Treeplanting Correspondence

I have been assigned the task of accountant for one treeplanting company next year and I have read the entire documentation of your treeplanting software. It looks like a very good program on an industry wide level but perhaps rather overkill for a small treeplanting company. How much does the software cost? I could not find within it any import function (for example from a .csv Excel file) on the planting contractor level. If my boss will not be able to afford your software, I'd like to organise my Excel accounting structure to make it compatible with your software.
Looking forward to your feedback.

Hi Ron,

this is Karel and I was planting with Chris of Shakti this summer. He told me you had a look at the accounting software I was developing, that you liked it, and that you were quite a whiz with Excel. Unfortunately, Chris did not pay me for any of the accounting work I did for him over the summer, nor for the software I developed for him, I guess primarily because he did not understand it or give me an opportunity to explain it to him.
In any case, I’d like to sell the software to other treeplanting companies and was wondering if you could help me develop it. Do you use Plant Wizard?
If you like, you can check out what I’ve developed so far through
tree planting accounting
which should be at the top of google for such word searches as “treeplanting accounting” or “treeplanting software” etc.
I am trying to develop compatibility with Plant Wizard. I have read their entire documentation and I do not see an easy way to import data from an Excel or .csv file, for example. Chris told me that their software costs around 10,000$ to purchase, which seems rather steep for small operations like Chris’s. How many treeplanting companies use this software? If they do not have it, how do you import their data (number of trees delivered by species to each block) into Plant Wizard, if that is what you are using. Seems like a good program on an industry wide level but overkill for the average treeplanting company.

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> Thank you for your interest in Plant Wizard.
>
> There are several .csv imports into Plant Wizard available including seedlings, seed, projects, blocks and prescriptions.
> All the output reporting done using Excel reports. We have also build some custom excel reports for planting contracts which have are being used to directly import into their payroll programs.
>
> We have a full and lite version of Plant Wizard.
>
> Plant Wizard Lite has been very popular with our smaller contractors.
>
> The price for Plant Wizard Lite is $1350/year (additional desktop licenses are $450 if required)
> The full version of Plant Wizard is $2450/year (additional desktop licenses are $1500 if required)
>
> Plant Wizard is licensed by the concurrent desktop license registration.
> All the handheld software is free and unlimited.
>
> Each Plant Wizard software package includes:
>
> • Unlimited free handheld installs
> • Unlimited free technical support (1-800 or email)
> • Software Maintenance
> • Software Upgrades
> • Professional documentation
>
> Please call me toll free at 1-800-535-2093 x226 for more details. I would be happy to address any questions you have and set up an online demonstration if you are interested.
>
> Thank you for the for you interest in Plant Wizard.
> I look forward to hearing from you.

Hi Doug,

thanks for the response and I'll tell this to my boss. Someone told me that your software cost 10,000$, which rather scared me.
So that I can prepare things for the upcoming season, if one of our contractors asks for a .csv file for importing our tallies, numbers and basic information, can you tell me what IDs, data and format are required? I've read your documentation and the required ID tables seem to concern only on the seedlings level but not the planter level. On the Project level there is a pretty extensive table of IDs but it does not seem to include simple tallies and all that. I imagine that a forester using Plant Wizard would not be interested in how much each planter planted but rather such information as:

- the number of each species which were planted on which blocks
- perhaps some quality plot data after the planting has been completed.

Some basic info like that. In case your software is still too expensive for this upcoming season, because my boss has a small company only a couple of years old, I'd like to prepare his Excel system so that the forester can easily import the required data into his Plant Wizard. Once my boss's company grows more, I am sure he will be interested in your software so that he can more smoothly cooperate with his clients.
Last year I noticed that foresters often asked him to get his foremen to help them with quality plot readings after a block had been completed. So I assume they would want to import that data as well, instead of labouriously copy/pasting the individual records.

Thanks a lot for your feedback and I'll forward your response to my boss.

Take care,

Karel

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I didn't get a chance to dive into your database, but from what I saw the basics look sound. Such a program is simply to daunting for Chris, and probably more than what he needs. His strength is a small crew of highly productive people, with little turn over. You need to talk to the larger companies such as: Northern Reforestation, Next Generation Reforestation, Folklore, Summit, Apex, Brinkman, and so on. A search of the internet is the place to start. I know very little about Plant Wizard, and found the first few versions too clunky to use. I suspect I can't be much help with this matter, but am available by email if you have any questions.

Hi Ron,

thanks for your feedback. Just to mention, I don't think my program is more than what Chris needs. I've run my small translation agency on Excel for a decade and managed, but as soon as I had a larger project I realised I had to step up somehow, because the accounting etc was costing me way too much time. What I prepared for Chris does everything he needs, for him and automatically, and all he has to do is punch in the daily tallies. Everything else is at his fingertips. But because he did not trust me nor give me a chance to explain it, he ended up piddling around every day making little presentations for the planters of their tallies, copy and pasting data to different sheets to compute how much he owes each planter etc. When instead he could have been out in the field, like he truly wanted to, earning 400$ a day. It should take half an hour or less a day to punch in the daily tallies of a crew the size of Chris's, and everything else is taken care of. He himself said he found the accounting work in Excel "dumb and boring", and I agree with him. He didn't have faith in my program or me, and ended up paying for it, if you add up all the days he was manipulating with Excel when he could have been earning money. But this was my first time trying to act as a logistics consultant for someone and I've learned that I must "act" better and put on a marketing face and be assertive and all that, to push my ideas through. I think most people who need my help with logistics are quite the laymen and need to be arm wrestled to convince. Otherwise they rather resort to and trust what they sort of know a little bit about, which in this case would be Excel. Have a good one,