Choosing software for a grounds maintenance business: 8 things to check

1. Clients, sites and what's included

A housing association or school trust can mean dozens of sites under one client. Check the software holds each site separately, with its address, access arrangements, keys or codes and a site contact, and that each site's visits and history stay together. If your contracts list specific tasks per site, check where that detail lives and whether your crews can see it on the day.

2. Schedules that follow the season

• Can a task repeat on its own interval: grass every week or two in the growing season, hedges every few months, inspections yearly?
• Can a schedule have an end date, so summer cutting stops by itself?
• When rain stops play, can you move a day's visits without rebuilding the whole schedule?
• Can you see the week ahead for every crew, so catching up is planned rather than guessed?

3. Crews and vans

Most grounds teams work in crews. Check jobs can go to a crew (with its van and lead) rather than to individuals, that the lead sees the day in route order on a phone, and that the morning vehicle check and any defects get recorded. On busy days, can one crew see and pick up another crew's work?

4. Only qualified operatives on qualified work

Spraying, chainsaws and some machinery need the right qualification. For pesticides, the Health and Safety Executive's guidance on professional use sets out the certificates required; for chainsaws and other equipment, check HSE's guidance and your insurer's requirements. Ask whether the software records each operative's certificates with expiry dates, warns before they lapse, and stops a job needing a certificate being given to someone without one, rather than relying on someone remembering.

5. Evidence your clients can see

Clients increasingly want proof: dated photos, what was done, when and by whom. That evidence matters most when a contract comes up for renewal or retender. Check you can capture photos and notes on site, produce a report per visit, and give each client a way to see their own visits and reports without phoning the office.

6. Extra works and variations

Contracts generate extra work: a fallen tree, overgrown boundaries, a one-off clearance. Check you can quote extras on site from your own price list, get the client's approval in writing (or from a link), and turn the approved quote into a job and then an invoice, so extra work doesn't get done for free.

7. Seasonal staff and hours

• Can seasonal operatives get a login quickly, without a company email address, and lose access when they leave, with their history kept?
• Are start, travel and finish times recorded as they happen, so timesheets and overtime are ready for payroll?
• Does the price allow for a bigger summer team, or are you paying for winter's empty seats all year?

8. What it really costs, and how you leave

• Is it priced per user, per vehicle or by bands, and what happens when your team grows each spring?
• Are there extras: text credits, card fees, set-up, add-ons for reports or client access?
• Is there a long contract, or can you change or cancel monthly?
• Can you take all your clients, sites and visit history with you if you leave?

Questions to ask in a demo

1. Show me one client with three sites, each with its own access notes and schedule.
2. Show me fortnightly grass cutting that stops at the end of October, and moving a wet day's visits.
3. Show me what happens if I try to give a spraying job to someone without the certificate.
4. Show me the report and photos my client would see after a visit.
5. What will I pay in July with my summer team, and in January without them?

Bring one of your real contracts to the demo and ask them to set up a site from it. It shows quickly whether the software fits how your work is actually specified.