Industries / HVAC Contractors. NYC Metro. $2M to $10M.

Fractional CFO for HVAC Contractors. NYC Metro. $2M to $10M.

The financial leadership built for HVAC contractors who have outgrown a bookkeeper. Service mix margin analysis, install profitability, dispatch productivity, equipment financing, and the banker readiness that scales the business.

Five financial problems specific to this work.

  1. Service mix margin distortion

    Maintenance, repair, and install have radically different margin profiles. Gross margin on a tune-up runs 55 to 70 percent. Repair runs 35 to 45 percent. Install runs 18 to 28 percent. The mix shifts every month, and a single rolled-up gross margin number lies to you.

  2. Truck-loaded inventory leakage

    $1,500 to $3,500 of parts on every truck, replenished weekly. Shrinkage from incorrect billing, returns not credited, and parts misallocated to the wrong job is a 1.5 to 3 percent margin drag on most HVAC contractors. Few track it.

  3. Dispatch productivity variance

    Best technician runs 6.5 billable hours a day. Worst runs 3.8. Same shift, same vehicle, same customer base. The financial impact is enormous and almost always invisible until quarter-end.

  4. Equipment financing decisions

    Heat pump, condenser, AHU, control panel financing. Five-year capital leases, dealer financing, manufacturer rebates, Section 179 timing. Most HVAC contractors finance equipment poorly because the dealer is the only voice in the room.

  5. New construction vs. retrofit margin

    On the bid sheet they look similar. In the books they are radically different businesses with different working capital profiles, different DSO, and different risk.

What we do for these engagements.

Result (anonymized).

$5.4M HVAC contractor, NYC Metro, mixed residential and light commercial. Came in with a consolidated 24 percent gross margin. We rebuilt the P&L by service line and uncovered maintenance at 62 percent, repair at 41, install at 22, new construction at 17. Shifted bid mix toward maintenance and repair, raised install pricing 7 percent, walked away from two new construction bid invitations below 15 percent target. Trailing 12-month gross margin moved from 24 to 31 percent without revenue compression.

Investment and next step.

Most engagements start with the three-week Diagnostic ($8,000 Standard, $12,000 Premium, $16,000 Comprehensive). After Diagnostic, roughly two-thirds move into the Monthly Retainer at $5,500 to $8,500 per month for CFO scope, or $4,500 to $5,500 per month for Controller scope.

Ready to know what your business actually looks like?

A 25-minute discovery call costs nothing and tells us both whether a Diagnostic is the right next step. If it is not, we will say so and point you in the right direction.

Book a 25-minute discovery call