Half of small business leaders lose four hours every week to payment problems alone.
In HVAC that is chasing invoices on work already done, on a ticket that can run into the thousands. Rates agreed and written down before the truck rolls — service call, tune-up, labor, install — are what turn a disputed bill into a signed one.
Starter rates for service calls, tune-ups, repair labor, installs and maintenance plans, calibrated to WV/PA. Edit anything and we will email you the spreadsheet.
The base numbers are calibrated to the WV/PA tristate area — which happens to be near the cheapest end of the national range. Pick your state and we adjust them using BLS wage data for the four occupations these trades actually employ.
Labor-led work moves most. Mowing in Massachusetts runs about a third above the baseline; a furnace install moves half as much, because the equipment costs the same everywhere and only the crew changes. The materials part of that is estimated, not measured — real per-state material indexes exist but are sold, not published.
It is a starting point, not advice. A state average says nothing about your costs, your crew or your reputation — so change every number before you quote real work, and tell us if we have got something badly wrong: we would rather know.
About $95 for the diagnostic, applied against the repair if they go ahead. The call fee exists to filter tyre-kickers and pay for the truck roll, not to make money — the margin is in the repair that follows.
About $150 per system, and it is the best-margin recurring work in the trade at roughly 70%. Two tune-ups a year on a maintenance plan also puts you in the house before the emergency, which is where replacement jobs come from.
Around $120 an hour for a licensed tech, billed in a defined minimum increment. That covers the wage, the truck, the insurance and the licence, and lands near a 60% margin — below about $100 you are working for the privilege.
Roughly $5,500 for an AC unit and $4,500 for a furnace, and expect a thinner 40–45% margin because equipment is most of the ticket. Always quote installs on a written, signed estimate — this is where scope disputes and change orders actually happen.
Yes. At about $220 a year they smooth your revenue across the shoulder seasons, run near a 60% margin, and give you a booked reason to be in the house twice a year. Plan customers replace equipment with the company that has been maintaining it.
They are the starter lists built into Anvil when you pick a trade — not figures written for this page. Treat them as a starting point rather than advice: what you can charge depends on your market, your costs and your reputation, and you should change them before you quote anything.