Industries / HVAC
No heat with a baby at home is not a Tuesday tune-up.
Works today
Dispatch no-cool calls, book tune-ups, run install days, rebook maintenance plans.
Apex separates the no-heat call from the spring tune-up, keeps slots free for emergencies when the first hot week hits, and turns each repair into a maintenance-plan follow-up.
Who it is for: Residential HVAC contractors from a two-van shop to a small fleet, running service calls, tune-ups and changeouts.
What generic schedulers get wrong for HVAC
Emergencies and tune-ups share one calendar
No heat with a vulnerable occupant outranks everything. A tune-up in the same slot type delays a call that cannot wait.
The first hot week breaks the schedule
Demand spikes at the first heat or cold snap. Without a cap on tune-ups, the slots for no-cool calls vanish first.
The membership is the business
Spring and fall visits, priority dispatch and a renewal date are what keep a shop fed. A generic recurring job does not carry priority or renewal.
The equipment has a history
Model, serial, install date, refrigerant and past readings decide the right truck stock and the follow-up. They belong on the site, not in a note.
Licenses and permits are job gates
Refrigerant certification on the tech, a state license on the quote and a permit before a changeout are checks, not fields.
Drawn in code for HVAC
A day in a HVAC business
- Emergency
- Service call
- Tune-up
- Changeout
- Membership visit
Red dot: emergency tier. Tune-ups are capped so no-cool calls keep their slots.
Critical, response promisedemergency
10:00 to 12:00
2:00 to 4:00
The emergency goes first and does not wait for a cluster.
Age triggers the call. Equipment history is in build.
An HVAC shop in a heat wave: emergencies first, tune-ups throttled, members still seen. Illustration of planned screens: entries are examples, not customer data, and not every screen shown is built yet.
How HVAC runs in Apex: the key settings
Starter settings for this trade. You change any of them. Nothing here is a promise about your numbers.
How jobs get booked
Emergency tiers (critical, urgent, priority) plus two-hour maintenance windows: 8-10, 10-12, 12-2, 2-4. Monday to Saturday.
Stops in a day
Around 6 service calls a day per tech; fewer on install days.
Routing
Dynamic cluster for maintenance and priority calls. A critical emergency ignores density.
Who says yes
Dispatcher confirms emergencies; maintenance can follow rules once pricing is firm.
How you price
Diagnostic fee credited to a repair, good-better-best replacements, and a membership.
Repeat customers
Two tune-ups a year, spring for cooling and fall for heat, generated ahead of time.
Follow-up calls
Same-day callback after an emergency, day-3 satisfaction check, day-30 warranty check.
Review requests
Review request a day after a paid job, held back if an issue is open.
What we ask the customer
- System type: split, package, heat pump, boiler
- Symptom and any thermostat error code
- Anyone at risk at home
- Age of the unit and last service
- Gas smell or carbon-monoxide alarm (stops and gives safety instructions)
- Attic or roof access
Photos and papers to collect
- Data plate photo
- Thermostat and error-code photo
- Outdoor unit photo for replacement estimates
Rules to watch
- Refrigerant certification on the assigned tech
- State contractor license shown on quotes
- Permit before a changeout
- Refrigerant leak-rate record
What you get as a HVAC business
7 of 17 work today. The other 10 are coming soon.
Two-hour windows with an on-my-way text
Customers see windows, not exact times, with opt-out handling and quiet hours.
Missed-call text-back
A heat call that goes to voicemail gets a text within the hour.
Tune-up reminders every six months
Spring and fall, stopped when the customer schedules.
Route density for maintenance days
Maintenance is offered where a tech already is.
Call-back tasks after a repair
Day-1 satisfaction and day-30 warranty calls with one-tap outcomes.
System sizing inputs from rooms
Square feet and room counts as inputs for a load calculation.
Starting pack for HVAC
Emergency windows, six stops a day and dispatcher approval as owner-confirmed defaults.
Emergency tiers with response promises
Critical, urgent and priority, each with its own response time and escalation.
On-call rotation with escalation
Primary, secondary and owner, with a ping if no one acknowledges a critical call.
Gas smell and carbon-monoxide stop
The intake stops and shows the safety instruction instead of creating a visit.
Tune-up cap during a heat wave
A seasonal throttle that keeps slots for no-cool calls.
Membership with priority dispatch
Sell once, visits appear on the account, members jump the queue, renewal tracked.
Flat-rate pricebook, good-better-best
Diagnostic credited to the repair, with a CSV import for the price list.
Equipment history on the site
Model, serial, install date, refrigerant and warranty end, with age-based outreach.
Multi-visit install template
Survey, permit, set, inspection, startup as dated steps with dependencies.
Truck stock gate
Warns before a one-visit promise on a part the truck does not carry.
Refrigerant certification and license tracking
Excludes a tech from a job when a certificate has lapsed.
The tools in HVAC, and where we can honestly do better
Tools our research found in use for HVAC: ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, FieldEdge, Successware, Service Fusion, Workiz. Listing a tool is not a claim about it.
ServiceTitan
Capterra reviewers describe onboarding, data migration and setup as difficult.
Review-site summary: Capterra, ServiceTitan reviewsWhat Apex does about it: Trade packs start from HVAC defaults you confirm, and import tools are built, so setup is a review of numbers rather than a rebuild. We have not timed it against anyone else.
ServiceTitan
Capterra reviewers mention upsell pressure and extra paid modules.
Review-site summary: Capterra, ServiceTitan reviewsWhat Apex does about it: Features are in the public plans rather than sold as separate modules. Memberships and the pricebook are in build.
FieldEdge Mobile 1.0
The iOS listing shows 1.78 stars across 424 ratings, as read 2026-10-06.
Public store listing: App Store listingWhat Apex does about it: Our crew app is in build. That store rating is the bar we are designing against, not a claim that ours is better yet.
Service Fusion
Capterra reviewers say it does not track maintenance agreements effectively, and mention occasional outages and slow support replies.
Review-site summary: Capterra, Service Fusion reviewsWhat Apex does about it: The membership engine is first-class in the design and is in build.
Successware
Capterra reviewers mention an outdated classic interface, no direct Excel pricebook import, and little automation.
Review-site summary: Capterra, Successware reviewsWhat Apex does about it: A pricebook CSV import is part of the build.
When another tool may be the better choice: ServiceTitan is the deepest HVAC platform and a serious choice above about ten trucks, with a long track record. Apex is much newer and narrower, and several HVAC items above are in build.
What it costs for HVAC
Apex lists three public plans, priced by users: Solo $59 per month for 1 user, Crew $99 for 2 to 5 users, Business $129 for 6 users plus $10 for each extra user. No plan includes any texts, AI phone minutes or AI usage. For this trade we would start you on Business. An HVAC shop with several techs, a dispatcher and an office usually passes five users, which fits Business.
Housecall Pro lists Basic at $59, Essentials at $149 and Max at $299 per month billed annually, or $79, $189 and $329 billed monthly. Workiz does not publish plan prices, so we show none. These are public figures as read on 2026-10-06, verify before buying. Seat counts and included features differ between vendors, and we have not verified every one, so compare your own crew size on the pricing page before you decide. Texts and AI run on your own provider account or a prepaid wallet, and card processing is at the processor's own rate.