For many landscaping companies, the busy season is more stressful than successful. The increase in demand can break patchwork processes that are inefficient in the best of times. 

Once the summer peak hits, landscaping businesses may be dealing with:

• Uncontrolled labor costs

• Disorganized crew scheduling

• Late or inaccurate job costing data

While typical, these operational pain points hinder growth. Daily inefficiencies don’t just affect day-to-day operations—they cut into profit margins. 

When you’re scaling, those inefficiencies multiply.

That was the reality for North by Northwest Landscaping, a full-service contractor dealing with rising demand and increasing costs. Despite their outstanding reputation, they had no real-time visibility into job performance, labor utilization, and profitability.

Instead of adding more software or headcount, they turned to Aspire, a job costing software solution for the industry.

With Aspire’s integrated business management software, North by Northwest gained the tools to sync payroll and job costing in one system. The result? Faster insights, leaner operations, and a shocking discovery: $18,000 in weekly labor overspend.

This is how smart integrations changed everything.

Identifying the Challenge: Hidden Labor Variances

Before adopting Aspire, North by Northwest Landscaping faced the same inefficiencies that many growing contractors encounter.

Their systems were disconnected. Payroll was manual. Job costing data came in late—or not at all. Their estimating process was broken, bringing their bids in way too low, without knowing it, because they weren’t accurately tracking costs.

These gaps created several significant problems:

• Labor hours were misreported because actual hours worked and standard hours were not tracked consistently, which made it difficult to measure labor efficiency.

• Job costs were calculated after projects were closed, too late to take action to preserve profit margins.

• Managers had no real-time visibility, so they couldn’t hold crews accountable for job costs.

Without integration between payroll and operations, labor data lived in separate silos. 

→ Management didn’t know when actual hours started to creep past estimates. 

→ Field managers were unable to adjust schedules based on budget status.

Comparing actual costs to budgeted expenses was impossible, so they couldn’t identify variances and control project spending. 

→ Leadership couldn’t see the actual cost of inefficiency until margins began to shrink.

The result?

• Unchecked labor overspend. Tracking actual costs versus budgeted amounts is key to managing project profitability and controlling expenses.

• Late invoicing and reporting.

• Profitability targets missed—without knowing. This lack of alignment limited their ability to scale efficiently. Like many landscape companies, North by Northwest wasn’t struggling from a lack of demand—it was working with a lack of insight.

And they needed a solution that could bring it all together. That’s where Aspire’s landscape business management software made the difference.

Turning Insights into Action with Aspire’s Integrations

North by Northwest Landscaping didn’t need more tools—they needed better-connected ones.

By adopting Aspire’s landscape business management software, they gained access to seamless integrations that aligned critical workflows.

These integrations eliminated manual processes and surfaced the insights that were buried in spreadsheets.

With Aspire, they could:

• Connect time tracking to job costs to make responsive management decisions

• Sync time entries from the field to reduce data errors and admin time

• See project profitability as it developed, not weeks later

• Alert managers when actual hours exceeded estimates 

Aspire also enhances collaboration and communication among teams by providing integrated tools that streamline information sharing and support collective effort towards operational goals.

For the first time, North by Northwest had visibility into which crews were profitable—and which weren’t.

This gave field leaders ownership of budget performance, and executives could plan with confidence. 

End-to-end software was a solution to bring everything together, helping to allocate resources and track employee effort on specific tasks, so labor is managed accurately and productivity improves; no longer a guessing game.

The Impact of Real-Time Job Costing

North by Northwest Landscaping recovered thousands in a labor variance that had gone unnoticed for months because, with Aspire, they could:

• Compare estimated and actual labor hours 

• See real-time job performance dashboards 

• Flag overages before projects close

• Alert managers and adjust crew scheduling on the fly

Connecting processes and data reporting allowed North by Northwest to correct inefficiencies in real time—not weeks later during budget reviews.

→ Instead of reacting to financial surprises, they took control of costs while jobs were still active. That one change protected margins on dozens of projects.

Real-time job costing provided everyone—crews, managers, and executives—with a clear view of performance. It eliminated wasted time from manual processes to transform profitability into something they could influence daily.

Beyond Financials: Operational Benefits of Integrations

While the $18,000 in weekly labor savings made headlines, the real story at North by Northwest Landscaping goes deeper.

With Aspire’s landscape business software and integrated solutions in place, the team saw improvements across daily operations—not just financial reporting. 

They combined Convex to identify warm commercial landscaping leads with PropertyIntel for virtual takeoff and property data collection.  

They saw gains in:

• Turning leads into bids with a single contact. North by Northwest connected Aspire’s integrations to create an unstoppable sales machine that’s given them the fuel to achieve their most audacious growth goals. 

• Scheduling and crew management. Aspire’s unified system allowed project managers to assign crews based on real-time availability, reducing downtime and overlap.

• Administrative efficiency. By eliminating manual time entry and synchronizing payroll data, they reduced hours of back-office work each week and improved data accuracy across the board.

• Employee accountability and productivity. With live labor tracking, team leads could monitor progress throughout the day. Crews stayed aligned with expectations, followed best practices, and underperforming trends were addressed immediately.

These changes created a more agile operation—no more chasing paperwork or reacting to problems after the fact. Maintaining operational excellence and efficiency enables the organization to adapt quickly and perform at a consistently high level.

The result? 

A business that runs better, communicates faster, and delivers better outcomes for clients and teams. Aspire helps organizations focus on their goals and objectives, lead their market, and innovate as part of their strategy.

Lessons Learned: Integrations as a Strategic Advantage

North by Northwest Landscaping’s journey is a powerful example of what’s possible when integrations are done right.

By utilizing Aspire’s landscape business management software and its integration marketplace, the company not only solved problems it didn’t know existed—it built a more resilient and agile operation.

Their takeaways apply to any landscaping business:

• Work from warm leads with Convex, shortening the sales cycle

• Use precision measuring tools for generating more accurate bids, faster

• Connect time tracking and job costing to surface labor trends early

• Use real-time data to act now—not later

• Reduce admin hours while improving data accuracy and decision-making

• Give field managers visibility so they can own their performance

• Turn operational gaps into strategic opportunities

For North by Northwest, this meant higher margins, tighter scheduling, and stronger crew accountability—all during their busiest season.

Instead of reacting to problems as they arose, they ran the business with foresight and control.

Integrations are more than technical updates. When used proactively, they unlock efficiency, visibility, and profitability at every level.

With Aspire, landscaping companies can make better decisions faster—turn every project into a learning opportunity and every season into a growth opportunity.

Experience Your Own Efficiency Breakthrough—Schedule an Aspire Demo

North by Northwest Landscaping utilized Aspire’s landscape business management software to streamline sales, optimize job bidding, and increase operational visibility—all by integrating their core systems.

With real-time job costing, accurate scheduling, and reduced admin overhead, they turned operational challenges into measurable gains.

Your business could be next.

Schedule a personalized demo to see how Aspire’s integrated platform can reveal hidden inefficiencies, drive better decisions, and unlock new growth opportunities—all tailored to how you work.