TreeBossPro Blog — Arborist Software

Custom Fields and Tags for Arborist Property Records

Tree count, DBH and height cover the basics, but every arborist practice tracks something a little different. One wants to know the primary species on every property. Another wants to know which clients are in a municipal tree protection area. A third tracks which properties have cabling systems that need periodic inspection. Custom fields and tags make room for those details.

After importing your clients, as described in Moving Your Arborist Client Records into Software with CSV Import, custom fields and tags are how you shape the records to your practice.

Custom Fields: Structured Details

Custom fields add specific data points to property records. They are best for details you want recorded the same way every time. Examples arborists commonly find useful:

• Primary species of the significant tree
• Whether a cabling or bracing system is installed, and when it was installed
• Soil or site condition notes in a consistent format
• Client preference for wood: chip, haul or stack
• A second tree's DBH when a property has two significant trees

Keep custom fields few and meaningful. Every field you add is one more thing someone has to fill in. If a detail is only relevant to a handful of properties, a note may be better.

Decide who can create new fields. If everyone can add fields freely, the record becomes cluttered quickly. Many practices let the owner or office manager own the list and add fields on request after a short discussion about whether the detail is really worth capturing everywhere.

Tags: Flexible Grouping

Tags are labels you attach to clients and properties to group them. They are ideal for lists you want to pull later. Arborists use tags for things like:

• Program membership: PHC program, pruning cycle
• Follow-up needed: deferred recommendation, post-storm check
• Account type: residential, commercial, property manager, HOA
• Service area or zone
• Special handling: requires notice before arrival, gated community

Tags are quick to add and remove, which makes them good for temporary states like "follow up after winter" as well as permanent ones.

Consistency matters more with tags than with fields because tags are so easy to create. Agree on a short naming convention — for example, every follow-up tag starts with the word follow-up — so lists are easy to pull and nobody creates a near-duplicate.

Using Tags for Follow-Up

One of the best uses of tags is keeping deferred work alive. When a client declines part of an estimate, tag the property for follow-up. Before the next season, pull everyone with that tag and reach out with the specific recommendation. It is the simplest way to turn last year's maybe into this year's approved work.

Using Fields and Tags for Communication

Tags help you send relevant messages. Clients in a PHC program need different reminders than clients who only call for removals. Being able to see which clients are in which group keeps communication targeted rather than generic. Automated texts and emails work best when they reach the right people with the right message.

Fields and Tags in the Field

Custom fields and tags are not only for the office. When crews open a job in the crew app, the property notes travel with it, and well-chosen fields make those notes quicker to read. A crew leader who can see at a glance that a property has a cabling system installed, or that the client wants all wood stacked by the garage, avoids a mistake that would otherwise cost a callback.

Ask crews which details they wish they had known on arrival. Their answers are often the best candidates for new custom fields. Equally, ask which fields they never look at; those may be cluttering the record for no benefit.

Cabling and bracing deserve a specific mention. Hardware installed in a tree needs periodic inspection, and it is easy to lose track of which properties have it. A custom field recording installation, combined with a recurring consult on the property for inspection, keeps that responsibility from slipping through the cracks.

Keep Them Tidy

Fields and tags drift over time. Different people create similar tags, and fields get used inconsistently. Review them every few months. Merge duplicates, retire tags you no longer use, and write a short guide for your team on what each field and tag means. Clean structure makes every list you pull more reliable.

Custom fields and tags let your records reflect how you actually run your practice. They are a flexible layer on top of the property records at the heart of arborist software.