simply choose the relevant services, and the costs will be added automatically for you.

Employee and Crew Management

Yardbook aims to be a complete lawn business management solution. Along with customer and service management, you can also manage your employees right through the online platform.

• Add employee details quickly and easily. View all of your employees and their contact information at a glance.
• Create crews and add employees to each group. You can also give crews a name for easy reference.

Employees also get their own jobs and time clock pages.

Along with managing crew and employee information, you can also:

• Create and track timesheets for each employee

Those who sign up for the Premium package with Yardbook can also enjoy GPS location tracking to record the geo locations of employees when they clock in and out.

Reporting

Yardbook can also generate reports that make it easier to manage a business and make informed decisions.

You can generate reports for:

• Customers
• Invoices
• Payments
• Expenses
• Profit and loss estimates
• Job costing
• Sales tax
• Earning forecast and estimates
• Properties
• Product and service
• Job profitability
• Employee revenue

Reports are enriched with tables and charts, making it easy to view key information at a glance.

How Much is Yardbook?

Yardbook has many features that make business management a breeze, but how much will it cost you? Yardbook pricing is surprisingly affordable, and businesses have three tiers to choose from:

Starter – Free

• Customer management
• Estimates
• Jobs and scheduling
• Invoices
• Expenses
• Routing
• Report generation
• Employee access
• Lot measurement
• Credit card payments
• Product catalog
• Snow removal

Business – $34.99/month

Everything included in the Starter package as well as:

• Bulk text messages
• Bulk emails
• Automatic invoice reminders
• Automatic backups
• Multi-step chemical programs
• Customized lead capture feature
• Yardbook’s processing fee is waived

Enterprise – $49.99/month

Everything included in the Business package as well as:

• QuickBooks sync
• Branded company portal

Each plan gives you access to the platform via web browser and mobile devices, so you can use your account whenever and wherever as long as you’re on an internet-connected device.

The Enterprise plan provides the most features and is the only option for syncing QuickBooks data. New lawncare businesses may have to miss out on this feature until they have the budget for the highest-level tier available for Yardbook.

If you’re unsure of whether Yardbook is for you or if it will be worth the cost, you can demo the platform from your web browser for free and without having to make an account. The demo account gives you access to virtually every feature (minus GPS tracking and profile creation), so you can really see if it will be a good fit for your business.

Yardbook Pros

• Demo access is easily available on the website
• Robust features
• The application is easy to use
• Expense, job and employee management are comprehensive
• Reports are easy to read and beautifully designed

Cons

• QuickBooks syncing is only available on the most expensive tier
• Automated features are difficult to find and use
• Not enough import features

Although not perfect, Yardbook software reviews are generally positive. One common complaint is that there aren’t enough import features, which would save time and streamline more tasks. Some automated features, like automatic emails, are difficult to find and use.

Businesses that wish to streamline expense and income tracking will also need to subscribe to Enterprise (the most expensive package) in order to use QuickBooks syncing.

Overall, Yardbook offers a wealth of features that will help lawn care business owners manage and organize schedules and administrative tasks. Most management tasks can be handled right from Yardbook, from the creation of estimates to customer management, expense tracking and employee management.