TreeBossPro Blog — Arborist Software

Arborist Site Notes: Access, Gate Codes, Drop Zones and Targets

The tree is only half the job. The other half is the site: the narrow side gate, the soft ground behind the garage, the overhead service drop, the client's prize perennial bed directly under the limb you are removing. Site notes are where arborists turn their walk-around into instructions the crew can actually use.

Recording Tree Height: Practical Estimates Arborists Can Rely On covered the numbers on the record. This article covers the words.

What Site Notes Are For

Site notes answer the questions a crew leader asks in the first ten minutes on a property. Where do we park? How do we get in? Where can wood come down? What can we absolutely not hit? Who do we talk to? In TreeBossPro, crew notes for access, gate codes and drop zones are part of the property record and appear in the crew mobile app alongside the job.

The arborist who did the consult usually knows all of this. The problem is that the arborist is rarely the person standing at the gate on the day of the job. Site notes are the handoff, and a good handoff is the difference between a crew that starts working in ten minutes and one that spends forty minutes figuring out the property.

Access

Be specific about access. "Back gate" is not a note. "Side gate on the left of the garage, 42 inches wide, code 4471, latch sticks" is a note. Include anything that changes which equipment can reach the work:

• Gate widths and whether a chipper or mini-skid fits
• Slopes, retaining walls and soft ground that cannot take weight
• Shared driveways where you must not block the neighbor
• Parking restrictions and the best place to set up
• Dogs, and whether the client will put them inside

Write notes for someone who has never been to the property. The crew leader who knows the site does not need them; the new hire on their second week does. If they could follow your notes from the curb to the tree without calling anyone, the notes are good enough.

Gate Codes and Keys

Gate codes are sensitive. Keep them on the property record rather than in text messages and personal phones, where they get lost and repeated in unsafe places. Crews see them in the crew app when they need them. If a code changes, update it in one place and every future job has the right one.

Keys and lockboxes deserve the same treatment. Note where the key is kept, who to call if the lockbox code fails, and whether the client wants the gate left locked or open when the crew leaves.

Drop Zones, Targets and Hazards

Arborists think in terms of targets: what could be struck if something comes down in the wrong place. Write the targets into the notes in plain language. Roof over the kitchen. Neighbor's shed. Overhead service line to the house. Irrigation heads in the bed. Then write where wood can safely land. "Open drop zone in the back half of the yard; keep everything off the patio."

These notes help the climber plan rigging on the drive in and protect your reputation with the client.

Note overhead lines and who owns them, and remember that work near energized conductors is governed by safety rules and utility requirements that vary by location — check what applies before scheduling. Note known underground lines and irrigation if the client has told you about them. Note wasp nests, poison ivy on the trunk, and anything else your crew should know before they touch the tree.

Client Preferences

Some preferences are about communication: a client who wants a text before the crew arrives, another who would rather get an email. The client app lets customers choose their alert preferences, and the crew app's one-tap on-the-way and arrival alerts make it easy to honor them without the crew leader typing out a message on the street.

Every client has preferences: leave the firewood stacked by the shed, chip everything, call before you arrive, do not start before 8. Put them in the notes. The crew can send a one-tap on-the-way alert from the app, and the client will appreciate that you remembered.

Keep Notes Current

Notes go stale when nobody owns them. Ask crew leaders to update notes when something changes and make reviewing them part of every consult. Notes that are current are why arborist software beats a stack of old work orders.

Date significant changes in the note itself, such as "new gate code as of spring" or "pool installed in back yard, no access through rear." It tells the reader how fresh the information is.