Using Aspire Mobile in the Field

Learn the features of Aspire Mobile to maximize productivity in the field!

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Written by Aspire Software
Updated over a week ago

📌 Note: Before watching this video, System Admins should review our Which Mobile App is Right For You? Functionality available in Crew Mobile may not currently be available in Aspire Mobile until future releases.

Table of Contents


Purpose

Aspire Mobile is designed to help your company’s crews be successful on the job site each day.

As a crew leader, learn how to quickly review your schedule, allocate materials, add photos, prioritize jobs, understand your route(s), and perform other tasks right from your mobile device.

Understanding Aspire Mobile’s features helps keep your day organized, and focused equipped to tackle any project! This article shows you how to use Aspire Mobile.


Articles to Read Before Using Aspire Mobile

✅Before using Aspire Mobile, the application must be downloaded and installed on each crew leader’s device. To learn more about device set up, please read here.

✅ Read Creating an Employee Contact in Aspire and set up your Crew Leaders so they can use Aspire Mobile.

✅ Read Creating a New Crew Member Employee Contact to create your Crew Members so they can use Aspire Mobile.


Difference Between Crew Leader and Crew Member Experience

Here’s an example of the difference between a Crew Leader that manages a route, compared to a Crew Member that can only clock in and out for the day:

Crew Leader

Crew Member

Here’s a chart to breakdown what Crew Leaders can do when they log in vs. what Crew Members can see when they log in.

Aspire Mobile Visibility

Crew Leader

Crew Member

Log in to their account

Clock In

Clock Out

Take action on Tickets

View Issues

Crew Members can download Aspire Mobile on their own device, or they can clock in and out for the day on the Crew Leader’s device.

Crew Members only have the ability to clock in and out. Any employee that uses Aspire Mobile can log in using either their PIN or their email and password.

Changing Language Settings

Aspire Mobile offers a Spanish language option that changes the language in which prompts, and labels are displayed. This makes app use easier for Spanish-speaking crew members.

It does not change the language of notes or information entered into Aspire by your company.

Spanish settings can be set on the Login page.

Spanish display can also be turned on in Settings once logged into the Crew Leader’s Aspire Mobile account.


Starting the Day with Aspire Mobile

Starting the day fully prepared is easier when using Aspire Mobile. Crew Leaders can take a few minutes each morning to clock in and review the Daily Plan. They can also check their tickets and review specific notes that need their attention before they head out to their first job.

Clocking Into The Day For Crew Leaders

If you have just gotten to the yard and are preparing for the day, you would still need to track time for you and your crew members, even if you aren’t onsite yet for the first job of the day. This will get tracked as indirect time in Time Entry.

When you log in, you can clock in, and then you can clock in your crew. Otherwise, see the below option for crew members clocking in.

Clocking Into The Day For Crew Members

After a crew member logs in to their Aspire Mobile account, pressing the Clock In button will clock them in for the day and record their location. They will be immediately logged out and they can then move forward with loading equipment or head to the job site to begin work.


Before the Job Site

Daily Plan

In Aspire Mobile, the Daily Plan page is the first screen seen after logging in. Crew Leaders can review the tickets for the day, scan the materials list to see what has been delivered to their job sites for the day as well as review the Properties your crews are servicing.

📑To learn more about the administrator side of Daily Plan, please check out this article.

The Daily Plan screen has clickable sections that lets crew leaders review:

  • Today’s Tickets

  • Materials Needed

  • Indirect Services (Total time not on a job)

Tickets Tab

The Tickets tab displays a list of tickets for the route the crew leader is on. This gives the Crew Leader a quick overview of what tickets their crew will be servicing that day. Issues relating to the properties on that day’s schedule will appear first to review. Clicking on one of the tickets here will redirect crew leaders to the job details screen to begin work if need be. This is especially helpful when doing address lookup of a property, and even using your device GPS to navigate to each site.

By clicking on your first ticket of the day, an arrow icon displays the address of the property based on Google Maps. This is helpful when needing GPS directions to a property for the first time, or if you have new employees that haven’t been onsite before.

Materials Tab

The Materials tab allows crew leaders to view materials estimated to the job. The materials list first appears on the Daily Plan screen and is read only. The reason this Materials tab is read only is because it’s simply for helping your crews load their equipment or materials for the day.

If you need to allocate materials, you would need to drill into the work ticket details under Tickets. We show this later!

Indirect Services Tab

The Indirect Services tab displays a list of the indirect services from the day’s work tickets. This section is helpful to track your crew’s non-job related activities, like Shop Time or Drive Time.


On the Job Site

Now that the crew has headed out to their first job site, the crew leader has a selection of buttons that each serve a purpose while out in the field. Aspire Mobile helps call attention to the most important parts while onsite and helps communicate information between Crew Leaders and office staff.

By clicking the Tickets button at the bottom, the Ticket Schedule screen allows crew leaders to view work to be performed on their route.

Crew Leaders will also be able to see their Indirect Services displayed here. They can clock into them to start work on their Indirect Services, like Shop Time, Travel Time and more:

🧠 Indirect Services appear on the Ticket Schedule in blue text. You are able to confirm they are in progress by noting they are illuminated in green and are at the top of the ticket schedule screen!

In addition to Indirect Services, Crew Leaders can review tabs within the Ticket Schedule screen to see work tickets scheduled on their routes for Yesterday/Today, Today, Tomorrow, This Week or Next Week.

In the example below, Crew Leader Camille is looking at the Ticket Schedule for Today and Tomorrow, and selects the ticket Hardgoods Enhancement to review more details.

After selecting an individual ticket from the Ticket Schedule screen, you can also select jobs to complete actions on like:

  • Logging time on a work ticket.

  • Viewing, updating or creating issues associated with a work ticket.

  • Viewing or adding inventory materials used on a work ticket.

  • Viewing documents, notes, and photos tied to an opportunity, property or work ticket.

After selecting a work ticket for a job that crews are onsite for, it’s important to start work on this screen so you can bill your customers and get recorded hours worked for payroll purposes.

Clocking Into the Job

Once you have clicked on a work ticket, as a crew leader, you can start time for you and your crew. The Start/Stop Work Screen captures labor hours and overall job costs.

In the example below, Crew Leader Camille is also working the job, so she will click Start All when her team gets to work. Now her crew is putting Direct Time to the job!

This screen also helps with:

  • Labor tracking - Total work hours are tracked for payroll and job costing when you use this screen!

  • Location tagging - When starting and stopping time at the job site, if location services are allowed on your crews’ devices, GPS tagging records the location of the employee.

Adding Items

While on the job site, you might be allocating materials or equipment to the services that were estimated and you are now performing! You can do this right from Aspire Mobile!

Allocating Material Items

Crew leaders can record quantities of items used on jobs within the Work Ticket by clicking the Materials button. In the example below, Crew Leader Camille is allocating the material for Fertilizer onto the Install Spring Color ticket.

📌Note: The material allocated here on the ticket will show as our actual material quantity in Aspire.

Adding Equipment Items

If your company estimates equipment items for a service, the crew leader can choose to tie equipment to a crew member when starting time on a work ticket. (This is helpful for T&M opportunities where the estimated versus actual times are related to the invoiced amounts.)

When a crew leader ties an equipment item to a crew member, this tells Aspire Mobile who will be operating the equipment item before crews start their time. The drop down provides a list of equipment items included from the opportunity’s estimate.

📌Note: Equipment Items are not related to the Equipment module. For more information on the equipment module, read this article.

If Crew Leader Camille is driving the 4x4 utility cart, and the crew members are using other equipment, you’d want to track this information before starting time on a client’s job. This makes sure the time spent on site matches what has been estimated for the job.

If a crew member uses billable equipment but then stops using it before their work is completed, the crew leader can handle this in Aspire Mobile. Crew Leaders can stop time for the crew member, which also stops time for the equipment in use. Then, the crew leader can restart time for the crew member without re-selecting equipment.

This allows the crew member to continue working on that same ticket without the equipment charges.

Taking a Break for Lunch

Crew Leader Camille and her team are hungry and need to take a break from the productive day they are having! Camille logs back into Aspire Mobile and navigates to the Time button at the bottom of the screen to report lunch.

As the Crew Leader, Camille can report lunch for everyone on her route, or crew members can report lunch on their own by logging into their Aspire Mobile account and selecting Report Lunch.

🧠You don’t have to clock out manually to take lunch! If time is currently active on a work ticket, clicking the Report Lunch button tells Aspire that the active work ticket is the one that will have lunch subtracted.

It’s important to record these breaks in Aspire Mobile. This doesn’t mean that she needs to clock everyone out for the day, but rather report that she and her team are taking a break.

Reviewing, Updating, and Creating Issues

Sometimes, problems come up on a job site that need to be taken care of. Let’s say that Camille and her crew are scheduled to refresh existing, poorly maintained beds for a client. The client has requested fresh mulch for their garden beds and tree rings on their property.

Crew Leader Camille can find issue information by selecting the Issues button at the bottom of Aspire Mobile, or she can click directly on the Work Ticket once she is onsite and about to start work on the job.

The Issues button allows crew leaders to view open issues associated with work tickets or an opportunity. This screen shows issues for All Properties, or you can select a specific set of issues organized by Properties assigned to the Route.

In the Work Ticket, the Issues button shows issues that are assigned to the work ticket.

Clicking on an issue in the list displays the Open Issues screen for the property. In both of the Issue locations, Crew Leaders are able to add comments, upload photos, or mark Issues as complete.

The crew loads the truck with enough mulch for the job. They also need to replant a firebush plant for the customer as well so they load a new firebush onto the truck. When Camille and her crew arrive, they clear any weeds, debris and old mulch from the beds. They also check the soil and moisture levels and make some much needed improvements. They also replant the firebush in the correct space and complete some pruning.

Crew Leader Camille updates the issue details including the location of improvements complete with photos in Aspire Mobile. Since the issue was solved by Camille’s crew, she can move onto the next site knowing they took full care of their client!

Crew Leaders can also create new issues tied to a scheduled work ticket from their routes. While Crew Leader Camille was onsite servicing the firebush, she noticed that mulch in another area of the property was damaged, so she creates an issue to have her staff follow up with another service request to the customer!


Leaving the Job Site

Stopping Time On a Job

If time on the selected work ticket was started for any crew members, then the buttons for those buttons will be labeled Stop. Crew Leaders can stop or start work on the ticket for all or some of the crew on their route. When Crew Leader Camille’s team is done, she can click Stop All to stop recording time and she and her team can move onto the next job.

The completed work ticket shifts to the bottom of the Ticket Schedule screen and Camille and her crew can travel to the next job site.

📌Note: This does not mean that the entire team is clocked out for the day. This just means that the time on the job is done and the team can travel to their next job. The time in between the two job sites will be considered Indirect Job time, also called Drive Time.🛻


Ending The Day

Before the end of the day, you can confirm all job details and notes are up-to-date, and stop time for the day. You can review the day's completed jobs and follow up on outstanding customer issues needing attention.

To be prepared, you can look ahead at tomorrow's schedule and prep any materials needed. With Aspire Mobile, you can finish each day organized, with clear plans for starting tomorrow off right. Ending the shift with Aspire puts your crew in the best position to tackle the next day!

Clocking out of the Day with Crew Leader

Crew Leaders can instruct their crew members to clock themselves out, or they can clock everyone out for the day. At the end of each day, crew leaders can use Aspire Mobile to clock their entire team out at once. With just a few taps, Crew Leader Camille can record end times for all her crew members on her route. This allows a quick shift wrap up!

Don’t forget, Aspire Mobile can be set up to where crew members can clock themselves out for the day when their shift ends.


Additional Features

In Aspire Mobile, there are additional features available that you might want to consider offering for your Crew Leaders to use.

Force Sync

The Force Sync feature in Aspire Mobile allows you to manually sync your data with the cloud at any time. This is useful if you need to view or access data, like last-minute schedule changes, customer requests, inventory updates, etc.

Rather than waiting for the app to sync on its own schedule, Force Sync gives you the ability to instantly update Aspire Mobile with the latest information from the cloud. This is great for those job that might not always be connected to WIFI, like janitorial services.

The Force Sync option is easy to find in the blue side menu. With just a tap, you can manually connect with the cloud and ensure you have the most up-to-date data right when you need it. This feature gives your team greater control over syncing your data on-demand.

Using Weathermatic

Weathermatic is an optional third party integration that provides watering solutions with irrigation systems. Weathermatic can be opened on the work ticket details screen.

These systems offer remote management when crews are offsite.

When the Weathermatic link is clicked for the first time for a property, Aspire navigates to Weathermatic and uses the geolocation of the selected property. The Weathermatic website is displayed showing a list of all properties within one mile of the specified location.

When the user selects one of the sites from the list, that site will be tied to the Aspire property so that in the future, selecting the Weathermatic link for that property will go directly to the management screen for the property.

The Weathermatic Property Management screen will then be displayed.

Using Snow Mode

To turn on Snow Mode, select Snow Mode after logging into Aspire Mobile under Settings.

When you are in Snow Mode, work tickets with services and items that have Category Names with Snow in them are displayed.

📌Note: Snow Mode on the Crew Mobile login page is only available if your Aspire system has Snow Mode enabled under Configuration in Administration.

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