HVAC and Air Conditioning Contractor Software

The office side

From the pressure test to
the fortieth service visit.

VRF and split systems, chillers, air handling units, ventilation or a book of maintenance contracts: the plant differs, the record around it does not.

Getting a system in, pressure tested, evacuated and charged is the part an HVAC firm already has right. The money sits in what follows: the gas added on the day, a leak check interval set by the charge, and a contract whose visits land every quarter for years.
Unibuild is bespoke business software for UK trades and specialist contractors: a platform in daily production since 2016, shaped to the way each firm already works. One account carries the labour run, the asset register with its F-Gas records, competence, documents, variations and applications for payment. One of the firms running on it today is an M&E and air conditioning contractor in Croydon.

All of it on one account, with every engineer on it and never a charge per seat.

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Built for HVAC

What air conditioning work requires,
and what Unibuild provides.

A cassette in an office and a chiller on a roof look alike in a job list. They stop looking alike when somebody asks what the charge is, when it was last leak checked, and who was qualified to recover the gas. Each requirement is followed by what the platform does about it.

Set by the charge, not the calendar

The leak check interval follows the gas in the system

In Great Britain, a system holding five tonnes of CO2 equivalent or more is leak checked at least every twelve months. From fifty tonnes it is every six months, and from five hundred tonnes every three.

CO2 equivalent is the charge in kilograms multiplied by the refrigerant's global warming potential
Automatic leak detection doubles the interval, and is mandatory from five hundred tonnes
Gas installed, added and recovered, and every check, is recorded and kept for five years
The same charge of R410A and R32 can fall either side of the five tonne line

The CO2 equivalent, worked out on each asset

Maintained assets holds refrigerant, charge weight and GWP against each system and calculates the CO2 equivalent, with the five tonne reference charge shown for that refrigerant. Leak checks are recorded per system with the engineer's ACRIB card number, and each next due date is flagged thirty days ahead. The logbook prints in REFCOM presentation.

Runs onMaintained assets and PPM Compliance and certification

Two certificates, one of them personal

The firm is certified, and so is each engineer

A business that installs, services or decommissions stationary air conditioning, refrigeration or heat pump equipment containing F gas needs a company certificate. REFCOM, Quidos and Bureau Veritas issue them. Each engineer doing the work needs a handling qualification of the right category.

Category I covers the full scope on a system of any size
Card schemes, IPAF and PASMA renew on their own dates
Rooftop plant adds working at height and permits to the day
Who may recover gas on Thursday is a question with a legal answer

One grid, every qualification, warned before a card lapses

The training matrix holds each qualification, card and ticket against the person with the certificate attached and its own expiry where it has one, banded amber inside ninety days. Who can take next week's chiller service is a filter, not a phone round.

Runs onTraining and competence People and HR records

Installed once, maintained for years

The installation becomes a maintenance contract

The system is commissioned, handed over with its O&M information, and then serviced to a schedule. Filters quarterly, coils and drains on their own pattern, and the SFG20 task list behind every visit.

The contract side runs on programme, variations, retention and applications
The service side runs on assets, frequencies and visit records
The same engineers move between both in the same week
The renewal meeting asks for proof that every visit happened

Both sides on one account, sharing the same people

Maintained assets holds the register with a twelve month PPM pattern per asset, SFG20 schedules and every visit in date order with photographs. Applications for payment runs the installation side, so a week split between a fit-out and a service round still reconciles.

Runs onMaintained assets and PPM Applications for payment

Found on the visit, priced on the visit

The remedial is where the margin is

A quarterly visit finds a failed condensate pump, a noisy fan motor or oil at a flare joint. Priced and agreed while the engineer is standing there, it is work. Written in a notebook, it is usually nothing.

Remedials are found by the engineer, not by the office
The client wants a price before approving it
A breakdown in a comms room is an emergency with a clock on it
Every call-out needs one record from the phone call to the invoice

Priced and signed on the phone, against the asset

Onsite quotes and variations are raised, priced, photographed and signed on site, with your costs and margin kept off the client's copy. Call-outs carry one numbered record from the first phone call to the invoice.

Runs onOnsite quotes and variations The field app

Dates that belong to the building

Some inspections are the owner's duty and your diary

An air conditioning system with an effective rated output over 12kW needs an inspection by an accredited energy assessor at least every five years. Larger refrigeration plant sits under the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations, with a written scheme of examination.

TM44 is the method the five yearly inspection follows
The owner carries the duty and usually expects the contractor to say when it is due
A pressure system has its own examination intervals, set in the written scheme
Kitchen extract and ductwork hygiene run to TR19 on their own frequency

The report on the asset, the visit on its pattern

Inspection reports and written schemes attach to the asset, so the paperwork travels with the plant. Planned visits show as maintenance due on the expiry page, beside calibration and every other watched register.

Runs onReminders and expiry Compliance and certification

Cylinders, not boxes

Refrigerant moves in serial numbered cylinders

Virgin gas arrives in cylinders that go back to the supplier. Recovered gas leaves site in recovery cylinders that must be accounted for. Both live in vans, and both carry a number that belongs on the record.

A recovery cylinder with gas in it is not stock, it is a liability
Recovery machines, vacuum pumps and gauges need their own service record
Outdoor units and indoor units carry serials the warranty depends on
A van is a store that drives home every night

Serials, bin locations and a full movement history

Assets and inventory holds stock, cylinders and equipment by item with serial numbers and bin locations, and every movement is an entry rather than an edit. Vehicles and fleet carries the vans, their MOT and service dates and the daily walk-round.

Runs onAssets and inventory Vehicles and fleet

The week

An ordinary week in an air conditioning firm,
and the record it leaves.

Six entries from an HVAC contractor's day book, each ending in the record rather than the reminder.

An engineer fitting spiral ductwork in a commercial ceiling void

Monday, the roof

A VRF system is commissioned. The additional charge, the pressure test and a photograph of the data plate are entered against the outdoor unit on the phone before the engineer comes down.

Charge on the asset

Tuesday, the office

Next month's quarterly visits to a client's forty cassettes go on the labour run. The matrix answers who holds the right category and a current IPAF card.

Allocated on competence

Wednesday, the plant room

A chiller is leak checked. The result, the engineer's card number and the next date are recorded against the asset, and the interval follows from its CO2 equivalent.

Next check dated

Thursday, the call-out

A comms room unit trips. The engineer scans the QR label on the indoor unit and reads its history and last gas added before opening a panel.

Arrived knowing

Friday, the remedial

A condensate pump found failing on Thursday is priced on the phone, signed by the facilities manager, and converted into an order without being retyped.

Signed before it was fitted

Eleven months later

The chiller's annual service shows as maintenance due ahead of its month, with last year's leak check result and gas record already on the asset.

Booked before it lapsed

Your system, your app

Shaped to your firm,
published under your name

Anything a firm needs is built for it, and changes asked for after go-live are included in the monthly fee. See how bespoke software works at Unibuild.

Your contract formsYour PPM checklist, your commissioning sheet and your F-Gas report layout are set up as your firm already uses them. Nobody relearns the job to suit the software.
A working startThe build starts from a working platform rather than an empty screen. A firm gets the fit of a bespoke system without the cost, the timescale or the risk of commissioning one from scratch.
Your app on the storesYour staff app is published on the App Store and Google Play under your company's own name and icon. The engineer on the roof opens your firm's app, not ours. How the branded staff app works.
Your letterheadThe office portal carries your name, logo and colours, and fifty-eight document types generate on your own letterhead, from the service report to the F-Gas record.

The stores

What an HVAC and air
conditioning firm holds

The stores, the vans and the plant you maintain for clients, and the quirk in each line that breaks ordinary inventory software.

What a UK HVAC and air conditioning contractor holds, and the tracking quirk in each line
Category	Typical items	The tracking quirk
Units and plant	Outdoor condensing units, cassettes and wall units, VRF branch boxes, chillers, air handling units, fan coils	Each carries a serial and a warranty that starts on commissioning, and the F-Gas record follows the unit rather than the job
Refrigerant	Virgin gas cylinders by refrigerant, recovery cylinders, oil	Cylinders are returnable and serial numbered, and recovered gas is a record in its own right rather than a stock movement
Pipe and insulation	Copper coil and lengths, flare and brazed fittings, lagging, trunking, condensate pipe and pumps	Sold by the metre and used by the offcut, and the coil on the van is never the length the system says it is
Ventilation	Ductwork, spiral and flexible duct, grilles, dampers, filters by size and grade	Filters are consumed on a schedule, so the stock you need next quarter is set by the PPM contracts rather than by the last order
Instruments	Gauge manifolds, electronic leak detectors, micron gauges, charging scales, recovery machines, vacuum pumps	A leak detector or scale out of calibration produces figures that look exactly like good ones, and every record it touched inherits that
Access	MEWPs, towers, podiums, ladders, roof edge protection	Hired for a week, kept for a month, and the operator needs a card that expires on its own date
Vans	Panel vans with racking, brazing kit, nitrogen	The van is a stock location and a place gas cylinders are carried, so what is on it matters for more than cost
Client plant you maintain	Systems under contract, their F-Gas logbooks, O&M files and SFG20 schedules	Not your stock and not your site, but your record, and every system has a leak check date whether the contract renewed or not

Regulations

The regimes an HVAC and air
conditioning firm works under

Most of the load is about the gas, the person handling it and the record left behind. The reference version, kept factual.

What each regime asks of an HVAC and air conditioning contractor
Regime	What it requires
GB F-Gas Regulation and the Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases Regulations 2015	A company certificate for firms installing, servicing or decommissioning stationary air conditioning, refrigeration and heat pump equipment, and a handling qualification for each engineer. Leak checks at least every twelve, six or three months from five, fifty and five hundred tonnes of CO2 equivalent, doubled with automatic leak detection.
F-Gas records	Records cover equipment from five tonnes of CO2 equivalent. They hold the gas installed and added, the date and result of every leak check, and what was recovered and where it went. They name the company that did the work and are kept for five years.
Air conditioning inspections (TM44)	Under the energy performance of buildings regulations, a system with an effective rated output over 12kW is inspected by an accredited energy assessor at least every five years. The report covers efficiency, maintenance, sizing and faults.
Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000	Refrigeration and air conditioning plant with installed power over 25kW is a pressure system. It needs a written scheme of examination drawn up or certified by a competent person, with examinations at the intervals the scheme sets.
Building Regulations Parts F and L	Ventilation rates, and the energy efficiency of fixed building services, including commissioning them and handing the owner the information needed to run them efficiently.
SFG20 and TR19	SFG20 is the industry maintenance specification, setting tasks and frequencies per asset type. TR19 is the BESA guide to ductwork and kitchen extract hygiene, and sets the cleaning record insurers commonly ask to see for kitchen extract.
CDM 2015, CIS and the VAT reverse charge	Installation on a construction project sits under CDM. Installing an air conditioning or ventilation system is a construction operation under the Construction Industry Scheme. HMRC treats repairs to an existing system as outside it, unless the same contract covers building work. What counts as construction work under CIS sets out each case. The domestic reverse charge for VAT applies to most business to business supplies inside the scheme.

On the record

Questions HVAC and air
conditioning firms ask

The questions air conditioning contractors raise on a demonstration, answered on the record.

F-GasDoes it keep F-Gas records and leak check dates for each system?

Yes. Refrigerant, charge weight and GWP are entered against each system, and the CO2 equivalent that sets its leak check interval is calculated. Every leak check is recorded with its result and the engineer's ACRIB card number, and the next due date is flagged thirty days ahead. Gas installed, added and recovered goes into a dated logbook, which prints in REFCOM presentation for the client or the auditor. Unibuild keeps every record for seven years.

MaintenanceCan it run planned maintenance contracts to SFG20?

Yes. Each asset carries a twelve month PPM pattern with its SFG20 schedules attached. A completed visit is recorded against the asset with photographs, and the next due date follows. TM44 reports and pressure system written schemes attach to the asset as well, so their dates show as maintenance due beside every other watched register. How maintained assets works.

CompetenceCan we see who is qualified to take next week's chiller service?

Yes. Each engineer's F-Gas handling qualification, cards and tickets sit against the person with the certificate attached. Anything with an expiry date is banded amber inside ninety days and red once passed. IPAF, PASMA and manufacturer training sit on the same grid, so allocating a job becomes a filter rather than a phone round.

ClientsCan our clients see their own F-Gas records and service history?

Yes, through the client portal, read only and scoped to their own contracts. A facilities manager opens the service history with photographs, downloads the F-Gas record and the SFG20 schedules, and sees the qualifications of the engineer who attended. Clients also see and approve quotes there.

BreakdownsHow are breakdowns and remedials handled?

Each call-out is one numbered record from the phone call to the invoice. The engineer scans the QR label on the unit and reads its history and last gas added before opening a panel. A remedial found on the visit is priced, photographed and signed on the phone, with your costs and margin kept off the client's copy. Once signed, it becomes an order without being retyped.

RefrigerantCan we account for refrigerant cylinders and recovered gas?

Yes. Virgin and recovery cylinders are held by serial number with their bin location, and every movement is an entry rather than an edit. Gas recovered from a system is recorded in that system's logbook. The vans that carry the cylinders sit in vehicles and fleet, with their MOT, service dates and daily walk-round.

SignalDoes the app work in a basement plant room with no signal?

Yes. The field app works on sites with no coverage. Clock-ins and what the engineer records are stored on the phone and synced with the office as soon as it is back in signal.

Other tradesWe also do heating and electrical work. Can it all run on one account?

Yes. Many firms run all three on one account, with the same engineers, timesheets and costs across them. Heating and plumbing contractors covers the wet side and gas appliances. M and E and building services covers the whole building services picture, electrical side included.

The marketWhat software do UK HVAC and air conditioning contractors use?

An HVAC firm needs the F-Gas record per asset, the engineers' qualifications, the maintenance contract and the installation contract on one account. Unibuild holds all four, shaped to the way each firm already works. The same engineers, timesheets and costs feed both the service book and the applications for payment.

PricingHow is it priced, and do you charge per engineer?

No. One monthly figure covers everything, with unlimited users on every plan, quoted in writing, usually the same working day. It is sized to the firm when quoted and fixed for three years, so taking on more engineers never changes it. Configuration, training and data migration are included. Most firms go live in about two weeks, in phases, and the 14-day trial is the full platform with no card needed. How pricing works.

Free RAMS templates

RAMS for this work, already filled in.

Risk assessments and method statements pre-filled for the work this trade does, free in PDF and Word, each with the law and a toolbox talk.

Other trades

Not quite your
line of work?

The same platform, written for the trade that runs it.
Each of these is a different set of modules
switched on rather than a different product.
Every one is shaped to the firm's own process,
with its own app under its own name.