HVACBossPro Blog — Dispatch & Scheduling

From Approved Estimate to Scheduled HVAC Job Without Retyping Anything

A lot of HVAC work starts as an estimate. A tech finds a weak capacitor during a tune-up, a homeowner asks what a coil cleaning would cost, a landlord wants a price on a new thermostat for three rentals. The estimate gets sent, the customer says yes, and then someone in the office types it all again into the schedule. Every retype is a chance to get the address, the equipment or the price wrong.

Estimates Feed the Board

Approved estimates are a big source of the planned work that can flex, as discussed in Moving HVAC Jobs Between Days on the Dispatch Board. Getting them onto the board cleanly is the first step.

In HVACBossPro, an approved estimate becomes the scheduled job. There is no second form to fill in. Everything on the estimate carries over to the job.

Building the Estimate

Estimates are built from your own service list. You set up the services you sell and your prices for them. A typical HVAC service list might include:

• A diagnostic, such as an $89 service call
• Spring and fall tune-ups, such as $99 each
• A maintenance plan, such as $179 a year
• Capacitor, contactor and blower motor replacement
• Drain line clearing and coil cleaning
• Refrigerant by the pound
• Thermostat replacement

Those prices are only examples. Your service list is yours to set. Pick the line items, adjust quantities, and the estimate totals itself.

Equipment Details Ride Along

The estimate can also hold equipment details: system type, brand, model, serial number, tonnage, year installed, filter size and where the unit sits. Fill those in while you are standing in front of the unit, and they carry onto the job when the estimate is approved. The tech who comes back to do the work sees them on the job card. Why that matters for dispatch is covered in Equipment Details on the Job Card: Why HVAC Dispatch Should See the Filter Size.

The Customer Approves Online

The customer gets the estimate and approves it online. No printing, signing, scanning or phone tag. If they do not respond, estimate follow-up emails go out to remind them, which brings back estimates that would otherwise be forgotten.

When the customer approves, the estimate becomes a job, ready to be put on a van and a day.

Scheduling the Approved Job

Now it is a dispatch decision like any other. A few practical points:

• Urgent repairs found during a visit, like a failing capacitor in July, go on the repair van as soon as possible.
• Non-urgent work, like a coil cleaning or a thermostat upgrade, can go on a day when a van is already in that part of town.
• Work that needs parts should be scheduled for after the part arrives. Note the part in the job notes so the tech knows to pick it up.
• Larger jobs take more time. Place them where they will not push every later stop past dark.

The scheduling basics for service work are in Scheduling HVAC Service Calls: From the Ringing Phone to a Spot on a Van's Route.

Estimates Found During Tune-Ups

Some of the best estimates come from your own tune-up van. A tech doing a spring tune-up notices a capacitor reading low, a rusted drain pan or a coil caked with dirt. Rather than leaving it as a verbal “you should get that looked at,” the tech writes it in the job notes and the office turns it into an estimate the same afternoon.

Because the equipment record is already on the address, the estimate does not start from scratch. When the customer approves, the repair can go on the repair van, or on the tune-up van's next trip through that area if it is not urgent. Either way, it never has to be retyped.

Website Sign-Ups Work the Same Way

Not every job starts with an estimate. A website request form and a sign-up form also flow into Form Responses in the office. A sign-up form can capture the customer's card, and one click converts a sign-up into a client. From there, the first visit goes on the board like any other job, and a maintenance plan sign-up starts its own cycle of tune-ups that will come due on the Waiting List.

Closing the Loop

When the tech finishes the approved job and taps Complete, the invoice is created with the same line items that were on the estimate, and the card on file can be charged. The customer was quoted one price, approved that price, and is billed that price. No retyping anywhere in between.

That chain, from estimate to approval to schedule to invoice, is where a lot of HVAC companies lose time and money. Keeping it in one place means fewer mistakes and faster payment. To see how estimates and scheduling fit with the rest of dispatch, visit the HVACBossPro HVAC dispatch software page.