Question 1

What is the best software for a small excavation company?

Accepted Answer

Mastiff covers the excavation job lifecycle: day-rate quoting with mobilization, a drag-and-drop board, equipment hours and maintenance, site photos, Stripe invoicing, and customer tracking. Mastiff Free includes directory leads, one active job, and one active quote; Solo unlocks the whole toolset at $99/month, and Crew is $199/month with unlimited seats and expanded tools.

Question 2

Should an excavation company add forestry mulching?

Accepted Answer

Many are — the machines overlap (a high-flow CTL runs a mulcher head), the customers overlap (rural landowners, developers, builders), and the two services cover each other's blind spots: mulching clears brush fast with no burn piles or haul-off, while dozer-and-excavator work handles what mulching can't, like building pads that need grubbing — roots out, ground stripped. Mastiff handles both natively: acre-and-density quoting for mulching scopes, day-rate quoting for dirt work, on one board with one customer record. Your directory listing shows both, and leads arrive tagged with the service the landowner asked for.

Question 3

How do excavation contractors quote land clearing work?

Accepted Answer

Clearing scopes price differently than dirt scopes. Mulching-style clearing is quoted by acreage against vegetation density — light brush roughly $350–$600 per acre, dense growth $900–$1,200+, heavy timber $1,800–$4,500 — while dozer clearing, grubbing, and pad work run on machine-and-operator day rates plus haul-off. Both need a mobilization fee ($500–$2,000 is typical) and a minimum job size. Mastiff's quote engine handles both models — per-acre rate cards by density class for clearing, day rates for iron work — so quoting stops being spreadsheet homework after dark.

Question 4

What does excavation software cost?

Accepted Answer

Construction and field-service software typically runs $50–$500+ per month, with heavy construction suites far above that. Mastiff Free is $0 forever with directory leads, one active job, and one active quote. Solo is $99/month and Crew is $199/month. Choose a paid plan to start an optional 7-day trial with a card attached; paid membership starts afterward unless canceled, returning the workspace to Free.

Question 5

How does Mastiff track equipment across an excavation fleet?

Accepted Answer

Every machine gets a record: hours, maintenance log, and the consumables it eats — undercarriage wear, teeth, filters, fluids. Usage logs against jobs, so you can see what a job actually cost after the machine's share, not just what it billed. For contractors running a mixed fleet — excavator, dozer, skid steer, mulcher head — that's the difference between day rates set by feel and day rates that provably cover the iron and the note behind it.

Question 6

How do excavation contractors get more leads?

Accepted Answer

Landowners and builders search by the job — 'land clearing near me', 'site prep', 'stump removal' — and the Mastiff directory is organized around those services, city by city. Claim your listing, show your work, and quote requests route straight to your Mastiff inbox with speed-to-lead alerts, because the first contractor to answer wins the job. Before/after site photos are the proof customers want to see, and Showcase Studio turns your job photos into that content and publishes it to your listing automatically.

Feature	Mastiff	Jobber	GoHighLevel	Spreadsheets
Day-rate + mobilization quoting		-	-	Manual
Acre + density clearing quotes		-	-	Manual
Drag-and-drop job board		List view	-	-
Quoting & invoicing			Partial	-
Online payments (Stripe)				-
Customer job tracker portal		Basic	-	-
Site photo documentation		Basic	-	-
Consumer directory & leads		-	Ads you pay to run	-
Equipment hours & maintenance		-	-	Manual
AI email + assistant		-	Partial	-
Crew scheduling			-	-
Starting price	Free $0	$39–$199/mo	$97–$297/mo	Free

The Best Software forExcavation & Dirt-Work Contractors