A Season of Opportunity

Business Revenue Doubles With Seamless Software Execution

This winter has been a season of opportunity for Curbside Landscape and Irrigation, a year-round landscape maintenance company in suburban Minneapolis. As Mother Nature churned up the snow machine at a record pace, including sequential weather events that dumped nearly the entire season’s average snowfall in just seven weeks, the Curbside team was more than up for the challenge.
Difficulties that so often vex snow and ice removal efforts – logistics, crew communication, work tracking, reconciling invoices, and timely billing – have been seamlessly executed with the use of BOSS Software.

Curbside started using BOSS back in 2016 to improve every aspect of the business operation, says Tyler Johnson, business coordinator at Curbside.

“We were able to get buy-in from employees during the first year, and we’ve seen revenue go up significantly since we started using BOSS,” Johnson notes. “We more than doubled revenue from $9 million to $20 million, and now employ 100 individuals including field staff and administration.” That revenue total includes $7 million in snow management alone.

Mobile App Connects Crews

One of the keys for Curbside’s success in its growing snow and ice removal division is keeping the execution plan relatively simple and flexible, while fully employing BOSS’ powerful logistics and record-keeping abilities to manage the chaos in real-time. The software’s mobile app can create a ticket for each snow event, and all notes on the property and work completed are available for the foremen and crews to view.

“For example, supervisors can share detail on what areas of a property need additional clean up or have special requirements,” says Johnson. “Access to updated information is always available – no one is wasting time waiting for instructions or information.”

The app also provides access to property maps and includes a texting feature to communicate with the foremen and crews, in particular the salt spreader drivers.

“When we need to communicate with crews on changing weather conditions, like when sleet changes to snow, or when there is an equipment breakdown and we need to move crews and equipment around to cover an area, we don’t have time to call multiple trucks to respond. This is where the software’s texting capability is critical,” says Johnson.

Faster Invoicing, Better Cash Flow

BOSS’ ticket system collects all the work that occurs during the snow event on a given property, including field notes from foremen and crews who work overnight. When Johnson arrives for work in the morning, he gets a complete and timely picture of what occurred in the field over the past 24 hours.
Having all the information accurate and centralized has been a game changer for Curbside. Internally, the field information fuels the company bonus program, which helps ensure employee buy-in to the software system.

“We developed a culture where people want to make good money through the company’s bonus programs,” says Johnson. “And if we don’t have accurate data to prepare proposals or invoice clients with, the bonuses won’t be as good. Long-term employees know the value of having accurate info and why it’s important, and this gets passed along to new hires.”

Externally, having accurate, timely data means the speed to invoice is exponentially faster.

“This winter we billed more snow work in two months than we did all of last year,” says Johnson. “Before BOSS it was taking three weeks to invoice. Today, we will have an invoice out in 48 to 72 hours.”

In addition to streamlining the cash flow coming in, it also speeds reconciling with subcontractors.

“If we aren’t able to pay them on a timely basis, we may lose them or need a serious line of credit to manage around it,” says Johnson. “Snow management demands good cash flow.”

Curbside has maximized the benefits of using BOSS Software by going all in and extracting as much value as it can. For example, the mowing department has improved its proposals using information generated by the BOSS Software to include actual costs to perform work. The division was profitable for the first time in 2022 having its best year ever.

The company has also embraced BOSS’ culture of continuous improvement, providing the company with ideas for enhancements to the software.

“BOSS is willing to hear input from end users and make changes,” says Johnson. “We got together with them in the offseason to discuss ideas, and by winter the changes were made. They took the time to listen and got it done. Every winter we think of new ideas, and BOSS has our backs.”

The BOSS® Difference

BOSS Software’s in-depth knowledge of business software and the needs of professional landscape and snow removal contractors makes it the number one choice for businesses searching for a complete software solution. Call 866/596-5971 or request a free consultation today.