The HVAC Profit Simulator

Where HVAC businesses leak profit

• Charging time and materials instead of flat rate, so your fastest techs earn you the least per job.
• Callbacks and warranty rework on installs that weren't commissioned right the first time.
• Techs burning paid hours in traffic, on supply house runs, and waiting on dispatch instead of turning wrenches.
• Missed after-hours calls with no text-back in place, so emergency demand goes to whoever answers first.
• Estimates sitting in inboxes with zero follow-up. A large share of stale quotes close after a single touch.
• Pricing left untouched for years while equipment, refrigerant, and labor costs climb underneath it.
• No maintenance agreement base, so revenue swings with the seasons and every slow month starts back at zero.

How it works

1. Enter your numbers.

   Plug in a few basic numbers about your business. Estimates work just fine. No spreadsheets needed.

2. See your profit leaks.

   Instantly see where money is slipping through the cracks across 13 areas of your business.

3. Get your roadmap.

   Get a detailed profit report with a prioritized action plan to start recovering that money.

FAQs

What is a good net profit margin for an HVAC company?

The floor to build around is 50% gross profit, with direct technician labor counted inside cost of goods sold. Below that, overhead and owner pay come out of a shrinking slice of every job. Net margin depends on how tight your overhead runs above that line, but the gross profit floor is where the discipline starts.

How do I price HVAC jobs with flat rate instead of hourly without losing bids?

Flat rate protects you from the jobs that run long and stops rewarding your slowest techs with the most billed hours. The switch works when the price book is built from your real labor cost, material cost, and overhead per hour instead of copied from a supplier's generic book. Roll it out with a worked example your techs and CSRs can see for themselves before it goes live company-wide.

How many maintenance agreements do I need to smooth out slow seasons?

There's no universal number. It depends on your install volume, your average ticket, and how deep your seasonal dip runs. What matters is direction: every agreement sold this year is revenue that doesn't start at zero next January. The Profit Simulator scores your current base against your seasonal swing and tells you where you stand.

What's the fastest fix for callbacks eating into install profit?

Most callback cost traces back to commissioning, the final checks that confirm a system is actually running the way it was designed to before the crew leaves. A short, standardized commissioning checklist enforced on every install closes most of that leak without adding headcount.