The ArboStar Standard for Running a Tree Care Business

A published operating standard for tree care companies: the ten numbers every company should know, how each of the ten processes should run, and a five-level digital maturity model to place yourself on. It is drawn from how well-run tree care companies operate on ArboStar across the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Europe. We update it as the industry changes.

Revenue per crew per day, achieved man-hour rate, estimate-to-close rate, drive time share, days to invoice, days to paid, receivables over 30 days, payroll share of revenue, marketing cost per booked job, and jobs per crew per day. Every one of them is a standard report in ArboStar; see our business coaching page for how we review them with you.

ANSI A300 is the American national standard for tree care operations, developed by the industry through TCIA. It is voluntary unless a contract, municipality or your TCIA Accreditation requires it. But it is still what a court, an insurer or a consulting arborist will measure your work against. Estimates and work orders in ArboStar can reference A300 pruning specifications line by line.

ISA certifies people: an individual passes the Certified Arborist exam and maintains continuing education. TCIA accredits companies: a third-party audit of safety, training, A300 and Z133 compliance, insurance and business practices. A company can employ ISA Certified Arborists without being TCIA Accredited, and vice versa.

Consolidation by private-equity platforms, a persistent crew shortage, digitization of the last paper-based companies, growth in utility vegetation management, and the arrival of battery equipment, drones and AI-assisted estimating. What ties these together is data: buyers, insurers and customers increasingly expect a tree company to know its own numbers.

A five-level scale from paper and memory (Level 1) to measured, benchmarked and coached (Level 5). It tells you which of your business processes are still outside the system, and therefore invisible in your numbers.

We are building the ArboStar Tree Care Benchmark Report from anonymized, aggregated operating data across our customer base, by region and company size. Until it is published we do not quote benchmark values on this page; we show you your own numbers against your own previous year in the business audit.

TCI EXPO (TCIA, every November) for equipment, business sessions and the largest exhibitor floor; the ISA Annual International Conference for research and credentials; the Trees and Utilities Conference for utility vegetation management; the Arboricultural Association Conference in the UK; and the Arboriculture Australia National Conference. Look for the ArboStar booth at TCI EXPO.

Request a free business audit. Our tree care specialist calls you back and asks a few questions about how you run your crews, pricing and invoicing. You never hand over your books: the audit is built from the call, and everything you share stays private. We come back with your audit against the ten numbers, your level on the maturity model, and the first three things worth fixing, whether or not you switch.