Allocation kits idea

Question

I feel like I have seen an area to submit feature ideas for Aspire, but cannot find it now. Can someone link me? Recording my idea here now because I’ve been thinking about it for the last 30 minutes. Also hoping maybe to get some dialogue about the idea.

As a newbie to the establish “best” methods for chemical/tank mixture tracking and inventory, there seems like a much easier way that would require a few tweaks.

If there were a different item type called something like “chemical blend” - or even “allocation kit” - or even just a checkbox to make the items from a kit be allocated according to the kit production rates and allocation units, it seems like this could make this chemical thing way easier.

I understand that kits are just for estimating. But with chemicals, it’s impossible to accidentally use an incorrect amount of an individual item within a mix (read: kit) because the solution is already mixed before arriving to the job site. So, why not allow these instances of kits to be allocated to a job? Essentially I’m just asking that there be a feature that will automatically calculate the individual items based on a single allocation unit input field.

This would keep the technician from having to calculated multiple chemical items for every job they do during the day. They would simple enter the actual number of gallons, and the individual chemical items would be calculated according to the predetermined production rates. This would subtract from chemicals in inventory. This would alleviate the need for fictitious items and calculating costs of gallons outside of Aspire, as well as the need to do bulk adjustments daily or monthly.

Is there some reason I’m missing as to why this wouldn’t work?

Kbaird · Answer

I agree that the ability to allocate kits would be huge!

Here’s how I like to handle chemical apps:

I define my mix rate at the beginning of the season. We’re spraying 2gal/1000 this year on lawns.
I have a zero dollar item called “gallons”
I make sure all of my properties are set up with takeoffs. I have a takeoff for sqfuare footage of turf type, total turf on property, and treated turf. We have some customers that get their whole yard A&O’s but only spray the front yard.
I have a zero dollar item called “fescue” or “bermuda” in my catalog
I am a weirdo and do everything by the square foot (force of habit from when PropertyIntel didnt allow 1000sqft measurements to be quickly calculated)
I have a turf spraying kit that has gallons inverted at 1gal per 500sqft and then my production labor rate of xx,xxx sqft per hr.
I have that turf spraying rate in my round based kits. My round based kits are set up with chemicals based on their mix rate per 1000sqft (or 100gal for a lot of ornamental products)
When my guys go to allocate chemical it will tell them how many gallons they should have sprayed at our mix rate, if its the same amount as they sprayed they can just use the amount thats on the ticket no calculation necesarry. If it’s more or less, they have a quick sheet to multiply rounds by on their phone.
Bonus points, because the Turf Type item is on the estimate, it shows up as a material and tells them how much they should be spraying.
Extra credit, because you capture all of these items, the chemical report for the state or if you want to send it to customers becomes very easy to set up in Web Report designer/SMS/Email

Yeah this is a lot of setup and requires a big trust in your property measurements, but once you have it down, it’s fairly smooth.

With spray apps the state cares about record keeping and this was the best way I found to handle that.

Finally, I like to keep all of my chemical items sorted into the appropriate categories, and I sett all of them up to have the same allocation unit types as purchase unit types because I don’t want to have to type in how many oz of Zoxy are in 2.5gal containers and how many oz are in 1gal containers and have them as separate lines on the inventory sheet.

Absolutely willing to hop on a call with anyone that wants to chat spray in Aspire calendly.com/keenanbairdconsultant

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