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LMN vs Shortcut, for multi-crew landscape companiesBuilt for running crews, not just bidding them.

LMN is a budgeting and estimating product with operations attached. Shortcut starts from the day your crews actually run, and still knows your numbers. Here is the whole comparison, row by row, with sources you can check.

  • Customers can text you back. In LMN they can't.1
  • Job costing is included, not a $648-a-month tier.2
  • The same man-hour rate, kept current by payroll and the time clock instead of rebuilt every January.
  • Month to month. No onboarding fee. We migrate you off LMN at no charge.
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See it side by side

Every claim about LMN here was checked on . Sources below.

LMN vs Shortcut at a glance

  • Two-way texting

    Shortcut
    Inbox
    LMN
    One-way

    LMN's FAQ: a customer reply “will not be received by anyone.”1

  • Real-time job costing

    Shortcut
    Included
    LMN
    $648 tier

    Not on LMN Starter. Professional starts at $648 a month.2

  • Onboarding fee and term

    Shortcut
    $0 · monthly
    LMN
    $797+ · annual

    LMN fees are non-refundable and the term auto-renews.3, 7

Where the day actually runs

LMN customers love the budget. They live in the scheduler.

Read LMN's reviews and the pattern is consistent: five stars for knowing your numbers, then a paragraph about the schedule, the crew app, and the clicks.10 Shortcut was built from the other end.

One board. Every move has an undo.

Every crew on one grid with a route map. Drag, bulk reschedule, swap a person between crews for the day, and keep a reordered route for good.

  • Optimize one crew or the whole fleet, balanced, with a preview before it applies
  • AI that fixes today's schedule and balances crews, through the same preview and undo
  • Crews skip, flag, and add services from the truck

In LMN: Schedule from the Jobs page, the Whiteboard, or the Calendar. Route optimization runs one crew at a time. Schedule changes “cannot be adjusted from the app.”4

A crew app that works where the signal doesn't.

One tap clocks in the whole crew. Arrive, photos, complete, and chemical records queue on the phone and replay when service returns. English or Spanish, per person.

  • The owner opens the same app and runs dispatch from a phone
  • Office notes for crews that expire on their own
  • Time edits carry a reason, and anything changed after a payroll export is flagged

In LMN: LMN Crew sits at 3.2 stars on the App Store. Recent reviews: “trouble loading a long route with anything over 20 stops.”6 There is no owner app.

Your customers can text you back.

A two-way inbox, night-before reminders, reschedule notices, overdue nudges, estimate follow-ups, and review requests, all from automations you can read in plain words.

  • About 55 triggers, 8 ready-made playbooks, texts held to 8am–8pm
  • Bulk text or email a whole route when plans change
  • Email from your own domain, with one-click unsubscribe handled

In LMN: Texts are one-way and transactional only. A customer reply “will not be received by anyone in the company.”1

Side by side

LMN vs Shortcut, feature by feature.

LMN cells come from Granum's pricing page, support articles, and terms, as of October 2026.

FeatureShortcutLMN by Granum
Dispatch and scheduling
One board for every crewYes, with a route map and lasso selectThree places: Jobs page, Whiteboard, Calendar4
Preview, apply, and undo every moveYesNo
Route optimizationOne crew or the whole fleet, balanced across crewsOne crew at a time, from the Whiteboard4
Crews adjust their day from the appSkip, needs reschedule, add a serviceNo. Office edits the crew schedule4
Reschedule a route and notify customers in one stepYes, text or email with templatesTexts are sent as separate batches1
AI: fix today's schedule, balance crewsYesNo2
Day-of crew swaps and multi-day jobsYes: day roster, “Day 3 of 6”, split visitsSchedule templates, time factors
Crew app
iOS and AndroidYesYes
Works offlineYes. Taps queue on the phone and replay safelyYes, added 2025
English and SpanishYes, per personYes
Clock in the whole crew in one tapYesIndividual punches
Owner runs dispatch from a phoneYes, same appNo owner app
Customers
Two-way texting inboxYesOne-way. Replies are not received1
AutomationsAbout 55 triggers, 8 ready-made playbooks, custom builderManual batch texts, transactional only1
Google review requests with private feedbackYesNo
Customers approve estimates onlineYes, one tap from a text or emailYes, with e-signature in the portal
Client portalInvoices, payments, saved cards, AutoPay, visit reports with photosApprovals, schedule, requests, invoices
Your numbers
Loaded labor rate with burdenYes, seeded from payroll and the time clock, confirmed by youYes, entered in an annual budget
Overhead recovery and target margin set the priceYes. Per-cost-type recovery; LMN's labor-hour method is a presetYes. One active budget on Starter2
Live margin and break-even while you quoteYes, every planBreakeven on estimates
Job costing by job, crew, service, and customerIncludedProfessional tier only2
Reports emailed on a schedule, weekly summaryYesExportable PDFs and spreadsheets
Estimates and measurement
Auto-measure lawns, drives, and walks from parcel data and imageryYes, built in, no per-measure feeNot native. SiteRecon add-on11
Optional lines the customer can declineYes, with choose-one alternativesMultiple service options
Templates and kitsEstimate templates and price-book assembliesTemplates, kits, and a vendor marketplace
Installs and enhancements
Phases, deposits, progress billing, change ordersYesYes, Standard estimates with payment milestones
An enhancement estimate at maintenance speedYes: three extra fields, cost build-up, break-evenSeparate estimate type, work areas, cost codes
Change orders flagged from the field, with “authorize now, price later”YesChange requests in the portal
Crew declares progress, office reviews and releases paymentYesNo
Snow and ice
Dispatch by accumulation: “it snowed 3 inches, who's due?”YesManual scheduling8
Depth ladder on one service lineYesOne service per depth bracket, copied into each estimate8
On-call salting offered by text, accepted from a linkYesNo
Weather stamped at arrival for liabilityYesWeather notes
Money
Invoice on completion, weekly, or monthlyYes, per customerYes
Cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACHYes, with card AutoPayCards, ACH, debit through LMN Pay2
Late fees, prepay, credits, void and reissueYesPartial
QuickBooks OnlineAutomatic on every change, with reconciliation and backfillBatch sync tool. Per-visit quantities export as zero; $0 invoices must be un-queued5
AI
AI in dispatchFix schedule, balance crews, risk scores, plain-English commandsNo2
Office agents: follow-ups, drafts, flags you approveYes BetaNo2
Price and terms
Price$180 per crew per month. $144 billed yearly$297 Starter, $648 Professional, quote above that2
UsersUnlimited1 office + 5 crew (Starter), 3 + 15 (Professional). More “for a fee,” unpublished2
Onboarding fee$0$797 Starter, $1,497 Professional, as reported7
ContractMonth to month, cancel in the appAuto-renews; fees non-refundable; cancel by contacting support3
Try it14-day free trial, no cardDemo required
MigrationDone for you, free, overnight, two weeks side by sideImport client lists
Support and trainingThe team that built it, same dayNamed coaches, Academy, events, Greenius courses

Competitor cells reflect LMN by Granum's public pricing page, support articles, app-store listings, and terms as of October 2026. If one is out of date, tell us and we'll fix it the same day. “Beta” means live with design partners.

The one thing LMN customers refuse to give up

Your man-hour rate, kept current.

LMN's budget is the reason people stay. It is also an annual planning artifact: forecast overhead, forecast hours, divide, add profit, rebuild it in January. Shortcut keeps the same math and changes where the numbers come from.

Rate card

The same rate, derived instead of declared.

Wages come from payroll. Hours come from the time clock. Overhead comes from your QuickBooks accounts or one entry. You confirm each number, and every estimate shows its break-even and margin before it sends. When a measured number drifts from an assumed one, the model tells you.

  • Type in your LMN overhead recovery and get the same man-hour rate on day one
  • Every number is labeled measured, modeled, or declared, so you know which ones to trust
  • Job costing by job, crew, service, and customer, included at every size

Four things to watch on the demo

The parts of the day LMN leaves to someone else.

Measure

Type the address. The property measures itself.

Parcel lines plus aerial imagery, with buildings, beds, and hardscape subtracted. Lawn, drives, and walks come back as zones you can redraw by hand, and the per-square-foot line fills in. No per-measure fee, no second subscription.

In LMN: No native measurement. Add SiteRecon, typically a few hundred dollars a month.11

The truck

One tap clocks in the crew. No signal, no problem.

Today's route with notes and photos, arrive and complete with GPS stamped, chemical records from the truck, and an offline queue that replays when the signal comes back. Every time edit carries a reason.

In LMN: App Store reviewers on the new offline mode: “app keeps crashing, and I find myself having to re-enter notes.”6

Snow

It snowed three inches. Who's due?

Snow is a service with a trigger. Filter the board by accumulation, see every contract whose threshold was met, assign them with the tools you already use. The price resolves from the depth ladder on the line. Salting offers go out by text and the yeses land on the route.

In LMN: One service per depth bracket, copied into each estimate, scheduled by hand.8

Office agents

BetaWork that waits for a yes, not for you.

Agents follow up on quiet estimates, draft replies in the inbox, flag at-risk accounts from the margin data, and queue what they did for your approval. Nothing goes out without a person tapping yes. In beta with design partners now.

In LMN: No AI features as of Oct 2026.2

Switching from LMN

We do the switch. Give us access, and we do the rest.

Our team rebuilds your customers, properties, recurring schedules, services and pricing, crews, estimates, invoices, payment history, and employees overnight, then walks you through the result. No fee. No consultant. No six-month implementation.

  1. Day 020-minute call. We see if Shortcut fits. If it does, you give us access to your current software.
  2. That nightMigrated overnight. You sleep.
  3. Up to 2 weeksShadow. Both systems run side by side. You review and approve.
  4. Cutover MondayYour crews open Shortcut. We're on the phone for the first 8 hours.
Book a demo

Export before you give notice. LMN's terms hold your data for 30 days after termination, then delete it.3 Give us access first and we pull everything while your account is still live.

LMN → ShortcutA 4-crew book, overnight
Customers412
Properties, measured431
Recurring schedules388
Services and price list64
Open estimates27
Invoices and payments3,906
Employees and crews17 · 4
Budget → man-hour rate$62.40
Importing · nothing to do on your end Import complete · review call Tue 9:00 AM

What it costs

One price per crew. Everything included.

Unlimited users, no base fee, no add-ons, no onboarding charge. You pay for the crews you run. Here is a three-crew, ten-person company on both.

Running 1 or 2 crews? Start a 14-day free trial, no card.

$180per crew
per month

Save 20%Pay yearly: $144 per crew per month. That's $432 back per crew, every year.

Shortcut3 crews · 10 people
3 crews × $180
$540
Users (10 of unlimited)
$0
Job costing, routing, AI, portal, texting
included
Onboarding and migration
$0
Per month
$540

Month to month. Cancel in the app. 14-day free trial for one- and two-crew companies, no card.

LMN Professional10+ employees
Base
$648
3 office + 15 crew licenses
included
Each extra license
for a fee
Onboarding, one time
$1,497
Per month, year one
$773

Annual term, auto-renews, fees non-refundable. Job costing, equipment costing, and Zapier are on this tier.2, 3, 7

What you never pay for is a license, an onboarding fee, or a year you can't leave.

Chance Heath, founder of Shortcut

When you have an issue

A real person, same day.

Every Shortcut customer gets a direct line to our team, including me. The same people who moved your data answer you, same day, every day. If you've spent a week waiting on a ticket, you already know why that matters.

Book 20 minutes on my calendar ↗

Chance Heath, founder

LMN alternative questions, answered.

What an LMN customer asks on the first call, in plain words.

Is Shortcut an LMN alternative?

Yes, for maintenance-heavy landscape and lawn care companies running two or more crews. Shortcut covers the day LMN customers say they struggle with: one dispatch board, fleet route optimization, a crew app that works offline, two-way texting with automations, and job costing included at every size. It also carries the budget-derived man-hour rate LMN is known for, seeded from your payroll and time clock.

Can I reproduce my LMN man-hour rate in Shortcut?

Yes. Shortcut's rate card takes loaded labor, overhead recovery, and a target net percentage and shows the required rate per man-hour, with each input labeled measured, modeled, or declared. LMN's field-labor-hour method is a preset: enter your forecast overhead and budgeted hours and you get the same number. From there, wages update from payroll and hours from the time clock instead of a yearly rebuild.

Does Shortcut have budget-based estimating?

Yes. Every estimate shows break-even and margin on each line before it sends, and install estimates carry a full cost build-up: labor at loaded rates, materials, equipment per hour, and overhead recovery by cost type. The difference from LMN is lifecycle. There is no annual budget to activate; the model is live and you confirm its numbers as they drift.

How does LMN pricing compare to Shortcut?

LMN publishes two tiers, $297 and $648 a month, each bundling a fixed number of office and crew licenses with more available “for a fee,” plus a one-time onboarding charge reported at $797 and $1,497. Shortcut is $180 per crew per month, or $144 billed yearly, with unlimited users and no onboarding fee. For a three-crew, ten-person company that is $540 a month on Shortcut against $648 plus a one-time onboarding fee on LMN Professional.

Does LMN have two-way texting?

No. LMN's SMS feature sends reminders and updates in batches, and its support documentation states that a customer reply will not be received by anyone in the company. It also restricts texting to transactional use. Shortcut has a two-way inbox, automations that send on about 55 events, bulk texts to a route, review requests, and email from your own domain.

Can I cancel Shortcut anytime?

Yes. Shortcut bills month to month and you cancel in the app. Yearly billing is optional and 20% cheaper. LMN's agreement auto-renews, its fees are non-refundable, and cancellation goes through support or your account manager.

How do I switch from LMN to Shortcut?

Book a 20-minute call. If Shortcut fits, you give us access to your LMN account and we migrate overnight: customers, properties, schedules, services and prices, crews, estimates, invoices, payment history, and employees. Both systems run side by side for up to two weeks while you review, then your crews switch on a Monday with us on the phone. Do it before you give LMN notice: their terms hold your data for 30 days after termination, then delete it.

Does Shortcut handle installs and enhancements?

Yes. An enhancement estimate takes three fields more than a maintenance estimate and carries a cost build-up with break-even. Larger jobs add phases, deposits, progress billing, and change orders flagged from the field with a photo. Crews declare progress, the office reviews it, and review releases the milestone payment. Completion can hand the property off to a maintenance plan on the same board.

Does Shortcut do snow removal?

Yes. Snow is a service with a trigger depth and a per-push depth ladder. Dispatch filters by accumulation to show who is due, you assign with the normal tools, the price resolves from the ladder, and the weather at arrival is stamped on the visit. On-call salting goes out by text and customers accept from a link.

Bring your LMN budget.

Book 20 minutes with the team that built Shortcut. Bring your LMN budget and your messiest week, and we'll tell you straight whether Shortcut fits.

  1. 1Tell us about your business. Name, crews, what you run today. Thirty seconds.
  2. 2Pick a time. Chance's calendar opens right here, with your details already filled in.
  3. 3See it work. Twenty minutes, live, with the team that built it. We'll show you the board and tell you straight if it fits.

Rather skip the form? Open the calendar. Running 1 or 2 crews? Start a 14-day free trial, no card.

Crews

No fee, no commitment. Running one crew? This takes you to a free trial instead.

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Sources

  1. 1LMN support: FAQ, SMS Messaging with LMN checked
  2. 2LMN by Granum: Plans and Pricing checked
  3. 3LMN by Granum: Terms and Conditions checked
  4. 4LMN help: Schedule Tab checked
  5. 5LMN support: QuickBooks Online, a guide checked
  6. 6LMN Crew on the App Store checked
  7. 7LMN Review 2026: Pricing, Limits and Alternatives checked
  8. 8LMN help: Snow Estimating Best Practices checked
  9. 9Granum: LMN vs Aspire checked
  10. 10Capterra: LMN reviews · Software Advice: LMN reviews checked
  11. 11SiteRecon integrations · A measurement tools guide checked

Book a demo

  1. 1Tell us about your business. Name, crews, what you run today. Thirty seconds.
  2. 2Pick a time. Chance's calendar opens right here, with your details already filled in.
  3. 3See it work. Twenty minutes, live, with the team that built it. We'll show you the board and tell you straight if it fits.
Crews

No fee, no commitment. Running one crew? This takes you to a free trial instead.

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