HVACBossPro Blog — Running an HVAC Business

What HVAC Business Software Costs and What You Should Get for the Money

Software is one of the few business expenses an HVAC owner can see clearly every month. That makes it an easy target when money is tight. But the right question is not what the software costs. It is what the company loses without it, and whether the plan you are paying for covers the whole job or just a piece of it.

The Real Cost of No Software

The case for getting organized early is made in Getting an HVAC Business Off Paper From Day One. Here is the money side of it.

Paper and spreadsheets look free. They are not. Their cost shows up in places that never appear on a bill: the diagnostic that was never invoiced, the fall tune-up that never got booked, the card that declined and was never followed up, the extra trip to the supply house because nobody wrote down the filter size, and the owner's evenings spent catching up on billing. You do not need exact numbers to see the pattern. One recovered tune-up or one invoice that actually got paid each month usually covers a small company's software bill.

What HVACBossPro Costs

HVACBossPro has three plans:

• Start — $59/month. For owner-operators and very small shops.
• Pro — $89/month. For companies with a couple of vans and more texting.
• Crew — $199/month. For companies running several vans and a busier office.

Each plan includes a monthly text allowance of 500, 1,000 or 2,000 segments, counting texts sent and received. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial and no credit card. The current details are on the pricing page.

What a Plan Should Include

The monthly price only means something if you know what is in it. For a small HVAC company, the core list looks like this:

• Clients and equipment. One client with many addresses, and the system type, brand, model, serial, tonnage, filter size and unit location on each one.
• Maintenance agreements. Tune-ups that come due on their own, not a reminder you have to set.
• Dispatch. Jobs by day and by van, with route order and auto-routing from the shop.
• A tech app. On the phones your techs already carry, with equipment details, photos, Start / Skip / Complete and a time clock.
• Estimates and sign-ups. Customers approve online and the approved estimate becomes the job.
• Customer texts and a customer app. Reminders, on-the-way and arrived texts, online payment.
• Billing. Invoices with sales tax, card on file, auto-charge, past-due follow-up and monthly statements for property managers.

In HVACBossPro, all of that is part of the platform. You are not buying a dispatch tool and then a billing add-on and then a texting add-on.

Hidden Costs to Watch For

When you compare software, look past the headline number:

• Per-user charges. Ask how the price changes as you add techs and vans, so growth does not surprise you.
• Setup and onboarding fees. If it takes a paid project to get started, it is probably built for a bigger company than yours.
• Contracts. A long commitment before you have run a real week on the tool is a risk.
• Special devices. A tech app that needs company phones or tablets adds a hardware bill.
• Time. The most expensive cost is the hours you spend fighting a tool that was not built for HVAC.

The big enterprise HVAC platforms are built for companies with a call center and a training department. A small shop pays for a lot it never uses.

Picking a Plan

Start with the plan that fits the company you have today, not the one you hope to have in three years. An owner-operator with one van can run on Start. When a second tech and more customer texting come along, move up. The point of a monthly plan is that it grows when you do.

Texting is usually the thing that decides it. Every reminder, on-the-way text, arrived text and customer reply counts toward the monthly allowance, so a company with a busy maintenance base and a lot of two-way texting will feel the difference between plans before it feels anything else. Choosing HVAC Business Software: A Checklist for Small Heating and Air Companies covers what to test during the trial.

Making the Trial Count

A 14-day trial is long enough to run real work. Set up your service list and a maintenance plan, import or enter your customers, put the tech app on your phone and run actual calls through it. Send an estimate. Charge a card. If it saves you time in the first two weeks, it will save more once the habits set in. To see the full owner's toolset, visit the HVAC business software page.