Welcome to the Aspire News

Aspire is excited to announce its inclusion on the Future50 list, a regional-based award from the St. Louis Small Business Monthly magazine that celebrates the top companies in St. Louis to watch in the future.

Sperber Landscape Companies, of Calabasas, California, recently selected Aspire Software to provide the landscape business management system that will help the organization achieve its projected growth. The company, founded by industry veteran Richard Sperber in early 2019, is led by a team of talented industry professionals with an expansion strategy aimed at becoming a national leader in the landscaping industry.

For the second year in a row, Aspire Software has made the Inc. 5000 list, an annual ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America. This year, Aspire ranked #1946 overall, with a three-year growth rate of 217%, and is positioned as the 256th fastest-growing software company on the list. This is a true testament to the hard work and dedication of the entire Aspire team.

Scheduled for release on Thursday, July 30, Aspire v5.7 includes a number of enhancements to Aspire’s estimating and invoicing functionality to improve the user experience and streamline workflows. Below are details of key improvements included in this release: Estimating Enhancements Import Take-Offs to Estimates Building estimates for large design/build projects is often time consuming and tedious, particularly when using a separate design-specific software. To help simplify estimating of these projects, we’ve added a new Estimate Import tool that allows users to upload entire estimates from their design software into Aspire. Using the imported data, the tool will create groups, add services, and bulk-add items as well as quantities directly to the estimate. If the uploaded items are currently in your catalog, the system will match them by name and add pricing information automatically; otherwise, if a new item is imported, the tool will create a one-time item for which the user can manually add pricing. In this first iteration of the Estimate Import tool, users can download a generic Aspire-format file directly from the upload dialog. Native support for OnCenter is also built in, so users can now build a design in OnCenter, export the take-off information, and upload it directly into Aspire’s estimating workflow. Optional Services on Work Orders With this release, users can now add optional services to work orders, creating a new workflow path for estimating. Optional services are those items the user would like to show on the estimate to the customer but not include in the total cost. These will appear as line items that customers can select and choose to add during their purchasing decision or at a later time. 'Select and Sign' from the Customer Portal To enhance the user experience and eliminate back-and-forth communication, customers can now accept and approve estimates from within the customer portal. In addition to capturing the customer signatures, the portal will also display optional services that were included on the estimate. Customers will simply log in and click “Select and Sign” to view and select the optional services they wish to purchase. Advanced Catalog Search To further streamline the estimating process, users now have the option to utilize an advanced search from within the estimating workflow to bulk-add items to services on the estimate. Estimated Tax on Estimates The estimating process now includes estimated sales tax calculations once an estimate is marked complete. The estimated tax is calculated based on the tax jurisdiction of the property referenced in the opportunity and is then displayed on the estimate screen. Invoicing Enhancements Invoice Tax Jurisdiction Override To increase the flexibility of the invoicing process, users can now adjust the tax jurisdiction on certain types of invoices. The estimated tax is then displayed once the invoice is created but before the batch is completed. Retainage Invoicing With this release, we’ve enhanced our retainage invoicing process so that the invoiced revenue is recognized initially when the retainage hold back is collected on the invoice. The retainage maturity date is now visible on the invoicing info screen as well as the Invoicing Assistant to alert the user when retainage is billable to the general contractor. Additionally, retainage will not be present in the aging report until the retainage invoice is generated. T&M Enhancements In this release, we’ve made numerous improvements to Aspire’s T&M estimating and invoicing workflows to improve the user experience and reduce confusion. For full details of these enhancements, please reference the release notes. Complete details of all improvements will be provided to Aspire customers in the release notes. If you have any questions about these features, contact AspireCare for more information. If you are not an Aspire customer but want to learn more about our software, please contact us .

At Aspire, we’re always working to bring more value to our customers. One of the ways we do this is by partnering with companies whose solutions answer additional needs for our users and complement their experience using Aspire.

Today Aspire is pleased to formally announce our strategic partnership with Savvy Otter , a development company specializing in custom integration solutions. At Aspire, we strive to ensure the success of our customers. Through this partnership, both current and future Aspire clients now have the opportunity to integrate additional tools they use to run their businesses with the Aspire platform.

At Aspire, we strive to consistently and continually evolve for the better, not just as a software provider but as an organization as well. Today, we’re excited to announce the beginning of a fresh, new look for the Aspire brand with the unveiling of our new logo—one that we feel not only reflects our culture of innovation and our commitment to continuous improvement but also our position as a market-leading provider of landscape business management solutions.

Aspire will deploy a new release Thursday evening, May 28. Major updates in Aspire v5.6 include estimating, scheduling, and invoicing enhancements to further expand the functionality of the Master Schedule of Values, streamline scheduling, and optimize the invoicing process. Complete details of all improvements will be provided to Aspire customers in the release notes. Estimating Enhancements Master Schedule of Values: Adding Negative Line Items In a recent update, we introduced the concept of Master Schedule of Values for Fixed Price, Open Billing Work Orders, providing users with a centralized schedule of values sheet for each project. With this release, we’ve improved upon this even further. Users can now create a negative line item directly inside the Master Schedule of Values (SOV) when they create/win a change order that has a negative value. Once the Master SOV is ready for invoicing, users will navigate to the Invoicing Assistant and proceed as normal. The negative Master SOV line item will appear along with the positive items. Work Orders and T&M per Service Invoices Now users can add a new invoice type to their Fixed Price, Open Billing (FPOB) opportunities on a service. By clicking into the service on the estimate (base estimate or change order), the user can select a new invoice type of “T&M per service”. The service will operate like any other T&M service but now fits into the FPOB workflow. Once a T&M service is complete, it will appear inside the Invoicing Assistant as ready to invoice for the opportunity. Users can invoice these services alongside the Master Schedule of Value line times from the original work order. Scheduling Enhancements Schedule an Event: Opportunity Tag Now Available Opportunity tags are a great way to sort and organize in Aspire. This data field is now exposed in the “Schedule an Event” grid to help increase accuracy and efficiency when creating your schedule in bulk using this feature. Auto-Expenses: Additional Invoice Types Last year, we rolled out a new Auto-Expenses functionality that allows users to create material and hours for their subs that changes based on the agreed-upon price. We’ve now expanded this functionality to pull in more invoice types, greatly increasing the ways in which you can leverage Auto-Expenses. Multi-Visit Services Hours and Material Quantities For multi-visit services, users can now set default values for both the hours and material quantities that appear in the Visit Detail screen as well as the Crew Mobile app. This improvement will eliminate the need to remember specific amounts and reduce time spent on data entry for services that require large material counts upfront for use in smaller quantities over the service's lifecycle. Invoicing Enhancements Attach Proposal to Emailed Invoices Users can now choose to attach proposals to the same email when sending invoices. The system will use the correct layout, even if multiple exist, or will allow the user to select one if it was never set. This enhancement makes organization easier by allowing users to send emails with multiple PDF attachments. If you have any questions about these features, contact AspireCare for more information. If you are not an Aspire customer but want to learn more about our software, please contact us .

Last week, Inc. magazine revealed that Aspire Software is ranked among the 250 fastest-growing companies in the Midwest on its first annual list of America’s top businesses in the region. The Inc. 5000 Series: Midwest list is the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. With 133-percent growth over the past two years, Aspire is positioned at No. 156 on the inaugural list.