# HVAC back office — estimates, invoices | HVACSoftware.com

> One-off and recurring estimates, GBB options, invoices, and memberships stay on the job. Follow-up agents and QuickBooks sync the books. Book a demo.

*Markdown mirror of https://hvacsoftware.com/back-office/ — Back office.*

**Back office for HVAC — estimates, invoices, agreements, agents**

The assignment someone applied is the job the books run — estimate, invoice, agreement, and the follow-up stay on that record.

One native job. Front office to dispatcher to back office.

## One-off vs recurring estimates

Spot repair quotes and seasonal maintenance packages share one estimate engine — the recurrence rule is what changes.

A one-off prices this visit. A recurring or maintenance estimate prices the package the next visits read. Both sit on the same customer and equipment.

[Open estimates](https://hvacsoftware.com/back-office/estimates/)

The gain is one job record from estimate through invoice and agreement — not a membership spreadsheet the office reconciles against a separate billing tool, not a quote overlay someone retypes into another stack.

### Same engine. Different recurrence.

| Kind | What it prices | What approval becomes |

| --- | --- | --- |

| One-off | This visit's repair or replace, from the price book or a custom line | A job, or an invoice, on the same record |
| Recurring / maintenance | A seasonal package or plan sale, with a cadence the next visits read | The service agreement and the visits it creates |
| Phased | Sections that split a commercial change-out | Progress invoices against the accepted option |

Spot quotes and membership packages are not two products. The recurrence rule is a field on the estimate, not a second tool.

## Good-better-best as native structure

Present recommended options on the estimate. Star a default. The customer picks and signs.

Each option has its own line items, markup, and total. A deposit on the accepted option carries to the invoice so it is not charged twice.

[Open GBB options](https://hvacsoftware.com/back-office/estimates/)

### Each option carries its own total.

- **Estimate Options** — Turn them on and present good, better, and best side by side.
- **Star a default** — The middle option is the one the estimate leans toward.
- **One approval** — The customer picks on the estimate. That choice declines the rest.
- **Deposit** — A percent or a fixed amount. It carries to the invoice.

A single price is a yes or a no. Three options turn the conversation into which one — on the job, not in a side deck.

### Signed, deposited, converted — still the same record.

1. **Price the work** — Pull parts and labor from the price book, or type a one-off line. Markup and tax recalculate as you go.
2. **Close at the door** — Annotate the photo, collect the deposit, capture an e-signature.
3. **Convert once** — The accepted option becomes a scheduled job or an invoice. Line items and the deposit carry over.

Nothing gets retyped onto a second ticket. The accepted option is what dispatch and the books already know.

## Invoices, payments, and deposits

The approved estimate becomes the invoice on the same job. Collect card or ACH. The deposit already taken rolls forward.

Mark the visit complete and the invoice can build from the line items, taxes, and deposits already there. Partial payments stay on that record.

[Open invoices](https://hvacsoftware.com/back-office/invoices/)

### Approved estimate → invoice. Deposit rolls forward.

1. **Accept the option** — The signed estimate already holds the line items, tax, and any deposit.
2. **Finish the visit** — Mark the job or visit complete. The invoice can build itself from what is already there.
3. **Send the link** — Email or text a card and ACH payment link. The customer pays from the phone.

The deposit already collected applies on the invoice. It is not charged a second time.

### How the invoice gets paid.

- **Card and ACH** — A Stripe checkout link on the invoice. Pay online.
- **In person or terminal** — Collect on site. The payment lands on the same invoice.
- **Partials** — Tracked to the cent. The remaining balance stays on the record.
- **Card on file** — Recurring work can auto-charge after the invoice is generated.

Auto-pay retries a declined card and writes every attempt on the invoice. If retries exhaust, the invoice is marked payment-failed for a person.

### Recurring and progress — still invoices, on a cadence.

| Cadence | When it bills | Typical HVAC use |

| --- | --- | --- |

| Per visit | After the visit is marked complete | A plan stop, then the invoice |
| Weekly / monthly / annual | On the day you set for that contract | Retainers and memberships billed as a period |
| Progress / phased | A percent at each milestone | A commercial change-out split across deposits |

Visit-based or fixed-price. Only completed visits trigger visit-based invoices. Draft or scheduled visits are not charged.

## Memberships and maintenance agreements

Plans renew, covered visits book, and recurring billing fires from completed visits — recurring revenue on the record.

The plan is sold as an estimate and held as a service agreement on the customer and the covered equipment. A spreadsheet is not the system of record.

[Open memberships](https://hvacsoftware.com/back-office/memberships/)

### The plan is sold as an estimate on the property.

1. **Tier the offer** — Visits per year, priority booking, repair discounts. Tiers live on the record, not in a column.
2. **Approve the sale** — The customer signs the same way they sign a replace estimate. The sale and the agreement are one record.
3. **Attach the equipment** — Coverage points at the units on the property — model, serial, warranty — so the next visit already knows what it is for.

Residential tune-up memberships and commercial PM contracts are the same object with different terms: frequency, coverage, price, renewal.

### What the agreement holds, and what it creates.

| Field | What it means | What runs from it |

| --- | --- | --- |

| Frequency | Two tune-ups a year, quarterly rooftop calls, a monthly filter route | A configured recurring workflow creates the jobs or visits |
| Coverage | Which units at which property the plan includes | The tech opens the equipment already on the job |
| Entitlements | Visits per year, priority booking, repair discounts | Member pricing pulls into the next job |
| Term | The end date the agreement watches | Renewal is prompted before the plan lapses |

Scheduling and assignment stay explicit. The workflow creates the required work. A person still applies the dispatch.

### Recurring billing fires from the completed visit.

- **Closed visit** — Agreement and job context carry into the ordinary invoice.
- **Who invoices** — A person, or a workflow you configured — not a hidden membership cycle.
- **Auto-pay** — A saved default card is charged once that invoice exists.
- **Win-back** — A lapsed plan moves to a state the office can see, instead of vanishing.

The membership is the agreement. The invoice is still an invoice you can open and correct. Auto-pay does not skip that record.

## Estimate follow-up and invoice follow-up

Agents nudge open quotes and aged invoices with on-brand reminders. Sensitive sends wait for one-tap approval.

The path runs on the same job the front office booked and the dispatcher applied — not a separate AR tool bolted on.

[Open follow-up](https://hvacsoftware.com/back-office/workflows/)

### Two chases. One job object.

| Follow-up | What it watches | What a person still does |

| --- | --- | --- |

| Estimate follow-up | An estimate that went out and has not been accepted | Approve the reminder, or stop the path when they say yes |
| Invoice follow-up | An invoice past due, still unpaid | Approve the nudge, or mark it paid and the path stops |

Consensus already expects the features. Shops still lose money on unsold estimates and aged invoices that nobody systematically chases. The follow-up is the chase, on the record, under approval.

### A late invoice, as a path you can read.

The workflow is deterministic. An AI agent is one action you can drop in to draft the reminder. Sensitive sends wait for one-tap approval. The rest of the path stays the rule you wrote.

- **Invoice unpaid** — status changed
- **Wait three days** — delay
- **Still unpaid** — condition
- **AI agent** — drafts the reminder
- **WhatsApp or SMS** — one-tap if it is sensitive

## AI agents as internal ops

Drafter, follow-up, collections, review-request, weekly report — chores beside the office team, on the same jobs and invoices.

Routine work can run unattended. Money and customer-facing sends pause for a person. Every run has a log.

[Open office agents](https://hvacsoftware.com/back-office/ai-agents/)

### Office agents

- **Drafter** — A request plus the price book becomes an approval-gated draft — not a send.
- **Follow-up** — Open quotes and aged invoices get a reminder on the same job.
- **Collections** — Rank overdue invoices and recommend the next move. The message still waits.
- **Review / report** — Ask for the review after the job, or write the Monday digest from the same records.

### Office agents that already ship beside the desk.

| Agent | What it reads | What a person still does |

| --- | --- | --- |

| Estimate Drafter | The request, the price book, similar completed jobs | Approve, adjust, or send the draft |
| Estimate / invoice follow-up | Open quotes and aged invoices on the job | Approve the reminder, or stop the path |
| Collections Prioritizer | Aging invoices, payment history, account value | Make the call, send the nudge, or offer a plan |
| Weekly / daily reporters | Jobs, revenue, completions, exceptions | Read the digest and pick the follow-up |

These are internal ops, not a voice CSR. They run on clients, jobs, visits, and invoices inside the OS.

You draw the line. A reminder can send on its own. An estimate, a charge, or a refund waits. Every run has a log of the tool calls, so trust is something you can open, not something the page asks you to assume.

## Timesheets and job cost

Labor reconstructed from the day sits on the job so the money side can see what the field day actually took.

Timesheet rebuilds hours from punches, geofences, and visit status. Managers open exceptions. Parts already on the job stay on that record.

[Open timesheets](https://hvacsoftware.com/back-office/timesheets/)

### Timesheet rebuilds the week. Managers touch exceptions.

- **Evidence** — Clock punches, geofence entry and exit, visit status, route history, work timers.
- **Confidence** — Each block is Verified, Partial, or Low. Thresholds are configurable.
- **Inbox** — Only the entries the ledger cannot confirm, each with a suggested fix.
- **Payroll** — A review pass over a week. Corrections append — they do not overwrite the trail.

Timesheet is an add-on. Technicians see their own day. Dispatchers and admins see the ledger. A new custom role does not inherit manager screens by accident.

### The field day and the books share a job.

| On the job | What the office can see | What we do not invent |

| --- | --- | --- |

| Labor | Hours reconstructed against the visit, with a profitability review | A published margin percentage |
| Parts | Line items already on the estimate and the invoice | A second costing spreadsheet |
| The day | The same job the dispatcher applied | A truck-cost figure we did not compute |

Labor from the timesheet and parts on the job sit on one record so the office can see what the day took. We do not publish a margin number we did not calculate.

## QuickBooks and books sync

Invoices and payments sync so AR is not retyped into the books.

Two-way QuickBooks and Xero when you connect them. The invoice on the job is still the record the office opens and corrects.

[Open books sync](https://hvacsoftware.com/back-office/quickbooks/)

### Invoices and payments leave the job for the books.

- **QuickBooks** — Two-way sync when you connect it. Invoices and payments move both ways.
- **Xero** — The same idea, when that is the ledger the shop already runs.
- **The invoice** — Still the record on the job. The office opens it here first.
- **Failed charges** — Stripe attempts stay on the invoice. Retries exhaust, then a person.

AR is not retyped. The shop still reads both sides — we do not claim the books flag a divergence on their own.

## Front office, the dispatcher, and the shop stay next door.

They write and apply the same record. This page owns the books.

- [Front office](https://hvacsoftware.com/front-office/)
- [AI dispatcher](https://hvacsoftware.com/ai-dispatcher/)
- [Home back office](https://hvacsoftware.com/#back)
- [Home OS table](https://hvacsoftware.com/#shops)
- [Marketing](https://hvacsoftware.com/#marketing)
- [Book a demo](https://hvacsoftware.com/back-office/#demo)

## The books, answered.

What back office includes, how one-off and recurring estimates differ, and how follow-up and QuickBooks sit on the job.

### What does HVAC back office software include?

HVAC back office software is the money on the same job the office booked and the dispatcher applied: one-off and recurring estimates, invoices and deposits, card or ACH pay, memberships and maintenance agreements, timesheets, and accounting sync. Estimate follow-up and invoice follow-up run on that record. A person still approves money moves.

### One-off vs recurring estimates — what's the difference?

A one-off estimate prices this visit's repair or replace. A recurring or maintenance estimate prices a seasonal package or a plan sale, with a cadence the next visits read. Both use the same estimate engine and the same customer and equipment. Approval becomes a job or an invoice on that record, or the service agreement the plan visits bill from.

### How does good-better-best work in estimates?

Turn on Estimate Options and present good, better, and best side by side. Each option has its own line items, markup, and total. Star one as the default. The customer approves the option they want; that approval declines the rest. A deposit on the accepted option carries to the invoice so it is not charged twice.

### Can AI follow up on estimates and unpaid invoices?

Yes. Estimate follow-up and invoice follow-up run on the same job object. A workflow or an agent drafts the reminder after a quote goes out, or after an invoice is due. Sensitive sends wait for one-tap approval. Paid invoices and accepted estimates stop the path. This is not a separate AR tool bolted onto the board.

### How do memberships and maintenance agreements bill?

The plan is sold as an estimate and held as a service agreement on the customer and the covered equipment. A configured recurring workflow creates the visits. A completed visit carries the agreement into the ordinary invoice. Recurring billing can charge a card on file after that invoice exists. Renewal is tracked before the term lapses.

### Does it sync with QuickBooks?

Yes. Invoices and payments can sync two-way with QuickBooks, and with Xero when you connect it. The invoice on the job is still the record the office opens. Auto-pay writes every Stripe attempt on that invoice. The shop still reads both sides — we do not claim the books flag a divergence on their own.

## See the books on the job. Book a demo.

A walkthrough of a one-off and a recurring estimate, a GBB option, an invoice with a deposit, a membership, and a follow-up waiting for a person. One conversation, not a self-serve signup.

### Who this is for

- **Residential** — Sell the membership at the kitchen table and bill the visits on the same record.
- **Commercial** — Phase a change-out, progress-bill it, and keep the agreement on the equipment.
- **Enterprise** — Share a price book and one invoice flow across branches, with follow-up the office can read.

### What a demo covers

- **Estimates** — One-off vs a maintenance package — same engine.
- **GBB** — Three options, a deposit, convert once.
- **Invoices** — The same job, a payment link, the deposit rolled forward.
- **Memberships** — The agreement on the customer and the equipment, then the visits.
- **Follow-up** — Open quote and aged invoice — a person still approves the send.
- **Books** — QuickBooks on the invoice the office already has.

### What we ask in the first conversation

1. Do quotes and invoices live on the same job today?
2. Is the membership a record, or a spreadsheet the office reconciles?
3. What follow-up still depends on someone remembering to send it?

[Book a demo](https://calendly.com/jeel-fieldcamp/30min?utm_source=hvacsoftware.com&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=back-office)

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