Schedule visits and organize mowing routes

The Schedule works like Google Calendar: drag a visit to move it, drag its bottom edge to change how long it takes, and click an open time to book one. On top of that, Crewtavo can put each crew’s day in the shortest driving order, which is what lawn mowing routes need.

Book a visit for any length

When you add or edit a visit, set Starts and Ends to any minute, like 9:00 to 9:50. The length shows under the end time. Moving the start keeps the length, as in Google Calendar.

For a recurring job (weekly mowing, say), open the job, choose Edit details and schedule from its menu, and set Minutes per visit to any whole number, like 20 or 50.

Dragging on the schedule snaps to 5 minutes, like Google Calendar’s phone app. To change that, an admin opens Settings → Schedule and routes and picks another Time steps: 1 minute (exact), 5 minutes or 15 minutes. Typed times can always be any minute.

See who’s on each visit

There’s one schedule for the whole business. Every visit shows the people on it: their photo if they’ve added one, or else their initials in the color they picked under Settings → Profile → Color on the schedule. You have a green ring. Visits with room also list first names, like “You, Luis”.

To put people on a visit, open it, choose Edit, and tick them under People. Picking a Crew brings that crew’s people along.

Subcontractors with a sign-in are under Subcontractors in the same form, for people who schedule the whole team. The visit shows on the sub’s phone with the address and the work, but not your prices, and not your client’s phone or email unless you allow it on their page. When a sub takes a job offer, or you agree their pay, they’re put on the visits it covers for you. See Work with subcontractors.

To see one person’s visits, use the Person filter at the top (it starts on Everyone):

• You: the visits you’re on.
• A person’s name: the visits they’re on.
• Nobody assigned: visits still waiting for someone. Shown to people who schedule.

Crewtavo remembers your choice on that device. Field crew (the Employee role) only ever see the visits they’re on, so they don’t get this filter. On Day and Week, People gives each person a row of their own instead of each crew a lane.

Tip

On a phone, the hours on the schedule are twice as tall, so even a 30-minute visit has room for its time and name.

See everything about a visit

Click or tap a visit on the schedule to open it. You see the day and time, the address and gate code, the client and their phone number, the crew and people on it, equipment, weather holds and the instructions for the crew.

Nothing changes until you choose Edit, which opens the visit form. From the same view you can Call or Text the client, open the job, or get Directions.

Get directions in your maps app

Tap an address or Directions anywhere in Crewtavo (a visit, a job, a client, or My day on a phone). Crewtavo asks which app to open:

• Apple Maps on an iPhone, iPad or Mac
• Google Maps
• Waze
• Other app on Android, which shows Android’s own list of the maps apps on that phone
• Copy address

Tick Always use this app on this device to skip the question next time. To change it later, open Settings → Profile and pick under Directions.

Note

A web app can’t see which apps are installed on a phone, so iPhones always show the same three. If you pick one that isn’t installed, its website opens instead.

Organize a crew’s route

1. Open Schedule and switch to Day, with Crews picked.
2. In a crew’s column, choose Plan route.
3. Crewtavo shows the crew’s stops in the shortest driving order, starting from your shop, with a time for each stop. It counts how long each visit takes plus the drive between stops. You also see a small sketch of the route, the miles of driving, and when the crew will be done.
4. Choose Save route. The schedule shows the new times and stop numbers, and the crew sees them on My day. Undo puts everything back.

To set the order yourself, use the up and down arrows next to each stop before you save. Use shortest route goes back to Crewtavo’s order. A day you ordered by hand is never reordered automatically.

On today’s route, stops a crew has already started or finished stay as they are, and the rest are ordered from where the crew is now.

Tip

Routes start (and end) at your shop. Add its address in Settings → Company if you haven’t. Until then, routes start at the first stop.

Open the whole route in Apple Maps or Google Maps

Crewtavo can hand a crew’s day to Apple Maps or Google Maps in one go: your shop, then every stop in order, then back to the shop.

• On the schedule: switch to Day and choose the map button at the top of a crew’s column, next to Plan route. To open only your own stops, pick You under Person first.
• On a phone: open My day and choose Open route in maps.

The stops go in the order the schedule shows, so organize the route and save it first if you want the shortest drive. Once the day is under way (a stop is On the way, started or done), the route starts from where you are and only has the stops still to do. Whether it ends back at the shop follows End the day back at the shop in Settings → Schedule and routes.

Crewtavo asks which app to open, with the same Always use this app on this device choice as directions. Waze and Android’s Other app take one place at a time, so they aren’t offered for routes, and on Android the route opens in Google Maps.

Note

A maps app takes only so many stops from a link: 10 in Google Maps and 12 in Apple Maps. A longer day opens in parts, like Part 1 · 8 stops and Part 2 · 7 stops, then the shop. Each part starts where the last one ended, so open the next part when you finish one.

Note

Routes with stops need iOS 18.4 or macOS 15.4 or later for Apple Maps. Google Maps’ website only takes a few stops on a phone, so crews who use Google Maps should install its app.

Keep a customer’s time

Some customers need a set time, like a gate that opens at 9:00 or a school lot that has to be done before 7:00. Open the visit, choose Edit, and turn on Fixed time. Organizing the route keeps that time and plans the other stops around it. If a crew can’t make it in time, the route says so.

For a recurring job with a set Visit time, turn on Keep this time when routes are organized in the job’s Edit details and schedule, so every visit keeps it.

Who can organize routes

People who schedule the whole team can organize any crew’s route. A foreman (crew lead) can organize their own crew’s route. Field crew see their stops in order, with times, on My day, but can’t change the order.

Organize routes automatically

An admin can have Crewtavo do this every day. Open Settings → Schedule and routes and turn on Organize routes automatically.

• Each crew’s next 7 days are put in the shortest order once.
• A new visit added later with no set time is fitted into the route where it adds the least driving.
• A day someone ordered by hand is left alone, and so is today, since crews may be partway through it.

Route settings

In Settings → Schedule and routes:

Setting	What it does
Give each stop a time	On: each stop gets a start time. Off: stops are only numbered, and left as anytime that day.
End the day back at the shop	Counts the drive back to the shop in the miles and finish time.
Average driving speed (mph)	Used to estimate drive times. Around 25–35 mph in town.
Unload and load at each stop (minutes)	Time added between stops for trailers and mowers, on top of each visit’s length.

Note

Drive times are estimates from the distance between addresses, so no map account or key is needed. A stop whose address can’t be found on the map goes last, with a note to check the address on the client.