Laptops

[yardman1]

Does anyone take a laptop on the route with them. To help out with billing or routing.

[GroundKprs]

Use your computer for data storage. History is the most important thing in any business. I have all history of all properties for last 14 seasons right with me.

If I see a dollar spot problem cropping up on a lawn this year, in a minute I can call up all lawns that have had the problem in the past, and be able to check them. If I have 2 hours 'til dark in mid-Nov, in a minute I can look at history of fall cleanups and see which property I can finish up in that 2 hours.

Also, all work is recorded as done, and transferred to desktop for billing = no mistakes. Billing is NOT on the notebook; I don't want to get bogged down on a worksite discussing finances.

[Cos]

Jim,

All I can say is that is simply awesome!!

[Pro Cut]

I have one for personal use. We are currently working on setting up a satellite-based irrigation control system through satellites and a computer. The laptop might get used for that.

[Hamons]

What kind of software do you use on yours? I do a similar thing -- I have my laptop setup as a mobile office with a printer to print oput invoices while doing applications. I really like it -- but I don't use it to keep the detailed records you do.

[GroundKprs]

Jeff, I just use an old DOS database program from the 80s. When I wanted to computerize, there was no industry software, so I wrote my own. Mine is a simple form of DBase. When I got the notebook in the early 90s, I just streamlined it so data input in the field is used for billing. Mine is not a pretty picture in operation, like today's software, and it uses cumbersome macros for billing calculations. If someone wanted to start today, an Access database or something similar would be the way to go. Most people think spreadsheets are for calculations, but there are powerful enough calculation features in today's databases (and even in the 80s databases, LOL) to do our simple billing procedures.

One example of the handiness of having all your history at your fingertips: Dr. B catches me during a fertilization, and asks about aeration. His is a heavy soil that would benefit from annual aeration, but we generally do it every other year. I go to truck, do a 30 sec search of file of completed work, and tell him it has been 2 years. He says to do it, and I record it in the work to do file. Instant answer for client, and no hunting thru office files and getting back to him to make the sale.

On each job I just enter the date, property code, start time, job code, and end time. Couple of other fields for time adjustments and notes. From this simple data most of my billing is done automatically each month. I use different files for: work to do and being done, work waiting to be billed, billing, and accounts receivable.

Just takes time to plan the organization of data you wish to keep for your business. When I had employees, I also tracked the employee(s) on a particular job. After a while, I could see that empl #1 worked at 100% of my rate, but empl #2 was only at 85%, and #3 was 125%. Needless to say, #3 got really good pay and bonus, LOL.

[JohnHenry]

I use my labtop all day long to write down account history and make notes of each accounts.Plus if I am designing a landscape I can design one right in front of a customer so they can see it.If I didnt have my labtop I would be lost up to my elbows with notebokks and scrap paper

[Dusty]

great setup luv the computer stand thanks 4 the pics

[AltaLawnCare]

I came here to post a similar question, and saw this post. ;)

I need to get a lap top. I can't afford a new one, so I'm looking for used under $500.00

What are some features I need? What are good brands?

I want to run MS office, Groundskeeper Pro...pretty much copy my hard drive from this computer to it. Maybe do field billing, and keep MSDS and labeling on it.

-Thanks

[GroundKprs]

Gotta rethink your priorities, Alta. Used notebooks are not as functional as new ones - they don't have the current technologies installed. And it is expensive, if even possible, to upgrade a notebook compared to a desktop. Here's a Dell Notebook for $699 (http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/featured_inspn1?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs).

Usually only way to get a decent price on a used notebook is to find a company dumping their old ones because they got new ones. Even then it's risky because of ease of damage to portables compared to desktops.

And most important, if you are going to put all your business data on a notebook, and it will be your only computer, how are you backing up your data???? Are you secure enough in your backup procedures that you can format your hard drive at any time, and be confident that you can completely reconstruct all your business data.

I have used computers long enough to know that nothing can be counted on. First neat experience was notebook's hard drive crashing just while it was backing up the most critical file to a floppy. The floppy file was corrupted, and data on the hard drive was unrecoverable. So what do you do when your hard drive and its backup are fried at the same time? You better have redundant backups, LOL. Then there was the time I was reformatting the desktop. Of course, I make a full tape backup just before format, then reinstall all old data from tape. But just as restore started, the tape broke. Sure better have a redundant backup here, too.

[Dusty]

man u have bad luck with backups

[AltaLawnCare]

Thnx for that link, Jim. I didn't know new ones were under 1k$.
;)

[GroundKprs]

man u have bad luck with backups
No bad luck involved if you are doing it right, Dusty. Most you should lose is maybe current day's data input. In both cases above, I had the redundant backups, so I was fine. Depending on the size of data necessary to backup, I can use floppies, tapes, or CDs, sometimes a combo on a specific machine. Norton's Ghost is a neat way to make images of entire hard drives. A bigger business should be using a RAID type system, where data is always written to up to 4 separate hard drives simultaneously.

[Wells]

Grounkprs,

Nice setup, Ckeck out the one I'm looking into.

[GroundKprs]

Ohh, lordy, Wells. This will be easier on the back:

http://www.ee.ryerson.ca:8080/~elf/abacus/images/abacus-photo.gif


The abacus, the first computer. Sorry, no speaker option. :D

[UNIONTURF]

I have my PC and printer in the truck, wit the wirless card I can print invoices either in the truck or when I pull up at home.

[cclllc]

Sweet.Do you have an inverter?What kind of printer.

[yardman1]

Ray what kindof laptop stand do you have?

[UNIONTURF]

Yes, I have a inverter and Canon printer. The stand is made by Gamber-Johnson.

http://gamberjohnson.com/

[Mowerconsultant]

I have a complete Gamber Johnson set up for a laptop.
99-2004 F series Super Duty mount, pole, swivel / pivot and laptop mount.
You can buy it even if your truck is not a Ford, then buy the correct mount.
I do not use it anymore.
Any serious offers considered.

[Cos]

I'll call you tommorro, PJ.

[UNIONTURF]

^ That's who I got most of my mount from in the photo. If you are interested in the setup check with PJ!