Landscaping Software FAQ

The Standard Plan is $99/month (or $82.50/month billed annually) and includes 15 users. Each extra user is $7/month ($6 on annual billing), up to 75 users. For 76 or more users we offer an Enterprise Plan with custom pricing. Use the cost calculator to price your team.

Just add them. Each user beyond the 15 included is $7/month ($6 on annual billing) — there's no jump to a bigger plan. For example, a team of 25 pays $99 + 10 × $7 = $169/month. Standard covers up to 75 users; above that, talk to us about Enterprise.

Every staff member who logs in counts as a user — admins, office staff, supervisors and gardeners. The Staff Board kiosk display doesn't count and is free.

Yes — a 14-day free trial with full access to all features. No restrictions during the trial period. Sign up at app.sheprd.works/signup.

Yes, a credit card is required at signup via Stripe. Your card won't be charged until the 14-day trial ends. You can cancel anytime.

Yes — annual billing is two months free on the base plan: $990/year instead of $1,188, which works out to $82.50/month. Extra users drop from $7 to $6/month each.

Yes — snow removal and winter operations are included on every plan, including the 14-day trial. There's no add-on or per-storm fee. An admin enables it under Settings → Operations & Workforce → Winter Operations, then adds seasons and contracts.

Go to app.sheprd.works/signup, create your account, and enter your payment details. Your organization is set up automatically with a 14-day trial.

Most teams are up and running in under an hour. Once you add your properties and staff, you can start scheduling and tracking time immediately. New organizations receive starter data to help you get going.

Absolutely. Shepherd is a Progressive Web App — it works on any device with a browser. Your crew can install it to their home screen for one-tap access. No app store download needed.

No. Shepherd runs entirely in the browser. There's nothing to install on computers or phones. Just open the URL and log in.

Shepherd's calendar uses drag-and-drop to assign crews to properties. You can create assignments, move them between days, and copy/paste assignments between dates. It supports day, week, and month views.

Yes — simply drag any assignment to a different day. Everything updates in real time, and your crew sees the changes instantly on their devices.

Yes. Shepherd has real-time conflict detection — if a crew member is double-booked or a property is scheduled twice, you'll see it immediately.

Yes. Winter Operations is Shepherd's built-in snow and ice module. It adds seasons, per-property contracts, storm and repeat-push tracking, overnight scheduling on the same calendar, a supervisor field flow with photo and GPS proof, snow billing, and printable proof reports. Enable it in Settings → Operations & Workforce → Winter Operations.

Contracts can be priced per push, per depth (with a minimum), by depth tier, seasonally (with a storm cap and overage), or hourly by equipment, plus optional material charges. Completed visits produce draft billing lines that an admin reviews and approves. Approved lines flow into the normal invoice with the Snow source, and per-invoice QuickBooks push works as usual.

Yes. Arrivals, departures, before/after photos, services, equipment and material entries are queued in the outbox when service is poor and sync in order when the connection returns. Shepherd stores a server-clock offset so offline timestamps stay accurate, and repeated syncs don't duplicate the record.

Each visit records arrival and departure times, GPS and accuracy, before/after photos, services completed, equipment and material, and crew hours. Admins can print a per-property season proof report with timestamps, GPS flags and SHA-256 photo fingerprints. Completed visits are locked, and corrections require an audited amendment with a reason.

Yes. Snow visits are normal calendar assignments with a snow badge and stripe, so they appear in crew schedules, conflict detection and payroll. They are deliberately excluded from landscaping budgets, property visit metrics and landscaping labor invoices, so each side of the business keeps clean numbers. A property can have both kinds of work on the same day.

Crews log time per property visit using their mobile device. Supervisors can track daily time from the mobile dashboard. Time is allocated across task types with intuitive sliders.

Yes. Every time entry is tied to a specific staff member, property, and task type. You can review time breakdowns by person, property, team, or date range.

Shepherd handles pay period calculations automatically based on logged time. Close out a period and the hours are ready for payroll — processed manually or exported to QuickBooks.

Every property gets a dedicated profile with budgets, visit targets, notes, images, requests, and assignment history. Properties can be grouped for scheduling, and multi-property days generate optimal route maps from a muster point.

Yes. Shepherd has a dedicated Clients page that integrates with your property data. Manage client relationships alongside their properties and service history — all in one place.

Yes — Shepherd's Additionals feature lets you schedule and track extra work beyond regular property visits. Drag-and-drop scheduling, status workflows, and dedicated timekeeping, all integrated into the calendar.

Three primary role dashboards — Admin (full access to everything), Supervisor (manages schedules, teams, and time), and Gardener (sees their assignments and logs their time) — plus additional roles for Operations Manager, Office Coordinator, Accounts, Construction, and Shopkeeper, and a StaffBoard kiosk for shared displays. Each role gets a dashboard and permissions built for what they need.

Shepherd tracks staff availability with real-time conflict detection. You can set availability windows, see who's assigned where, and build teams with an interactive sidebar — no double-booking.

Yes. You can create teams, assign staff members, and track composition — all in real time. Teams can be dragged onto the calendar to schedule entire crews at once.

Admins and supervisors can send one-way announcements to specific roles — all supervisors, all gardeners, or the staff board. Perfect for weather updates, schedule changes, or company news.

Yes. Shepherd has a built-in feedback system where team members can submit feedback and requests. Admins can track and respond to feedback directly in the platform.

Yes. Shepherd's Tool Terminal handles checkout and return tracking for any equipment — power tools, trimmers, blowers, batteries, ladders, and more. It uses QR codes for fast scanning.

Each piece of equipment gets a QR code. Staff scan the equipment code to check it out and scan again to return it. The system tracks who has what, with a kiosk-friendly interface designed for the shop or office.

Anything with a QR code. Power tools, batteries, chargers, trimmers, blowers, ladders, safety gear — whatever your crew needs to check out. The system is general-purpose, not limited to batteries.

The Staff Board is a TV or kiosk display for your office. It shows assignments, announcements, and metrics. The V2 mosaic system gives you an arrangeable tile grid with independent controls per tile, auto-cycling slideshow, and kiosk reliability features.

Yes. The Staff Board V2 has per-tile stat controls — choose which metrics display, how assignments paginate (8 per page with auto-cycling), and which background image or color to use. Settings buttons auto-hide for a clean TV display.

The AI Query Panel lets you ask plain-English questions about your business data. Type a question like "Which staff member logged the most hours this week?" and the AI translates it to SQL, runs it, and shows results in a sortable table.

You can ask about staff utilization, budget vs. actual comparisons, time breakdowns by property or team, and more. Pre-built templates help you get started. Results can be exported to CSV or saved as custom metric cards on your dashboard.

Yes. Shepherd includes a Hiring Portal with a public careers page where applicants can submit applications and upload resumes. An admin dashboard lets you review, track, and manage applications with statuses like new, reviewed, interviewed, hired, or rejected.

Use the admin hire dashboard at app.sheprd.works/dashboard/hire. You'll see all applications with applicant locations on a map. Update statuses, review resumes, and move candidates through your hiring pipeline — all inside Shepherd.

Yes. Shepherd has a Community Forum where landscaping professionals can discuss topics, share knowledge, and connect. It has categories, threaded discussions, post likes, full-text search, and Shepherd branding throughout.

Admins and supervisors have moderation tools — a pending content queue, approve/delete workflows, content reports, and category management. The forum is cross-org so the broader landscaping community can participate.

Yes. Shepherd has bidirectional QuickBooks Online integration. Export time and invoices to QuickBooks, and import customers and employees. OAuth credentials are database-backed with connection status tracking.

Yes. Shepherd uses Row Level Security (RLS) on all database tables so each organization's data is fully isolated. The AI Query Panel enforces tenant isolation on every query, and all queries are audit-logged. The platform was hardened through a comprehensive security audit.