For HVAC companies
Your busy season should fund your slow one. Does it?
The short answer
Most HVAC shops ride the seasonal wave without ever knowing what the busy months actually earned. Job costing splits installs from service, shows whether maintenance agreements make money or just make work, and prices in true crew cost — so next season's pricing is based on this season's actuals. Fixed monthly pricing starting as low as $600, books closed by the 15th.
Founder, Accelerate Business Solutions · Published August 21, 2026 · Last updated August 21, 2026
Sound familiar?
Slammed in July. Sweating in February.
Seasonal cash-flow whiplash
Summer and winter carry the year, shoulder seasons drain it. Without clean monthly numbers, you can't tell what the busy months need to earn to cover the slow ones.
Maintenance agreements: profit or busywork?
The agreement base keeps growing, but revenue from renewals is lumped in with everything else — and the labor to service them is never counted against it.
Equipment margin vs. labor margin
The install quote blends equipment markup and crew hours into one number. When the job closes, nobody knows which half made the money.
Refrigerant and parts vanish
Distributor runs, refrigerant, and miscellaneous parts hit one expense account. Per-job material cost is a guess until long after the invoice went out.
Install crews vs. service techs
Two different crews, two different cost structures, one blended set of books. You can't tell which side of the shop is carrying the other.
Warranty work with no cost attached
Callbacks under warranty get scheduled, worked, and forgotten — the labor cost never lands anywhere, so job margins are flattered.
Trusted by business owners who run on real numbers
What you get every month
Books tuned for install season and the slow one.
A generalist bookkeeper categorizes what hits the bank. We run your books the way an HVAC company needs them run — install and service separated, agreements measured, every month closed on schedule.
Per-job profit & loss
Installs, service calls, and maintenance visits each carry their own P&L. See which work pays — and which quietly doesn't.
Agreement profitability
Renewal revenue measured against the labor and parts it takes to service the base, so your agreement program is priced as a profit center.
True crew cost
Wages, burden, drive time, and callbacks rolled into a real hourly cost per crew — install and service priced from reality.
Seasonal cash visibility
Clean monthly closes show exactly what peak season needs to bank to carry the shoulder months — no more February surprises.
Books closed by the 15th
Every transaction categorized, every account reconciled, reports in your hands on a set date — every single month.
A/R, A/P, 1099s & sales tax
Who owes you, who you owe, subcontractor 1099s, and filings handled — no January archaeology project.
Signs your shop needs job costing
- You don't know if maintenance agreements make money
- Install and service margins are one blended number
- Last busy season ended with less cash than you expected
- Equipment markup and labor margin can't be separated
- Warranty callbacks never show up as a cost anywhere
Who this fits
- Residential and light-commercial HVAC shops
- Owner-led companies, roughly $250k–$5M in revenue
- Shops running install crews and service techs side by side
- Anyone with a growing agreement base and no idea of its margin
- Owners tired of pricing next season on gut feel
Fixed monthly pricing starting as low as $600, based on transaction volume and active jobs. You'll get an exact number on the first call — not a range that grows later.
Questions HVAC owners actually ask
Can you track whether our maintenance agreements actually make money?
Yes. We separate agreement revenue from the labor and parts cost of servicing those agreements, so you see the true margin of the program — not just the renewal count. Many HVAC shops discover their agreements are priced as a marketing expense, not a profit center.
Our year is feast-or-famine. Can bookkeeping help with that?
It can't change the weather, but it changes how you see it. Clean monthly closes show you exactly what the busy season needs to generate to carry the slow one — and per-job margins tell you which work to prioritize when the phones light up.
My books are months behind. Can you catch me up?
Yes. Catch-up and cleanup is routine work here, quoted as a one-time fixed project after we look at one month of your books — not an hourly meter. Then monthly service keeps you current from there.
What does it cost?
Fixed monthly pricing starting as low as $600, depending on transaction volume and how many active jobs we're tracking. No hourly billing. One install repriced from real numbers usually covers months of the fee.
Keep reading:
- Construction bookkeeping services — job costing, WIP schedules, and retainage for GCs and home builders.
- Bookkeeping & job costing for contractors — the full picture for the trades, all in one place.
- Job costing in QuickBooks: a contractor's guide — the five-step setup that shows which jobs actually make money.
- How much does bookkeeping cost in 2026? — DIY vs. full-time hire vs. fractional, with real numbers.
Client results
What owners say after the books are handled
Shannon got our books cleaned up and finally showed us which jobs were actually making money. We stopped guessing on bids and our margins went up because of it.
Having Shannon handle the bookkeeping took a huge weight off. Everything is closed on time, the numbers make sense, and I get my evenings back instead of fighting QuickBooks.
Find out which jobs are really paying you.
Free 30-minute consult. Bring your roughest month — we'll tell you honestly what it would take to get job-level clarity, and what it costs.
Book your free consult