Equipment
Equipment is the inventory: every truck, trailer, mower and plow, with what state it’s in, what it cost, and the photos and receipts that go with it. It’s the list dispatch and routes draw from when a crew needs a plow truck.
Equipment is Starter and up (equipmentTracking).
At a glance
- Add one: Equipment → New equipment.
- Statuses: Active, Available, In Use, In Service, Maintenance, Out of Service.
- Files: Photos & Documents on each item: General, Damage, Maintenance, Receipt.
- Service due: the wrench on each row opens Maintenance: service plans, what is due, and Mark done.
- Fuel: the same sheet, Fuel and meter: log fill-ups and see what a machine costs to run.
- Where it is: Equipment Tracking for GPS-equipped items.
- Many at once: Update via CSV.
Adding equipment
Equipment → New equipment opens the form: Name (“Plow Truck #1”), Type (Plow Truck, Salt Spreader, Skid Steer, Mower, Trailer, Vehicle, Blower, Chainsaw, Trimmer, Edger, Sprayer, Other), Status, Year, Make, Model, License Plate, VIN / Serial #, Hours / Miles with Unit of the meter (hours for a mower, miles for a truck), Current Location, Purchase price and Purchase date, and notes. Only the name and type are needed to start.
The page shows counts for Total Equipment, Available, In Use and Maintenance, with Utilization Charts by status and by type.
Status
| Status | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Active | In the fleet |
| Available | Ready to go out |
| In Use | Out with a crew |
| In Service | On a route today |
| Maintenance | In the shop |
| Out of Service | Broken, not coming back soon |
Routes and dispatch read the status, so a truck marked Maintenance doesn’t get offered for tomorrow’s route.
Maintenance
Click the wrench on a row to open that machine’s Maintenance tab. A service plan is a recurring service: “Oil and filter every 50 hours or 90 days.” It is due when either comes first.
Add the plan
Add a service plan. Name the service, then give a number of days, a number of hours or miles, or both. Say when it was last done and the meter then, or leave both blank to start the clock today at the meter as it stands.
See what is due
Each plan shows where it stands: On schedule, Due soon (a week ahead, or the last tenth of the interval) or Overdue, with the day and the hours or miles left. The equipment list carries the same badge on the row, and a line above the list counts what is due or overdue.
Mark it done
Mark done records the service - the date, the meter now, the cost and who did it - restarts the plan from that day, and adds the meter to the machine’s history. The service shows under Recent services.
LawnLedger also rings the bell when a plan is due soon (once) and while it is overdue (weekly), so a missed oil change does not wait for someone to open the list. The status of a machine in the shop is still yours to set: Maintenance when it goes in, Available when it comes out.
Keep the receipts as before: upload the shop receipt under Photos & Documents with the type Receipt, and record the cost as an expense so it reaches the books.
The meter and fuel
Fuel and meter holds two logs.
- Log a reading records the hours or miles. A meter only counts up: a number lower than the last reading is refused, and a reading dated in the past is kept without changing the current meter. Editing Hours / Miles on the equipment form counts as a reading too, and, as an explicit correction, may lower it.
- Log a fill-up records the date, the amount, what you paid, where, and the meter at the pump. With the meter on two fill-ups the sheet shows Fuel cost per hour (or mile), so you can see what a mower costs to run.
Fuel here is a record of fuel, not an expense: it does not post to your books. Record the card statement as an expense the usual way.
Tracking
Equipment Tracking lists items reporting a GPS position, with when they last reported and Show on map. Live positions appear on the dispatch map and on the routes map as a layer. Live tracking is Professional and up (gpsTracking); the history of where a truck has been is Business (advancedDispatch).
Routes
Winter routes take an assigned truck or spreader. The Assigned Routes column on the equipment list shows which routes each item is on. See Routes.
Bulk updates
Update via CSV downloads the current inventory as a spreadsheet, you edit it, and you upload it back. Blank cells are left alone, and every row carries an id so changes match the right item. Up to 5,000 rows.
Troubleshooting
Equipment doesn’t show on the map. It has no GPS source reporting, or the layer is toggled off. Only items with a live position appear under Equipment Tracking.
I can’t delete an item that’s on a route. Take it off the route first, or set it to Out of Service and keep the history.