It’s easy to treat HVAC invoices like an afterthought. By the time technicians are finally finished with a job and know customers are happy with their work, service invoices seem like the last formality that stands between getting paid and moving on to the next job. So, technicians rush through the process; treating invoices like receipts instead of taking the time to recap the work completed in professional detail.
While this is understandable, it can do your business an incredible disservice – especially in the HVAC industry. In HVAC, customers generally only know one thing about the work you performed: whether or not it was effective. For everything else, they have to rely on their impression of you, such as whether you seemed professional and trustworthy.
What better way to reflect your business’s repute than the final recap of the work you did? With this approach, you can turn your HVAC invoices into a clear representation of your good business practices.
Foster Trust and Loyalty With Your Invoices
Besides your work, HVAC invoices are the last impression of your business customers are left with and tend to reflect the work you’ve done. A professional, detailed invoice can convey that you take pride in your work and assure customers that the quality and extent of work align with what they paid. This will not only minimize potential conflicts and miscommunication but also leave customers with a positive overall impression of you and your business. This increases the chances that you’ll be the first person on their mind when their system runs into issues or friends ask for recommendations.
Below, we’ve outlined how to create perfect invoices as well as provided free professional, easy to edit HVAC invoice templates and advice to streamline the process with an app.
Streamline Your Invoices With The Right HVAC Software App
While service business invoice templates can make your business look more professional, they don’t necessarily make the invoicing process faster or less expensive. You still have to manually write down services and materials for every job, calculate totals, and then follow up with customers individually long after the job is finished. Luckily, HVAC software apps like FieldPulse can streamline this process, making it easy to follow up with customers in just a few clicks without repetitive manual entry.
Instead of writing down services and materials for every job, every time, you can add them to a repository once and insert them into invoices as needed. This allows for quicker, more detailed invoicing that explains services rendered in a way that customers understand and reassures them the job was not only done right but thoroughly. This strategy increases convenience and quality for invoice creation at the same time.
You can also avoid spending hundreds of dollars a year on paper, ink, and lost time— because time is most definitely money, especially in the HVAC industry.
There are a number of additional advantages HVAC invoicing apps can provide including but not limited to:
- Electronic payments and signatures
- Payment status tracking
- Automatically calculated subtotals, tax, and totals
- Customer management
- The ability to pull from a repository of commonly used invoice line items
- Conversion of proposals and estimates directly to invoices
- Email templates for payment status and lead generation that can be automatically filled out from customer data
- The ability to automatically pull up invoices in case of disputes
Free HVAC Invoice Templates
Below, we’ve provided a number of HVAC invoice templates you can use to bill customers. Simply click on the invoice to download it. Then, after downloading the invoice, open the document in a spreadsheet program like Google sheets and simply edit. Invoices are automatically sized to fit pages when printed!
How To Create Perfect HVAC Invoices
Including the right information in your invoices will help you avoid a number of common invoicing mistakes such as unclear terms and late payments.
Invoices should all include the following information:
‘Invoice’ is stated clearly
The word ‘invoice’ and its number should be printed clearly at the top of the page. A clear indication that the sheet is an invoice makes it obvious to clients that this is the final bill and not an estimate. As well, numbering the invoice at the top where it’s easy to see will make it easy for you to keep track of documents and save you time should you need to reference this document in the future in case of a conflict.
An easy way to pay
Generally, clients are more likely to pay on time when it’s easy for them to pay and clear expectations are set about when payments are due. That means every invoice should clearly state the date the invoice was issued, when payments are due, how exactly customers can pay, and to whom they should pay as well as any fees that may be accumulated from late payments.
A simple way to contact you
Always include contact information on your invoices. This includes your business name, phone number, email, social media, and address if applicable. Oftentimes, customers will keep invoices on hand making it the easiest way for them to contact you if they run into issues or want additional work done.
A complete cost break down
Simple, transparent pricing goes a long way in building trust and increasing the chance of future work. While it may be obvious to you that a condenser coil needs to be cleaned in order to ensure a customer’s system functions properly, customers may see it as an unnecessary add-on to hike up the price. So, it’s important to explain the full value of services rendered and materials used. Instead of simply saying you cleaned the condenser coil, point out that it was chemically cleaned because the system was low on charge and not cooling properly. Don’t be afraid to include complementary services rendered that you don’t charge for directly, like checking and verifying the system’s electrical components. This paints an easy to understand picture of the work you did and your expertise.
Regulated information
In addition to the aforementioned information, you should include any regulated information that may need to be included, like your license number. Also, include any sales tax and VAT if your company is VAT-registered.
Marketing
Ensure future work by offering customers a discount on their next maintenance visit or inviting them to refer a friend for a discount. The next time someone asks for a recommendation, they’ll be reminded of your referral program.
Detailed Invoicing + HVAC Business Software
It’s no surprise that the secret to success is an organized payment strategy and management app.
With FieldPulse’s HVAC software, you can get faster, more automatic invoicing as well as job scheduling, customer management, and other helpful features on-hand 24/7. Want to discover what else a management app can solve for your business? Check out our blog Managing Field Technicians: How Technology Lowers Risk.