Pricing an HVAC maintenance contract that pays

A commercial maintenance contract that loses money was usually priced per site and is serviced 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 is to build the price from the things that actually take the time, and to check it against the job sheets before the contract renews.

Price the maintenance contract from the asset list

Walk the site before you quote and list every asset the contract will cover: each split system head and its condenser, each ducted unit, the VRF outdoor units, the rooftop package units, and anything else the client assumes is included, 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 what a visit covers: filters cleaned or replaced, coils checked and treated, belts, bearings, drains, electrical connections, controls and refrigerant performance verified. 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.
• Sign in, 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, the technician spends forty minutes on it, and it goes onto the contract visit's job sheet as if it were part of the service.

Write the contract to say what is in: the scheduled tasks on the listed assets, at the stated frequency. Write what is out: breakdowns, parts, after hours attendance, and anything not on 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 when it is done in the same hour, and it is quoted or charged at your normal rates.

Check each site against its price after two visits

After the second visit, add up the real hours on site for each contract, including travel, access and the time spent waiting for someone with a key. Compare it with the hours the price assumed.

A site running well over has one of three causes: assets that were missed at the quote, access that was never 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. Write a clause that ties the price to the asset list, and put an asset count on every service report so the growth is on paper before the renewal conversation.

Let the service report carry the argument

A service report that lists every asset serviced, the tasks done 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.