For air-conditioning and refrigeration businesses in SE Queensland
Get through the summer quote rush without quoting until midnight.
Officehand builds air-conditioning businesses an assistant that drafts your ducted and split system quotes from a site voice note and photos, in your format, with the options you always offer, priced from your own distributor lists. You approve each one at night. Nothing goes to the customer until you do.
Best fit: air-con and refrigeration businesses with 5 to 20 staff doing installs and replacements, often with maintenance contracts on the side.
Your assistant
reads your business brain
“Existing ducted, about eighteen years old, six outlets. They want the upstairs zoned. Return air in the hallway, roof space is tight. Outdoor unit on the side path.”
Before you leave the street
Is the existing ductwork staying or being replaced? Single or three phase?Illustrative example
Where air-con quoting hurts
The jobs that make the money are the ones that wait for you.
The work it’s built around
- Ducted system installs and replacements
- Single and multi-head split systems
- Zoning, controllers and ductwork upgrades
- Commercial maintenance contracts and service visits
- Cool rooms and refrigeration
- Replacing failed systems in older homes
- New home and fit-out work for builders
- 01
Every October the phone melts
Quote requests pile up the first hot week. The installs that matter most sit in a pile until the weekend, and the customer has had three other quotes by then.
- 02
Good, better, best takes hours
Customers want options: two sizes, two brands, zoning or not. Every option is another round of copying lines and checking prices.
- 03
Prices and stock change
The unit you quoted last month has gone up, or it's on back order. Your template has no idea.
- 04
Service visits invoiced late
Maintenance runs get done on time. The invoices wait until somebody has a spare afternoon.
How a job would flow
For example: a ducted replacement in North Lakes
A made-up job, to show how the pieces fit. Your rules, your prices and your wording go in the business brain first.
- 1
11:15am
On site
Your tech walks the house and talks: the old system's size and age, outlets, the return air, roof space access, where the outdoor unit goes. Photos of the nameplate and the roof space.
- 2
11:18am
Gaps caught early
"Missing: is the existing ductwork staying or being replaced? And single or three phase?" Answered before the tech drives off.
- 3
Afternoon
Options drafted
Your rule says every ducted quote gets two sizes and an optional zoning add-on. Unit prices come from your distributor list with dates, labour from your rate card. The electrical line is flagged with no price.
- 4
9:05pm
You approve
You change the labour on one option, approve, and the quote goes out from your system in the morning.
- 5
Monday
The money email
Open ducted quotes by age and value, service visits done but not invoiced, and overdue maintenance invoices, in one email.
Ducted replacement, two options
Site: North Lakes · Drafted from the site voice note and photos
- Option A: 12.5 kW ducted system, supply$6,450Supplier listDistributor list, 29 Sep
- Option B: 14 kW ducted system, supply$7,120Supplier listDistributor list, 29 Sep
- Remove old system, recover refrigerant$420Rate cardYour rate card
- Install, new ducting to 6 outlets$2,240Rate cardRate card, 2 techs x 8 hrs
- Optional: 4-zone controller$890Supplier replySupplier reply, 3 Oct
- Electrical: isolator and circuitAskNo sourceNo source yet. Ask your electrician
Every line shows where its price came from. The red line has no source yet, so the assistant leaves it blank and asks you.
Built in stages
What the assistant would do for air-conditioning and refrigeration businesses.
Each stage is useful on its own, has a fixed price quoted up front, and is paid for once it's live. These are the stages that usually matter most in your trade.
Start
The Check
A$495, refund test, credited to the build
Stage 1Key
The business brain
Your rules, written down once
Stage 2Key
Quote builder
Site notes in, draft quote out
Stage 3Key
Supplier prices
Prices gathered while you work
Stage 4Key
Profit per job
Which jobs actually make money
Stage 5
Back office and the 7pm briefing
Paperwork drafted, you approve
Stage 1 · The business brain
Your sizing rules of thumb, your options per job type, your margins and your site checklist.
Stage 2 · Quote builder
Ducted and split system quotes with your standard options, drafted from the tech's walk-through.
Stage 3 · Supplier prices
Price and stock checks with your distributor and your electrician, sent at opening time.
Stage 4 · Profit per job
Profit per install and per maintenance contract, and service visits that never got invoiced.
From Your assistant to you and the office
Monday money: 3 things need you this week
Paid last week
$18,640
Also worth a look
4 ducted quotes over 14 days
Books reconciled up to Fri 2 Oct · every line links to its job number
The Monday money email, with made-up figures. Every line links to a job number you can check.
Your tools stay
Keep the software you already pay for.
The assistant works around your job software and Xero, and prices from your distributor and wholesaler price lists. No new platform to learn and nothing to migrate.
Software air-conditioning and refrigeration businesses commonly use
- simPRO
- ServiceM8
- AroFlo
- Fergus
- Tradify
- Xero
Listed for compatibility only. Where your software allows a read-only key or exports, I work from those. Where it doesn’t allow outside tools, a person enters the approved quote. Officehand isn’t affiliated with, endorsed by or a certified partner of any of these companies.
The way in
See the dollars before you decide anything.
Most air-conditioning and refrigeration businesses I talk to have no idea what's sitting in old quotes and unbilled jobs. Find out first.
Step one
Free 15-minute look
Free. Nothing to sign.
On your own screen, with you driving. No access key, nothing to sign. I'll point at two or three quotes that went quiet and any finished jobs with no invoice, and tell you straight whether the Check is worth it for you.
The way in
Quotes & Cash Check
A$495
Fixed price · No GST charged
A fixed-price look at the money sitting in your quotes and invoices. Dollar figures and job numbers, so you can check every line.
- Quotes that went quiet. Open quotes more than 14 days old, ranked by value, with job numbers.
- Finished jobs not invoiced. Work that's done but never billed, and how many days jobs usually wait for an invoice.
- Invoices running late. Overdue invoices by age, and where Xero and your job software disagree about what's been paid.
- Hours spent quoting. Roughly how many hours a week you and your team spend building quotes, and where it goes.
The refund test
If it doesn’t find at least three items of A$500 or more, or A$2,000 in total, you get your A$495 back. Credited in full to your first build stage if you go ahead within 30 days.
Ground rules
- You approve everythingNothing reaches a client, and nothing gets paid or signed, without a person saying yes. The assistant drafts. You decide.
- No price without a sourceEvery price traces back to a supplier list, a supplier reply, your rate card or a number you typed. If it can't trace a price, it stops and asks. It never guesses a price or measures from a photo.
- Your data stays yoursXero, the business brain, your price lists and your phone number stay in your name. Leave with 30 days' notice and take a full export.
- It doesn't talk to your customersThe assistant doesn't message or phone your customers. It drafts wording for you, and you send it from your own email or job software, when you choose.
Local
For air-con businesses across South-East Queensland
Brisbane's northside estates, the Sunshine Coast, Moreton Bay, Logan, Ipswich and the Gold Coast all hit the same wall when the first hot week arrives. I'm on the Sunshine Coast and work with air-conditioning businesses across the region. The best time to set this up is before the rush, but the Check is useful any time of year.
- Based
- Sunshine Coast, QLD
- Phone
- 0420 535 327
- Areas
- Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Moreton Bay, Gold Coast, Logan, Ipswich, Noosa, Redlands
FAQ
Questions from air-conditioning and refrigeration businesses
Something else? Ring me on 0420 535 327.
Can it build good, better, best options?
Yes. If your rule is two sizes plus an optional zoning add-on for every ducted quote, the draft comes back that way every time, with each option priced from your own lists.
Can it size a system or work out heat loads?
No. Sizing is your call, made on site by your people. The assistant can apply your rules of thumb as prompts (for example, flag any open-plan area over a size you set) but it doesn't measure, design or guess.
Will it help in the summer rush?
That's when it earns its keep. Drafts are waiting each night, so you approve instead of build. It won't create more installers, so it's still worth being honest with customers about lead times.
Does it work with simPRO, ServiceM8 or AroFlo?
For the Check I use a read-only key you create, or exports from your system. For the build, the approved quote goes into your job software as the record. I'll tell you on the free look what works with yours.
What about maintenance contracts?
The Monday money email shows service visits that are done but not invoiced, and overdue maintenance invoices by age. The profit view shows whether each contract is worth renewing at its current price.
Does it contact my customers?
No. It drafts quotes and follow-up wording for you. You or your office send them, from your own email or job software.
How much does it cost?
The Quotes & Cash Check is A$495 (no GST charged), with a refund test: if it doesn't find at least three items of A$500 or more, or A$2,000 in total, you get your money back. It's credited to your first build stage if you go ahead within 30 days. Each build stage then has a fixed price, quoted after the Check, and you pay for a stage once it's live. My first three clients get founding client pricing. The free 15-minute look costs nothing.
No sign-up, no access key
Book a free 15-minute look for your air-con business.
On your own screen, with you driving. No access key, nothing to sign. If it won't pay for itself for you, I'll say so.