HVACBossPro Blog — HVAC Software

Monthly Statements for Property Managers: One HVAC Bill for Every Rental

A property manager with forty rental homes does not want forty invoices from their HVAC company. They want one bill a month that shows what was done where, so they can pass the costs to the right owners and pay it in one go. Give them that, and you become the HVAC company they call for every unit. Send them a pile of separate invoices, and they start looking around.

A Different Kind of Customer

HVAC Invoicing and Card on File: Getting Paid When the Job Is Done covered billing homeowners, usually by the job. Property managers, landlords and businesses with several buildings work differently. They have many addresses, many tenants, and an accounting process that wants one statement.

One Client, Many Addresses

In HVACBossPro, one client can have many addresses. A property manager is set up as a single client, and every rental home or building they manage is an address under that client.

Each address keeps its own:

• Equipment. System type, brand, model, serial, tonnage, filter size and unit location, because every rental has different equipment.
• Access notes. Lockbox codes, tenant contact preferences, where the attic hatch is.
• Maintenance schedule. If the manager pays for tune-ups across their portfolio, each address comes due on the Waiting List on its own.
• Job history. Every visit, note and photo, by address.

The manager sees everything in one account. Your techs see each address as its own stop, with its own equipment and notes.

Monthly Account Billing

Set the property manager's client to Monthly, and instead of an invoice per job, they get one statement each month covering every rental home or building where work was done. Each line is labeled with the address.

A statement might read:

• Unit at Oak St — Spring tune-up
• Unit at Elm Ave — Diagnostic, capacitor replaced
• Unit at Maple Ct — Drain line cleared

On a real statement each line carries the full address of the rental, so there is no guessing which house on which street the charge belongs to. If a manager has two units on the same street, the address is what tells them apart.

The manager can see at a glance which owner each charge belongs to. You send one bill and collect one payment. Their bookkeeper is happier, and so is yours.

Tune-Ups Across a Portfolio

Rental properties are a natural fit for maintenance agreements. Owners want their equipment to last, and managers want fewer emergency calls from tenants. Set each address on a 180-day or 365-day interval and the Waiting List will show every rental as it comes due.

Because rental homes managed by the same company are often spread across town, the map view helps you group them by area. A tune-up van can work through a cluster of one manager's rentals in a single day.

Tenants are the ones who need to be home, so the access notes matter. Note how the manager wants tenants contacted, any lockbox or gate code, and whether a tenant has a dog.

Estimates and Approvals for Managers

Property managers often need an owner's approval before a repair or replacement goes ahead. Online estimates make that easy: the manager can forward or review the estimate and approve it online, and the approved estimate becomes the scheduled job at the right address. When the work is done, it lands on the monthly statement with the address on the line.

Light commercial buildings work the same way. A business with several locations, or a building with several package units on the roof, can be one client with many addresses and one monthly statement. That is covered in Residential vs Light Commercial: Setting Up HVAC Software for Both.

Winning and Keeping Manager Accounts

Property managers are loyal to vendors who make their life easy. A few things help:

• Clean statements. One bill, every line labeled with the address. This alone sets you apart from shops that send stacks of invoices.
• Photos on every job. Managers rarely see the units themselves. Before-and-after photos show what was done.
• Notes they can trust. “Filter was very dirty, tenant may not be changing it” is useful information for a manager.
• Fast answers. Two-way texting means the manager can text the office and get a reply without phone tag.

Tags help keep manager accounts organized too. Tag them Commercial or create a custom tag, so the office can see them as a group.

Setting It Up

If you already have managers on a spreadsheet, a CSV import can bring their addresses in, placed on the map automatically. Then set the client to Monthly and add equipment as techs visit each unit. The next guide covers imports: Moving Your Customer List Into HVAC Software With a CSV Import. For the full system, visit the HVAC software page.