Commercial HVAC invoicing software: clear the holds before billing.
The tech has left the site, but the invoice is still waiting on hours, a parts price or somebody’s sign-off. Good invoicing software shows the office what’s missing so they can finish it.
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A finished visit, a reviewed report and an approved invoice each answer a different question. Pick one job that’s waiting on the office and work out what’s missing and who’s getting it.
Done, reviewed, approved, sent, paid
Visit completion means the field work is finished. The techs’ time and materials may still need checking, and a return visit may still be open.
Report review checks what was done and how the equipment was left. Invoice approval checks the charges and customer details. The customer hasn’t received anything yet at either step.
Customer delivery has its own status: a queued email hasn’t gone out yet, and a failed one needs a look. Payment comes after that. When you compare systems, check that you can tell all five apart.
Five invoices on hold
These five jobs are made up, and each one is stuck for a different reason. Swap in whoever handles each step in your shop.
Scroll sideways to see what’s holding each job, what clears it and who handles it.
| Job and hold | What’s missing | What clears it | Who handles it |
|---|---|---|---|
| EX-201 Hours | A two-tech reactive call has time from only one tech. | The second tech submits or fixes their time, and the reviewer checks both against the work. | Service coordinator |
| EX-202 Materials | The note says a contactor was replaced, but nobody has checked the quantity or the selling price. | Check the part and quantity against the tech’s capture or the parts record, then review the invoice line and price. | Billing reviewer |
| EX-203 Approved scope | The draft includes work outside the accepted pump-repair quote. | The service manager checks what the customer approved, and whether anything else was authorized, then fixes or confirms the draft. | Service manager |
| EX-204 PO number | This customer asked for a PO number, and the draft doesn’t have one. | Get the PO number and check the billing contact and service address before approval. | Office coordinator |
| EX-205 Nobody assigned | Everything is there, but nobody has picked it up for final review. | Assign someone to check the draft and either approve it or note what’s still unanswered. | Owner assigns a reviewer |
“Waiting on paperwork” doesn’t tell anyone what to do. “Missing the second tech’s hours; service coordinator following up” does. Once that’s sorted, read through the rest of the draft before approving it.
How BoltWright prepares the invoice
For time-and-materials work, BoltWright builds the invoice draft from the tracked labour and the materials the techs captured in Field. The office edits the lines and the customer reference, and checks quantities, prices and descriptions before approving.
Once approved, the invoice is locked as the customer’s copy, so later changes to the customer’s details don’t quietly rewrite it. Sending it is a separate step with its own status. Check that it actually went out, and record payment when it comes in.
Maintenance visits bill the way their agreement does. When the agreement is billed per visit, each visit is a job you invoice like any other, priced at the agreement’s annual value spread over its visits. When it’s billed monthly, quarterly or yearly, the visit takes no invoice of its own, so it isn’t billed twice. BoltWright doesn’t draft those scheduled agreement invoices, so settle how they’ll go out during setup.
Test one held invoice in a walkthrough
Bring a redacted service call with its time and materials, plus any accepted quote or PO number the customer asked for. Have whoever normally does your billing create the draft, fix one missing item and review the invoice. Then look at approval and sending as separate steps.
If your current system already gives the office a complete draft and a clear review step, a better handoff inside the team may be all you need. If you do switch, ask how open invoices are handled during the move; the switching checklist covers it.
For the field record behind the invoice, see the service-report guide. For the broader buying decision, see the commercial HVAC software guide.
Bring a job that’s still waiting to be billed.
We’ll walk through the field record, draft invoice, office review and customer copy in BoltWright. Bring the person who actually does your billing.
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