HVACBossPro Blog — Property Managers & Commercial

Equipment Records per Unit and per Building for Commercial HVAC Accounts

Ask a property manager what kind of air conditioner is in their rental on Birch Street and you will usually get a shrug. Ask a church facilities volunteer how old the units on the fellowship hall are and you might get a guess. On commercial and rental accounts, your company is often the only one who knows what equipment is where. That knowledge is valuable, but only if it is written down somewhere everyone can see it.

Why Records Matter More on Commercial Accounts

The structure that holds these records, one client with many addresses, is laid out in One Account, Many Addresses: How HVACBossPro Organizes Commercial and Rental Clients. Each address under the account has its own equipment record. This article covers what goes in it.

With a homeowner, the tech who did the last tune-up probably remembers the house. With a portfolio of forty rentals or a building with six rooftop units, nobody remembers. Different techs visit different properties in different seasons. Without a record, every visit starts with the tech hunting for the data plate, guessing the filter size and calling the office to ask where the unit is.

What Goes in the Record

In HVACBossPro, each address holds these equipment details:

• System type: Central AC + Furnace, Heat Pump, AC only, Furnace only, Mini-Split, Boiler or Package Unit.
• Brand and model number.
• Serial number.
• Year installed.
• Tonnage.
• Filter size.
• Unit location: attic, closet, garage, basement, crawlspace, roof or outside.
• Access notes: attic ladder, gate code, dog, thermostat location, lockbox, roof hatch.

That list covers nearly everything a tech needs to walk in prepared. It is short enough that a tech can fill it in on the first visit without slowing down the day.

How It Shows on the Job

Once the record is filled in, it shows under the address on the office lists and on the tech's phone. A card reads like “Central AC + Furnace · Trane XR14 · 3 ton · installed 2012 · filter 16x25x1” with the serial number on the next line and the access notes below.

Entered once, it shows on every visit after. The tech heading to the Birch Street rental knows the filter size before leaving the shop, knows the furnace is in the attic, and knows the attic ladder is in the hall closet.

Fill It In on the First Visit

The easiest way to build records across a big account is to make the first visit to each address a records visit. Have the tech:

• Read the data plate for brand, model and serial.
• Note the tonnage and year from the model or serial.
• Pull the filter and write the size, including the thickness.
• Note where the unit is and how they got to it.
• Take a photo of the data plate and save it with the job.

Within one round of tune-ups, the whole account is documented. If a quote is written during that visit, equipment details can be filled in on the estimate and carry onto the job.

Per Unit and per Building

Most rental homes have one system, so one address and one record covers it. Apartment buildings and multi-tenant commercial buildings need more care. The clean approach is to make each apartment, suite or rooftop unit its own address, with the unit number or suite in the name, so each one gets its own record. A building's common-area system, like the one serving a lobby or a leasing office, gets its own address as well.

That way, “Unit 3B takes a 14x20x1” is on Unit 3B, not buried in a note on the building. Apartment setups are covered in Apartment Building HVAC Service: Tracking Equipment Unit by Unit.

Records the Customer Can Use

Equipment records are not just for your techs. Property managers and landlords plan budgets around the age of their equipment. When a manager asks which of their rentals have systems older than fifteen years, you can answer from the records instead of sending a tech around town. That kind of answer is a reason to keep you around, and it also points you to the replacement quotes that are coming.

Keep Records Current

Equipment changes. When you replace a system, update the record right away with the new brand, model, serial, year and filter size. When a tenant mentions that a different company swapped the furnace, have the tech check and update it. A record that is wrong is worse than no record, because techs trust it.

To see how equipment records fit with PM visits, quotes and billing on commercial accounts, visit the HVACBossPro commercial HVAC software page.