You can’t fix what you don’t know. 

It makes sense, but for many landscaping companies, especially during the busy season, the daily details get lost in the never-stop “What’s next?” energy that comes with your highest revenue months. 

But during those high-revenue Hundred Days of Hell, you might also be operating at your worst profit margins of the year. And you’ll never know until you get visibility into your daily financials. 

And if you think that it can’t be that bad, or can’t be happening to you, consider North by Northwest, a commercial landscaping company in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2003, they were no strangers to busy seasons or success–by 2016, they reported $1 million in annual revenue. 

However, consider what happened once they implemented Aspire, a cloud-based software that provides real-time visibility into fiscal data. They reported $15 million in annual revenue for 2023, with a profit of $1.2 million. 

Those numbers don’t reflect how they were already operating, but rather what they were capable of once they understood what was happening behind the full schedule and big-ticket jobs. Post-implementation, they discovered something shocking: They were losing $18,000 every week in labor variance—nearly a million dollars annually that had been completely invisible to them. 

Keep more money in your pocket during the busy season 

Waiting for monthly financial reports is killing your busy season profitability. Leading companies, such as North by Northwest, have adopted daily tracking systems that transform their bottom line.

Monthly financial reports during busy season are effectively autopsy reports—they tell you what died and why, but far too late to save the patient. By the time you're reviewing June's financials in mid-July, you've already repeated the same mistakes for two more weeks. 

→ The pattern continues through the entire busy season, with each problem identified only after it's caused significant damage.

Jordan Martin, Vice President at North by Northwest Landscaping, discovered this the hard way. "We weren’t watching the hours per job site," he admits. "Immediately, that changed." When they implemented daily job costing and labor tracking, the variance was almost zero within three weeks.

“(Aspire) has opened our eyes to that; every manager can see it, not just me.”

The 600-hour labor variance that Aspire surfaced was costing North by Northwest $18,000 per week. 

Data tells the real story about what’s going on at the job site

The critical metrics landscaping companies need to track daily—not weekly, not monthly—are:

• Labor hours versus estimates

• Material costs versus budget

• Travel time between properties

• Crew productivity by property type

• Enhancement conversion rates

These are the levers that directly impact profitability during the busy season, and they can all change dramatically within a single day or week.

What made the difference for North by Northwest wasn't complicated technology—it was a fundamental shift in visibility and accountability. 

Once crew leaders could see their daily performance against estimates in real-time, their behavior naturally changed. No one wanted to be the team consistently running over hours. What had been invisible became obvious, and what had been accepted as inevitable became a solvable problem.

The labor variance they discovered stemmed from three primary issues: 

✕ Unrealistic time estimates on certain property types

✕ Inefficient crew configurations for specific tasks

✕ Routing patterns that created excessive drive time

None of these were apparent from the monthly reports, which showed only aggregate numbers. 

The detailed, daily view revealed patterns that transformed their operation.

Starting small is better than not starting at all 

For companies without sophisticated systems, implementation can begin simply–no software required. 

1. Create a daily scorecard that tracks the estimated hours versus the hours used by property address and crew. 

2. Review it every single day—not occasionally, not when you have time, but as a non-negotiable daily discipline. 

3. Look for patterns, not individual variances. When you spot a trend, investigate immediately, not next week.

The common obstacles to implementing real-time financial tracking aren't usually technological—they're behavioral. Many owners resist daily tracking because they "don't have time" during the busy season. 

It’s backward thinking—the busy season is when you absolutely cannot afford to operate without this visibility. Others worry about creating a "big brother" atmosphere with crews. But positioned properly—as a tool for supporting crews rather than policing them—real-time tracking actually empowers field teams to manage themselves more effectively.

Working efficiently makes the busy season less stressful for everyone

Andrew Morse, head of recurring services at Belknap, a design/build landscaping company with a new maintenance division, experienced a similar transformation to North by Northwest.

“We just weren’t efficient in the field. It took too long to collect and collate data, and our account managers didn’t have the tools to understand job tracking and renewals. That’s when we started looking for a business management solution.”

The most profitable landscape companies have abandoned the outdated ritual of monthly P&L reviews in favor of real-time dashboards that enable them to address issues while they are still fixable. 

During the 100 Days of Hell, when every minute counts and every mistake is magnified, having systems that give you immediate visibility isn't a luxury—it's the difference between a season that strengthens your company and one that merely depletes it.

Ask yourself: If you were losing $18,000 every week during your busiest season, would you want to find out now or two months from now when it's too late to recover?