This website is dedicated to educating the HVAC, Heating, Air Conditioning, Refrigeration, Electrical, Plumbing, and Appliance industries on the concept of flat rate pricing.

This website is sponsored by the Aptora Corporation and maintained by Mr. HVAC (James R. Leichter). He's a nationally recognized expert with twenty four years of contracting experience. It is James Leichter's belief, and the opinion of most service management experts, that flat rate pricing is an essential and critical part of managing a profitable service business.

Flat rate pricing is simply offering your client a firm, up front price, before you do the work. This is what you are already doing whenever you write a sales proposal, sell a service agreement, or offer to perform a "clean & check" for a set price. Most industries use flat rate pricing.

• Flat rate pricing allows you to charge more because you are not itemizing your invoice.
• T&M invites unfair and uneducated criticism of your labor charges that you can’t justify. Consumers will always compare your hourly rate to their hourly pay. You'll never be able to justify reasonable labor rates.
• Customers complain less because they know the price before the work begins. No sticker shock. Customers approve everything. Customers also appreciate knowing their paying the same price for the same repair as everyone else.
• Collections are easier because prices and payment are discussed in advance.
• Technicians prefer it. A nationally standardized flat rate price book is authoritative and easier to explain. The price is “not their fault”.
• You will see fewer invoice errors because technicians copy the descriptions and prices right out of the book.
• Labor times are based on the “average technician”. Your company will benefit from fast efficient work.
• It’s easier to sell equipment against high repair costs because the customer can see the price of new versus the price of a repair.
• Maintenance agreements are easier to sell because the customer can see the discount they would get on the repair if they owned one.
• Experts overwhelmingly recommend flat rate pricing. The nation’s big franchises use it.

Where To Go From Here
We recommend that you first educate yourself on flat rate pricing. Once convinced, you should decide which company and what flat rate pricing option best suits your needs.

Some Flat Rate Pricing Misnomers
#1: We Don't Tell You How Much To Charge: A reputable flat rate book provider should never tell you what to charge. This is a personal decision that should be based on sound accounting and business analysis.

#2: Your Price Books Are Generally Very Small: You might do 100 different repairs 80% of the time. A good miscellaneous section covers the rest. Your books only need to be a couple of hundred pages.

#3: You do NOT have To Change Payroll: You can still have everyone clock in and clock out; or pay them anyway you wish. Flat rate pricing does allow you to pay your people based on performance (book time) just like the automotive industry is famous for doing.  Read More . . .