Are you getting a good flow of HVAC projects but struggling with sending out estimates to them? It is an obvious problem when you depend on manual efforts to prepare your price quotation.
One common practice to grow your HVAC business is to respond to customer inquiries in the fastest ways possible.
Delaying sending them estimates will lead them to approach other contractors for an early response. And you will lose your opportunity.
So, put an end to those spreadsheet estimate templates you make and fill out every time a customer inquiry pops up in your business portal.
Learn about the top 8 HVAC estimating apps to prepare your price quote in minutes and send them instantly to the clients.
Top 8 HVAC Estimating Apps to Prepare Estimation
Businesses are now going digital and simplifying tasks using software solutions. Price estimates are common in HVAC operations as you charge your clients based on their service requirements.
Sending out price quotes to customers will show your professionalism in managing and operating the business. So, why use the manual method anymore when you have digital solutions for it?
Here are the best 8 HVAC price estimation apps for you to make things easier and faster:
1. InvoiceOwl
InvoiceOwl is one of the most trending digital software solutions, offering the feasibility of eradicating the efforts for making paper-based estimates. You just have to select the opted services and add a few more details to prepare your estimate immediately.
Not just that, but you can use it for collecting deposits from customers through credit and debit cards and even online payments without any hassle. You can focus on getting more work when you have this facility to speed up the entire process of sending quotes and collecting payment.
InvoiceOwl has an easy interface for contractors and small business owners to learn and use all the featues effectively. It also has a mobile application that allows you to conveniently make estimates or invoices on the go.
The most brilliant aspect of using this software is that you don’t have to depend on a long process for preparing invoices after the service is completed. You can just click on the dedicated button on the application, and your price estimates will be converted into professional invoices. This is, thus, the feasibility of integrating InvoiceOwl into your business processes.
2. Contractor Foreman
Contractor Foreman is the most affordable estimating solution for general contractors and small businesses. It will be easy for you to manage your projects as manual effort in preparing estimates will be minimized. It is one of the most feature-packed applications that has an affordable starting price of $49/month.
It has a mobile application for you to use on compact devices and create your estimates anywhere and at any time. Some other crucial features of Contractor Foreman include time cards, online payments, daily logs, and job scheduling.
On Contractor Foreman, you don’t get charged based on the number of projects you handle or create estimates of. This is an advantage compared to other tools offering the same functionalities. This estimating software also integrates with Outlook, QuickBooks, AngiLeads, Gusto, and Google.
3. Stack
Stack is a software solution that streamlines residential and commercial HVAC price estimation requirements. You can set your price bids quickly with Stack and acquire more leads in a short time.
It empowers your team to measure the digital plans and collaborate with project stakeholders faster than usual. It is cloud-based software to eliminate the possibility of errors in your price estimation and promotes accuracy to get more profitable work.
Apart from price estimation, Stalk is also proficient in helping your HVAC business with bid management, audit trail, data import/export, electrical estimating, document storage, and cost database.
You can also seek project management, project tracking, reporting/analytics, electronic plans, and job costing solutions with Stack for digitizing most of your HVAC business tasks under one roof.
For queries, they have various customer support channels for you to connect with them. You can reach out to the consultants of Stack through email, phone support, or chat. You can also use the Forum, FAQs, or knowledge base to learn common topics.
4. GetCost
As a small HVAC business, if you want to use your precious time on critical field operations, while also being able to handle estimates and invoices, GetCost is one of the available solutions. GetCost helps you create and keep track of your price estimates, appointments, timesheets, and invoices.
With GetCost, you can easily calculate the time, manpower, and material required for completing an HVAC job. You can inform your clients about their job progress to build a rapport with them.
The software offers a one-stop solution for project management, job scheduling, team management, payment collection, price estimation, and invoicing. It also has a mobile application for HVAC business owners to easily keep track of their estimates and invoices.
Some of the unique features of GetCost that most other estimating software lack are photo capture, routing, task management, job costing, inspection management, hourly billing, work order management, and others.
5. Housecall Pro
Housecall Pro serves the major functionality of automating workflows and scheduling jobs. HVAC professionals can use this solution on the web or as mobile application at their convenience.
One of the evident features of Housecall Pro is price estimation, which is one of the major business tasks that need digitization. You can open up the Housecall template for price estimates and pick your services and costs to add to them.
Once you are done, click preview and send it to the customer at their email address. Along with price estimation, you can also create invoices with Housecall Pro. It generates automated receipts, processes payments, dispatches employees, creates automated postcards, and automates email marketing.
It has a free version for owners/operators with limited features that might be enough for a new HVAC business owner. If you just intend to get this software for price estimation, then the basic plan will serve the purpose for you. But when your business grows, you might need the premium version of Housecall Pro.
6. Hero Software
Hero Software is a cloud-based solution with a mobile application for HVAC professionals. The owners can connect with customers, other applications, and devices through a centralized portal. This allows companies to bring in quality projects and deliver optimal service outcomes to clients.
Hero Software allows HVAC businesses to manage the sales, marketing, projects, and back office using SaaS solutions. You can create your price estimates for various HVAC services on Hero and also use the invoicing and accounting features.
Some of the other productive features of this software are contact database, cost database, collaboration tools, task management, invoice management, task scheduling, and others. Importing data to Hero Software is easy with one click on the centralized portal.
You can use this digital software on mobile, desktop, tablet, and other devices. It offers you training through videos, webinars, live programs, and in-person. You can pass on the training videos to your employees to educate them on how to use the employee portal of Hero Software.
7. Rep Order Management
Rep Order Management is a sales platform ideal for HVAC engineers or business owners to create proper estimates, with or without templates. You can integrate this software solution to even manage your sales pipelines and increase management efficiency.
Apart from price estimation, you can also implement complete project management with this tool. Along with HVAC, it serves delivery, plumbing, landscaping, and other field service industries as well.
It is available only in Cloud, SaaS, and web-based deployment models. They have customer support solutions through chat, phone, and email, for you to get answers to all of your queries. And it comes at a nominal cost of $50/month per user, with a free trial and free version.
8. ProCore
ProCore is a professional business management software ideal for HVAC professionals to plan projects and create accurate estimations. You get to build a complete budget on every dollar you spend on a project.
ProCore is a suitable software solution for main contractors, owners, and sub-contractors. It is highly preferred for HVAC estimation and overall business management. It also allows you to schedule the jobs for employees on the centralized portal in just a few clicks.
You get three pricing plans to make professional estimates, which start with $667 per month when billed annually and range up to $1182 per month.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should you include in an HVAC estimate?
An HVAC price estimate should include electronic appliance upgrades, repair or maintenance work list, HVAC system buying costs, labor costs, and overhead charges. For some of the HVAC services and systems, you can have fixed rates that will go directly to the estimate.
But for some services where you need to consider labor intensity and service challenges, you might have to analyze a few factors before adding the cost to your estimate. Don’t worry, your industry knowledge will help you in that pursuit, while all the other aspects can be taken care of by buying a subscription to price estimation software.
The article above has a list of 8 highly functional software solutions to not just help you with price estimation but a lot of other features. Make your choice after a complete assessment of all the options. They will have templates that will show you all the details sent to the client with the price estimate. You can customize it or just send it right away to your customers.
How much does an HVAC price estimation software cost?
The cost of owning a subscription for HVAC pricing software varies depending on the company providing the same. You cannot expect the price to be similar or with minimal differences because every software provider is adding unique features to their overall plans.
Yes, there are cheaper options that offer you just the feature of creating price estimates. But on the other hand, most HVAC software offer business management solutions. Therefore, the pricing varies from provider to provider.
You can get HVAC price estimation software from around $40-$50 per month; there are also software options that can cost you more than $500 per month. It is all about what features you need and how streamlined you want your business operations to be.
What happens when you delay preparing and sending a price estimate to clients?
The HVAC industry is a booming sector with many key players competing with one another to get more projects and generate better revenue. Therefore, the slightest mistake can leave you behind your competitors.
Manual ways of preparing an estimate will cost you a lot of time. Eventually, your clients must already have requested quotes from different HVAC service providers. If you delay, there is a high chance that your customers will decide between your rivals without including you.
Therefore, price estimates should be provided instantly, within a couple of minutes. Mark an impression in front of your customers, so they have one strong point to choose you, not your competitors.
Parting Words
HVAC is one of the most complex business trades and needs very observant operations to ensure customer satisfaction. The business owners cannot just hire any random technician to do their job, as there are educational qualifications, apprenticeships, licensing exams, and certifications to be eligible for working with HVAC systems.
So, it is obvious that you have worked hard to build your small HVAC business. But your next approach should be to improvise your existing management methods to bring in more leads. And this article has tried to cover one of the most important aspects of it.
Estimating the service costs manually might take you a full day or many hours, which is not feasible for business growth. You need to minimize these management efforts so that you can spend your time improving your service quality and other operations constantly.
Heating and cooling requirements will always be in demand. So you will definitely have a plethora of opportunities to earn. Choose the best cost estimating software from the list above to take an initial step towards digitizing your field business operations.