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Operator Intelligence System

Detect profit drift
before it becomes
irreversible.

Built for 1–20 truck HVAC businesses running on ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, or Jobber.

We find the profit leaks killing HVAC companies before they become fatal. MarginPlug monitors margin drift, close rate erosion, dispatch inefficiency, callback anomalies, and ad spend decay — surfacing operational signals the moment they appear, not after they've already cost you.

ServiceTitan sells tools. MarginPlug sells diagnosis.

Tech Utilization ↓ 12%
Close Rate Drift ↓ 8%
Revenue / Job ↓ $187
Callback Rate ↑ 3.4%
Dispatch Idle ↑ 19%
Ad Spend Efficiency

No credit card  •  5-minute setup  •  Works with your existing systems

Run a free MarginPlug health check on your HVAC business.

Built for HVAC operators
Anomaly detection in weeks, not months
No data science team required

Built to work with the tools HVAC operators already trust

ServiceTitan
QuickBooks
Google Ads
Housecall Pro
Jobber
Margin Recovery
$347k
Average annual margin recovered
Across pricing drift, labor waste, callbacks, and ad spend — per operator in the first year.
Time to Signal
30 days
Median time to first actionable signal
Most operators identify a high-impact leak within 30 days of connecting their data. Not quarters.
Detection Modules
6 signals
Operational intelligence dimensions tracked
Margin drift, close rate, dispatch, callbacks, labor utilization, and ad spend — continuously monitored.

Industry Context

Why MarginPlug
exists

Modern HVAC businesses run on more systems than ever. The data is all there. The interpretation isn't.

More Systems
ServiceTitan
CRM
Dispatch Platform
Marketing Dashboard
QuickBooks
Call Tracking

Operators now run their businesses on dozens of systems — each generating its own stream of operational data.

More Data
Close Rates
Tech Utilization
Marketing Performance
Revenue per Job
Callback Rates
Dispatch Efficiency

Every system generates operational signals. Most of them go unread — buried in dashboards no one checks between busy seasons.

No Interpretation

Operators still rely on instinct to detect operational problems. By the time a leak is obvious, it has usually been running for weeks.

Profit leak undetected
No baseline comparison
End-of-month surprise

Owners don't know if they are quietly going broke. MarginPlug removes that uncertainty — interpreting operational signals across your business and detecting margin drift before it becomes visible.

Live Signal Example

How MarginPlug detects
a real profit leak

This is what detection looks like in practice — from a signal in the data to a decision by the operator.

Charlotte HVAC Company
3 trucks · $2.4M annual revenue · ServiceTitan + QuickBooks connected
Signal Detected
Close rate dropped over three weeks
Close rate fell from  42%  to  31% — 26% below baseline
Detected on day 19. No manual review triggered it.
Close Rate 42% → 31%
Root Cause Identified
Technician quoting behavior changed
Average ticket size dropped by  $380 across all three techs
Correlated with a shift in job mix toward lower-complexity calls
Two techs showing consistent under-quoting on diagnostic appointments
Operator Action
Owner reviews calls and retrains quoting structure
Pulled 12 call recordings flagged by MarginPlug from the prior two weeks
Identified a pattern: techs were skipping the options presentation step
Ran a 45-minute team session focused on presenting tiered recommendations
Result
Close rate recovers. Revenue leak sealed.
Close rate returned to  43% within 18 days of retraining
Recovered  $18K monthly revenue run rate
Signal moved to resolved. Monitoring continues on the same tech cohort.
$18K / month recovered

Intelligence Loop

What MarginPlug
actually does.

MarginPlug analyzes operational signals across your business and detects patterns that lead to profit erosion.

Signal Detection

MarginPlug monitors operational signals across your business — technician utilization, marketing performance, close rate trends, and job revenue — in a continuous loop.

Anomaly Detection

The system identifies unusual changes in these signals that may indicate margin drift or operational inefficiencies — comparing live data against established baselines.

Operational Guidance

MarginPlug highlights the root causes of detected signals so operators can take corrective action — before margin erosion compounds into a larger financial problem.

The Operator Story

Most owners don't lose money all at once.

They lose it through silent operational drift — one small decision at a time.

A technician discounts a job to close it. A dispatcher routes inefficiently because the board is full. A callback goes untracked for two weeks. A Google Ads campaign quietly bleeds spend on leads that never convert.

None of these events trigger an alarm. None of them show up clearly on a monthly P&L until they've already compounded. By the time most owners see the problem, they've lost tens of thousands in margin they'll never recover.

MarginPlug exists to change that detection window. Not from months to weeks — from invisible to visible, in real time.

Pricing drift
Average ticket erodes week over week as techs discount to close. No single event. Hundreds of small ones.
Signal: avg ticket vs 90-day baseline
%
Close rate erosion
One underperforming tech pulls the team average down. It looks like a market problem. It's usually a training problem.
Signal: close rate by tech, by source
Callback creep
Free return jobs consume labor hours that don't show up as revenue. Quality patterns hide across dozens of individual tickets.
Signal: callback rate by tech, by job type
Dispatch inefficiency
Idle drive time compounds silently. A tech losing 90 minutes per day to poor routing loses 40 billable hours per month.
Signal: dispatch efficiency score, idle time
$
Ad spend decay
Campaigns that performed last quarter may not be performing now. CPL climbs, close rate from those leads drops, nobody notices.
Signal: cost-per-acquisition vs close rate by source

System Architecture

MarginPlug works with your systems —
it doesn't replace them.

It sits above your existing stack and continuously interprets the operational signals that determine whether your business grows or quietly loses margin. Think of it as the financial MRI of your HVAC business.

Signal Coverage

Signals MarginPlug
monitors.

MarginPlug constantly monitors operational signals across your business to detect margin drift before it becomes a financial problem.

15 signals · live monitoring
Technician Idle Time
Labor
Dispatch Compression
Dispatch
Marketing Cost Spikes
Marketing
Revenue Per Job Drift
Revenue
%
Close Rate Erosion
Sales
Unbooked Calls
Calls
Callback Trends
Quality
Install vs Service Mix
Revenue
Labor Utilization Imbalance
Labor
Seasonal Demand Shifts
Demand
Quote-to-Book Ratio
Sales
Lead-to-Job Conversion
Marketing
$
Technician Revenue Per Hour
Labor
Advertising Cost Per Booked Job
Marketing
Average Ticket Volatility
Revenue

What We Monitor

Built specifically for
HVAC operators.

MarginPlug doesn't monitor generic business metrics. Every signal is calibrated for the way HVAC businesses actually operate — from the dispatch board to the P&L.

Margin Drift
Ticket price vs baseline, job cost efficiency
Tech Utilization
Billable hours, idle time, efficiency score
Callback Rate
Return visits, tech attribution, quality signal
%
Close Rate
By technician, job type, lead source
$
Ad Spend
True CPA, campaign-to-close conversion

Signal Detection Case Study

How MarginPlug detects
a profit leak

A real detection sequence — from operational signal to recovered revenue.

Business Context Connected
Charlotte HVAC Company
3 trucks operating across the Charlotte metro area
$2.4M annual revenue — primarily residential service and installation
Running ServiceTitan for dispatch and job tracking
ServiceTitan
QuickBooks
Google Ads
Signal Detected Anomaly
Close rate dropped 26% below baseline over 3 weeks
Close rate fell from  42% to  31% — detected on day 19
MarginPlug flagged the deviation against the prior 60-day rolling baseline
No manual review had triggered the investigation — purely system-detected
Close Rate42% → 31%
Root Cause Identified Pattern
Technician quoting behavior changed — average ticket down $380
Average ticket value dropped  $380 across all three technicians
MarginPlug highlighted the pattern across recent diagnostic jobs
Two techs consistently under-quoting on diagnostic appointments — options step skipped
Operator Action In Progress
Owner reviews call recordings and retrains quoting structure
Pulled 12 flagged call recordings from the prior two weeks
Confirmed techs were skipping tiered options presentation on diagnostic calls
Ran a 45-minute team retraining session on quoting structure
Dispatch begins monitoring quote consistency on follow-up jobs
Result Resolved
Close rate returns to 43%. Revenue leak sealed.
Close rate recovered to  43% within 18 days of retraining
Estimated revenue recovery:  $18,000 per month
Signal moved to resolved — monitoring continues on the same tech cohort
$18,000 / month recovered

Detection in Action

What an anomaly
looks like in the system.

These are the kinds of operator alerts MarginPlug surfaces — before they become expensive line items on your P&L.

Active — 2 hours ago
Dispatch Anomaly
Jobs per tech dropped
17% this week.
–17%
Baseline: 4.2 jobs/tech/day → Current: 3.5. Detected across 4 of 6 active technicians.
Routing inefficiency detected in zip 28202–28205
Extended service time on HVAC installs (+22 min avg)
Close rate correlation: 3 techs below 50%
Monitoring — 5 days
Ad Spend · Efficiency Drop
Google LSA cost-per-lead
up 41% in 30 days.
+41%
CPL moved from $68 to $96. Close rate on LSA leads has simultaneously dropped from 62% to 47%, widening the true CPA gap.
Bid inflation in service area — seasonality signal
Lead quality shift: 38% HVAC maintenance vs install
2 campaigns below breakeven threshold

How It Works

Signal in three steps.

No lengthy onboarding. No analyst required. Connect your data, let MarginPlug run pattern detection, and act on what it surfaces.

Connect your business inputs

Link your field management software, accounting system, and ad platforms. MarginPlug normalizes the data across sources automatically.

ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, FieldEdge
QuickBooks, job costing exports
Google Ads, LSA performance feeds

Detection engine runs continuously

MarginPlug monitors six operational dimensions against your own baselines — flagging anomalies when patterns shift, not after they've compounded.

Compared against your own 30/60/90-day baselines
Root cause surfaced — not just the symptom
Anomaly severity scored automatically

Act before the leak becomes expensive

Every signal comes with context — which technician, which campaign, which process. You know exactly where to look and what to fix, the same week it surfaces.

Operator-level context, not raw data
Weekly digest or real-time push alerts
Track recovery over time

Getting Started

What happens after you
connect MarginPlug

From connection to first signal in under 30 minutes.

1
Connect Your Systems

Connect ServiceTitan, QuickBooks, or your CRM. MarginPlug begins reading operational signals from your existing tools — no migration required.

2
Signals Are Analyzed

MarginPlug processes technician utilization, revenue trends, close rates, and marketing performance. Patterns and anomalies begin to emerge against your baseline.

3
Anomalies Are Detected

MarginPlug identifies unusual changes in operational signals before they appear in monthly financials.

Close rate drift
Dispatch compression
Technician idle time
Marketing cost spikes
4
Insights Appear

MarginPlug surfaces the signals that matter most so operators can take action before profit leaks become visible in monthly financials.

Profit Leak Map

Where HVAC companies
actually lose profit.

MarginPlug monitors the operational system where leaks actually occur — not the P&L where they eventually show up.

Anomaly Detection

Six operational signals.
All running continuously.

Each detection module runs against your own baselines. When a pattern shifts outside your normal range, MarginPlug surfaces it with context — not just a number.

● High Impact · Ongoing Detection

Your tickets are shrinking.
You may not have noticed yet.

Pricing drift is one of the most expensive and least visible operational anomalies in HVAC. It's rarely one decision — it's a hundred small ones. Technicians discount to close. Managers approve one-offs. Over weeks, your average ticket drifts $80–$200 below your actual price structure. Margins compress. The P&L suffers quietly.

Average Ticket — 90 Day Trend
Baseline target
Typical Monthly Exposure
$8–22k
10-truck operation, 120 jobs/mo
Detection vs Manual Review
7 vs 90d
Days to surface the anomaly
● Moderate Impact · Ongoing Detection

You're spending money on leads
that aren't converting.

A close rate that drops from 65% to 51% feels like noise week to week. Across a month, it's 42 missed jobs. Across a quarter, it's your entire margin plan gone. MarginPlug identifies the drift pattern early and attributes it to a technician, job type, or lead source — so you know whether it's a training problem, a pricing problem, or a channel problem.

Close Rate by Technician — Current Period
Jake
Maria
Tom
Dev
Sam
Revenue Gap
42 jobs
Monthly miss at –14pt close rate
Root Cause
1–2 techs
Typically driving the team average down
● High Impact · Quality Signal

Every callback is a free job
you didn't budget for.

Callbacks eat labor, suppress utilization, and signal quality problems your customers will eventually post about. A 5% callback rate sounds manageable until you realize it's 6 unbudgeted jobs per month. MarginPlug tracks callbacks by technician and job type, surfacing the pattern before it becomes a team norm.

Callback Rate — Rolling 8 Weeks
Monthly Labor Cost
$4–9k
Unbilled return visits and overhead
Attribution
2–3 techs
Typically 70%+ of all callbacks
● Moderate Impact · Utilization Signal

You're paying for hours
that aren't generating revenue.

Unbillable labor hides in plain sight. Early clock-ins. Jobs that run long without additional billing. Training time absorbed into the workday. MarginPlug tracks billable vs. total hours by technician — and flags when the utilization gap begins to widen, giving you the data to have a direct conversation before it compounds.

Billable vs. Total Hours — This Week
67% billable
33% unrecovered
Monthly Exposure
$2–6k
Paid hours with no revenue offset
Recovery Timeline
2 weeks
Detection to measurable improvement
● Moderate Impact · Efficiency Signal

Idle drive time is a tax
on every job you run.

Dispatch inefficiency compounds daily. A technician spending an extra 90 minutes in transit loses 40 potential billing hours per month. MarginPlug analyzes routing gaps, idle windows, and job-to-job efficiency — flagging when scheduling decisions are consistently costing you revenue before it becomes a permanent fixture in your cost structure.

Dispatch Efficiency Score — Team Average
71%
Target: 85%+ — 34 hrs idle time flagged this week
Idle Time / Week
34 hrs
Unbilled drive and gap time, team total
Revenue Equivalent
~$5k/mo
At $148/billable hour average
● High Impact · Spend Signal

Your cost-per-acquisition
is climbing. Quietly.

Ad spend decay is systematic and invisible without the right data. Campaigns that performed six months ago may not be performing now — but without connecting spend to actual close rates, you keep funding them. MarginPlug bridges ad platform data to booked revenue, giving you a true cost-per-acquisition number that the ad dashboard will never show you.

True CPA vs Ad Platform CPL — 60 Day Trend
CPA Drift
+41%
Cost-per-acquisition over 60 days
Recoverable Waste
$1,800
Est. monthly — 2 underperforming campaigns

Operational Results

What operators recover
when the signal is clear.

Illustrative data from early operator deployments. Your results depend on where your leaks are and how quickly you act on the signals.

3–6wk
Median time to first flagged anomaly
Most operators find a high-impact signal within weeks of connecting their first data source.
+4–9%
Gross margin recovery after correcting pricing drift
When technician discounting is identified and addressed, the margin impact compounds quickly.
67%
Of callback losses traced to 2–3 technicians
Attribution clarity turns a systems mystery into a direct conversation and a fixable problem.
$12k+
Median monthly value recovered from active signals
Across all six detection modules — the leaks are real and the recovery is quantifiable.

* Illustrative examples based on early operator data. Individual results vary by business size and operational baseline.

Market Context

The margin for error
keeps shrinking.

HVAC operators are running harder and keeping less. The businesses that survive the next cycle will be the ones who catch problems early and act on them fast.

Labor costs rising faster than pricing
Technician wages up 18–24% in three years. Every point of utilization inefficiency costs more than it used to.
%
Scale creates complexity, not clarity
More trucks, more moving parts, more surface area for margin leaks to hide. Growth amplifies every operational problem.
$
Acquisition costs at record levels
CPLs have risen sharply across every channel. Wasting budget on campaigns that don't close is no longer recoverable with volume.
Operational data fragmented across tools
Field software, accounting, and ad platforms don't talk to each other — leaving operators flying on instinct instead of signal.
"The operators who'll win aren't the ones who work the hardest. They're the ones who see their business most clearly — and catch operational drift while it's still cheap to correct."

MarginPlug was built because most HVAC owners don't have a CFO, a revenue analyst, or a data team. They have a gut feeling, a rough P&L, and a stack of software that doesn't surface the right signal at the right time.

We built the detection system we wished had existed.

Get Early Access →

Pricing

Operator-first.
No seat tax. No nonsense.

You're running a business. Pricing should be as clear as the intelligence you're paying for.

Operator
$297
per month — cancel anytime

Everything you need to identify your first high-impact signal and start recovering margin within your first 30 days.

Up to 3 data connections
All 6 anomaly detection modules
Weekly operator intelligence digest
Technician-level attribution
Email + Slack signal alerts
14-day free trial, no card required
Start Free Trial
★ Most Deployed
Growth
$597
per month — cancel anytime

For operators running 5+ trucks who need deeper signal, faster detection, and full team intelligence.

Unlimited data connections
All 6 anomaly detection modules
Daily operator intelligence digest
Full team attribution + benchmarks
Priority onboarding + signal review
API access + custom alert thresholds
14-day free trial, no card required
Start Free Trial

14-day free trial on both plans. No credit card required. Cancel anytime.

FAQ

Questions operators
actually ask.

Built specifically for HVAC — the detection logic, baselines, and benchmarks are calibrated for how HVAC businesses actually operate. Plumbing, electrical, and other field service businesses with similar dynamics (callbacks, close rates, dispatch utilization) would likely find it useful. But HVAC is the focus and the specificity is intentional.
No. Most operators we work with have messy, incomplete, or inconsistent data — that's the reality of running a field service business. MarginPlug surfaces useful signal even in imperfect conditions. The more complete your data, the more precise the detection. We walk through what matters most during onboarding.
No. MarginPlug is an intelligence layer on top of what you already use. It connects to your field management software and accounting data, then synthesizes what's happening across all of them into operator-level signals. It doesn't replace ServiceTitan or QuickBooks — it makes them more actionable.
Most operators see their first flagged anomaly within 2–3 weeks of connecting data. Some see material signals in the first week. Speed depends on how much historical data you bring in and how active the patterns are. You won't wait months.
Yes — and smaller operators often benefit most because they have less overhead to absorb losses. A 3-truck operation losing $8k/month to pricing drift or callbacks feels it immediately. The Operator plan was designed with smaller teams in mind.
14 days of full access to the plan you select — no feature restrictions, no credit card required to start. Connect your data, go through onboarding, and find real signals in your business. If you don't find something worth acting on, we'd genuinely want to know why.

A New Category

MarginPlug is not another
tool in your stack

ServiceTitan sells tools. MarginPlug sells diagnosis. CRMs run your field — MarginPlug tells you what the field is doing to your margins.

Category
CRM Systems
ServiceTitan
Housecall Pro
Jobber

CRMs manage customers, track service jobs, and store the history of every job your technicians run. They record what happened.

Category
Dispatch Systems
Dispatch boards
Scheduling tools
Field coordination

Dispatch platforms schedule technicians, optimize routes, and coordinate field operations. They manage who goes where.

New Category
MarginPlug
Operator Intelligence

MarginPlug interprets operational signals across the entire business and detects profit leaks before they become visible in monthly financials.

MarginPlug is the operational intelligence layer for HVAC businesses.

Market Opportunity

100,000+
HVAC companies in North America

Most now run their businesses on multiple operational systems — dispatch platforms, marketing dashboards, CRMs, and accounting tools.

Every one of those systems generates operational signals. Revenue per job. Close rate by technician. Marketing cost per booked call. Labor utilization by week.

None of them interpret the signals between the systems.

MarginPlug is building the operational intelligence layer for the HVAC industry.

Activate Detection

Stop losing margin to
signals you can't see.

Connect your data, surface your anomalies, and start recovering the margin that's been quietly drifting out of your business. No setup complexity. No long-term commitment.

No credit card required. Setup under 30 minutes.