HVACBossPro Blog — Quotes & Estimates

Quoting Small Commercial HVAC Work: Package Units, Rooftops and Multiple Systems

Plenty of residential HVAC companies pick up small commercial work along the way. A dentist's office with two rooftop units. A strip of shops with a package unit each. A church with a boiler and a few split systems. The work is not very different from residential, but the quoting is. Commercial customers have several systems, a person who approves the money who is not the person on site, and expectations about paperwork that a homeowner never has.

From Portfolios to Buildings

Much of what works for property managers, covered in Quoting Property Managers With Many Units: HVAC Estimates for Rental Portfolios, works for commercial customers too: one client, clear lines per unit or per address, and one monthly statement. This guide covers what is different about quoting buildings.

Record Every System

A commercial building often has more than one system, and a quote that says “tune-up” without saying which unit invites confusion. In HVACBossPro the equipment details include system type, with Package Unit, Boiler and Mini-Split among the choices, plus brand, model number, serial number, year installed, tonnage, filter size and unit location, which can be the roof.

For a building with several units, use the access notes and job notes to say which is which: “RTU-1 over the front office, RTU-2 over the back storage area.” Label the units the same way on every estimate, and use the same labels the customer's maintenance person uses, so everyone is talking about the same machine.

Access Belongs on the Quote

Commercial jobs are often more about access than about the repair. Roof hatches, ladders, keys from the front desk, alarm codes, hours when the building is open, and rules about working around customers all affect how long a job takes. Write them into the access notes on the address:

• “Roof access via ladder in back hallway, key at front desk.”
• “Work before 9am or after 5pm only. Patients in the building during the day.”
• “Check in with the office manager on arrival.”

These notes carry onto the job when the estimate is approved and show on the tech's phone, so the tech does not arrive at noon to a full waiting room and a locked roof hatch.

One Line Per Unit

For maintenance across several units, write one line per unit with its label, priced from your service list. A rooftop package unit tune-up often takes longer than a residential split-system tune-up because of access and size, so many shops keep a separate service list item for it. Filters are usually quoted per unit or by count, since commercial units can take several filters each.

Repairs work the same as residential: diagnostic, then a line per repair with a plain description, then options. The reader is more likely to be a manager who forwards the quote to an owner or a head office, so make each line self-explanatory.

Tax-Exempt and Purchase-Order Customers

Some commercial and nonprofit customers are exempt from sales tax, and some need a purchase order number on every invoice. Keep track with client tags and custom fields: a Commercial tag so the office knows to treat the account differently, and a custom field for a PO number or exemption note. Ask your accountant how exemptions work where you operate. The point for quoting is that the estimate should be right before it is sent, so the approved total matches the eventual invoice. Sales Tax on HVAC Estimates: Getting the Total Right Before the Customer Approves covers the general approach.

Approvals Take Longer

Commercial approvals often go through more than one person. The office manager likes the quote, but the owner or head office has to sign off. Online approval helps, because whoever has authority can approve the moment they decide. Estimate follow-up emails keep the quote alive while it moves through their process, and a two-way text to the on-site contact asking where it stands is normal and expected.

Do not mistake a slow commercial approval for a lost quote. Note on the client record who the decision-maker is and what they are waiting on.

Maintenance Agreements and Monthly Billing

Commercial customers are often the best candidates for maintenance agreements. Set each unit's visits by minimum days between visits, and they come due on the Waiting List on their own. Some commercial customers want quarterly visits rather than twice a year; set the minimum days to match.

Billing is usually easier as one statement a month. A client set to Monthly gets one statement covering every building or address, each line labeled. That fits how most businesses pay their bills.

The next guide covers where many commercial and residential quote requests begin: the request form on your website. For the overview of quoting, approvals and monthly statements, return to the HVACBossPro HVAC estimate software page.