Product Features Articles
Practical guides and resources written by HVAC technicians in the Product Features category.
What Happens to Your QR Code Stickers If the App Behind Them Goes Away?
You printed hundreds of QR stickers and put them on doors and equipment. What if the company behind them closes, or you switch apps? Here is how a sticker really works, and how to make yours keep working on a web address you own.
Write a PM & Maintenance Plan, Price It and Get It Signed From Your Phone
A maintenance agreement is the steadiest money in the trade, and most of them still start as a Word file and a handshake. Write the PM list for the building, price it, and have the customer sign it from a link, all from the location you already track.
How to Get Paid Before You Leave the Job
You finished the job and the customer is standing right there. Instead of mailing a bill and waiting three weeks, show them the invoice on your phone and let them pay it right then, by card, bank, PayPal or Venmo.
Scan Your Supply-House Receipts So Every Part Gets Billed
The part you picked up on the way to the job is easy to forget when you write the bill, and the receipt usually ends up in the door pocket. Take a picture of the receipt, and the parts are waiting on the invoice when you make it.
Invoicing Is In the App Now: Billing a Finished Work Order
You finish the job, you close the work order, and then the money part happens somewhere else — a notepad in the truck, a spreadsheet on Sunday night, a number half-remembered by the time anybody types it. There is now an Invoices section in the app and on the dashboard. It builds the bill out of the hours and parts already logged on the job, it prints with your logo on it, it records payments including partial ones, and it tells you what is still owed. It is free to use in the app. Here is exactly what it does, and exactly what it does not.
Scan the Sticker, Take the Record: Importing a Unit From a Live QR Code
A live QR code on a rooftop unit is a pointer to a page somebody else keeps current. Scan it with the app on a Pro account and you can pull that unit into your own database: the specs, the parts with their sizes, the service history and the site address. If you already have the unit, the same scan pulls in only what has changed since the last time you looked. Here is exactly what crosses over, what does not, and what a free or logged-out scan gets instead.
QR Code Equipment Tracking: The Three Tag Modes, What a Scan Shows, and What It Costs
A QR tag on a rooftop unit is only worth screwing on if you know what the next person sees when they point a camera at it. The three scannable formats, what loads on the public page, what never gets published, what each mode costs, and the printers and label stock that survive a roof.
Equipment Tracker Now Speaks Your Language
Equipment Tracker Pro now runs in Spanish, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese and Italian, following your phone's own language setting. The buttons were the easy part. The work was in the trade vocabulary a technician who doesn't think in English actually uses, in the reports, and in deciding what stays untranslated.
Introducing Team Plans: Give Your Whole Crew Real Access
One Pro subscription can now cover a whole crew instead of one technician. Everyone you invite gets a role — Viewer, Tech, or Manager — that sets what they can change. Here is how it works and what it costs.
CMMS HVAC Fault Alerts & Dispatch (No Sensors)
A lightweight CMMS handles HVAC fault reporting, AI diagnostics, and dispatch approval without IoT sensors. See how QR reports and photo triage work.
Real-Time SMS Alerts: Introducing Instant Vendor Check-In Notifications
We've added automated SMS check-in alerts for vendor and technician arrivals. Here is how it works, how consent is secured via our web opt-in form, and how to enable it.
Set It and Forget It: Recurring PM Scheduling Is Now Built Into Equipment Tracker Pro
Every shop has a system for remembering filter changes — a sticky note, a spreadsheet, a phone reminder nobody reads. Recurring PM Scheduling replaces all of it: set an interval once, and the app tracks due dates, reminds you, and logs the work automatically.
Stop App-Swapping: AI Diagnostics That Already Know the Unit
Switching between equipment manuals, service records, and generic AI chatbots in the field is a slow, clumsy process. Our new conversational AI Diagnostics helper feeds your equipment specs and past maintenance logs directly to Gemini for instant, highly contextual diagnostic support.
How to Migrate HVAC Equipment Lists from Centriq and Excel to your Phone
Migrating your equipment and appliance records from apps like Centriq or Excel spreadsheets? Our new free, client-side CSV import wizard makes it simple to map, validate, and import bulk spreadsheet records directly on mobile and web.
Introducing the How-To Section: Interactive Visual Guides for Every Feature
We just launched our brand new, interactive How-To section! Learn how this visual step-by-step guides hub makes it easy to master every feature on the mobile app and web dashboard — from AI nameplate scans to complex building transfers.
Stop Paying for Unverified Hours: Building-Level Vendor QR Check-Ins
Print a QR code for any building and place it at the front desk. Every time a vendor scans it and checks in, you get a timestamped email or SMS. No apps, no accounts — just a phone camera and a two-minute form.
Your Equipment History, Crowdsourced: Guest QR Logging via Transfer Inbox
Guest technicians can now log a service or repair directly through the equipment's Link Mode QR code (a Pro-tier feature) — no account, no app, no login. The submission lands in your Transfer Inbox for review before anything touches your records.
Professional Reports: Date Range Filters, Service Photo Proofs, and Separated Vendor Logging
Compile precise service history worksheets with our new date range selectors, include before/after repair photos directly in generated PDFs, separate contractor/vendor fields, and see location headers on public QR links.
Your Name on Every Report: Branded PDF Exports Now in Equipment Tracker Pro
Add your company logo, name, phone, and email once — free on every plan — and it heads every branded PDF report you export with Pro, and prints on your QR tags on any plan.
How the Refrigerant Log Records EPA Section 608 Leak Rates
Every maintenance log now includes a Refrigerant Log section that calculates your annual leak rate on the spot, flags EPA Section 608 violations automatically, and stores the data permanently with the service record.
Invoice Scanning: Log Service Calls Without the Paperwork
Photograph any service receipt or work order and let AI extract the date, technician, parts, and cost — then auto-create a maintenance log entry with one tap.
AI Condition Assessment: Catch Problems Before They Become Breakdowns
Point your camera at any unit and get an AI inspection report back in seconds with a Good / Fair / Poor rating, detected issues, and prioritized maintenance action items.
How AI Nameplate Scanning Is Changing HVAC Field Work
A single photo of a corroded rooftop nameplate fills in the model, serial, refrigerant and electrical specs in seconds. Here's how the technology works, where it still gets things wrong, and what it means for the trade.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about the Equipment Tracker Pro blog.
What topics does the Equipment Tracker Pro blog cover?
We publish articles on HVAC preventative maintenance, EPA 608 refrigerant compliance, AI scanning technology, and mobile CMMS workflows.
Who writes the articles on this blog?
Articles are authored by Jonathan Curtis, our founder and HVAC technician, along with the Equipment Tracker Pro team.
How often is the blog updated?
We update our blog regularly with practical field guides, regulatory news, and product feature announcements.
Are these blog articles free to read?
Yes, all articles, guides, and compliance walkthroughs on our blog are completely free and open to the public.
Can I request a topic or guide?
Yes, you can contact our support team at support@equipment-tracker.com to request specific guides or technical articles.