Custom build
If someone does it by hand every week, it can probably run on its own.
The three builds cover what most landscape companies need every week. Your company also has work that is unique to you, your team and the way you work: the way you approve internal purchases, the format your accountant wants, the question leadership asks every week, month or quarter, the systems that don’t talk to each other. We build systems around those too, to save time and cut out human error, on your own data, in your own account.
What a custom build can look like
Examples of the kind of work, to make it concrete. They are not systems we sell: every custom build is new, built for your company on your own data.
Operations
Purchasing and approval tracker
- The problem
- Material requests, approvals and pickups live in texts, calls, workbooks and memory. Crews wait on material, data-entry mistakes creep in, and the wrong material shows up for the job.
- What we would build
- One tracker for every purchase: requests logged as they come in, approval asked for by e-mail and recorded, delivery dates kept in step with the schedule, and yard staff kept in the loop with what's coming and going each day.
- Beyond the field software
- E-mail approvals, a shared tracker, and the yard's daily list.
- What changes
- Every request has an owner, an approval on record and a date, and the yard loads from a list.
Purchasing
Purchase receipt intake
- The problem
- Vendor invoices arrive by e-mail all day or are handed in on paper, and someone keys each one into the system by hand. It is slow, and easy to get wrong.
- What we would build
- Invoices sent to a shared inbox are read by AI, matched to the right job and purchase, and entered as receipts for a person to review and approve. Anything the AI is unsure of goes to a reviewer first, and every correction is logged, so accuracy is validated and measured week by week.
- Beyond the field software
- The invoices inbox, the vendors' own PDFs, and the reviewer's e-mail replies.
- What changes
- A person checks the AI's work instead of doing the typing, and receipts go in the same day they arrive.
Finance
Payment requests
- The problem
- Paying for materials, suppliers and subcontractors starts with a paper or e-mailed check request. Nobody can see where a request stands, and approvals wait on whoever has it last.
- What we would build
- An account manager, project manager or designer submits a payment request; it goes to the department head for review and approval, then to accounts payable to pay. Each step is recorded, and the person who asked can see where it stands.
- Beyond the field software
- E-mail approvals from department heads, and the hand-off to accounts payable.
- What changes
- Every request has an approver and a status on record, from the first ask to the payment.
Finance
Month-end pre-close check
- The problem
- The problems in a month's numbers turn up after the books are closed, when fixing them means reopening the month.
- What we would build
- A check run before close that lists what needs fixing first: finished work not billed, deposits not applied, and the entries that usually cause a correction later.
- What changes
- Month-end corrections happen before close, not after it.
Leadership
Executive dashboard
- The problem
- Leadership asks the same questions every week and gets answers assembled by hand, a little differently each time.
- What we would build
- A weekly snapshot of receivables risk, backlog, and gross margin and productivity, saved every week so the trend is as visible as the number.
- What changes
- One set of numbers for the leadership meeting, with the trend behind each one.
The weekly question behind each build
Each managed build answers a question landscape owners answer by hand every week. SecondOrder builds them new, on each client’s own data, so other companies can start from them.
A weekly crew-leader scorecard
becomes Ground Truth
Deposit aging and a weekly receivables risk snapshot
becomes Cash Clock
Contract renewals tracked and followed up
becomes Full Book
What a custom build can be made of
Most useful systems are a few of these put together around one job your team does every week.
Read an inbox
Vendor invoices, replies, the daily e-mail another system sends. If it arrives by e-mail, it can be read and filed.
Ask a person, record the answer
Approvals, surveys and confirmations by e-mail reply or text, with reminders, and the answer saved where it belongs.
Connect systems that don't talk
Your field software, QuickBooks, spreadsheets and shared drives: records move between them on their own instead of being retyped, and get checked against each other.
Write in someone else's format
The workbook your accountant or bank already uses, filled in the same way every time.
Read documents, with a person checking
AI reads the invoice, the note or the reply; anything it is unsure of goes to a person before it counts.
Run on a schedule
Anything that should happen every Monday, or every month-end, without anyone having to remember it.
How a custom build runs
- 1
Describe the workflow
Who does it, how often, and where the information lives today. A paragraph is enough to start.
- 2
A written proposal
What it would do, what it reads, who gets what, and a quote, in writing, before anything is built. Custom builds are paid from the start; the free 30 days are for the ready-made builds.
- 3
Built on your own data
In your own cloud account, alongside any builds you already have, and checked against the numbers you trust before you rely on it.
- 4
We run it
Every run checked and kept current as your software changes. If you would rather run it yourselves, you can license the code and its documentation.
Describe your workflow
Tell us the job, who does it and how often. We reply in writing within two business days with whether we would build it, roughly how, and what we would need from you.