What should we do before Aspire's implementation team starts?

Get your financial groundwork done: overhead, burdened labor rates, pricing method and chart of accounts. Everything else depends on those numbers.

How long does an Aspire implementation take?

It depends on how ready your data is. In the example on Aspire's own blog, the implementation ran about 90 days, including a pause to sort out financial data.

Can we skip the catalog cleanup and fix it later?

You can, but estimates and job costing will be off until you do. A messy catalog is one of the most common reasons reports don't match reality.

Who on our team should own the implementation?

Someone who knows how jobs actually run and has real time set aside for it. If that's the owner, block the calendar like it's a job.

Can Trades Agent run this checklist with us?

Yes. The Jobwalk shows where you stand against it, and any cleanup or build after that is a fixed scope.

Aspire Implementation Checklist

Phase 1: What financial groundwork do you need first?

You need your overhead, labor rates and chart of accounts settled before any data goes into Aspire. Aspire's own blog describes a landscape company that paused its implementation to sort out exactly these things before importing. Do it first and you skip the pause.

Total annual overhead, pulled from last year's actuals, not a guess
A decision on how overhead is recovered across divisions and job types
Burdened labor rates: wage plus payroll taxes, insurance, benefits and non-billable time
Target margins by division (maintenance, enhancements, install)
A chart of accounts reviewed with your bookkeeper or CPA
Agreement on which numbers live in accounting and which live in Aspire

Phase 2: How should you set up your catalog and estimating?

Set up your catalog to match what you actually sell and how you actually price it. If estimators don't trust the catalog, they'll work around it, and your job costing stops meaning anything.

List of materials, services and equipment you sell, with duplicates removed
Consistent naming so estimators can find items quickly
Kits or assemblies for the work you quote over and over
Production rates checked against real crew hours from past jobs
Estimate templates for your most common job types
One or two test estimates compared against jobs you've already done

Phase 3: What goes into properties and contracts?

Clean property and contract data goes in next, because maintenance revenue and scheduling depend on it. Bad addresses and duplicate customers follow you for years.

Property list deduplicated, with correct addresses and contacts
Active maintenance contracts with scope, frequency and pricing
Renewal dates captured
Billing rules agreed with the office before import
A spot check of 10 to 20 properties after import

Phase 4: How do you set up crews and mobile time tracking?

Set up crews the way they actually run and make mobile time tracking dead simple for the field. Job costing is only as good as the hours your crews log.

Crews and crew leaders set up to match how you really dispatch
Clear rules on clocking in, travel time and breaks
Phones and logins tested with a couple of crew leaders first
A short, plain explanation for crews of why the time matters
Someone in the office checking time entries daily for the first weeks

Phase 5: Which reports should you build first?

Build the three or four reports the owners will actually look at every week, and stop there until those are trusted. Reviewers on Capterra and Software Advice mention that reports can be hard to build, so start small.

Budget vs. actual on open jobs
Labor hours by crew and division
Revenue and margin by division
Contracts up for renewal
A weekly time on the calendar to review them

Phase 6: How should you handle training?

Train by role, not all at once, and plan for more than one round. Public reviews describe a real learning curve, and one user on Reddit reported paying extra for training hours after implementation. Budget for that up front.

Separate sessions for estimators, ops, office and crews
Short written steps for the ten tasks each role does most
An internal go-to person for questions
A follow-up session two to four weeks after go-live

Phase 7: What does a clean go-live look like?

A clean go-live has a set date, a cutover plan and a short list of who to call when something breaks. Don't run two systems side by side longer than you have to.

Go-live date agreed and announced
Old system set to read-only after cutover
Daily check-ins for the first two weeks
A punch list of issues, owned and dated
A 30-day review of whether the numbers match reality

What mistakes slow most implementations down?

The biggest mistake is treating the implementation like a software install instead of a business project. The software part is usually the easy part. The hard part is agreeing on numbers, cleaning up years of customer and property data, and getting busy people to change how they work.

Importing data before the overhead and labor numbers are settled
Copying an old catalog in as-is, duplicates and all
Handing the project to someone with no protected time
Building dozens of reports before the basic ones are trusted
Training everyone once, in one room, and calling it done
Starting during the busiest stretch of the season

None of these are fatal. They just add weeks. Catch them early and the rest of the checklist moves a lot faster. If you're unsure whether to lean on Aspire's team or bring in outside help for a phase, read Aspire support vs. an outside consultant.

What if you're already live and the checklist shows gaps?

Go back to the earliest phase with gaps and fix forward from there. If you're not sure which phase that is, the Jobwalk will tell you. For the bigger picture, see the Aspire guide or why Aspire implementations stall.

Aspire implementation checklist