For the shop that sells the plan
HVAC maintenance agreements that book their own visits and tell you what the plan earned.
Engine is the back office for heating and cooling shops. Sell the plan once and the spring and fall visits keep scheduling themselves. Log parts, hours, and the callbacks you never billed, and walk into renewal season knowing which agreements paid you and which ones need a new price.
At a glance
- Maintenance agreements run as recurring jobs - quarterly, semiannual, or annual
- Mark a visit complete and the next one schedules itself for the right month
- Labor and parts post against the visit, so the agreement's margin is live
- Live job profitability and a free accountant portal on every plan, from $29/mo
Semiannual plan, spring and fall
65% of the agreement price consumed by cost
Renew at this price
The plan covered its own cost and the trips it generated.
Worked examples, not customer statistics. The arithmetic is what Engine runs against your own jobs once the visits and costs are on the record.
What you get
Built around the plan, not around the ticket.
Agreements that refill their own calendar
Set a plan to quarterly or annual once. Each time a tech marks a visit complete, Engine spawns the next one on the correct interval, so the spring and fall rounds are already on the board before the phone starts ringing in May.
The nameplate stays with the customer
Photograph the data plate on the first visit and it lives on the job record with your notes. Next season the tech opens the history and sees the model, the tonnage, and what was replaced last time, instead of calling you from the driveway.
Callbacks post against the plan
The no-charge return visit is where maintenance plans quietly lose money. Log it as a job against the same customer and the labor lands in the numbers, so the agreement's real margin includes the trips you did not invoice.
One tap from finished to invoiced
Close the visit, Engine stages the invoice, one tap sends it with a payment link. The homeowner pays by card from the driveway and the money settles to your bank, not into a platform balance you wait on.
The renewal question
A flat-rate plan does not fail loudly.
It fails one unbilled trip at a time. The plan price is fixed in the spring, the callbacks arrive in July, and by renewal nobody can remember whether that rooftop unit was worth keeping on contract.
The card beside this counts the visits against what the agreement collected, including the trips that never became an invoice. Tab through the three examples. One of them loses money, which is the point.
Semiannual plan, spring and fall
65% of the agreement price consumed by cost
Renew at this price
The plan covered its own cost and the trips it generated.
Worked examples, not customer statistics. The arithmetic is what Engine runs against your own jobs once the visits and costs are on the record.
A plan from signing to renewal
Sell it once. Let it run the year.
Quote it once, and let the plan carry the schedule.
Build the agreement as an estimate, send it for signature, and convert it to a recurring job at the cadence you sold - two visits a year, four, or a single annual tune-up. The customer's plan is now a schedule, not a sticky note on the office wall.
The tech arrives with last season already on the screen.
Job history, photos of the equipment, and the notes from the previous visit open with the job. Parts and labor go on as they are used, so the visit's cost is recorded while the van is still in the driveway.
Log the trip you are not charging for.
A warranty return or a courtesy look at a noisy blower is still an hour and a truck. Logged as a job, it counts against the agreement instead of disappearing, which is the difference between a plan you think is profitable and one you know is.
Renew on arithmetic instead of memory.
At the end of the term the agreement shows what it billed, what it consumed, and what it kept. Plans that earned their price renew. Plans that ate four callbacks get re-priced, with the number to justify it in front of you.
Where Engine fits, and where it does not
A good fit for
- One to five trucks running residential and light commercial service
- Shops selling semiannual or quarterly maintenance agreements
- Owners who want per-visit margin without a $149/mo tier
- Anyone who wants the price published before they talk to a rep
Look elsewhere if you need
- GPS vehicle tracking or automatic route optimization
- A structured equipment register with per-unit warranty fields
- Two-way SMS conversations in a shared inbox
- Dispatch across more than fifteen people
FAQ
HVAC questions.
What is the best software for HVAC maintenance agreements?
The capability that matters is recurring visits that schedule themselves and per-visit costing you can see before renewal. Engine runs maintenance agreements as recurring jobs on a quarterly, semiannual, or annual cadence and spawns the next visit when a tech marks the current one complete. Live job profitability is on every plan starting at $29/mo, where Jobber includes job costing from its Grow tier and up.
How do I schedule recurring HVAC preventive maintenance visits?
Create the job once and set its recurrence to quarterly or annual. When the visit is marked complete, Engine schedules the next one at the correct interval automatically, so a spring and fall plan stays on the calendar for the life of the agreement without anyone re-entering it.
How do I know whether an HVAC maintenance plan is actually profitable?
Post labor and parts against each visit and log the unbilled callbacks as jobs on the same customer. Engine then shows the agreement's revenue against everything it consumed across the term, including the return trips you did not invoice, which is usually where a flat-rate plan loses its margin.
Can Engine keep track of which equipment is installed at a customer?
Engine keeps customer history, job notes, and photos on the job record, so photographing the data plate on the first visit puts the model and serial in front of the next tech who opens that customer. Engine does not have a separate structured equipment register with per-unit warranty fields; operators who need a full asset database should evaluate a larger platform.
Does Engine handle HVAC service invoicing and card payments?
Yes. Closing a visit stages an invoice; one tap sends it with a payment link. The customer pays by card and the funds settle directly to your own bank account. Engine's platform fee on card payments is 0% on Solo, 0.5% on Crew, and 1% on Business, charged on top of standard card processing.
Is Engine a good fit for a small HVAC company?
Engine is built for one to fifteen people. It does not include GPS vehicle tracking, automatic route optimization, or two-way SMS conversations, so a larger contractor running dispatch across many trucks will outgrow it. A one to five truck shop that wants published pricing and per-job margin without stepping up to a $149/mo tier is the fit.
Run one agreement through it before you decide.
Solo $29/mo. Crew $59/mo. Business $119/mo. Live job profitability and a free accountant portal on all three. 14-day free trial, no credit card, no contract.