Bookkeeping & advisory · Winnipeg, Manitoba
Books that tell you which trucks make money.
Monthly bookkeeping and advisory for HVAC contractors.
Bookkeeping and advisory only.
No tax filing · no payroll · no assurance.
Your month, closed on a schedule
CLOSE CYCLEReconciled. Bank, cards and supply-house accounts tied out.
Split and deferred. Revenue by line of work; agreements and deposits off the P&L until they're earned.
Statements and KPI pack. Margin by line of work, revenue per field hour, unearned agreement balance.
Why a generalist bookkeeper isn't enough
An HVAC P&L breaks in four places.
Four judgement calls that only come up in the trades.
Revenue
A $14,000 changeout and a $180 no-heat call in one “Sales” line.
In most books
One income account, one cost of sales. Total margin looks fine, so nobody asks which line of work is paying for the others.
What I do
Install, service, maintenance and parts — each with its own costs underneath and its own gross margin, month over month.
Deferrals
Maintenance agreements booked as revenue the day the money lands.
In most books
A great spring and a terrible October, with no liability for the visits still owed — or for deposits on jobs that haven't shipped.
What I do
Agreement revenue spread across the term, deposits held as deposits, unearned balance reported every month.
Job cost
Truck stock expensed on the supply-house invoice date.
In most books
Margin swings with when you stocked the trucks. Manitoba RST on a real-property install gets coded as recoverable — it isn't.
What I do
Material held until the job it belongs to, with a count that ties. That RST goes into the job's cost, because you pay it and don't bill it.
Labour
Techs, apprentices, dispatch and you in one payroll line.
In most books
No loaded cost per tech hour, so no way to tell whether your service rate covers the truck it arrives in. Callbacks are invisible.
What I do
Field labour, warranty and overhead split apart, with a loaded cost per field hour against hours actually billed.
Commercial work adds progress billings, holdbacks and work in progress — reported, not netted into one receivable.
The monthly pack
Numbers you can run a shop on.
- Gross margin by install, service, maintenance and parts
- Revenue and gross profit per field hour
- Revenue per truck
- Average install ticket and average service ticket
- Agreements in force and unearned balance
- Loaded cost per tech hour
- Warranty and callback cost as a share of field labour
- Unbilled work in progress and holdback receivable
- Aged receivables and deposits held
- 13-week rolling cash flow
What appears depends on your tier and on what your field software captures.
Adjacent trades
Plumbing, electrical and refrigeration too.
Same trucks, same four faults, same work.
If you already have a bookkeeper
Plenty of shops do. Plenty should keep them.
The case for moving is when you can't say what an install actually made.
Next step
Bring one month of books and a job you're unsure about.
A 30-minute call, no charge. If a generalist at a lower price is the right answer for where you are, I'll say so.
Mason Dunning is a CPA candidate, not a Chartered Professional Accountant.