7 Numbers Every $3M–$8M HVAC Owner Should Look at Monthly (That Your CPA Probably Isn't Talking About)

Your CPA sends you a P&L every quarter. Maybe a balance sheet. You glance at it, see that you made money (or didn't), and get back to running calls.

That's not financial management. That's looking in the rearview mirror and hoping the road ahead is clear.

If you want to actually manage your HVAC business by the numbers—not just report on it after the fact—you need a different set of metrics. HVAC-specific metrics. Numbers that tell you what's working, what's broken, and where to focus.

Here are the 7 numbers I put on every HVAC client's monthly dashboard.

1. Net Profit Percentage (True, Not "I Think")

What it is: Your actual bottom-line profit as a percentage of revenue. After everything—payroll, materials, overhead, taxes, owner compensation.

Why it matters: This is the scoreboard. Everything else feeds into this. If you don't know your true net profit percentage, you're guessing about whether your business is healthy.

Benchmarks for $3M–$8M HVAC:

• Danger zone: Under 5%
• Okay: 5–10%
• Good: 10–15%
• Elite: 15%+

Note: This assumes you're paying yourself a reasonable salary. If you're taking $50K salary and calling the rest "profit," you're fooling yourself. Pay yourself market rate, then measure profit.

2. Gross Margin by Division: Install vs. Service

What it is: Revenue minus direct costs (labor + materials), calculated separately for your install business and your service business.

Why it matters: Install and service have completely different economics. Blending them hides problems. You might have a great service department carrying a mediocre install department—or vice versa.

Benchmarks:

• Service gross margin: Target 55–65%. Under 50% is a problem.
• Install gross margin: Target 30–40%. Under 25% is tight.

If your install margins are consistently below 28%, you either have a pricing problem or a labor efficiency problem. Dig into your levers.

3. Average Ticket by Job Type

What it is: The average invoice amount for each type of work: service calls, tune-ups, repairs, residential installs, commercial installs.

Why it matters: This tells you about pricing power, tech performance, and market positioning. A declining average ticket (adjusted for mix) is an early warning sign.

Benchmarks (residential, varies by market):

• Service/repair call: $350–$500 average
• Tune-up/maintenance: $150–$250 average
• Residential system replacement: $8,000–$15,000 average

Track this by tech too. If Tech A averages $420/service call and Tech B averages $310, that's a conversation worth having.

4. Maintenance Agreement Count and Penetration Rate

What it is: How many active maintenance agreements you have, and what percentage of your customer base is on one.

Why it matters: Maintenance agreements are recurring revenue, customer retention, and your service call pipeline. They smooth seasonality and create predictable cash flow.

Benchmarks:

• Danger zone: Under 15% penetration
• Average: 15–25% penetration
• Good: 25–40% penetration
• Elite: 40%+ penetration

Also track: agreement renewal rate (should be 75%+) and average agreement value (are you leaving money on the table by underpricing?).

5. Revenue per Tech per Day (or per Truck)

What it is: Total service/install revenue divided by tech-days worked. Essentially: how productive is each tech?

Why it matters: This is a utilization and efficiency metric. Low revenue per tech means either not enough calls, inefficient routing, low close rates, or pricing issues.

Benchmarks (service techs):

• Danger zone: Under $1,200/day
• Average: $1,200–$1,800/day
• Good: $1,800–$2,500/day
• Elite: $2,500+/day

Install crews are different—measure by job margin and completion time rather than daily revenue.

6. AR Days (Days to Get Paid) by Customer Type

What it is: How many days, on average, between completing work and receiving payment. Broken out by customer type: retail, builder/GC, commercial, warranty/insurance.

Why it matters: Cash flow. AR days directly impact how much working capital you need. Every extra day your money sits in receivables is a day you're financing your customers.

Benchmarks:

• Retail service: Should be under 7 days (ideally same-day)
• Retail install: Under 15 days for cash/check, 45–60 for financing
• Builder/GC: 45–60 days is common (push for better if possible)
• Commercial: 30–45 days per contract terms
• Warranty/insurance: 60–90 days is unfortunately normal

If your blended AR days is over 45, look at your customer mix. Too much slow-paying work will strangle your cash flow.

7. Cash Runway in Weeks (Seasonality-Adjusted)

What it is: How many weeks of operating expenses you can cover with current cash on hand—accounting for seasonality.

Why it matters: This is your survival metric. HVAC has shoulder seasons. You need enough runway to bridge from summer to winter without panic.

How to calculate: Take your current cash balance. Divide by your average weekly operating expenses (payroll + fixed costs + typical variable). That's your runway.

Benchmarks:

• Danger zone: Under 4 weeks
• Tight: 4–8 weeks
• Healthy: 8–12 weeks
• Strong: 12+ weeks

Going into a shoulder season with 4 weeks of runway is playing with fire. You want 8+ weeks minimum heading into spring or fall.

Putting It Together: The One-Page Dashboard

These 7 numbers should fit on one page. You should see them every month. They should connect to decisions:

• Net profit dropping? Look at gross margins by division.
• Gross margin dropping? Look at average ticket and labor cost.
• Cash tight? Look at AR days and cash runway.
• Revenue flat? Look at maintenance penetration and tech productivity.

This is what it means to run your business by the numbers—not just review them after the fact.

"What gets measured gets managed. What gets measured in HVAC-specific terms gets managed well."

The Bottom Line

Your CPA isn't going to build this dashboard for you. Their job is taxes and compliance, not operational finance.

If you want to run your HVAC business with clarity—knowing exactly where you stand and where to focus—you need these 7 numbers on one page, updated monthly, tied to decisions.

That's what a fractional CFO does. That's what moves you from "I think we're doing okay" to "I know exactly where we stand."