HVACBossPro Blog — Billing & Payments

Deposits on Big HVAC Repairs and Replacements: A Simple Invoice Policy

A capacitor swap is a small invoice. A full system replacement, or a compressor or coil job, is a large one, and it usually means ordering equipment before the customer has paid anything. Many HVAC owners take a deposit on those jobs. Whether you do, and how much, is your policy. This guide shows how to run that policy with ordinary invoices.

When Auto-Charge Is Not Enough

Charging at completion, explained in Auto-Charge on Completion: HVAC Billing That Runs When the Tech Taps Complete, fits most service calls. Big jobs are different for three reasons:

• You spend money first. Equipment gets bought and picked up before install day.
• The customer has time to change their mind. A week between approval and install is a week for second thoughts.
• A single large charge can decline. Cards have limits, and a big charge after the fact is the one most likely to bounce.

A deposit addresses all three. It covers some of your upfront cost, it confirms the customer is serious, and it splits the payment into two smaller pieces.

Write the Policy Down First

Before touching the software, decide the policy and put it in writing. A useful deposit policy answers a few questions:

• Which jobs need a deposit? For example, every equipment replacement, and any repair above an amount you set.
• How much? A fixed dollar amount, or a share of the job such as half. Keep it simple enough for the office to explain on the phone.
• When is it due? Usually at approval, before equipment is ordered.
• What if the customer cancels? Decide what is refundable and what is not, especially once equipment is ordered. Get your own advice on how to word this for your area.

Put the policy on the estimate or in the notes the customer sees, so nobody hears about it for the first time on install day.

The Estimate Comes First

In HVACBossPro, big jobs start as estimates built from your service list. Equipment details can be filled in on the estimate, such as system type, brand, model number, tonnage and filter size, and they carry onto the job once it is approved. That means the equipment record for the new system is already in place when the install happens.

The customer approves the estimate online, and the approved estimate becomes the scheduled job. Estimate follow-up emails help with customers who are slow to decide. The approval is the moment to bill the deposit.

Running a Deposit With Two Invoices

The cleanest way to handle a deposit is with two invoices:

1. Deposit invoice. When the customer approves, create an invoice with one line, such as “Deposit, system replacement per approved estimate,” for the deposit amount. Charge it to the card on file or let the customer pay it online in the customer app.
2. Final invoice. When the install is done and the tech taps Complete, the final invoice lists the full job, then a credit line for the deposit already paid, such as “Less deposit received.” The balance is what gets charged.

Set up both lines on your service list, the deposit item and the deposit credit item, so the office writes them the same way every time. The customer sees the whole price, sees the deposit come off, and sees the balance. No surprise, no confusion.

Large Repairs Without Equipment Orders

Not every big job is a replacement. A blower motor in a hard attic, or a repair that takes most of a day, can be large without much ordering. Some owners skip the deposit there and use card on file at completion, with the price approved on an estimate first. Others take a smaller deposit. Either is fine, as long as the policy says which.

What matters is that the tech and the office both know the rule. If the policy says a deposit is required, the job should not land on the dispatch board until the deposit invoice is paid.

Keeping Track

Deposits are easy to lose track of when they live on paper. When both invoices live on the same client in HVACBossPro, the office can see the deposit, the job and the final invoice together. During the month-end review, check for approved jobs with an unpaid deposit invoice and deposits on jobs that have not been scheduled. Both are worth a phone call. The checklist in The HVAC Month-End Billing Review: A One-Hour Checklist includes those checks.

A Policy, Not a Feature

A deposit is a business decision, and plain invoices are enough to run it: one for the deposit at approval, one for the balance at completion with the deposit credited. Write the policy, put it on the estimate, and bill it the same way every time. For more on HVAC billing, see the HVACBossPro HVAC invoicing software page.