Price a maintenance agreement from the bottom up: the cost of the scheduled visits (technician time, parts, travel), plus payment fees and GST, plus a margin. Then add perks that cost little, like priority response and repair discounts. Residential HVAC plans in the US typically run about US$150 to US$500 a year. In Australia, A$20 to A$60 a month is a realistic illustrative range.
Key takeaways
- A maintenance agreement is a mix of the book's bundled services and insurance models: scheduled work plus peace of mind.
- Industry guides say only about 30% of US homeowners schedule preventive maintenance each year, so most of the market is unserved.
- The plan fee covers the visits. The profit often comes from repair and replacement work members give you.
- Never promise to fix anything that breaks. Cap the cover and keep consumer guarantees separate from your plan.
Atlantic Refrigeration had 16 preventive maintenance contracts.
Three years later it had more than 50, and its service revenue had grown from $1 million to $1.8 million. That's the story ServiceTitan, the big US field-service software company, tells about one of its customers. (It's a vendor testimonial, so treat it as illustrative rather than typical.)
But the pattern is one every tradie will recognize.
You get busy in summer when the air conditioners die, and in winter when the hot water system packs it in. Then autumn arrives and the phone goes quiet. You're paying technicians, the van lease and the insurance while you wait for the next heatwave.
A maintenance agreement fixes that. Customers pay a small amount every month. You service their system in your quiet season. And when something does break, or needs replacing, you're the first call.
It's the oldest subscription in the trades. Most tradies just don't price it like one.
What is a maintenance agreement, in subscription terms?
In the book I describe eight subscription models. A good maintenance agreement blends two of them.
The first is bundled services: scheduled work the customer should be buying anyway, such as an annual aircon service, a hot water check or a switchboard inspection, packaged into one fee.
The second is the insurance model. People pay for peace of mind. They know someone will pick up the phone, turn up quickly and not charge a call-out fee. As I wrote in the book, if you have something that gives people peace of mind simply by having access to it, you have something that may work with the insurance model.
| Model | How it looks for a tradie | Fit |
|---|---|---|
| Bundled Services | One or two scheduled services a year, plus filters or consumables | Core of every plan |
| Insurance | Priority response, no call-out fee, after-hours rate waived | Core. Cheap to give, valuable to receive |
| Member Benefits | 10% to 15% off repairs and parts | Strong. Drives repair work your way |
| Minimum Commitment | 12-month term for commercial and landlord plans | Good for multi-unit customers |
How much should a maintenance agreement cost?
US industry guides put typical residential HVAC plans at about US$150 to US$500 a year, or US$15 to US$30 a month. A widely cited Mordor Intelligence figure, reported through a secondary compilation, says preventive maintenance contracts made up about 39% of US HVAC services revenue in 2025. The same guides say only about 30% of homeowners schedule preventive maintenance each year.
Read those as directional. Most come via vendors.
Here's an illustrative three-tier plan for an Australian air conditioning, plumbing or electrical business. Prices are in Australian dollars, including GST.
| Essential | Comfort | Total Home | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price (illustrative) | A$19 | A$35 | A$59 |
| Scheduled visits | One service a year, one system | Two services a year, up to three systems | Two visits a year covering cooling, hot water and an electrical safety check |
| Response | Priority booking | Priority booking, no call-out fee | Same-day priority where possible, no call-out or after-hours surcharge |
| Repair discount | 10% off labor | 15% off labor and parts | 15% off labor and parts |
| Extras | Service reminders | Filter replacement included | Annual written report, useful for landlords and insurers |
| Term | Month to month | Month to month, or 12 months paid annually | 12 months |
Price your maintenance plan properly
Enter your technician costs, travel, parts and visit frequency, and the free Subscription Price Calculator gives you a monthly price that covers GST and fees.
How do you know if your maintenance plan makes money?
This is where most plans go wrong. Tradies price them on what competitors charge, not on what a visit actually costs.
Worked example: the Comfort plan
Price: A$35 a month, including GST, or A$420 a year. Excluding GST: A$381.82.
Annual cost of delivering the plan: - Two visits at 1.25 hours each, technician cost loaded at A$75 an hour: A$187.50 - Filters and cleaning chemicals: A$20.00 - Travel and van cost for two visits: A$30.00 - Card and billing fees at about 2%: A$8.40
Plan contribution: A$135.92 a year per member.
Pull-through repair work: suppose 30% of members book a repair each year averaging A$600 at casual prices. At 15% off they pay A$510, or A$463.64 excluding GST. If parts and labor cost A$280, you keep A$183.64. Spread across all members: about A$55.09 a year each.
Total: about A$191 a year per member, before you count a single system replacement.
Here's the formula:
Annual member value = (Annual fee ÷ 1.1) − visit costs − payment fees + (repair rate × margin per repair)
The plan pays for itself. The repair and replacement work is the bonus. And the bonus can be big. When a member's 15-year-old system finally dies, they don't search online for three quotes. They call you.
Run your own numbers in the Subscription Price Calculator. Then see what 200 or 500 members would do to your revenue and cash flow with the Subscription vs One-off Profit Calculator, and how long a member is worth keeping with the LTV calculator.
Subscription vs One-off Profit CalculatorSee how switching to subscription changes revenue, cash flow and valuation.Open the free tool →How do you launch a maintenance plan?
- Pick one trade and one system. Split-system air conditioners, hot water systems or switchboards. Don't launch a plan that covers everything on day one.
- Cost a visit properly, using loaded technician wages, travel, consumables and admin time.
- Set your capacity. Schedule plan visits in shoulder seasons. If you can't service members in autumn and spring, you'll end up doing it in January when you're flat out.
- Write simple terms: what's included, what isn't, response times you can actually meet, how to pause and how to cancel.
- Arm your technicians. Give them a one-page comparison and pay a bonus per sign-up. Offer the plan at the end of every job.
- Automate billing and reminders. Field-service software handles scheduling, renewals and failed payments, so the plan doesn't live in a spreadsheet.
- Track pull-through. Report members' repair and replacement revenue separately. That's the real return on the plan, and the number that tells you whether to grow it.
What are the pitfalls?
Over-servicing. "Unlimited call-outs" is a promise a small business can't keep. One customer with a temperamental old system can eat a year of fees in a month. Cap call-outs and keep repairs chargeable.
Selling insurance by accident. A plan that promises to pay for repairs or replacement whenever something fails starts to look like insurance or an extended warranty. ASIC has specific guidance on extended warranties, and some arrangements need a license. Keep your plan to your own scheduled services, priority and discounts.
Breakage. Some plans quietly rely on members never booking their service. That's the gym model. Members who pay for a year and never hear from you cancel, and tell their neighbors. Book their visits for them.
Response times you can't meet. "Four-hour response, guaranteed" sounds great until a heatwave hits. Promise priority, not a time you'll miss.
Ignoring the renewal. The first year is easy. The second-year renewal is where the money is, and where customers ask, "What did I get for that?" Send an annual summary of what you did.
What do Australian tradies need to know?
As at October 2026, keep these in mind. It's general information, so get advice on your own terms.
Subscription rules from 1 July 2027. The Unfair Trading Practices Act 2026 covers subscriptions that renew or continue automatically, and maintenance plans aren't on the excluded list. You'll need to disclose key terms upfront, send prescribed reminders, and make canceling easy, online if customers can sign up online. Small business customers on standard contracts are protected too. The subscription trap laws guide covers it, and the compliance checker tests your sign-up and cancel flow.
Consumer guarantees still apply. Under the Australian Consumer Law, your work must be done with due care and skill whether or not the customer is on a plan. A plan can't take those rights away, and you shouldn't imply customers need to pay for something they already get for free under the law. The ACCC's warranties guidance explains the difference.
Licensing. Every visit in your plan must be done by someone licensed for it in your state, whether that's electrical, plumbing, gas fitting or refrigerant handling.
GST. If you're registered, prices to homeowners must include GST, and you remit one-eleventh. Annual plans paid upfront are income received in advance until you deliver the visits. The GST on subscriptions guide explains the timing.
The accountant's angle: smoother cash flow and a business worth more
Trades businesses are notoriously lumpy. A great summer, a terrible autumn, a scramble to make BAS payments.
A base of 400 members on A$35 a month is A$14,000 of revenue landing every month before anyone picks up the phone. That steadies payroll and makes it easier to keep good technicians through the quiet months.
It also changes what the business is worth. A buyer looking at a trades business sees a list of past customers who may or may not call again. A buyer looking at a business with hundreds of active maintenance agreements sees contracted, recurring revenue with renewal history. The recurring revenue multiples guide explains why buyers pay more for that.
Free Subscription Profit Review
Australian business owners can book a free 30-minute review with a BPAG Accountants adviser. An honest conversation about:
- whether a subscription model could work for your business
- how recurring revenue could cover your fixed costs each month
- how it could lift what your business is worth
No cost, no obligation. General information only until we understand your situation.
What to do next
Look at last year's jobs and count how many customers you serviced more than once. Those are your first members.
Then cost one plan for one system, give your technicians a script, and offer it at the end of every job for the next 90 days.
For more detail on how one contractor grew its base, read the HVAC maintenance plans case study. Cleaning businesses face a similar route-density problem, covered in the cleaning playbook, and you can browse all industry playbooks.
Frequently asked questions
Should I charge monthly or annually for a maintenance plan?
Offer both. Monthly payments feel small to homeowners and keep the plan front of mind, while annual payments bring cash forward and reduce failed-payment admin. A modest discount for paying annually, such as one month free, is common. Use the annual discount calculator to check the discount doesn't cost more than the churn it prevents.
How do I sell maintenance agreements on the job?
Your technicians are your best salespeople, because the customer is standing in front of a working system they just watched being fixed. Give technicians a simple script, a printed or on-screen comparison of the plan versus casual prices, and a bonus per sign-up. Industry guides suggest the moment after a repair is when customers are most receptive.
Can I offer a maintenance plan to landlords and businesses?
Yes, and they're often better customers: multiple units, compliance needs and less price sensitivity. Price commercial plans per site or per unit, include the paperwork they need for their own records, and use 12-month terms. In Australia, small business customers on standard contracts also get the new subscription protections from July 2027, so the same disclosure and cancellation rules apply.
What if a member's system breaks between services?
That's where your plan terms matter. Members get priority booking, no call-out fee or a discount on the repair, but they still pay for parts and labor beyond what the plan includes. Spell this out clearly at sign-up. A plan that sounds like it covers everything will produce complaints, and possibly a misleading conduct problem.
How many maintenance agreements should I aim for?
Work out how many visits your team can handle in your quiet months, since that's when you should schedule plan servicing. If you have two technicians with 40 spare visits a month between them in autumn and spring, that capacity tells you how many members two-visit plans can support. Grow the base as you add technicians.
General information only, current as at October 2026. It isn't legal, tax or financial advice and doesn't consider your circumstances. Speak to a qualified adviser before acting.
Talk it through with a BPAG adviser
Free for Australian business owners: a 30-minute Subscription Profit Review on whether a subscription suits your business.
Robert Coorey, MBA
Robert is the author of The Subscription Playbook and Feed a Starving Crowd and a Director at BPAG Accountants in Sydney. More about Robert.
Sources
- ServiceTitan: Service agreement software (Atlantic Refrigeration testimonial; vendor source)
- ServiceTitan: Maintenance agreements in 2026 (vendor guide)
- PipelineOn: HVAC maintenance agreements (secondary compilation citing Mordor Intelligence and ServiceTitan/DuraPlas)
- ASIC: Extended warranties
- ACCC: Warranties
- Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Act 2026 (No. 64, 2026)
Facts and prices checked 27 October 2026. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.