Like HVAC, a refrigeration service technicians are arguably the most technically skilled technicians of any service industry. A good Refrigeration tech is a pretty good electrician. They’re pretty good plumbers. The can weld, solder, and braze. Most Refrigeration technicians can do basic carpentry. The problem is that all of these skills do nothing to prepare you to own and properly manage a heating and air conditioning business. That’s where excellent service management software is so helpful.

Total Office Manager was specifically designed to manage a Refrigeration service and installation business. In fact, Total Office Manager was designed by a lifelong HVAC/R contractor who fully understands the nuances of the industry.

Total Office Manager was built on a rock solid foundation of enterprise level accounting. Aptora then carefully added all of the features that a refrigeration business would need such as certified payroll, dispatching & scheduling, service agreements, service history, multiple warehouse inventory, serialized inventory, customer equipment tracking, warranty & callback tracking, labor efficiency analysis, and more - lot more.

We have even developed field management software for the iPhone, Android (Droid), and BlackBerry phones (smart phones). When your telephone rings, the software displays the caller ID information and instantly looks up the history behind that customer. You can enter an electronic phone message, sales lead, appointment, or work order. You can drag and drop refrigeration service calls, installations, or sales calls on to the dispatch board. Work orders and appointments can be sent to the field electronically. Invoices can be created from the field or the office can debrief the technician and create a sale from the dispatch board. There is never any double entry.

Total Office Manager includes credit card processing and ACH, so collections are faster and easier than ever before. You can print the invoice and email a PDF copy. The technician may also print invoices in the field. If the service technician uses parts from their truck, you can print an Inventory Sales Activity Report by vehicle. The parts reordering process is automated.

Refrigeration service managers can use the Invoice Profitability Analysis report to check the profitability of all your service calls. Your salespeople will love the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) features. They can create sales leads and track the entire sales process. Sales proposals and estimates are customizable. Installation managers can track change orders, print pick tickets for the installers, and automatically create work orders. You can even automatically create purchase orders for equipment (like a walk in freezer), parts (like a fan motor), and materials (such as line sets) that you don’t have in stock.

Job costing is an important part of managing a refrigeration business. Our Total Office Manager accounting software includes a comprehensive set of reports that make it easy to see how many hours you have into each job, which resturants are making you money, and more. You can quickly see how many hours you planned to use or how much money you budgeted for materials versus how much you spent. You may even print an Income Statement by job.

Refrigeration managers will benefit from the large collection of reports. Total Office manager even includes a unique Executive Summary and Financial Ratio Analysis. Your controller or bookkeeper can use the Bookkeeper’s Summary Report to keep up with important information. There is plenty of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to review.

Sales commissions are automatically calculated and pushed to payroll for approval. Technicians can be automatically paid bonuses and spiffs with put ypu having to do it manaully.

If you use QuickBooks, we can migrate all of your important accounting information into Total Office Manager (depending on your software version). Please call us for details.

The Story Behind Total Office Manager
James R. Leichter, a lifelong contractor, needed a better way to run his service and installation business. Frustrated with accounting software that was either “one-size-fits-all” or totally overpriced, James assembled a dream team of software programmers and accounting professionals and set out to make his own service business management software. Total Office Manager is the result of five intensive years of development and more than six more years of fine tuning. The result is an accounting scheduling software program that probably looks and functions a lot like what you may have always dreamed of owning.