Best BOSS LM alternatives for commercial landscaping companies

BOSS LM, part of the Integra Group, is a popular business management software and mobile app for lawn care, landscaping, snow removal, and other field service businesses.

If you’re considering using BOSS LM for your lawn and landscaping business, keep in mind BOSS landscape software offers limited functionality for certain necessary features and lacks other crucial features altogether.

This blog compares the best BOSS alternatives for field service software, including Aspire, with a deep focus on core platform functionality, such as:

Key features
Pricing
Integrations
Ease of use

What is BOSS LM?

BOSS landscape management software markets itself as an all-in-one software solution for small and large companies.

The software is geared toward lawn and landscape businesses, supply chain management, snow removal, and other trades. Core features include customer relationship management (CRM), invoicing, branch management, business operations management, and more.

Best BOSS LM alternatives

Aspire
Jobber
Asset
Real Green Systems
LMN
SingleOps

Aspire is lawn and landscape business management software

Aspire’s user-friendly business management software streamlines operations for lawn care, landscaping, and janitorial services, from scheduling, routing, and online booking, to job bidding, payment invoicing, and calculating payroll.

As a ServiceTitan company, Aspire supports residential contractors and commercial enterprises and boasts over 800 clients across 2,200 locations.

BOSS LM vs. Aspire

There’s no single rule for choosing a business management platform because many factors contribute to creating great software.

Consider a platform’s core features as well as any additional business management tools.

Instead of making a gut decision, weigh the options and determine which software solution will help you the most in running a successful landscaping business.

Key features

Estimating

Accurate estimating is key to winning more bids and growing revenue for any service business. BOSS LM and Aspire landscape business software include estimating as a core platform feature that tracks actual versus estimated costs.

The software also automatically adjusts prices in estimates based on changes to material pricing.

One differentiator for Aspire is the ability to create customizable estimating templates. Techs and sales team members can quickly produce an estimate in the field or on the job site using one of several pre-built templates.

Invoicing

Paper invoices are difficult to track, take time to process, and are prone to mistakes.

BOSS LM and Aspire include digital invoicing as a standard platform feature.

Techs in the field can send an invoice with the following:

Accurate labor hours
Material costs
Job details

The mobile device functionality of Aspire also enables users to collect payments electronically even when they’re away from the office. Account managers can view outstanding invoices from the reporting dashboard, making it easy to follow up and collect owed revenue.

Reporting

Real-time reporting uncovers valuable insights into your business so you can make data-driven decisions to increase revenue, reduce inefficiencies, and track team performance.

Both software platforms include a reporting feature and a detailed visual dashboard to help you drill down into key metrics and demonstrate ROI.

CRM

Customer relationship management (CRM) helps services businesses streamline workflows, improve customer service, and increase sales by capturing leads and nurturing them across the sales pipeline from prospect to closed deal.

Aspire and BOSS LM include real-time CRM functionality to spotlight sales opportunities and better manage customer relationships.

Scheduling

Landscape management software takes the headache out of scheduling, especially when making changes on the fly to adapt to changing weather conditions, customer needs, or work order adjustments. The best platforms make job management effortless with route optimization.

BOSS LM advertises a labor forecasting feature that uses historical business data to project expected labor needs and costs months in advance.

Aspire's flexible scheduling feature uses automation, allowing your team to update or modify the schedule with simple drag-and-drop functionality. The intuitive UI makes it easy to:

Move jobs from won to scheduled
Create recurring maintenance jobs
Update the schedule instantly

Field techs can create “quick tickets” at the job site from their mobile app (available for iOS and Android) to close deals faster.

Aspire provides a complete family of software solutions, including Crew Control for small businesses and startups.

If your company is in the early growth stages, earning less than $3 million annually, Crew Control may better match your software needs. The job scheduling feature offers an auto-route function that allows you to automatically optimize driving routes with one click and view expected drive times between jobs.

Both BOSS LM and Aspire offer additional platform features, including:

Purchasing
Accounting and Payroll
Inventory

Check out the full feature list for Aspire and BOSS LM.

Pricing

Whenever a service business searches for new business management software, pricing is typically one of the top considerations.

It’s a significant investment, so you want to work with a vendor that offers transparent pricing. Many software providers charge per seat or user, significantly increasing costs if you hire additional employees as you scale.

Some questions to consider include:

Does the vendor offer a free trial?
Does the vendor charge a flat rate or per-user fee?
Does the vendor charge a higher rate for premium features?

Predictable technology costs empower limitless growth for lawn care businesses

BOSS’s website, unfortunately, doesn’t list any pricing information or mention specific plans or tiers. Their website directs you to a lead-generation form to schedule a consultation.

Aspire lists all features of their two plans in a side-by-side graphic, making it easy to compare Aspire Corporate and Aspire Enterprise. Aspire suggests which plan to choose based on annual revenue targets, and their website includes a pricing FAQ to answer common questions.

Grow with confidence by using Aspire

By not charging by the number of users, Aspire customers can increase the number of field techs, CSRs, and employees without worrying about rising costs. Aspire also provides:

Implementation and training support
Post-implementation resources
Monday to Friday AspireCare for problem-solving

With a growing product investment, Aspire users never have to worry about their technology falling behind the competition. Monthly subscriptions include delivery of all future enhancements, upgrades, and software development.

Integrations

A genuinely all-in-one business management software seamlessly connects with other software tools you already use, such as QuickBooks software for accounting and electronic payments.

→ Powerful integrations enable you to connect and streamline every aspect of your business.

Rather than using separate platforms in the field and back office, your team can accomplish more in less time using software with end-to-end functionality.

Minimize errors by integrating your workflows

Both BOSS LM and Aspire integrate with QuickBooks, eliminating duplicate data entry, reducing human error, and limiting the use of Excel spreadsheets. With Aspire’s open API capabilities at the Enterprise level, field service businesses can integrate a wide range of key tools to support functionality, including:

Payments
Training
Payroll management
Purchasing
Supplier management
And more

The BOSS LM website only specifies integrations for QuickBooks, Microsoft Dynamics GP, and Sage 300.

On the other hand, Aspire offers add-ons for a wide range of functions and partners with Savvy Otter to produce custom integrations.

Some of Aspire’s top integrations include:

Altus Receivables Management
Integrated Payroll Services to streamline payroll processing
Clover Connect for online credit card payment and ACH bank transfers
Telematics for GPS and dash cam to improve driver accountability
Greenius for virtual onboarding and training
LandscapeHub order management system
SiteOne Landscape Supply integrated price catalogs
PropertyIntel for digital takeoffs and property measurements

Ease of use

Online reviews highlight the ease of use of both BOSS LM and Aspire, specifically the drag-and-drop functionality.

When evaluating a platform's ease of use, consider the training and customer support options. BOSS LM offers dedicated in-person platform training for companies in the St. Louis area, virtually for those located elsewhere, and advanced online training for specific platform features.

Implement software with support that helps you adhere to the industry’s best practices and standards

Aspire customers work directly with a dedicated implementation manager for the duration of the training process—from onboarding through deployment and graduation—to ensure your team gains the foundational knowledge and skills to utilize the core platform to its full potential.

Users also benefit from unlimited access to ongoing training and support and numerous resources, such as webinars, open office hours, and walk-throughs of new features via an online Knowledge Base—at no additional cost.

| Get more competitive insights between these software platforms on the Aspire vs. BOSS LM page.

Top benefits of Aspire landscape business management software

Landscape and lawn care service businesses seeking to run more efficiently and with fewer headaches trust Aspire’s business management software.

The software is designed specifically for contractors in the green industry, with tools and functionality strategically developed for their specific needs. Aspire isn’t just a new piece of technology to tack on your existing tools or another tech fee to burden your team. It’s an investment to improve your business, giving you the technology to:

Enhance efficiency and performance
Streamline and improve processes
Boost revenue and profits
Make proactive, informed decisions

Additional BOSS LM alternatives