Pricing a Preventive Maintenance Contract for a Restaurant's Kitchen Cooling and Walk-Ins
A restaurant PM contract isn't one piece of equipment — it's a walk-in cooler and freezer, three reach-ins, a line of undercounter prep coolers, an ice machine, and the kitchen makeup-air and rooftop AC that keep the line bearable. Pricing it right means knowing exactly how many visits each unit needs and what those hours cost you. R-Pro's field app captures every unit's condition on site, and the office ERP turns that into a clean recurring quote with your own tax applied and the labor flowing straight into your books.
On Site: Inventory Every Unit Before You Quote a Dollar
- Walk through the kitchen and scan the nameplate on each unit — walk-in condensing unit, freezer, reach-ins, prep coolers, ice machine, RTU — so the field app auto-fills make, model, refrigerant (R-448A, R-449A, R-290), and capacity instead of you squinting at a greasy label.
- Note the real-world PM tasks per unit: coil cleaning on grease-loaded condensers, door gasket and sweep checks on the walk-in, drain-line clearing, superheat/subcooling readings, defrost timer verification on the freezer, and ice machine descaling.
- Log baseline condition with photos and a voice memo — a borderline walk-in compressor or a freezer running 5°F warm is a finding you want on record before the contract starts, not a surprise call-back later.
- Pull the customer's full service history so you can see how often this kitchen has actually broken down — a restaurant with a history of warm walk-ins justifies quarterly visits, not semi-annual.
- All of it works offline in a basement mechanical room or a windowless walk-in where there's no signal — the field app never stalls waiting for a connection.
In the Office: Build the Recurring Quote and Bill It Cleanly
- In the ERP, build an itemized PM quote per unit class — e.g. 4 visits/yr on refrigeration, 2 visits/yr on the RTU — with labor hours, your visit rate, and consumables (coil cleaner, gaskets, descaler) broken out so the owner sees exactly what they're paying for.
- Set your own country's tax name and rate — VAT, GST, or sales tax — so the contract total and every recurring invoice are correct for where you operate.
- Price the agreement against your real cost: total annual labor hours across all units × your loaded shop rate, plus parts and a margin — the ERP's accounting view shows whether the contract number actually clears net profit, not just covers gas and time.
- Track filters, gaskets, contactors, and refrigerant in inventory so a PM visit that uses parts draws them down and reorders flag automatically through purchase orders to your suppliers.
- Issue the tax invoice on the agreed cycle (monthly, quarterly, or per-visit) straight from the customer ledger, and watch outstanding balances per restaurant without digging through paper.
The Connection: One Visit, No Double Entry
- When the tech closes a PM visit on the field app, the labor hours, parts used, and on-site receipt flow into the office books automatically — no re-keying the same job into accounting at the end of the week.
- Each unit's findings stay attached to that restaurant's history, so next quarter's tech opens the app and instantly sees that the walk-in gasket was flagged last visit — turning a flat PM into a smarter, finding-driven one.
- Parts pulled on site decrement inventory in the ERP the moment the visit is logged, keeping your stock counts honest and your reorder points real.
- Renewal time is a two-minute job: the ERP already holds the full PM history and cost per visit, so you re-quote the contract with actual numbers instead of guessing — and adjust the rate if grease load or breakdown frequency changed.
Price and run restaurant PM contracts with R-Pro
R-Pro is two strong tools working together: a field app that scans every walk-in, reach-in, and rooftop unit, captures findings offline, and pulls each restaurant's full service history — and an office ERP that builds the itemized recurring quote, applies your own country's tax, tracks parts and inventory, and shows whether the contract actually clears net profit. One subscription, ten languages, and every PM visit flows from the field straight into your books.
Get R-Pro →FAQ
How many visits a year should a restaurant refrigeration PM contract include?
It depends on the equipment and the kitchen load. Grease-heavy condensers (walk-in, line coolers, the RTU serving the kitchen) often warrant quarterly visits because coils foul fast over a fryer line, while a low-traffic reach-in may be fine semi-annually. Use the customer's actual service history in the field app to justify the cadence — a restaurant with repeated warm-walk-in calls earns more visits, and the ERP lets you price each tier separately.
Should I price the contract per unit or as one flat number?
Quote it itemized per unit class in the ERP, then present a single contract total. Itemizing protects you: if the owner adds a second walk-in or a new ice machine mid-term, you adjust one line instead of renegotiating the whole agreement. The flat number is what they sign; the itemized breakdown is what proves the price is fair.
How do I make sure the PM rate actually makes money?
Add up the real annual labor hours across every unit, multiply by your loaded shop rate, add parts and consumables, then set your margin. The ERP's accounting view (sales minus purchases, expenses, and parts) tells you whether the contract clears net profit — not just whether it covers gas and time. Price from cost up, never from a competitor's number down.
What about parts used during PM visits — gaskets, coil cleaner, descaler?
Track them in the ERP inventory so each PM visit draws them down automatically and flags reorders to your suppliers through purchase orders. On the field side, the tech logs what was used when closing the visit, and that decrements stock the moment the job is saved — so your counts stay honest and consumables get billed instead of quietly eating your margin.