A margin review answers one question: after every real cost, what did your furnace replacements earn? We take a sample of your recent installs, rebuild each job's cost from your own records, and show the result by equipment tier, job type and crew. You leave with numbers you trust and one pricing change you can put into effect before the next cold month.
Who this review is for
It suits owners who are busy every heating season but don't see matching cash in the bank by April. It also suits companies that set their prices years ago and have only nudged them since, and owners about to spend more on marketing who want to know which jobs are worth buying.
If you already track job costing to the hour and review it monthly, you probably don't need us for this. Go straight to the repair-or-replace process instead.
What is included
The review covers the costs that usually go missing from a furnace quote:
- Equipment and materials, at what you actually paid after rebates from suppliers, plus venting, pads, line sets for dual-fuel jobs, and the small parts that disappear onto trucks.
- Loaded labour: wages plus the payroll costs, vehicle time and paid drive time attached to each hour.
- Second trips for missing parts, permit inspections and adjustments.
- Warranty labour you absorb in the first year.
- Sales time: the hours spent on in-home quotes, including the ones that didn't close.
- Overhead share: rent, office staff, software, insurance and the owner's salary, spread over your annual job count.
We then show the margin per job in a simple table and flag the job types that sit below your target.
A worked example
Here is the kind of finding a review produces, using round illustrative numbers rather than any client's data. A company sells two tiers: a mid-efficiency gas furnace at $6,900 and a high-efficiency model at $8,400. On paper the higher tier earns $700 more. Once the review adds the extra venting time, a higher rate of first-year adjustment calls and longer quotes for the premium tier, the gap shrinks to about $250. Meanwhile, attic and crawlspace installs at both tiers are running four hours over the estimate. The change is not "raise everything"; it is a site-condition surcharge and a revised labour allowance.
What you'll need to send
Invoice exports for the sample jobs, the matching equipment and material costs, timesheets or schedule records showing crew hours, and a list of return visits. Your annual overhead totals by category help us allocate costs fairly. You can strip customer names before sending anything.
Timeline
- Week 1: you send the exports; we ask questions about anything unclear.
- Week 2: we rebuild the job costs and draft the margin table.
- Week 3: a meeting, in person or by video call, to walk through the findings and agree the first pricing change.
Most reviews finish within three to four weeks, depending on how quickly the data arrives.
How results are measured
We agree two measures before the change goes live: margin per replacement on new jobs, and close rate on quotes. A price change that lifts margin but drops close rate sharply needs a second look. We compare the first 15 to 20 jobs after the change with the sample we reviewed. We don't promise a particular figure; we promise you'll be able to see what happened.
Mistakes to avoid
- Comparing your prices with a competitor's advertised number. Their cost base and callback rate are not yours.
- Leaving out the owner's time. If you quote every job yourself, that time has a cost, and it hides margin problems.
- Raising every price at once in November. You lose the ability to tell which change did what.
- Ignoring the callback pattern. A cheap install that needs two return trips is not cheap.
Once the numbers are clear, most owners move on to the care-plan design or a deeper read of our margin worksheet guide. Pricing for a standalone review is quoted in writing; see the pricing page for the marketing plans.
Frequently asked questions
How many jobs do you need to look at?
Twenty recent replacements is a good minimum, ideally from more than one month and more than one crew. Fewer than that and one odd job can distort the picture.
We use flat-rate pricing already. Is this still useful?
Usually more so. Flat-rate books are often built once and rarely revisited, so equipment price increases and longer install times erode the margin quietly. The review tests whether the book still matches reality.
Do you need access to our accounting system?
No. An export of invoices, equipment costs and timesheets is enough. You decide what to share, and we work from copies.
Will you tell us what to charge?
We show what each job type earns and model the effect of price changes. The final price is your decision, and we can test it in a limited way first.