Commercial HVAC estimating software: quotes from your rules
If you run a shop that takes on light commercial service, you've probably looked at the big estimating programs and felt they were built for someone else. That feeling is fair. A lot of commercial HVAC estimating software is made for estimators bidding new construction off a set of plans.
Your week looks different. It's tune-ups, repairs and maintenance agreements on rooftop units, asked for in a few lines on a web form. This post covers what a commercial estimator does, where each kind of software fits, and how to write price rules that quote the repeatable work while the big decisions stay with you.
What's a commercial estimator?
A commercial estimator is the person, or the software, that turns a job request from a business customer into a price. On a big project, that means reading drawings, counting equipment and duct runs, pricing labor hours and adding markup. On a service job, it's shorter: how many units, what size, what access, what time of day.
Larger contractors pay a full-time estimator to do takeoffs. In a smaller shop, the estimator is often you, at the kitchen table after the last service visit of the day.
Both kinds of work need an estimate. They don't need the same tool.
Where commercial HVAC estimating software fits your service work
Takeoff tools earn their keep when you bid a new building. They're slow on purpose, because a missed line on a big bid costs real money. They're the wrong tool for a property manager who wants six rooftop units tuned up before summer.
For that kind of request, useful commercial HVAC estimating software reads what the customer wrote, checks it against rules you set, and builds the quote. The table below splits the work by job, so you can see which tool and which person sets each price.
| Job | Best tool | Who decides the price |
|---|---|---|
| New construction bid from drawings | Takeoff and bid software | You or your estimator, line by line |
| Equipment replacement on an existing building | Load calculation plus your own markup | You, after a site visit |
| Rooftop unit tune-up or filter service | Rule-based quote from the written request | Your rules, approved by you or sent on auto-send |
| Maintenance agreement for a set number of units | Rule-based quote from the written request | Your rules |
| Repair with an unknown cause | A diagnostic visit rule, then a site visit | Your rule for the visit, you for the repair |
Read the last column twice. The software never decides your prices. It applies the ones you wrote, and it hands back anything it can't price with confidence.
How many tons of HVAC per sq ft for a commercial building?
There's no single answer, and that's why sizing shouldn't run on its own. A floor-area-per-ton rule of thumb gives you a first look. The real number moves with how the building is used. A restaurant kitchen, a server room and a glass-front shop all carry more heat than a quiet office of the same size.
Say your shop uses 350 sq ft per ton as a first look for a small office. A 7,000 sq ft suite divided by 350 comes to 20 tons. That's a fine number for a sales conversation and a poor number for an equipment order. Before you commit, a full load calculation looks at occupancy, glass, lighting, equipment heat and outside air.
So the rule for your quoting is plain. A request for new or replacement equipment never gets an automatic price. It gets flagged for you, and you set up the site visit.
How to write price rules for commercial service quotes
Rule-based quoting works because commercial service work repeats. A tune-up on a mid-size rooftop unit with hatch access takes about the same effort each time. Write that down once, and every matching request gets priced the same way.
- List the service jobs you price the same way every time: tune-ups, filter service, coil cleaning, maintenance agreements.
- For each job, write the one or two facts that move the price, like unit count, unit size and roof access.
- Turn each price into an if-then rule with a fixed number, not a range. A range invites a callback. A number gets booked.
- Write the screen: the requests that never get a price without you, like chillers, boilers, replacements and buildings outside your area.
- Decide which rules go out on auto-send and which wait for your approval.
- Read every quote for the first two weeks, and fix any rule that priced a job wrong.
Screen before you price. That order matters. A quote that goes out for a chiller you don't service, or a building two counties past your route, costs you more than a slow reply. Good commercial HVAC estimating software for service work runs the screen first and holds those requests for you.
Your rules can only read what the customer gives you. Put these on your request form, in plain words:
Business name and site address: Type of building and how it's used, such as office, retail, restaurant or warehouse: Number of rooftop units or split systems, and the size of each if known: What you need: tune-up, repair, filter service or a maintenance agreement: Roof access: hatch, fixed ladder, or lift needed: Hours a tech can be on site, and whether after-hours work is required: Name of the person who'll meet the tech:
Say these are your rules for light commercial tune-ups. Every figure is a sample, so swap in your own:
| If the request says | Then the price is | How it goes out |
|---|---|---|
| Tune-up, rooftop unit up to ten tons | $95 per unit | Auto-send |
| Roof access by hatch or fixed ladder | Add $75 per visit | Auto-send |
| Lift needed to reach the roof | Add $250 per visit | Waits for your OK |
| After-hours work | Add $60 per unit | Auto-send |
| Maintenance agreement | Per-visit price times four visits a year | Auto-send |
| Unit over ten tons, chiller or boiler | No automatic price | Waits for your OK |
| New or replacement equipment | No automatic price | Waits for your OK |
| Site outside your service area | No automatic price | Waits for your OK |
Say a property manager for a three-tenant strip mall fills out your form at 4:10 on a Tuesday afternoon while you're on a roof across town. The request lists six rooftop units, each under ten tons, with hatch access, and asks for a quarterly agreement. Six units times $95 per unit comes to $570, plus the $75 roof access fee, for a total of $645 per visit. Four visits a year times $645 comes to $2,580 a year, and that's the job you lose if the manager hears from another shop first.
Why does the first reply decide a commercial service job?
A property manager with a list of buildings to cover doesn't wait around for one shop. Harvard Business Review published research in 2011 where a web lead was sent to more than two thousand US companies. Only 37% replied within an hour, 23% never replied, and the ones that did reply took 42 hours on average.
The same Harvard Business Review analysis, covering 1.25 million leads, found that reaching out within the hour made a company about 7x more likely to qualify the lead than waiting even one hour more.
You can't climb off a rooftop unit every time a form comes in. That's the gap price rules close. When the rules are written down, the quote can be built while you finish the job in front of you, and you approve it once you're back on the ground.
That's the job Workely does. Workely prices each lead from your own rules and gets the quote ready with a link to book. You approve it, or turn on auto-send and it goes out on its own.
Leads that don't fit your rules wait for your OK, and follow-ups go out automatically until the lead books. You can see how rule-based lead capture and pricing works, and how owner approval on each quote fits in.
What stays with you: equipment sizing, replacement bids, repairs with an unknown cause, and every price on the list. The software applies your numbers. It doesn't pick them.
For the same method across other trades, see quoting for home service businesses. If you want it on one sheet for the office wall, use our one-page process for automating quotes.
Your next step
Write your first five rules this week, on paper, before you touch any software. Start with the tune-up you quote most often, then write the screen for what never gets an automatic price. Those two pieces carry the whole method.
When the rules are on paper, Workely can price your inbound leads from them. Speed to Lead is $149 a month with a 30-day free trial, and we set it up with you. It's billed monthly with no per-lead fees, and the first ten owners on the founding offer lock $99 a month for life. See Speed to Lead pricing and the free trial.