The University of Georgia’s Cooperative Extension Service has recently updated its HORT Management Software. The software, developed by Extension Horticulture Specialist Gary Wade is now in its sixth version and is for use in Microsoft Excel.
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“The software is something we started developing back in the 1980s and we’ve continued to revise it over time,” Wade told Lawn & Landscape. Originally, Wade and his colleague Dr. Bill Thomas developed HORT Management for use in SuperCalc, which is no longer available on the market. Wade says it was then transferred to Quatro Pro, but that the Excel platform is much more widely used than the Quatro Pro operating system. “We found that more people have Excel these days, so we decided to bite the bullet and do a complete overhaul to transfer the program to that format. It’s made it a lot more user friendly.”
Not intending to compete with commercially available software programs for the industry, HORT Management was originally developed as a teaching tool for UGA grounds maintenance students. “We offer a number of landscape and grounds maintenance classes, as well as landscape business schools for industry professionals,” explains Billy Skaggs, extension agent for Hall County. “During those classes, we spend a lot of time talking about the technical side of it – pest control, landscape maintenance and things of that nature. But the questions that kept coming up were business-related and we didn’t have a lot of good answers for them. That gave Gary the idea to put this together in the first place and we believe the current update will be far and away better than the previous versions.”
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The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension and College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences often sponsors educational programs for landscape professionals, often in cooperation with other universities in the region. Here's a look at upcoming events open to lawn landscape contracotrs around the country: OCT. 7 Ornamental Horticulture Open House, University of Georgia, Athens, Ga. OCT. 11 2005 Georgia/Florida Green Industry Updates, Cairo, Ga. OCT. 18 2005 Georgia/Florida Green Industry Updates, Jacksonville, Fla. OCT. 19 2005 Georgia/Florida Green Industry Updates, Quincy, Fla. NOV. 16-17 Business Skills Workshop for Beginning Landscape & Lawn Care Professionals, North Metro Technical Institute, Acworth, Ga.
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Wade notes that HORT Management is strictly a cost-estimating program and does not include functions for billing, payroll, cost accounting, job tracking or other business-related programs. The software is menu-driven and contains a series of worksheets to help the user estimate overhead, labor, and hourly costs in their businesses. The main component of the program, the Bid Estimator, calculates a bid price and break-even price for a particular job. Costs are then translated into a contract to present to the client. Version 6.0 also contains a tree canopy calculator that allows the user to estimate tree canopy areas for spraying and pruning.
“We’ve built a number of industry averages into the program, such as production times and equipment and materials costs, which we were able to gather from the Professional Grounds Management Society and other sources,” Wade says. “The materials section also includes average costs for many pesticides labeled for use in Georiga, but the beauty of the program is that it’s very easy to change the numbers in the cells so the user can tailor the program to fit their own company. If they find that the costs differ or they’re not located in the state of Georgia, they can input their own numbers and get the most accurate estimates for their businesses.”
HORT Management Software is available for $75. The program is designed for non-MAC users of Microsoft Excel 2002 or higher. Extensive documentation and a practice problem are included on the CD. The cost of the software will go back to the UGA extension horticulture department to help fund further projects.
To order HORT Management Software or learn more, click here to be transferred to the Univeristy of Georgia’s HORT Management Web page. An order form is included on that site.