HVACBossPro Blog — Maintenance Agreements

Spring AC and Fall Furnace Tune-Ups: Setting HVAC Maintenance Agreements to 180 Days

The two-visit plan is the backbone of most residential HVAC agreement programs. Cooling gets checked before summer, heating gets checked before winter, and the customer never has to think about it. In HVACBossPro, that whole plan comes down to one number: 180 days between visits.

Why Two Visits a Year

The reasons owners give for agreements are laid out in Why HVAC Maintenance Agreements Smooth Out the Slow Seasons. The two-visit plan is where those reasons turn into a schedule.

Most homes with central air and a furnace run two different jobs in two different seasons. The AC side works hard all summer and sits idle all winter. The furnace does the opposite. A visit before each season lets the tech look at the side that is about to work hardest: clean the outdoor coil and check the capacitor and contactor in spring, check the burners, flame sensor and venting in fall, and change the filter both times. A heat pump does both jobs with the same equipment, which is even more reason to look at it twice.

How 180 Days Works

A recurring plan in HVACBossPro is set by the minimum number of days between visits. Set it to 180, and after a member's tune-up is completed, the next one comes due roughly six months later. When it does, it appears on the Waiting List map without anyone having to remember.

The word that matters is minimum. The plan does not book a member on a fixed date. It brings them due once enough time has passed since the last visit, and the office decides which day they actually go on the route. That leaves room to group members by neighborhood and to work around the weather.

• Spring tune-up completed in mid-April: the fall visit comes due in mid-October.
• Fall tune-up completed in late October: the spring visit comes due in late April.
• A visit that slips two weeks pushes the next one back two weeks too, so members are never visited twice in a short stretch.

Keeping Spring Visits in Spring

Over a few years, a 180-day cycle can creep. A visit that slips a few weeks each time ends up in the wrong season. A spring tune-up that drifts into July is now competing with no-cool calls on the busiest days of the year.

The fix is simple: when you have room, book visits a little early. The Waiting List shows pins that are not due yet alongside the ones that are, so in a slow week the office can pull members who are coming due soon onto a route and keep everyone anchored to the right season. If you sign up a new member in midsummer, consider doing their first visit in early fall, so the cycle starts in the right place.

Setting Up the Visit Itself

The plan carries the schedule. The address carries the equipment. Before the first tune-up, make sure each member's address has the system recorded: system type (Central AC + Furnace, Heat Pump, AC only, Furnace only, Mini-Split, Boiler or Package Unit), brand, model and serial, tonnage, year installed, filter size and unit location.

That detail shows under the address on the tech's phone on every visit after: “Central AC + Furnace · Carrier · 3 ton · installed 2014 · filter 20x25x1” with the serial on the next line and access notes below. The tech puts the right filter on the van before leaving the shop and knows the furnace is in the attic before ringing the bell.

Many shops write the spring and fall checklists into their service list as two separate line items, “Spring AC Tune-Up” and “Fall Furnace Tune-Up,” so the invoice says exactly which visit happened.

Heat Pumps, Mini-Splits and Other Systems

Not every home fits the AC-plus-furnace picture. A few common variations:

• Heat pump. Same 180-day plan. The spring visit focuses on cooling, the fall visit on heating mode and defrost.
• Mini-splits. Often a 180-day plan with filter and coil cleaning on each head. Record the number of heads in the access notes.
• Boiler only. Usually one visit before the heating season, so a 365-day plan fits better. That option is covered in Yearly HVAC Maintenance Plans: When 365 Days Between Visits Makes Sense.
• Homes with two systems. Upstairs and downstairs units both go on the address record, so the tech knows to do both.

Booking the Season

When spring arrives, the Waiting List fills with due AC tune-ups. The office groups them by area, drags a day's worth onto the tune-up van and lets auto-route set the order from the shop. Members get reminders and on-the-way texts. When the tech taps Complete, the invoice is created and the card on file can be charged, and the 180-day count starts over toward the fall visit.

That rhythm, twice a year for every member, is what HVAC maintenance agreement software is supposed to protect.