How to Audit Your Current HVAC Vendor Without Burning the Relationship

You pay your HVAC vendor every month for preventive maintenance. The invoices arrive on time, the technicians show up when scheduled, and the relationship has been in place for years. But somewhere in the back of your mind, a question nags: are they actually doing everything they bill for? It's a reasonable question, and asking it doesn't make you difficult. It makes you a responsible property manager. The challenge is verifying vendor performance without turning a productive partnership into an adversarial one. Here's how to conduct an HVAC vendor audit that protects your building and your relationship.

Why Vendor Audits Matter

Studies show that 70 to 75% of unexpected HVAC failures are preventable with proper maintenance. That statistic cuts both ways. When your equipment fails repeatedly, it could mean bad luck or aging systems. It could also mean your vendor isn't performing the work they're contracted to do. A maintenance contract that looks comprehensive on paper is worthless if the technician is cutting corners, skipping steps, or marking items complete without actually checking them.

The cost of poor vendor performance adds up fast. A filter that should have been replaced leads to coil freezing. A refrigerant leak that should have been caught during a routine check becomes a compressor failure. A clogged condensate drain that should have been cleared causes water damage and mold. In each case, you're paying for maintenance that didn't prevent the failure, and then paying again for the emergency repair. A vendor audit gives you the data you need to know whether you're getting what you pay for.

Signs Your Vendor Might Not Be Performing

Before you launch a formal audit, look for patterns that suggest a problem. These red flags don't prove negligence on their own, but they warrant a closer look.

Increasing emergency calls. If your building needed two emergency HVAC calls last year and six this year, something has changed. Either the equipment is degrading faster than expected, or preventive maintenance isn't catching issues before they become emergencies. Track your emergency call frequency year over year. A rising trend is a signal to dig deeper.

Incomplete or vague reports. After each maintenance visit, you should receive a detailed report with specific measurements: refrigerant pressures, electrical readings, temperature differentials, airflow data. If your reports are checklists with everything marked "okay" and no actual numbers, you have no way to verify the work or track trends over time. Vague reports are a warning sign.

No photos or documentation. Modern service software makes it easy to attach before-and-after photos to work orders. Photos document coil condition, filter status, and equipment state. If your vendor never provides photos, ask why. A vendor doing thorough work has nothing to hide and plenty to show.

Vague or inconsistent invoices. Invoices should clearly itemize what was done: which units were serviced, what tasks were performed, what parts were used. If your invoices say "maintenance visit" or "routine service" without specifics, you can't correlate the work to the equipment. That makes auditing impossible.

The same issues keep recurring. If you've had the same refrigerant leak repaired three times, or the same drain cleared every quarter, ask whether the root cause is being addressed. A good vendor identifies why problems recur and fixes the underlying issue. Repeated band-aid repairs suggest either incomplete diagnostics or incomplete maintenance.

How to Conduct a Vendor Audit

A vendor audit doesn't require confrontation. It requires documentation and comparison. Here's a structured approach.

Request Maintenance Logs and Service History

Start by requesting complete maintenance logs for the past 12 to 24 months. Ask for work orders, service reports, and any documentation tied to each visit. A reputable vendor will provide this willingly. If they push back or say records aren't available, that's information in itself. You need to see what was documented, when, and for which equipment.

Compare Invoiced Work to Actual Conditions

Take the maintenance logs and cross-reference them with the physical condition of your equipment. If the logs say condenser coils were cleaned in March, do they look like they were cleaned recently? If filters were replaced, can you verify the date codes or condition? Walk the roof or mechanical rooms with someone who knows HVAC. Compare what the paperwork says against what you see.

Check Refrigerant Logs

Refrigerant levels should be documented at every visit. Proper commercial HVAC maintenance includes checking refrigerant charge against manufacturer specifications and recording the readings. If refrigerant levels are dropping over time, that indicates a leak. A vendor doing thorough work would flag this and recommend leak detection. If your refrigerant logs are missing, incomplete, or show unexplained drops with no follow-up, that's a gap.

Review Response Times

How quickly does your vendor respond to service requests? Do they meet the response times specified in your contract? Track actual response times versus what was promised. Chronic delays, especially for preventive maintenance, suggest your account may not be a priority. That doesn't mean they're negligent, but it's data worth having.

Ask for Before-and-After Photos

Request that future maintenance visits include before-and-after photos of key components: coils, filters, drain pans, electrical connections. Establish this as a standard expectation. A vendor performing thorough work can provide this with minimal extra effort. If they resist or say it's not possible, ask why. Photos are one of the most effective ways to verify that work was actually completed.

What to Look for in Maintenance Reports

Not all service reports are created equal. Here's what a solid maintenance report should include.

Specific measurements. Refrigerant pressures (suction and discharge), superheat and subcooling where applicable, voltage and amperage readings on motors, temperature differentials across coils. Numbers you can trend over time.

Equipment identification. Unit serial numbers, locations, and capacity. You need to know exactly which piece of equipment was serviced.

Findings and recommendations. What was found, what was done, and what (if anything) needs follow-up. Recommendations should be prioritized: safety-critical first, then performance-impacting, then preventive.

Technician identification and date. Who did the work and when. Accountability matters.

Photos. Before-and-after documentation of critical components. This is increasingly standard and should be expected.

If your vendor's reports don't include most of these elements, you're not getting the visibility you need to protect your investment. Use your audit findings to request improvements. Frame it as a standard you need for your own records and for ownership reporting.

How to Address Issues Diplomatically

If your audit uncovers gaps between what was billed and what was done, how you address it matters. The goal is to improve performance, not to burn the relationship.

Schedule a meeting, not an email. Difficult conversations are better had in person or on a call. Present your findings factually. "We reviewed our maintenance logs and noticed that refrigerant levels haven't been documented for the past three visits. Can you help us understand why?" That's a question, not an accusation.

Focus on standards, not blame. Explain what you need: detailed reports, photos, specific measurements. Make it clear these are requirements for your records and for justifying the maintenance budget to ownership. You're not questioning their integrity; you're establishing the documentation standard you need.

Give them a chance to respond. There may be explanations. Staff turnover, software changes, or miscommunication could explain some gaps. Listen. But also be clear that going forward, you need the documentation you've specified. Put it in writing. Update your contract or add a service level addendum if necessary.

Set a follow-up timeline. Agree on when you'll review the next round of reports to confirm the new standards are being met. Sixty or ninety days is reasonable. This shows you're serious without being punitive.

When to Consider Switching Vendors

An audit doesn't have to end in a breakup. Many vendors will step up when they know you're paying attention. But there are situations where switching makes sense.

Persistent documentation gaps. You've asked for detailed reports multiple times. They've agreed. The reports still don't arrive or don't meet the standard. At some point, the pattern is clear.

Repeated preventable failures. The same types of failures keep happening. Your audit shows that routine maintenance should have caught these issues. The vendor hasn't changed their approach. You're paying for maintenance that isn't preventing failures.

No improvement after the audit. You've had the conversation, set the standards, and given them time. Six months later, nothing has changed. The relationship may have run its course.

You need an independent baseline. Sometimes the best way to audit your current vendor is to get a fresh set of eyes on your equipment. An independent assessment tells you what's really there, without any incentive to defend past work.

The HVAC Vitals Report: An Independent Third-Party Assessment

At CG Service Pros, we built the HVAC Vitals Report specifically for property managers who want to verify their equipment condition and vendor performance without the awkwardness of auditing their own provider.

The HVAC Vitals Report is a free, comprehensive 50-point commercial inspection performed by our technicians. We evaluate every major system component, document findings with real measurement data, and compare what we find against your current vendor's service records. If there's a gap between what's been documented and what's actually on the equipment, you'll see it. No conflict of interest, no incentive to sugarcoat. Just an honest assessment.

Here's what the Vitals Report delivers:

• Vendor performance audit. We review your maintenance logs and compare them to the physical condition of your equipment. You get a clear picture of whether you're getting what you pay for.
• Identification of preventable repairs. On average, our inspections uncover over $8,000 in repairs that could have been avoided with proper maintenance. That number tells you something about the quality of care your equipment has received.
• 12-month repair forecast. Instead of vague recommendations, you get a month-by-month projection of anticipated repairs and costs. Useful for budget planning and for understanding what's ahead.

For property managers across Austin, Round Rock, and Georgetown, the Vitals Report provides an independent baseline. Use it to verify your current vendor, to establish standards for a new one, or simply to understand the true condition of your commercial HVAC systems before making decisions.

Take the Next Step

Auditing your HVAC vendor doesn't have to be confrontational. It's a routine business practice that protects your building and your budget. If you've noticed red flags, or if you simply want to verify that you're getting what you pay for, start with the data. Request the logs, compare them to conditions on the ground, and have a direct conversation about the standards you need.

If you'd prefer an independent assessment first, the HVAC Vitals Report gives you that clarity. No obligation, no pressure. Just a clear picture of your equipment and how it's been maintained. From there, you can address issues with your current vendor from a position of knowledge, or make an informed decision about whether it's time for a change.

Request Your Free HVAC Vitals Report

Have questions? Call us at (512) 766-5079 or visit our contact page to schedule service.