What HVAC shops need from accounting software
The bank balance in an HVAC shop lies twice a year. In July it looks great because installs are paying and agreement renewals are coming in. In October it looks thin because you're paying for summer's equipment and the tune-ups members already paid for. Accounting software should tell you what's actually yours. For HVAC, that comes down to three things.
Job costing per install. A changeout has more cost lines than a service call: the equipment, the line set and pad, the thermostat, two or three people for a day or two, a permit, maybe a crane or an electrician, and the commission you owe the salesperson. Those costs show up at different times, from different places. The equipment hits on the distributor statement, the labor on payroll, the permit on a credit card. Good software ties them all to the job so you can see the real margin while you can still do something about it.
Equipment versus labor margins. Most HVAC shops make money differently on equipment and on labor, and you can't manage either if they're mixed into one "sales" line. Set up separate income accounts for equipment, installation labor, service labor, parts and agreements. Map every pricebook item to one of them. Then raise prices where the margin is thin instead of across the board.
Maintenance agreement revenue. Say you sell 300 agreements at $240 a year, paid up front. That's $72,000 in the bank, and 600 tune-up visits you still owe. Booking it all as income the day it arrives makes spring look better than it is. Many accountants book prepaid agreements as deferred revenue and recognize it over the term. Monthly autopay plans avoid most of this, which is one reason shops move to them.
The rest is ordinary contractor bookkeeping: distributor warranty credits that need to match the original part purchase, manufacturer rebates and spiffs, and tech commissions that depend on the job closing.
The setup is right when month-end takes an afternoon, not a week. A workable routine for a small shop: reconcile the bank and card accounts, match distributor statements to purchase orders or job materials, review every install closed that month against its estimated margin, and check the agreement count against last month. If the software makes any of those steps a manual export, you'll stop doing it by March.
How the picks compare
Think of it as a ledger plus a field tool, and decide where job costing lives.
QuickBooks Online is the ledger for nearly everyone. Start on Plus for project profitability. Move to Advanced if prepaid agreements are a big part of revenue and you want automated revenue recognition.
For the field side, Housecall Pro is the best value: job costing on every plan and commissions on Essentials. Jobber suits an owner who mainly wants to know which jobs paid. FieldEdge is the answer for QuickBooks Desktop shops. Workiz fits repair-heavy shops that care about revenue by lead source.
ServiceTitan is the one system that can carry most of the accounting picture itself, with job costing, memberships, purchase orders and payroll in one place. That's why bigger shops pay for it. Below about ten techs, the extra cost usually buys more detail than anyone has time to read.
For other trades, our guide to accounting software for contractors covers ledger and payroll picks across every trade we review.
What to look for before you sign
- Ask what syncs, in which direction. Invoices and payments are standard. Ask about items, classes, deposits, refunds, card fees and purchase orders.
- Map pricebook items to income accounts during setup. If every item posts to one "Sales" account, you lose the equipment versus labor split for good.
- Check how card fees post. Processors often deposit the net amount. Your books need the gross sale and the fee booked separately, or reconciliations never tie out.
- Confirm labor cost reaches the job. Tech hours should land on the job automatically at a loaded rate, not just as hours.
- Ask your CPA about agreements before go-live. Deferred or not, decide once and set up the sync to match.
- Count QuickBooks users separately. Techs don't need QuickBooks logins. Plus covers five, which is usually the owner, office and bookkeeper.
What it costs
You're paying for two systems. Prices are as of October 2026; field service plans billed annually, QuickBooks Online at monthly list price (Intuit runs three-month introductory discounts).
| Shop size |
Ledger |
Field tool with job costing |
Rough monthly total |
| 1 tech |
QBO Essentials, $85 |
Housecall Pro Essentials $149 (QBO sync) or Jobber Grow $149 |
About $234 |
| 5 techs |
QBO Plus, $140 |
Housecall Pro Essentials $149 or Jobber Grow $229 |
$289 to $369 |
| 15 techs |
QBO Plus $140 or Advanced $340 |
Housecall Pro MAX with 7 extra users, about $544 |
$684 to $884 |
A 15-tech shop on ServiceTitan would add third-party estimates of $3,675 to $7,500 a month for the field side alone (not published by the vendor), plus QuickBooks if you keep it as the ledger.
Note the sync trap at the low end: Jobber Core and Housecall Pro Basic don't include QuickBooks Online sync, so a shop that wants clean books needs the next plan up. Payroll is extra in every setup above.
