Creating a Landscape Project Inventory - Desktop App

This guide shows you how to build a landscape inventory for a project in the ArborNote desktop app — placing assets on the project map and attaching priced line items to each one, so your estimate is built asset by asset instead of one lump description for the whole property.

Landscape Inventory is the standard first pass on any green-industry job: walk (or map) the property, catalog every distinct asset — trees, planting beds, hardscape, irrigation components, fence lines — and price maintenance or enhancement work against that specific asset rather than the property as a whole. In ArborNote, assets are placed on a project's Map view, and one or more Line Items are attached to each one.

Note: This article covers the desktop workflow. If you're working from an iPhone or iPad on-site, see Landscape Inventory on Mobile (iOS) instead — the same concepts apply, but asset placement and the detail screens work a little differently.

Prerequisites

• An ArborNote account with access to the desktop site
• A project to add the inventory to (you can create one as part of this workflow)
• Optional but recommended: pricing set up in your Part List Library, so you can pull cost/price/labor data into line items instead of typing it by hand each time

Steps

1. Create or open the project

From the Projects dashboard, click Add Project to create a new project, or click into an existing project to land on its Map tab.

2. Add landscape assets to the map

Each marker, area, or line you place on the map becomes its own record — with a name, a location, and any services attached to it — rather than one description covering the whole property. This is what lets the estimate be broken down asset by asset.

The toolbar has a separate tool for each asset type, and placement works a little differently for each one. Each time you place an asset, its type's count in the header (# of Assets, # of Areas, or # of Lines) increases by one.

• Marker (single point) — for trees or other point features. Check Add Marker, then right-click the map at the spot where the asset belongs. The detailed asset panel opens immediately after you drop it. Use Move Marker if you need to reposition it later.

• Area (polygon) — for planting beds, lawns, or other bounded spaces. Click the polygon icon in the toolbar (or select it from the dropdown menu), then left-click each corner of the shape directly on the map to trace its outline. Click Save (top left) to keep it, or Cancel to discard it.

• Line (path or edge) — for fence lines, edging, or irrigation runs. Click the line icon in the toolbar, then left-click each point along the path to connect them into a line. Click Save to keep it, or Cancel to discard it.

3. Fill in the asset's details

Placing an asset opens its detail panel immediately, so you can document it on the spot rather than leaving an unlabeled shape on the map.

1. Give the asset a Name and a Color.
2. Add an optional Note and a photo if you need one.

4. Add line items with the Parts List

An asset can have multiple line items attached to it. Each line item needs a Material Type, a Description, and a set of prices.

1. With the asset's detail panel open, click the + next to Proposal Line Item to open the line item form.
2. Fill in the Material Type (Plant or Hard) and Description directly, or click the search (book) icon next to Material Type to pull pricing from the Part List Library instead of typing it from scratch.
3. If you searched the Part List Library, click a row to auto-fill the Description, Unit Material Cost/Price, Labor Hours, and the related labor cost/price into the line item.
4. Adjust the price if needed. ArborNote's pricing is gross-margin-centric — cost, price, and gross margin (%) are mathematically linked, so changing any one value, whether typed by hand or pulled from the catalog, automatically recalculates the other two.
5. Click Save.

After saving, the asset's total $ updates in the header immediately, and the line item appears in the panel below.

5. Review assets and line items in the list views

Everything you place on the map is also available as two tables, so you can review or bulk-manage the whole project without opening each asset individually.

• Landscape Assets tab — lists every marker, area, and line placed in the project. Each row is identified by the same ID and color-coded icon shown on the map, along with its Name and Note.

• Line Items tab — lists every service attached to those assets. Each row is matched back to an asset by the same ID and Name, and includes Description, Unit Material Cost/Price, Labor Hours, Unit Labor Cost/Price, and Quantity. An asset with no service attached won't have a row here.

Tip: If an asset is missing from the Line Items tab, that just means no line item has been attached to it yet — go back to that asset on the map or in the Landscape Assets tab and add one.

Verify It Worked

• The asset counter in the header (# of Assets / # of Areas / # of Lines) reflects everything you've placed.
• Each asset's detail panel shows its saved line item(s) and an updated total $.
• The Landscape Assets tab lists every asset you placed, and the Line Items tab lists a matching row for every asset that has pricing attached.

Common Issues

• An asset doesn't appear in the Line Items tab: This is expected if no line item has been attached to that asset yet — the Line Items tab only shows assets with at least one priced service.
• Changing the price doesn't match what I expected: Cost, price, and gross margin are linked by formula. Changing any one of the three recalculates the other two automatically — this is by design, not a bug.
• Wrong asset type for the feature: Use Marker for single points (like a tree), Area for bounded spaces (like a planting bed or lawn), and Line for paths or edges (like a fence line). If you placed the wrong type, delete it and re-add it with the correct tool.

Related Articles

• Landscape Inventory on Mobile (iOS)