Pricing an HVAC maintenance contract that pays

A commercial maintenance contract that loses money usually took a price per site, and takes its service per unit, per ladder and per roof hatch. The quarterly visit meant to take a morning takes a day. Nobody notices for a year, because each visit on its own just looks like a slow one.

The fix builds the price from the things that actually take the time. Then it checks that price against the job sheets before renewal.

Price the maintenance contract from the asset list

A walk around the site before quoting lists every asset the contract covers. Each split system head and its condenser, each ducted unit, the VRF outdoor units, the rooftop package units. Then anything else the client assumes, such as exhaust fans. A price built on floor area or a unit count from the client's email is a guess.

Then give each kind of asset a task list and a time. Evercold's description of its own planned maintenance is a fair example of a visit. Filters cleaned or replaced, coils checked and treated, then belts, bearings, drains, electrical connections, controls and refrigerant performance. Twelve wall splits and one rooftop package unit are not the same morning's work.

Set the frequency per asset

A server room split running around the clock and a meeting room head used twice a week do not need the same visit schedule. Pricing every asset at the contract's headline frequency overcharges the client for one and undercharges you for the other.

Price access as its own line

Access is where the hours go, and it is invisible in a per unit rate. List it separately for each site:

• Roof access by fixed ladder, hatch or internal stair, and whether height safety anchors are in date.
• Condensers that need an EWP or scaffold to reach, and who books and pays for the hire.
• Ceiling units in occupied offices that have to be done before opening or after close.
• Sites that only allow after hours work, such as retail tenancies and clinics.
• The sign in procedures, escorts and site inductions at hospitals, shopping centres and data centres.

A separate access line does two things. It gets priced instead of absorbed, and it shows the client why two sites with the same number of units cost different amounts.

The induction nobody priced

A site that requires every new technician to complete its own induction charges you for that time every time staff change. Either price inductions for the technicians you will actually send, or send the same technicians every visit.

Keep the contract visit and the call out apart

The most expensive words on a maintenance visit are "while you're here". The office manager mentions a warm corner office and the technician spends forty minutes on it. It then lands on the contract visit's job sheet as though it belonged there.

The contract says what is in: the scheduled tasks on the listed assets, at the stated frequency. It also says what is out: breakdowns, parts, after hours attendance, and anything missing from the asset list. Then run it that way on site. Reactive work found during a contract visit gets its own job and its own sheet, even in the same hour. It quotes or charges at your normal rates.

Check each site against its price after two visits

After the second visit the real hours on site total up per contract. Travel, access, and the time spent waiting for somebody with a key. Compare it with the hours the price assumed.

A site running well over has one of three causes. Assets the quote missed, access nobody priced, or reactive work leaking into the contract visit. Each has a different fix. Missed assets and access get repriced. Leaking reactive work gets stopped on site.

When the asset list grows

Tenants add split systems. A contract priced for twenty heads can be servicing twenty six by its second year without anybody signing a variation. A clause ties the price to the asset list, and an asset count goes on every service report. The growth is then on paper before the renewal conversation.

Let the service report carry the argument

A service report listing every asset serviced, the tasks on each, and a photo where something needs attention does more than satisfy the client. It is the evidence you point to when the price has to change. "We now service twenty six units, and here are the last four reports" is a short conversation. "It has been taking longer" is a long one.