A boiler division needs its own scoreboard. When boiler revenue, technician hours and marketing costs are mixed into the main company's books, the division's real performance is invisible: good months look like company growth and bad months disappear. We set up the tracking and a one-page monthly P&L so you can see the division as its own business.
This is business and marketing consulting. Your bookkeeper or accountant keeps the books and handles tax; we design the division view and the tracking behind it.
What it is
Three connected pieces:
- Lead tracking. A separate tracked number for the division's website, profile and ads, so every boiler call has a source.
- Job tagging. A rule for what counts as a boiler job, applied in your job software from the first call to the final invoice.
- The monthly division P&L. Revenue, direct costs, marketing and an agreed overhead charge, on one page, compared with the targets set in division strategy.
Who it's for
Any owner launching a boiler division, and especially those who might sell the company or the division later. A division with two or three years of clean, separate numbers is far easier to explain to a buyer or lender. If an exit is on your mind, the group's exit advisory runs through Sedighi.ca and BizSell.ca.
A worked example
These are illustrative figures to show the arithmetic, not a forecast or market data. Replace each one with your own.
| Line | Month 6 (illustrative) |
|---|---|
| Boiler jobs completed | 18 |
| Average invoice | $3,500 |
| Revenue | $63,000 |
| Equipment and parts | $25,200 |
| Technician wages and burden | $12,600 |
| Gross profit | $25,200 (40%) |
| Marketing (plan plus ad spend) | $7,500 |
| Agreed overhead charge | $6,000 |
| Division contribution | $11,700 |
Two numbers matter most. The first is marketing cost per completed job: $7,500 ÷ 18 ≈ $417. The second is gross profit per job: $25,200 ÷ 18 = $1,400. As long as each job brings in comfortably more gross profit than it costs to win, the marketing is paying for itself. The P&L guide shows how to read the trend over a full year, including the summer dip.
What's included
- a written definition of a boiler job (install, replacement, service, maintenance, commercial) agreed with your team
- tracked numbers for the website, Google profile and each ad channel
- tagging set up or documented in your job software
- a monthly P&L template and a one-hour review with you each month during the first year
- the month-three, month-six and month-twelve checkpoints, written down in advance
Timeline
Set up in the two to four weeks before launch, alongside the division website. Monthly reviews run for the first twelve months, then quarterly.
How results are measured
The P&L is the measurement. What we watch is the direction of three lines: completed jobs, gross margin and marketing cost per job. A division can be worth continuing at month six with a thin contribution if those three lines are moving the right way.
For deeper KPI coaching, the sister service HVAC.Accountant focuses on financial KPIs and profit coaching for HVAC owners, with partner CPAs handling bookkeeping and tax.
Reading the summer months
Expect the division to look weaker from late spring to early autumn, and plan for it rather than panic. Heating replacements cluster in the cold months in most of Canada, while summer is better suited to maintenance visits, planned commercial replacements and quoting work for the coming season. We set a lower summer target in advance and shift marketing toward maintenance and planned work, so a quiet July is measured against the right expectation. If you want maintenance-plan marketing in depth, Boiler.Management covers tune-up and reminder programmes.
Mistakes to avoid
- Counting quotes as revenue. Only invoiced jobs count.
- Leaving marketing out of the division. If the main company pays for boiler ads, the division looks better than it is.
- Changing the boiler job definition mid-year. Pick it, write it down, keep it.
- Judging in July. Heating demand is seasonal. Compare winter with winter.
See pricing for the marketing plans this tracking measures, or contact us.
Frequently asked questions
Are you doing our bookkeeping?
No. We set up how boiler jobs, calls and marketing costs are tagged, and a monthly division view built from your own figures. Your bookkeeper or accountant keeps the books and handles tax. We are not an accounting firm.
What if our job software can't separate divisions?
Most field service and accounting tools can tag jobs by type or class. If yours can't, a disciplined spreadsheet updated weekly works at launch. We help you choose the tagging rules and keep them consistent.
When should we decide whether the division is working?
Set the date before launch. We suggest a first look at month three, a firm check at month six, and the real decision at month twelve, because boiler demand is seasonal and one winter is the minimum fair test.
How do you allocate shared costs like the office and dispatch?
Simply and consistently. We usually suggest a fixed monthly overhead charge agreed in advance rather than a complex formula. The point is to compare month to month, not to produce perfect cost accounting.