How to use SwardOps
Everything you need to run your grounds operation from one place. Pick a topic, or jump to the FAQs.
Getting started
Set up your account and get your operation running in an afternoon.
Scheduling & operations
Plan the week, assign crews, track work as it happens and handle the unexpected.
- Bring a visit forwardPull a client's next visit earlier when they ask.
- Waste transfer notes (duty of care)Every load of green waste, soil or rubble you take off a site needs a transfer note. Crew raise it from the visit; compliant notes go to the client automatically.
- Month review (internal profitability by visit)Office-only: every visit completed in a month with cost, revenue and margin, subtotals by client and site, thinnest margins first.
- Monthly work reports (PDF)One PDF per client of every visit completed in a month — what was done, who, how long, notes, waste and photos.
- Learn SwardOps: the weekly live sessionA free group walkthrough on Google Meet every Thursday at 7pm. Bring questions, come as often as you like.
- Adding several of the same machineGot twelve identical blowers? Copy the first one and change the serial, instead of typing every field twelve times.
- A machine you no longer haveSold, scrapped or back at the hire company. Archive it and it leaves the register without taking its history with it.
- A month of visits as a spreadsheetDownload every completed visit in a month as a CSV — all clients at once or one — to sort, filter or send as proof of service.
- Price rises on live contracts and roundsAgreed an increase with a client? Apply it once, from a date, with the history kept and the client told.
- POWRA on clock-onA point-of-work risk assessment before the day starts.
- Closed days (bank holidays & shutdowns)Declare days the business is closed — visits move, leave books itself, the office is told.
- A client asked for something? Paste it inThe dashboard box that turns a pasted request into a crew task on the right visit.
- A one-off job: a tree job, a single cut, anything that happens onceFrom the schedule to the crew’s phone in about two minutes — the video above walks through it.
- The schedule & assigning workBuild the week, drag jobs onto crews, and handle multi-crew days.
- The Crews view: one column per crewA day at a glance, a column per crew — drag jobs between them, and people too.
- Live board & mapSee who is where right now, including lone-worker last-seen positions.
- Urgent jobs & yellow slipsRaise a callout fast, and track defects that need rectifying.
- Incident reportingCrews log incidents from the field, the office investigates, and the safety record writes itself.
- Suppliers & appointmentsTip runs, merchant pickups and other stops, on the schedule, with satnav and time tracked.
- Site walk-around checksLeader-signed site checks on every visit, with sensible switches for quick jobs.
- Reminders at the next visitClient rings about something specific? Pin it to the next visit so the crew see it.
Clients & getting paid
From first enquiry to a paid invoice, leads, clients, quotes and money.
- Automatic time & materials invoicesFinished T&M work drafts its own invoice from logged hours.
- Booking requests from the portal & public formWhere client-raised requests land, and how to action them.
- Fixing sites with a missing addressThe bulk fixer for imported sites that never geocoded.
- Email, paste or dictate a lead inThree ways a new enquiry becomes a lead without any typing.
- The AI receptionist & missed-call text-backMiss a call on the tools and the caller gets a text conversation that ends in a lead.
- Rain-off daysOne tap moves the day, tells every client, and suggests a better slot from the forecast.
- Filling a cancelled slotA cancellation offers the gap to nearby clients — first yes claims it.
- Reschedule by textClients can move a visit by replying to their reminder — no phone tag.
- On-my-way messages with a live map linkThe on-route text can carry a follow-along link, like a delivery driver.
- Draft a quote with AIDescribe the job in plain words — get draft lines priced from YOUR numbers.
- Import your quotes from XeroBring existing Xero quotes across with their lines — clients matched or created.
- Review asks, the star-gate & your Reputation pageAutomatic Google-review requests — with unhappy clients caught privately first.
- Your business details on quotes & invoicesSet the letterhead and the contact details clients see.
- Projects: quoted vs plannedA project shows "quoted" until the client actually says yes.
- Task rhythms: every Nth visit, rotating sections, same-weekday monthsFine-grained repeat patterns inside a round.
- A schedule of works: how many visits each monthWhen the contract says "13 cuts and 12 litter picks a year", type the counts and let SwardOps place the dates.
- Areas: run the whole day off one scheduleGroup the rounds that go out together, set the day once, and add a new site to the run in one step.
- Weekly in summer, fortnightly in winter (changing cadence by season)Grass every week through the growing months and every two weeks either side — on one contract.
- Leads, clients & sitesCapture enquiries, convert them to clients, and manage sites and contacts.
- Quotes & online acceptanceBuild a quote, send it, and let the client accept it with one click.
- Services & recurring contractsDefine your services once, and let recurring contracts raise invoices automatically.
- Invoices & getting paidRaise invoices, take card payments online via Stripe, and sync to Xero.
- Debtors & chasing paymentSee who owes you what, and how overdue it is, at a glance.
- The client InboxEmail, SMS, WhatsApp and portal messages from clients, threaded in one place.
- What your clients see (no login)The branded quote, invoice and enquiry pages clients use without an account.
- The client portal (and previewing it)A self-serve portal per client, and a preview so you can see exactly what they see.
- Email campaignsMarket to your client base, segmented, branded, opt-out compliant.
- Work requests & online bookingA public form (and even self-serve booking) for new work, plus an embed for your website.
- Recommendations (upsells done politely)Spotted extra work on site? Send it to the client with photos. They request a quote in a tap.
- Automatic client emailsThe emails SwardOps can send your clients for you, all off by default.
Your team
Crews, staff, time, leave and compliance. Everything people-related.
- What location tracking shares — and what it doesn'tThe crew-facing privacy page, in plain words.
- Emergency contacts & HR detailsCrew fill in their own next of kin — the office sees it when it matters.
- Crews & staffAdd staff, set roles, group them into crews, and give them the mobile app.
- Timesheets & the crew day-viewCrews clock in by arriving on site; time rolls up into timesheets.
- Clocking out away from the yardLate finish or a far-off site? Crew can clock out remotely — with a reason, always visible to you.
- Leave & coverStaff request leave, you approve it, and you get reminders before it starts.
- Compliance & certificatesTrack tickets and certificates, with reminders before they expire.
- Training & equipment locksLog in-house and outsourced training, and stop untrained crew taking the kit.
- Subcontractors, and finding subbie workBring subbies in (free accounts), pass work out, handle their invoices with CIS, or pick up local work yourself.
- Rewards & the scoreboardPoints for good work, a weekly winner, and a quarterly championship.
- Getting a site plan in front of the crewAnything you file on a site goes out with the job. Quotes stay in the office.
- Crew training in bite-size modulesSix short videos, half a minute to two and a half. Send a new starter the ones that fit your firm.
- What your crew see on their phonesA simple, focused day-view, their jobs only, nothing else. The 17-minute training video above walks a new starter through every screen; the bite-size modules are the article before this one.
Equipment & spray
Machines, servicing, daily checks, spray records and COSHH.
- Hand-arm vibration (HAVS)Put a vibration figure on each hand tool and the crew app scores exposure from the task timers — points today, the action value, and the limit.
- The acre counterFlag an implement and crews log acres — building acres/hour and fuel per acre.
- Daily vehicle custodyNightly van hand-backs with mileage — who had what, every day.
- Machines, checks & servicingYour fleet, statutory inspections, daily checks and service intervals.
- Daily machine checks on the phoneEnd-of-use, pre-use and weekly checks: when they happen, what counts as done, and what to do if one still shows as outstanding.
- Spray diary & COSHHA compliant spray record with weather conditions, plus your COSHH library.
- Materials & stockA materials catalogue with cost/sell pricing and a stock ledger.
Winter gritting & tree work
Two add-on packs, switch either on in Settings when you do the work.
Business, settings & billing
Reports, your company profile, integrations and your SwardOps subscription.
- Check client emails before they goA switch that puts a preview page between you and Send.
- Tax-year totalsIncome and cost totals aligned to your tax year, ready for your accountant.
- See your schedule in Google, Apple or Outlook calendarOne link puts SwardOps work in the calendar you already live in.
- Announcements to the teamPost a note everyone sees on their Today page.
- Request a featureAsk for anything from inside the app — and watch its status.
- Reports & profitabilitySee how the business and individual jobs are performing.
- Settings & your company profileYour yard, hours, rates, branding and notification preferences.
- Integrations: Stripe, Xero & GoCardlessConnect payments and accounting so money and books stay in sync.
- Your SwardOps subscriptionPlans, your trial, and managing your own billing.
- Request a featureAsk for anything, straight from the app, and watch its status.