FieldCrew Field Notes
Practical insights for HVAC owners: payroll leakage, job costing, time tracking, and how to see labour spend per job in real time.
Most HVAC owners don't see where their labour dollars actually go. Hidden payroll leakage—unallocated time, rounding errors, and job creep—costs the average contractor 8–15% in lost profit every year.
Job costing is the only way to know if a job made or lost money. Most HVAC shops still guess—here's how to move from guesswork to real numbers.
Rounding, missing records, and OT miscalculation can create wage-hour exposure. Here's what to avoid and how accurate time tracking reduces risk.
Jobs running over estimate kill margin. The fix isn't just "estimate better"—it's seeing actual labour per job and closing the loop between estimate and reality.
When labour cost is visible by job as the week unfolds, you can fix overruns and overtime before they lock in. Here's how to get there.
Paper and spreadsheet timesheets seem cheap—until you add the cost of errors, rework, and lost visibility into job cost. Here's the real comparison.
Revenue can look fine while profit stays thin. The real issue is usually labour—where it went, how it was coded, and whether you see cost per job.
Overtime isn't the enemy—unplanned overtime and lack of visibility are. Here's how to get control without cutting hours or morale.