CONTROLQORE FOR HVAC CONTRACTORS.
Generic accounting software can't report service agreements, replacement, and new construction as three different businesses, hold a refrigerant cost against the date it was quoted, or tell you what the A2L retool did to the cost of operating a truck. ControlQore can.
ControlQore for HVAC contractors keeps service agreements, replacement and new construction as three divisions. Each has its own cost codes, overhead allocation, margin structure and P&L. Refrigerant and equipment get a dated price basis on every bid, so a quote written under one regulatory posture isn't billed out under the next one. A2L tooling and certification cost is coded to the truck it was spent on. The WIP schedule is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete on the construction division. That's where pay applications, retainage and the 51-day average payment wait Billd reported in 2026 apply.
The refrigerant rules changed twice in eighteen months, and each change repriced inventory, equipment and tooling decisions already made. R-454B came with a 42 percent producer surcharge plus a $4 per pound base increase, then another $2.85 per pound. Cylinders were reported at $650 to $700, against roughly $350 for R-32. A2L equipment costs 15 to 20 percent more to manufacture and reaches the customer 8 to 10 percent higher. Then EPA removed the R-410A install deadline in a final rule effective July 27, 2026, which repriced every legacy inventory position overnight. One blended P&L can't tell you which of those costs you absorbed and which ones you passed through. HVAC contractors at $1M to $5M net 8 percent before taxes on the SPM 48-trade dataset, against a CFOS target of 11.5 percent before taxes.
THE NUMBERS GENERIC SOFTWARE MISSES.
WHAT IT IS.
ControlQore is a job costing and WIP platform for commercial subcontractors at $1M to $12M that tracks cost by division, job, and cost code, so an HVAC contractor can read cost and margin per book, meaning service agreements, replacement, and new construction, each on its own cash curve.
WHERE IT GOES WRONG.
One P&L Across Three Different Businesses
Service agreements are recurring, fast-paying and high margin. Replacement depends on the weather, is consumer-financed and turns over fast. New-construction work depends on pay applications, retainage and the 51-day average payment wait Billd reported in 2026. If you report all three in one P&L, you price all three wrong and can't see which book is supporting the company. Since the A2L transition each book also has different refrigerant costs, so the blend is now wrong in a fourth way.
Refrigerant Quoted Against a Rule That Moved Twice
Contractors priced, stocked, tooled and certified for the end of R-410A equipment production. Then EPA called the install deadline a low enforcement priority and removed it altogether in a final rule effective July 27, 2026. Pre-2025 units can be installed until supply is used up, and state law can still be stricter. If nothing in your accounting system records what a bid's refrigerant pricing was based on and when, you can't tell a repricing event from a bad job.
Certification and Tooling Lost in Overhead
The A2L retool cost $3,000 to $8,000 per truck on top of a Section 608 update. Certified, tooled shops billed labor at 18 to 30 percent above pre-transition rates while the rest of the market caught up. Coded as overhead, that spend looks like an expense that made the year worse. It was the product. A generic chart of accounts doesn't tie the tooling cost to the billing rate it allowed. So the return never gets measured, and the next compliance decision gets made on feel.
Seasonality Treated as a Cash Surprise
Replacement demand spikes with heat waves and cold snaps. So you staff for peaks you can't schedule, then pay the bench through the shoulder months. Without the service agreement book reported on its own, you can't see how much of that bench recurring revenue already pays for. Or how much comes out of construction receivables that are 51 days out. The cash squeeze then looks like a slow month when it's built into how the shop works.
WHAT WE BUILD.
SPM sets up ControlQore with service agreements, replacement and new construction as separate divisions. Each has its own cost codes, overhead allocation and P&L. Monthly reporting puts gross margin and cash cycle for all three side by side. Technicians and crews post to the division they worked in, so the split comes from how work gets recorded. Nobody rebuilds a spreadsheet at month end.
Every bid records the date its refrigerant and equipment pricing was taken, and longer jobs include escalation language tied to it. In ControlQore, refrigerant posts to its own cost codes by type, so R-454B, R-32, and reclaimed R-410A are reported apart from each other. When a surcharge or a rule change moves the cost, you can see which jobs were bid before it and which were bid after, and price the next one against something better than memory.
A2L recovery equipment, leak detection and the certification cost behind them are coded to the truck and the division they serve. The cost then shows next to the billing rate it supports. So you can measure the 18 to 30 percent labor premium a certified shop can charge against the $3,000 to $8,000 per truck that made it possible. The compliance spend gets treated as capital in the business, which is what it is.
The service agreement book is reported on its own, with renewal count, revenue per agreement and margin tracked monthly. That book evens out the weather-dependent replacement peaks. It tells you how much of the bench the shoulder months can support. It also goes into the 13 week cash flow forecast. There, recurring service inflow and construction pay-app inflow are modeled separately because they behave nothing alike.
The WIP schedule is produced monthly from cost-to-cost percentage complete on the new-construction division, where pay applications and retainage apply. Underbilled positions trigger a corrected pay application. Overbilled positions flag jobs where billing is ahead of production, which on equipment-heavy HVAC scopes with stored units is easy to do. Service and replacement stay out of the WIP, because putting them in it makes the schedule useless to a banker or a surety.
THE OUTPUTS, LISTED.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SOFTWARE INVOICE.
Three tiers, priced by your trailing twelve month revenue. ControlQore comes with Strategic and Platinum, and it never appears as its own line item on an SPM invoice. Which tier you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk.
Built for subs doing $1M to $12M. Above $12.5M we quote.
| Last 12 months revenue | Core | Strategic | Platinum | One-time onboarding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $1M | $1,900 | $3,100 | $3,300 | $2,500 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 | $4,100 | $5,300 | $4,500 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 | $5,900 | $8,300 | $6,000 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 | $7,600 | $11,800 | $7,500 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 | $8,900 | $14,900 | $9,000 |
| Above $12.5M | Quoted | Quoted | Quoted | Quoted |
The onboarding fee covers migrating your books back to the start of your last taxable year and getting you fully operational in 60 days. It's billed once, with your first invoice. It's the same for all three tiers, and it moves with your revenue band. Your first month is prorated, and your monthly engagement starts on the first of the first full month.
Just want the setup? Onboarding only is the same onboarding work with no monthly service after it, one time, at the onboarding fee plus $2,000. Start a monthly engagement later and $2,000 counts toward it. It starts at $4,500, and the price for every band is on the pricing page.
The three tier columns are the whole price. Which one fits depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No payroll. No hidden line items. The onboarding fee is right here in the table.
- Online software only: QuickBooks, Sage, Viewpoint and similar. No VPN or hosted desktop.
- Not in any tier: payroll, pay applications, collections on receivables.
- Pricing valid through 2027.
CFO work. Your own bookkeeper keeps doing the books.
We build your plan every month. Your team does the work.
You get the CFO work: job costing built to match the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, WIP every month, and a monthly meeting that ends with decisions.
Your bookkeeper still does the books.
Core, plus bookkeeping and bank reconciliations, plus job costing and WIP software set up and managed for you. Use your own online accounting software or we supply it, one price.
We build the plan, track it and adjust it every month.
We only work with trade subcontractors. We know what to look for, and we fix problems while they're still small. Everything in Core, plus the bookkeeping and bank reconciliations done for you, and the job costing and WIP software set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed every month. Use your own online software, or move to ours and we pay for it.
Our team does the bookkeeping and the reconciliations. We don't do payroll.
Strategic, plus a controller who handles payables and receivables the way an in-house controller would. You approve every payment.
We manage the money side for you, every week.
Everything in Strategic, plus our team does the controller work. We handle your bills and receivables the way an in-house controller would: we call vendors, pay the bills and keep the accounting current. We plan the cash flow first, and you approve every payment because it is your money.
Our team does the payables and receivables. We don't do payroll, pay applications or collections.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
