Question 1

Onboarding Checklist

Accepted Answer

Welcome to Elevation Advisor!

Before you dive into creating proposals or exploring Profit Genie, this checklist will walk you through the essential setup steps to ensure your numbers are accurate, your pricing is profitable, and your business is ready to run at full speed.

Think of this as your guided path to success, each step builds the foundation for smarter decisions, better margins, and more confidence in every proposal you send. It only takes a little time to set up, but the payoff is huge.

And don’t forget that there is a “See How it Works” video at the top of every page. It should help you understand the page and what is being asked for

Let’s get you dialed in and ready to go!

✅ STEP 1: Complete the Profit Genie Wizard

Navigate to: Profit Genie

Enter company name
Add # of full-time and part-time field employees
Set workdays per week and daily work hours
Choose your construction season dates
Enter # of observed holidays

|| 🧱 Why it matters: This determines how many working days are available to cover your annual overhead, forming the foundation of your entire financial model.

✅ STEP 2: Add Equipment

Navigate to: Catalog > Equipment

Set fuel prices (unleaded, diesel, off-road)
Create equipment categories
Add your owned or financed equipment
Mark items as overhead if not billed per job

| 💡 Tip: Be conservative with “days used per year” to ensure cost recovery.

✅ STEP 3: Add Labor

Go to: P

Question 2

Beds:  Start here is you are just getting started

Accepted Answer

This guide introduces you to working with Sections in Elevation Advisor, using the Beds section as a detailed example. While we’ll focus on creating and managing beds within a proposal, the steps and best practices outlined here apply broadly to all landscape sections. By the end, you’ll have a solid understanding of how to measure, structure, and populate any section with confidence.

To illustrate the process, we’ll use a real-world example from a landscape designed by our co-founder’s company.

Elevation Advisor Sample Design

This design is divided into two distinct areas:

The first area, outlined in blue, represents what the client originally requested. In the proposal, we refer to everything within this blue boundary as the Patio Area.
The second area, outlined in red, is called the Garden Area. This portion is presented in the proposal as optional additional work the client may choose to include.

Focusing on the Patio Area, you'll notice a patio, planting beds, various plants, and a walkway. Each of these individual components is treated as a Section in Elevation Advisor.

A Section is any distinct part of a landscape design, such as a patio, bed, or walkway, that can be measured, scheduled, and priced independently within a proposal.

Measuring Beds in the Patio Area

Let’s begi

Question 3

How to Set Up Equipment

Accepted Answer

${youtube}How to Set Up Equipment in Elevation Advisor

Once you’ve completed the Profit Genie Wizard, the next step is to enter your equipment. This ensures that your estimates accurately reflect the cost of owning and operating the tools and machines your business depends on.

This section is more than just data entry, it’s about making sure your pricing reflects the real cost of doing business. Whether it’s a skid steer, a dump trailer, or a set of small tools, every piece of equipment you own has a cost, and Profit Genie helps you recover it.

Figure 1: Equipment setup page, displaying equipment categories and details in Elevation Advisor.

Step 1: Set Fuel Prices

Start by clicking the Fuel Prices button in the top right corner of the screen. Enter the current prices for:

Off-road diesel
Diesel
Unleaded

These values are used to calculate fuel costs for each piece of equipment. You’ll want to update them periodically as prices change.

Step 2: Create Equipment Categories

Next, create your equipment categories. A default category for Overhead Equipment is already included.

To add a new category, click Add Category and type in a name. Most users create a single additional category for Large Equipment, but you can add as many as needed to organize your equipment by type or function.

For example, if

Question 4

Account Settings

Accepted Answer

If you have an Owner/Admin or Manager role, you can access your Elevation Advisor account settings by clicking the gear icon in the top right corner of your screen. This is your hub for managing everything, from updating your account details to editing business info and overseeing your company’s users.

Members

Figure 1: Members page in Account Settings

When you open the settings, you’ll land on the Members page.

Here you’ll see a list of everyone in your company who’s using Elevation Advisor. For each person, you’ll find:

Role
Status (Active or Pending)
Email
Phone number
Organization
Date joined

Pending means the user has been invited but hasn’t activated their account yet.

Figure 2: Account & Profile settings, showing options for updating business and personal details.

Account & Profile

Here you can manage your business info and personal preferences.

Business Details: Update your company name, contact info, logo, work hours, and season.
Security Settings: Change your password or turn on Two-Factor Authentication for extra login protection using a one time code for each login (it’s off by default).
Preferences: Edit your email, username, time zone, and languag

Question 5

What is Profit Genie

Accepted Answer

Profit Genie is your built-in financial co-pilot, a powerful budgeting engine inside Elevation Advisor that helps you price with precision, protect your profit, and run your business with confidence. It’s not just a calculator. It’s the strategy behind every proposal you send.

Why It Exists

Before Profit Genie, most contractors priced jobs by marking up materials and hoping the math worked out. But what happens when a client supplies their own materials? Or when your projections are off? Your profit disappears. Profit Genie was built to solve that problem. It flips the script by asking one simple question:

"How much money do you want in your account at the end of the year?"

Then it reverse-engineers your pricing to get you there.

How It Works

Profit Genie uses your real business data to calculate exactly what you need to charge:

Per day
Per crew
Per hour

It’s built on three inputs you control:

Labor costs
Overhead expenses
Year-end profit goal

No spreadsheets. No guesswork. Just clarity.

Why It’s Different

Traditional pricing models rely on material markups and industry averages. Profit Genie doesn’t.

| Traditional Model | Profit Genie PMM | | ---- | | Relies on material projections for the coming year | Ignores materials entirely | | Prone to inconsistency | Delivers predictable daily pricing | | Based on assumptions | Based on your actual numbers |

By focusing only on labor, overhead, and profit, Profit Geni

Question 6

Filling Out Profit Genie Wizard

Accepted Answer

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The first time you select Profit Genie from the menu, you’ll be taken to a seven-step set-up wizard.

Step 1: Company Name

Enter your company name and click Continue.

Figure 1: Profit Genie Wizard Step 1, prompting the user to enter their company name.

Step 2: Full-Time Field Employees

Input the number of full-time field employees, those who work directly in the field or on crews generating income.

Do not include office staff, managers, or salespeople. These roles will be added later under Overhead Employees.

Step 3: Part-Time Field Employees

Enter the number of part-time field employees who generate income in the field.
If none, enter 0.

Step 4: Workdays Per Week

Specify how many days per week your company typically works.
Example: If you work four 10-hour days and a 4-hour Friday, enter 5, not 4.5.

Step 5: Daily Work Hours

Enter your average daily work hours, including overtime.
Example: If your team works 44 hours over 5 days, input 8.8 hours/day.

Step 6: Construction Season Dates

Figure 2: Profit Genie Wizard Step 6, showing the input field for Start and End of the work season.

Set your *start and end dates

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