For heating & air businesses
Tune-ups that bill themselves and changeouts that close at the kitchen table.
Spring AC checks, fall furnace checks, no-cool calls in July and $14,000 system replacements. Fee-Lion gives the owner a clean pipeline and a membership base that renews on its own, and gives techs a Job Clock that times the day without a notebook.
Explore the live demo See the client portal
No signup, no password: walk around Northwind Heating & Air’s workspace. Or start your free trial.
Sound familiar?
The paperwork side of the job.
- Owner: a replacement quote goes out on a PDF, and you have no idea if the homeowner opened it or is waiting on two other bids.
- Owner: maintenance agreements are billed off a spreadsheet, so lapsed members still get tune-ups and paid members get forgotten.
- Tech: the diagnostic fee, the capacitor and the hour on the roof all end up on a paper ticket that the office retypes the next day.
- Tech: July is twelve no-cool calls a day, and nobody remembers how long the third one actually took.
- The rebate paperwork, the permit and the startup sheet live in three places when the customer calls asking about warranty registration.
- Shoulder seasons are thin, and the tune-up revenue you were counting on shows up whenever someone gets around to invoicing it.
A real example
What an estimate looks like.
Line by line, the way you’d actually quote it: quantity times rate, tax worked out for you, and the deposit collected the moment the client approves.
- Your client opens one link and approves it, paying the deposit by card.
- Approved estimates turn into invoices in one click.
- Your logo, your terms, and your line items saved for next time.
Prepared for Marcus & Elena Ortiz — 2207 Larkspur Dr.
| Item | Qty | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3-ton 16 SEER2 condenser, R-454B, 10-yr parts warranty (registered) 1 ea × $4,850.00 | 1 ea | $4,850.00 | $4,850.00 |
| Matching cased evaporator coil 1 ea × $1,650.00 | 1 ea | $1,650.00 | $1,650.00 |
| 80,000 BTU 96% AFUE two-stage gas furnace 1 ea × $3,400.00 | 1 ea | $3,400.00 | $3,400.00 |
| New line set, 25 ft, pressure test and evacuation 1 ea × $450.00 | 1 ea | $450.00 | $450.00 |
| Condenser pad, disconnect and electrical whip 1 ea × $285.00 | 1 ea | $285.00 | $285.00 |
| Programmable Wi-Fi thermostat, installed 1 ea × $325.00 | 1 ea | $325.00 | $325.00 |
| Installation labor, 2-person crew 16 hr × $125.00 | 16 hr | $125.00 | $2,000.00 |
| Mechanical permit and inspection 1 ea × $225.00 | 1 ea | $225.00 | $225.00 |
| Removal of old equipment and refrigerant recovery 1 ea × $250.00 | 1 ea | $250.00 | $250.00 |
Includes startup, airflow check and a 2-year labor warranty. We register the equipment and file any utility rebate paperwork for you. 25% deposit reserves the install date; balance due at startup.
Sent with Fee-Lion · example document, fictional client
How Fee-Lion fits
The parts that do the heavy lifting.
Good, better, best
Put a single-stage 14.3 SEER2, a two-stage 16 SEER2 and a variable-speed heat pump on one estimate as three packages, with the surge protector and the comfort plan as optional add-ons. The homeowner picks in the portal, the total updates as they click, and you see when they opened it.
More on estimate optionsDeposits that lock the install
Put 25% due at approval on the replacement estimate. It is paid by card on the same page, and the balance is the final invoice when the startup is done.
More on online paymentsTune-up plans on auto-pay
A $19/mo or $219/yr comfort plan is a recurring invoice. Members save a card once, you review the drafts before they go, and the forecast shows next month's plan revenue before it lands.
More on invoicingJob Clock for techs
Tiles for Diagnostic, Repair, Maintenance, Install and Drive time, each with its own rate. Techs tap as they switch; the office sees real hours and bills them in one move.
More on time trackingEquipment and refrigerant costs per job
Distributor invoices, refrigerant, line sets and the permit go on the job as expenses with photos of the receipts, so every changeout shows its true margin.
More on expense tracking & bookkeepingOwner's view of the pipeline
Estimate win/loss shows what you closed and what got away by month; aging shows who owes you; tags let you slice by service, install or membership.
More on reports & insightsTechs and office on one workspace
Owner, admin and member roles: the office manager runs billing, techs log time and work their jobs, and everyone sees the same customer record.
More on team & rolesPayment plans without a lender
Split a changeout into a deposit and the balance, or three or four monthly payments. The portal asks for the payment that is due, auto-pay can charge each one on its date, and reminders follow the next instalment.
More on payment schedulesSigned before you order equipment
Turn on signed approval and the homeowner types their name and signs on the estimate before the deposit, so the system they chose is on the record.
More on e-signaturesService requests from your website
A Request service form on your site or Google profile drops no-cool calls and replacement inquiries into a Requests inbox with the customer already created.
More on request formsA day with Fee-Lion
How it actually plays out.
- 7:30 a.m., the owner checks the dashboard: two replacement quotes opened last night, one still unopened, three tune-up plan invoices drafted for Friday.
- Tech #1 rolls to a no-cool call. Taps Drive time, then Diagnostic at the condenser: a failed dual-run capacitor. Swaps it, taps Repair, and the invoice goes out before he leaves the yard.
- Comfort advisor sits at the Ortiz kitchen table and sends three estimates: good, better, best. They approve the middle option that evening and pay the 25% deposit by card.
- Order the equipment from the distributor; the invoice goes on the job as an expense next to the permit fee and the line set.
- Install day: the crew's 16 hours land on the Job Clock. Startup sheet and photos go on the project as files; the estimate converts to the final invoice with the deposit already credited.
- October: fall furnace checks start. Plan members were already billed on auto-pay; non-members get a quote for a tune-up plus the cracked inducer gasket you found.
- Month-end, the owner pulls win/loss on replacement estimates and the recurring forecast for plan revenue, and knows how the shoulder season looks before it starts.
Live demo
Click around Northwind Heating & Air.
A residential HVAC company with spring and fall tune-up plans on auto-pay, a three-option system replacement on deposit, diagnostic calls and tech hours on the Job Clock.
A real Fee-Lion workspace set up as Northwind Heating & Air, with sample clients, jobs, estimates and invoices. No signup, no password. Changes are switched off, so click anything.
Questions
What people ask before they switch.
What should an HVAC estimate include?
At minimum: the equipment by model and size (tonnage, SEER2 or AFUE), the coil, line set, pad, electrical, thermostat, labor, permit, removal and refrigerant recovery, warranty terms (parts and labor, and that registration is required), the deposit and when the balance is due, and how long the price holds. Itemizing it this way is what lets a homeowner compare you to a lower bid that leaves half of it out.
How much should an HVAC diagnostic fee be?
Many residential shops charge somewhere around $79 to $150 for a diagnostic or service call, often more after hours, and some credit it toward the repair if the customer goes ahead. What matters is that it is stated up front. Put it as its own line on the invoice, or as a Diagnostic tile on the Job Clock if you bill the time.
How do I bill HVAC maintenance agreements?
Most shops sell a plan with two visits a year (AC in spring, heat in fall) plus perks like priority service or a repair discount, billed monthly or yearly. In Fee-Lion each plan is a recurring invoice on a weekly, every-2-weeks, monthly, quarterly, twice-a-year or yearly cadence; members who save a card are charged automatically, and drafts appear early so you can review them. Scheduling the visits themselves is still up to your calendar.
Is Fee-Lion a field service management app?
Not entirely. Fee-Lion covers quoting, invoicing, payments, deposits, recurring plans, tech time on the Job Clock, job expenses, reports and a client portal. It does not have a dispatch board, route planning or GPS tracking, so many small shops pair it with a shared calendar for scheduling.
Can I offer financing on a system replacement?
Fee-Lion doesn't provide financing. Most HVAC companies work with a third-party consumer lender; when the lender funds the job, record that payout on the invoice as a payment (and the customer's own share, if any, by card or check) so the balance is correct. If you would rather carry it yourself, a payment schedule splits the invoice into dated payments the homeowner pays you directly: no lender, no credit check.
How do HVAC techs track their hours?
The Job Clock gives each tech big tiles for the work they switch between all day: drive time, diagnostic, repair, maintenance, install. Tap one to start, tap the next to switch, and the day's log fills in with hours and dollars. The office bills those entries onto the job's invoice in one move.
Your next estimate could go out tonight.
Start a 14-day free trial, no card needed, or look around Northwind Heating & Air first.