Real financial strategy from a Xero Certified bookkeeper who has worked the trades. Built for HVAC contractors and trades business owners.
HVAC bookkeeping is the process of recording, organizing, and reporting the money flowing through a heating and cooling business so the owner can see what...
Read the Full Post →How to get a Louisiana contractor license from the LSLBC, step by step, plus a plain-English look at the $50,000 net worth requirement.
Read more →Bonus depreciation for HVAC contractors: how 100% first-year write-offs work for trucks and equipment, and the bookkeeping that protects the deduction.
Read more →Learn 8 essential bookkeeping practices for HVAC companies, from job costing to seasonal cash flow, software integration, and when to outsource.
Read more →Learn how HVAC contractors can set up job costing, manage seasonal cash flow, and connect ServiceTitan to their books for real financial clarity.
Read more →Learn how HVAC job costing works, why most contractors get it wrong, and how to build a system that reveals true job profitability.
Read more →Learn what outsourced accounting services include, how they compare to bookkeeping, and what trade contractors should look for before hiring a provider.
Read more →QuickBooks Online setup for HVAC contractors: separate revenue by job type, apply labor burden rates, and avoid the configuration mistakes that hide margin.
Read more →Compare outsourced vs. in-house bookkeeping and learn what trade contractors really need before choosing a provider. Practical, no-fluff guidance.
Read more →Honest breakdown of Xero for HVAC companies: job costing limits, integration fixes, and how it compares to QuickBooks for trade contractors.
Read more →Compare DIY Xero, general bookkeepers, and Xero-certified contractor specialists to find the right bookkeeping service for your trade business.
Read more →QuickBooks Online tracks money. HVAC field service software tracks jobs. Learn what each tool actually captures and which gap is hurting your bottom line.
Read more →Xero vs QuickBooks for HVAC contractors: a practical comparison of job costing, field software integrations, and reporting from a Xero-certified firm.
Read more →How to build a 13-week rolling cash forecast for your HVAC business, covering payroll, equipment deposits, and service agreement timing.
Read more →Deferred revenue in HVAC bookkeeping: how prepaid service agreement payments overstate income, and how to fix it for accurate financial statements.
Read more →How to build an HVAC chart of accounts that supports job costing and margin analysis, and why default accounting software templates fall short.
Read more →Job costing looks the same on paper across the trades, but what you're actually tracking is different for HVAC, plumbing, and electrical work.
Read more →MDVIP and concierge membership fees are collected annually but earned monthly. Here's how to set up revenue recognition so your P&L reflects reality.
Read more →ServiceTitan's native Xero integration is in limited release, and Housecall Pro needs a third-party connector. What that means for your bookkeeping.
Read more →Housecall Pro's built-in accounting sync is QuickBooks only. Here's how HVAC contractors on Xero connect it, what a connector can carry, and what to watch.
Read more →ServiceTitan's native Xero integration is in limited release. What it posts, how third-party connectors fill the gap, and how to keep job costing intact.
Read more →Most contractors only check their finances at tax time. Here are the three numbers HVAC, plumbing, and electrical owners should check every week.
Read more →September closes out with one last practical checklist, this time focused specifically on what needs to happen with your books before the calendar...
Read more →September closes out with one last practical checklist, this time focused specifically on what needs to happen with your books before the calendar...
Read more →If you own your HVAC business, nobody's setting up a 401(k) match for you the way an employer would for a W-2 employee. That's not a small gap. It...
Read more →If you own your practice, nobody's setting up a retirement match for you the way an employer would for a W-2 associate elsewhere. That's not a small...
Read more →September is National Preparedness Month, and while that conversation usually focuses on hurricane kits and evacuation plans here in Louisiana, it's...
Read more →September is National Preparedness Month, and while that conversation usually focuses on hurricane kits and evacuation plans here in Louisiana, it's...
Read more →Landing a large commercial contract feels like a milestone, and it can be, but it also changes what your books need to handle in ways that catch a lot...
Read more →Adding a second location or bringing on your first associate is a real growth milestone, and it also changes what your books need to handle in ways...
Read more →There's a specific point in a growing HVAC business where the owner is still doing the books after hours, on weekends, or squeezed between calls, and...
Read more →There's a specific point in a growing practice where the owner is still doing the books after hours, between patients, or on weekends, and it's...
Read more →Most HVAC owners are checking their bank balance to gauge how the business is doing, because it's the one number that's always right there. The problem...
Read more →Most practice owners are checking their bank balance to gauge how things are going, because it's the one number that's always right there. The problem...
Read more →Generic bookkeeping works fine for a lot of businesses. It doesn't work particularly well for a trades business, and the reason comes down to something...
Read more →Generic bookkeeping works fine for a lot of businesses. It doesn't work particularly well for a chiropractic practice, and the reason comes down to...
Read more →Vehicle expenses are one of the biggest deductible costs for an HVAC business, and also one of the most commonly mishandled, because the rules...
Read more →Beyond the obvious deductions like rent, supplies, and staff pay, there are a handful of deductions practice owners commonly leave on the table simply...
Read more →Today marks the official start of fall, and it's a natural checkpoint for shifting focus to Q4. A lot of contractors treat the fourth quarter as...
Read more →Today marks the official start of fall, and it's a natural checkpoint for shifting focus to Q4. A lot of practice owners treat the fourth quarter as...
Read more →We've covered a lot of individual pieces this month, reserves, forecasting, pricing, scenario planning. This post pulls them together into one...
Read more →We've covered a lot of individual pieces this month, reserves, forecasting, pricing, scenario planning. This post pulls them together into one...
Read more →A lot of HVAC pricing gets built off gut feel and what the competition seems to charge, without a clear calculation of what a job actually needs to...
Read more →A lot of cash-pay pricing gets set off what feels reasonable or what nearby practices seem to charge, without a clear calculation of what a visit...
Read more →We touched on the profit-versus-cash gap a couple weeks back, when we talked about why a busy season doesn't always mean a business feels flush. This...
Read more →We touched on the profit-versus-cash gap earlier this month, when we talked about insurance reimbursement lag. This time, let's walk through what a...
Read more →Every HVAC contractor deals with callbacks. A job that didn't hold, a part that failed early, a fix that didn't quite solve the problem the first time....
Read more →Every practice deals with no-shows and last-minute cancellations. Most owners treat them as an annoying but unavoidable part of running a schedule and...
Read more →This question comes up constantly once an HVAC business starts generating real profit, and the honest answer is that it depends on your numbers, not a...
Read more →This question comes up constantly once a practice starts generating real, consistent profit, and the honest answer depends on your specific numbers,...
Read more →Most HVAC owners plan for one version of the future: whatever they hope happens. That works fine until it doesn't, and a slower-than-expected winter...
Read more →Most practice owners plan for one version of the future: whatever they hope happens. That works fine until a slower-than-expected January catches the...
Read more →Most HVAC owners set their pricing once, years ago, and adjust it reactively when margins start feeling tight rather than reviewing it on a regular...
Read more →Most practice owners set cash-pay pricing once and leave it largely untouched for years, adjusting reactively when margins start feeling tight rather...
Read more →Payroll for a field service crew is more complicated than a standard office payroll, and the mistakes we see most often come from treating it like it...
Read more →Payroll for a practice with front desk staff and one or more associate providers is more complicated than standard hourly payroll, and the mistakes we...
Read more →Owners ask us this constantly: what's a good margin for an HVAC business? It's a fair question, and the honest answer is that it depends on the type of...
Read more →Owners ask us this regularly: what's a good margin for a chiropractic practice? It's a fair question, and while the honest answer depends on your...
Read more →New trucks, diagnostic tools, and equipment upgrades are a regular part of running an HVAC business, and financing is often the only realistic way to...
Read more →Adjusting tables, decompression equipment, and diagnostic tools are a normal part of running a practice, and financing is often the practical way to...
Read more →Reconciliation is the process of checking that what's in your books actually matches what your bank and credit card statements say. It sounds like a...
Read more →Reconciliation is the process of checking that what's in your books actually matches your bank and merchant account statements. It sounds like a...
Read more →Once you've got more than one truck on the road, "how's the business doing" stops being a useful question and "how's each truck doing" becomes the one...
Read more →Once a practice grows beyond a single owner-provider, "how's the practice doing" stops being the only question that matters, and "how's each provider...
Read more →Plenty of HVAC owners start out managing their books in a spreadsheet, or in whatever software came bundled with their invoicing tool. It works fine...
Read more →A lot of practice owners start out managing their books in a spreadsheet, or relying entirely on whatever basic reporting comes bundled with their...
Read more →A lot of HVAC owners avoid their profit and loss statement because it feels like something built for accountants, full of line items that don't mean...
Read more →A packed schedule feels like success, and often it is. But a full waiting room and a healthy bottom line aren't automatically the same thing, and a lot...
Read more →Labor Day is one of the last real pushes of cooling season before demand starts easing off. If you ran calls this weekend, or your crew did, it's worth...
Read more →Holiday weekends mean closed doors for most practices, and that's the right call for you and your staff. It's still worth understanding, in real...
Read more →HVAC revenue in Louisiana doesn't move in a straight line. Summer cooling season carries a lot of contractors through the year, and the months after...
Read more →Practice revenue doesn't move in a straight line through the year. Many practices see a dip after the holidays as patients delay care, and depending on...
Read more →Worker classification is one of those things that seems like a minor paperwork decision until the IRS or the Department of Labor decides otherwise....
Read more →Most practices serve a mix of cash-pay and insurance patients, and it's worth understanding that these two patient types don't cost the same amount to...
Read more →We hear this every August and September from contractors who just had their best summer ever: "I don't understand it, we were slammed, and I still...
Read more →One of the biggest differences between running a chiropractic practice and running most other small businesses is the delay between doing the work and...
Read more →Ask most HVAC owners if their business is profitable and they'll say yes, because revenue is up and the bank account isn't empty. Ask them which truck,...
Read more →A lot of practice owners track patient volume closely, how many visits happened this week, how many new patients came in this month, and treat that...
Read more →If you're self-employed, an S-corp owner, or running a partnership, September 15 is your Q3 estimated tax deadline. It sneaks up on a lot of...
Read more →If you own your practice, whether as a sole proprietor, an S-corp, or a partnership, September 15 is your Q3 estimated tax deadline. It's one of those...
Read more →Every fall we get the same phone calls. A contractor who crushed it all summer realizes he has no idea what he actually made, because the books haven't...
Read more →Every fall we hear a version of the same story from practice owners. Summer got busy, or summer got quiet in that unpredictable way practices sometimes...
Read more →A chart of accounts is the list of categories your bookkeeping uses to sort every dollar in and out of your HVAC business. A good one separates income by...
Read more →A deposit is money you collect before you start a job. Progress billing is collecting payment in stages as the work moves forward instead of one lump sum at...
Read more →A maintenance agreement is a recurring contract where a customer pays for scheduled HVAC tune-ups, usually twice a year, in exchange for priority service...
Read more →HVAC contractors run out of cash in summer because revenue and cash are not the same thing. During peak season you buy equipment and pay techs up front, but...
Read more →Cost per truck is the fully loaded monthly cost of putting one service truck on the road, including the payment, fuel, insurance, maintenance, stocked...
Read more →Overtime is labor paid at a premium rate, usually time and a half, once a worker passes 40 hours in a week. During the summer rush, HVAC overtime can...
Read more →HVAC job costing is the practice of tracking every dollar that goes into a specific job, equipment, materials, labor, and a share of overhead, then...
Read more →Setting up a Louisiana HVAC business on a solid financial footing means forming your entity, getting an EIN from the IRS, opening a dedicated business bank...
Read more →The five bookkeeping mistakes that cost HVAC contractors the most are mixing business and personal money, ignoring job costing, not tracking margins,...
Read more →A common target for an HVAC business is a cash reserve covering three to six months of operating expenses. The right number for you depends on how seasonal...
Read more →Payroll is the largest and most controllable expense in most HVAC businesses, which makes it the biggest lever on your profit. A technician costs far more...
Read more →Average ticket is the average dollar value of a completed HVAC job. It is the fastest lever in the business because raising it grows revenue without a...
Read more →Markup and margin sound the same but they are not, and the confusion costs HVAC contractors real money. Markup is how much you add on top of your cost....
Read more →Revenue is the total money your HVAC business takes in. Profit is what is left after every cost is paid. A company can hit a million dollars in revenue and...
Read more →Many HVAC owners either pay themselves whatever is left at the end of the month, which is often nothing, or they pull money randomly with no plan. A better...
Read more →Spreadsheets are fine when an HVAC business is brand new and tiny. The moment you have employees, multiple trucks, sales tax to track, and real job costing...
Read more →HVAC contractors in the Baton Rouge area face a few local realities that shape their books: combined state and local sales tax rates among the highest in...
Read more →In Louisiana, an HVAC system installed into a home or building becomes part of that real property, so the labor to install or repair it is generally not...
Read more →Recurring revenue is income that repeats on a predictable schedule, like maintenance memberships and service plans, instead of depending on whatever job...
Read more →Estimate vs. actual is the practice of comparing what you predicted a job would cost against what it actually cost once the work was done. The gap between...
Read more →A mid-year financial review is a structured look at your HVAC company's numbers at the halfway point of the year, while there is still time to fix what is...
Read more →Looking for neighborhood-specific posts? Browse the local-area archive on Blogger →
Book a free 30-minute financial checkup and find out exactly where your business stands.