Guides
How to Write HVAC Contractor Services Packages
Write HVAC contractor services packages from the boundary: included, conditional and excluded columns, clear task lines, and pricing from measured visit time.
What to take away
- An HVAC contractor services package is a boundary before it is an offer. Write the boundary and the price becomes arguable rather than arbitrary.
- Use three columns, not two. Included and excluded are not enough, because the interesting items are conditional.
- Write the conditional column in observable terms, so the technician can point at the trigger instead of arguing about it.
- Test every package against a bad day before publishing it, not against the job you hope to get.
- Say what the package does not do in the same document and the same size type as what it does.
Start with the boundary, not the bundle
Most packaging goes wrong in the first ten minutes, when someone starts listing what to include. That produces a bundle that reads well and cannot be delivered consistently.
Four HVAC Package Boundaries
Covered
- Equipment
- Named tasks
- Duct system
- Named tasks
- Electrical supply
- Named tasks
- Building itself
- Named tasks
Not Covered
- Equipment
- Duct system
- Duct system
- Equipment
- Electrical supply
- Building
- Building itself
- Other trades
Start instead by asking what the boundary is. A boundary is the line where your responsibility stops and something else begins. In HVAC work there are four natural boundaries, and every package sits inside them somewhere: the equipment, the duct system, the electrical supply, and the building itself.
Draw the line explicitly. A package that covers the equipment but not the duct system is a legitimate package. A package that is vague about which of the two it covers is a dispute.
The three-column table
Conditional
- Named tasks a technician performs every visit
- Work that happens only when a stated, observable condition is met
- Measurements taken and recorded
- Parts fitted where the fault is diagnosed on the visit
- The written record handed over
- Access work where the equipment cannot be reached as expected
Excluded
- Named tasks a technician performs every visit
- Work that is never part of this package, at any price, without a new quote
- Measurements taken and recorded
- Anything behind a surface that has to be opened
- The written record handed over
- Other trades, restoration and finishes
The middle column is what separates a professional package from a marketing one. Each conditional item needs three things written down: the observable trigger, what happens when it is met, and how the customer is told before the work proceeds.
Three-Column Package Table
- Includednamed tasks every visit
- Includedmeasurements taken and recorded
- Includedwritten record handed over
- Conditionalwork when observable condition met
- Conditionalparts fitted where fault diagnosed
- Conditionalaccess work where equipment unreachable
- Excludedwork never in package without new quote
- Excludedanything behind a surface
A worked example
Take a two-visit seasonal maintenance package. The three columns read like this:
- Included:replace the filter; record supply and return air temperatures; record static pressure at the measurement points named in the installation instructions; inspect and clear the condensate drain; inspect the blower compartment and the indoor coil.
- Conditional:if the static pressure reading exceeds the maximum the installation instructions list for that model, duct modification applies at the quoted allowance; if the drain pan holds standing water, the pan is treated and the finding is photographed.
- Excluded:the electrical supply and the disconnect; refrigerant charge adjustments; duct replacement; repairs to the building itself, including attic and crawlspace access.
Every conditional line names the reading or the condition the technician can show the customer. Nothing in it depends on how the visit feels.
Example of the form: the technician records the external static pressure at the measurement points named in the manufacturer's installation instructions for the installed model. If the reading exceeds the maximum those instructions list, duct modification applies at the quoted allowance.
Show the reading to the customer before work begins. That ties the trigger to a document, not your judgment, and puts evidence in the customer's hands.
The duct system is packaged the same way. Included: inspect the accessible duct runs and their connections, and record the static pressure at the equipment. Conditional: where the reading exceeds the maximum the installation instructions list for that model, duct modification applies at the quoted allowance. Excluded: duct replacement, and any ductwork behind finished walls.
Write the tasks so a technician can finish them
A task list is only useful if it can be completed without interpretation. Three tests for each line.
Three Tests for Task Lines
- Can it be done or not done?
- Does it name the thing acted on?
- Is there a record produced?
Can it be done or not done, with no middle state? Does it name the thing being acted on, rather than a general area? Is there a record produced, even if the record is a single reading?
"Check the system" fails all three. "Record supply and return air temperatures and the external static pressure at the return and supply measurement points named in the installation instructions" passes all three, and it produces evidence that the visit happened and what it found.
Pricing the package from measured time
The package price comes from the visit, and the visit has to be timed rather than estimated.
Price from Measured Time
- Time the same task list on several properties
- Record access, equipment type, and condition
- Build a distribution of times
- Set price from distribution
- Define separate version for harder property
Time the same task list on several properties. Record access, equipment type and condition alongside the time, because the spread is the point. What you are building is a distribution, and the distribution tells you both where to set the price and where to define a separate version for the harder property.
Price the package from that spread: the measured visit time at your labor rate, plus the parts and materials the task list consumes. That total is the floor the package price has to clear before any margin is added.
Do not average away the difficult ones. Define them out instead: a package for a system in an accessible location, and a different price where the equipment is in a tight attic or on a roof. Timing the task list on several properties, rather than pricing it from an assumption, is the whole of the work here.
Four packaging failures to avoid
The unlimited call. Any package that promises unbounded attendance transfers all the risk to you and rewards the customers who use it most.
The outcome promise. Comfort, savings and reliability are outcomes you influence and do not control. Any public claim about them has to be supportable before it is made, which is the standard in the FTC advertising guidance for small businesses.
The silent renewal. Renewal terms a customer discovers on a bank statement cost more in reputation than they earn in retention.
The package that only your best technician can deliver. If one person is the reason the task list works, the package is not a product yet. The competence ladder that fixes this is set out in the hvac contractor hiring and training guide.
Test against a bad day
Before publishing, run three tests.
The busiest week of your peak: can the response commitment be met when everyone wants attendance at once? The unavailable part: does the package promise anything that depends on a supplier being open? The awkward property: is the conditional column specific enough that the surcharge is actually applied rather than absorbed?
If a test fails, the fix is almost always in the conditional column rather than in the price.
What the package assumes about your truck
Every included task assumes an instrument and every conditional item assumes a part. Work through the list and mark which ones you can complete on a first visit today.
Anything you cannot complete is not really included, it is scheduled. Say so, or fix the stock. The instrument side of this sits in the hvac contractor equipment and setup guide and the stocked parts side in the hvac contractor equipment checklist for new owners.
Where any refrigerant task appears in a package, who may perform it is set by the federal program described at the EPA Section 608 technician certification pages. Keep the delivery records to the standard described in the IRS recordkeeping guidance, because a package you cannot reconcile against actual visit time cannot be repriced honestly.
The wider menu these packages sit inside is set out in the hvac contractor services and packages guide, and which of them deserve your hours is settled by the contribution method in the ranking of the most profitable HVAC contractor services.
Common questions
Should a package be published on the website?
Publishing the structure and the task list is useful and builds trust. Publishing a single price for work that genuinely varies invites a comparison you will lose on a technicality.
How specific should the exclusion list be?
Specific enough that a customer reading it can picture the situation. "Other work excluded" excludes nothing in practice.
Can I change a package after selling it?
Not mid-term without agreement. Set a renewal date and make changes there, which is also the moment to reprice from the visit times you have now measured.
What if a customer wants a package we do not offer?
Quote the work as a job. A one-off customized package is a package with a sample size of one, and it will not be priced from anything.
