HVAC maintenance agreements: what to include and how to price them

An HVAC maintenance agreement is a yearly contract in which the customer pays ahead for scheduled tune-ups, usually a cooling check in spring and a heating check in fall, which matches ENERGY STAR’s advice to have a contractor do annual pre-season check-ups. Write down the visits, the checklist, what’s excluded, any perks, and the renewal and cancellation terms. Price it from what the visits cost you plus your margin, and schedule every visit the day the customer signs, so none of them slip.

What should a maintenance agreement include?

Keep it to a page the customer can read on the porch:

• The visits: how many a year and roughly when (spring for cooling, fall for heating).
• The checklist: what each visit covers. ENERGY STAR’s list is a good starting point: check the thermostat settings, tighten electrical connections and measure motor voltage and current, lubricate moving parts, inspect the condensate drain, and test startup, operation and shutdown. For cooling, clean the coils, check the refrigerant level and adjust the blower; for heating, check the gas or oil connections, gas pressure, burner combustion and the heat exchanger.
• What isn’t included: parts, refrigerant beyond the check, repairs, and equipment you didn’t install, unless you choose to include them.
• Perks, if any: priority scheduling in a heat wave, a percentage off repairs, no trip fee on agreement customers. Only promise what you’ll keep doing in July.
• The customer’s part: ENERGY STAR recommends inspecting, cleaning or changing filters monthly. Say who does that between visits.
• Term, renewal and cancellation: a year from signing, whether it renews, and how either side ends it.
• Price and how it’s paid.

How do you price it?

Start from the cost of the visits, not from a competitor’s flyer:

1. Time per visit, on site and driving, at what an hour of your tech’s time costs, including payroll taxes.
2. Materials you include, such as a filter or condensate tablets.
3. Overhead per hour, the year’s overhead divided by the hours you bill.
4. The perks: a repair discount costs you money on every repair; estimate it from last year’s repairs for similar customers.

Add those up for the year, then add your margin. Price = cost ÷ (1 − margin) gets you the margin you meant. Check the result against what local shops charge for the same visits, and adjust your scope, not just your price, if you’re far off.

Yearly or monthly billing?

A single yearly payment at signing is simplest: one invoice, paid before the first visit. Monthly installments lower the number the customer hears, but you’ll send and chase twelve invoices. FieldFlow doesn’t charge a saved card on a schedule, so in FieldFlow a monthly plan means a monthly invoice with a pay link. If the agreement is billed per visit instead, give the job an invoice template and each completed visit drafts its own invoice for you to check and send.

How do you keep the visits from slipping?

Book them when the customer signs. In FieldFlow, make the agreement a repeating job that repeats every 6 months from the spring date (or every 12 months for a heating-only plan), and set it to end after the agreement’s number of visits or on its end date. Each visit can have its own tech. If a customer needs a different week, move that one visit; move that visit and the ones after it if the whole plan shifts.

With appointment reminders switched on, the customer gets an email 24 hours before the visit and again about an hour before. Put the equipment model and filter size in your notes about the customer, so the tech has them on the phone with the address and the customer’s number.

What happens at renewal?

Look at the year before you renew: how long the visits took, what the perks cost, which customers called for repairs. Re-price from those numbers, send the renewal a few weeks before the plan ends, and start the next year’s repeating job when they sign.

The short version

Two visits a year, a written checklist, clear exclusions, perks you can afford, a price from your own costs, and every visit booked at signing. FieldFlow keeps the agreements, the visits, the techs and the invoices in one app at $19/month for the whole business, with a 90-day free trial. See the HVAC page or the facts sheet.

Questions owners ask

What is an HVAC maintenance agreement?

A contract, usually for a year, in which the customer pays for scheduled tune-ups ahead of time: for example a cooling check in spring and a heating check in fall. It can add perks such as priority scheduling or a discount on repairs. For you it's booked work in the slow weeks before each season.

How often should a maintenance visit be?

ENERGY STAR recommends an annual pre-season check-up by a contractor, the cooling system in spring and the heating system in fall. An agreement that covers both means two visits a year for a customer with heating and cooling.

How much should I charge for a maintenance agreement?

Work it out from what the visits cost you: the time on site, the drive, the materials you include and your overhead, plus your margin, plus the cost of any discount you promise on repairs. There is no single right price; check yours against what local shops charge.

Should I bill a maintenance agreement yearly or monthly?

Either. A yearly payment up front is simplest to collect. Monthly installments are easier for some customers to say yes to, but you'll send twelve invoices. FieldFlow doesn't charge a saved card on a schedule, so in FieldFlow monthly billing means an invoice with a pay link each month.