Separate travel and on-site time in an HVAC service estimate

Define the time categories

A two-hour site window does not establish the total labor effort or travel allowance for a crew. Ask the estimator to define on-site person-hours, travel person-hours and any separately approved allowance. Keep elapsed appointment time in another field. Record what the estimate includes, not what an AI assistant thinks is customary. This worksheet does not set compensation policy, billing entitlement, overtime treatment or a technical task duration.

Work the crew example

In a fictional planning case, two people each spend three hours on site and one hour traveling in total. That is six on-site person-hours plus two travel person-hours, or eight person-hours of the described effort. It is not four hours for the whole crew. Whether any category is billable, included in a fixed price or treated differently must come from the company’s approved pricing rule, not the arithmetic.

Check the route assumption

Identify whether the travel figure represents a round trip, one direction, a shared multi-stop route or a site-to-site leg. If a crew serves two customers on one route, avoid assigning the full route twice unless the authorized pricing policy explicitly supports the treatment. Preserve the assumed start/end points without sharing employee home locations in an AI prompt. A planning allowance is not proof of actual time worked.

Reconcile before drafting the customer explanation

An assistant can organize the worksheet and flag mixed units or duplicate travel rows. Have the estimator approve the calculation, categories and customer-facing description. Revisit assumptions when site access or crew composition changes, and keep actual time records separate for later review. Do not ask AI to optimize unsafe schedules or infer skill requirements. This proposed estimating check complements a person-hour unit review but focuses specifically on the boundary between travel and on-site effort; it promises no particular cost reduction.

Release checklist

• Specify people and duration for each effort category.
• State whether travel is one-way or total.
• Keep planning allowances separate from actual time records.