HVAC bookkeeping
- Monthly fee that scope implies at the quoted rate
- $495
- Hours of bookkeeping the scope takes each month (rounded)
- 11
- Over a year
- $5,940
The record-keeping periods these pages cite are the IRS's published figures; every fee, hour and rate is arithmetic on the numbers you typed, and no figure on this site is a published national price for bookkeeping, because there is none.
HVAC bookkeeping is trade bookkeeping with three things a general bookkeeper has to be told about: every job has parts, labour and sometimes a subcontractor that need costing against it; the same technician's day is split across service calls and installs that bill differently; and equipment bought for a job is not stock in the way a store's is. A bookkeeper who codes parts to one account and labour to another, with nothing tied to a job, produces a profit and loss that cannot say which work pays. This guide is for the HVAC owner choosing a service, and the pricing calculator on this site prices the monthly scope.
Open the Bookkeeping services pricing calculator Free to use. No account, no card, no trial clock.
Decide what job costing you need
At minimum, parts and labour by job so that installs and service can be compared. At most, a costed job report every month. Tell the bookkeeper which, because the second is a larger scope and the price should say so.
Sort out how technician time reaches the books
Payroll is usually run by a payroll provider; what the bookkeeper needs is hours by job from the field software or the timesheets, so labour lands on the right job. If that export does not exist, the first month is a set-up job.
Agree how parts, equipment and deposits are treated
Parts on the van, equipment ordered for a specific install, and customer deposits taken before the install each need a rule. Deposits in particular are not revenue until the job is done, and a bookkeeper booking them as sales will overstate a good month and understate the next.
A quote the HVAC bookkeeping does not explain?
Tell us which figure on a quote does not add up and we will tell you how the sheet arrives at it.
What an owner comparing bookkeeping quotes asks about the HVAC bookkeeping
Does an HVAC bookkeeper need my field software?
Read access to it, or a monthly export of jobs, hours and parts. The books cannot cost a job the bookkeeper cannot see. Ask the quote which systems they have worked with.
How do maintenance agreements get booked?
As money received in advance, released to revenue as the visits are done. It is the second most common HVAC bookkeeping error after deposits, and the reason to ask a prospective bookkeeper how they handle it.
Should the books track each technician?
If you want to know whether a technician's day pays, yes, and it costs little once hours by job are flowing. If the export is not there, start with jobs and add technicians later.