HVACBossPro Blog — Maintenance Agreements

Commercial HVAC Service Agreements: Quarterly PM Visits at 90 Days

Commercial work looks different from residential. Instead of one furnace in a garage, you have package units on a roof, split systems serving different parts of a building, and a business that loses money when the space gets too hot or too cold. Commercial customers often want preventive maintenance four times a year, and that schedule fits naturally in HVACBossPro.

From Landlords to Buildings

Many commercial clients have more than one location and want one bill, which is why One Monthly Statement for a Landlord: Billing HVAC Maintenance Agreement Visits by Address comes right before this guide. The scheduling side is what is different.

Residential plans usually run 180 days between visits. Commercial preventive maintenance is commonly quarterly. In HVACBossPro, that is a plan set to 90 days. After each completed PM visit, the next one comes due about three months later and shows up on the Waiting List map.

Why Quarterly

Commercial systems often run longer hours than a house and serve more people. Filters load up faster, belts wear, and a failure means a closed store or an office full of unhappy employees. Many building owners would rather pay for four visits a year than risk a breakdown in the middle of a business day.

Quarterly visits also fit the seasons: a pre-cooling visit, a mid-summer check, a pre-heating visit and a mid-winter check. Each one can focus on what the system is about to do.

Recording Multiple Units

A commercial building often has several units. Record them on the address so the tech knows what to expect:

• System type. Package units are common on commercial roofs. Split systems and mini-splits show up too.
• Brand, model, serial, tonnage and year installed for the main units.
• Filter size and count. “6 units, each 20x25x2, 2 filters per unit” tells the tech exactly what to load.
• Unit location. Roof, mechanical room, above the ceiling grid.
• Access notes. Roof hatch location, who has the key, building hours, who to check in with.

If a building has units that belong to different tenants or zones, note which unit serves which area. That makes reports to the building owner clearer.

Access and Timing

Commercial access is usually more involved than residential. A few things to note on every address:

• When the building is open, and whether visits should happen before or after business hours.
• Who has the roof access key and how to reach them.
• Whether the tech needs to sign in at a front desk.
• Any safety requirements, such as roof hatch procedures.

Use the reminder alerts and two-way texting to confirm with the site contact before each visit. A tech who arrives to find the roof hatch locked and nobody with a key has wasted a trip.

Routing Commercial PM

Commercial visits take longer than a residential tune-up, so plan routes accordingly. Some shops put commercial PM on its own van or on its own days. Others mix one or two commercial stops into a residential tune-up route. The dispatch board lets you filter by van and set the order by hand, so a long commercial stop can go first thing in the morning.

Belts and filters are the two things that most often slow a commercial PM visit down. If the record says what belt size each unit takes and how many filters it needs, the tech can load everything before leaving the shop. A tech who has to drive back for a belt on a roof across town loses half a morning.

Watch the Waiting List for commercial pins turning overdue. A building owner who pays for quarterly visits and gets three a year is likely to look elsewhere at renewal.

Billing Commercial Agreements

Commercial clients usually want monthly billing. Set the client to Monthly, and every PM visit, repair and filter change at every building goes on one statement with each line labeled by address. Tag the client Commercial so they are easy to find in reports.

Quote commercial agreements per site, based on the number of units and how hard they are to reach. A building with six rooftop units and a locked hatch takes longer than a strip mall unit at ground level.

Reporting to the Building Owner

Building owners and facility managers like proof. Before-and-after photos of filters and coils, notes on belts or capacitors that need attention, and estimates for anything found give them a clear picture of their equipment. Approved estimates become scheduled jobs.

Commercial agreements need renewing like any other, which is the subject of the next guide, Renewing HVAC Maintenance Agreements Without a Year-End Scramble. For all the agreement tools in one place, visit the HVAC maintenance agreement software page.