Air conditioning is a trade with an unusual admin shape. The work arrives in a rush the week after Christmas and again on the first cold snap, the money goes out before it comes in because the unit has to be bought, and the paperwork that keeps you legal renews on two separate cycles that have nothing to do with each other. None of that is hard. It is just easy to lose track of when you are on a roof in February.
Your trade has two licence clocks, not one
Most trades track one licence. Refrigeration and air conditioning runs on two, and they expire independently:
- Your Refrigerant Handling Licence — the individual ticket. Which one depends on the work: RAC01 for general air conditioning and refrigeration, RSS03 for installing and decommissioning single-head split systems and heat pumps under 18kW, RDR04 for domestic and stand-alone commercial refrigeration, AAC02 for automotive. Issued for two or three years.
- Your business's Refrigerant Trading Authorisation — a separate authorisation the business needs to buy, sell or store refrigerant. Also two or three years, on its own dates.
Yamate stores both against your business with their expiry dates and tells you before either lapses — yours and your crew's. It knows the Australian Refrigeration Council is the body for this trade in every state, because refrigerant is a Commonwealth scheme rather than a state-by-state one.
Installs you have to fund before you get paid
A split system is a real outlay before a cent comes back. Yamate lets you ask for a deposit on the quote so the unit is not coming out of your own pocket while you wait on the customer, and records it against the job so the final invoice shows the balance after the deposit rather than the gross.
Quote the unit, the install labour, the pipe run, the electrical and the make-good as separate lines so a customer comparing three quotes can see what they are actually paying for — and so a long pipe run or a double-brick wall is a priced line rather than an argument on the day.
Servicing is where the repeat money is
Installs pay once. Servicing pays every year, and it is the part most one-van operators never get around to chasing. Mark a service job as a maintenance-type job and Yamate works out when it falls due again and puts it on your Today screen as a one-tap text to the customer.
Straight about how that one works: maintenance check-backs are the one automation that needs your app open — every other automation Yamate sends goes from our servers whether the app is open or not. A due check-back does not disappear either way; it waits on your Today screen until you open the app and tap it.
The season runs you, so plan the quiet bit
Summer books itself. The shoulder — autumn and the run-up to winter — is when a service list earns its keep, because that is when you have the days free and the customer has not yet joined the queue. Yamate's scheduling shows the jobs you already have booked so you can see where the gaps actually are before you promise anyone a date.
Typical line items it handles
Split system supply and install, multi-head and ducted installs, back-to-back and long pipe runs, regas and leak testing, filter and coil cleans, annual service and maintenance visits, thermostat and controller faults, condenser replacements, heat pump hot water, decommissioning and removals, and your callout fee. Save the jobs you do every week and they drop straight into the next quote.
Try Yamate free — built for aircon techs →FAQ
What is the best job management software for an Australian aircon business?
For a one-van operator, one that handles the whole loop without an office: quote on site, book it in, invoice from the ute, chase the money, and keep your ARCtick dates where you will see them. Yamate does that from $19/mo (founder price, until 30 Sept) on iPhone and Android.
Can it track my ARCtick licence and my RTA expiry?
Yes — both, with their own dates, for you and for anyone working with you. Yamate tells you before they lapse. It does not renew them for you and it does not issue or lodge anything with the ARC; renewing is still your job.
Can I take a deposit on a split system install?
Yes. Add a deposit to the quote and request it before you order the unit. The balance on the final invoice is worked out after the deposit.
Does it do refrigerant logging?
No — not as a dedicated register. You can keep notes and photos against the job, but if you need a formal refrigerant-handling log for your record-keeping obligations, keep using whatever you use for that today.
Tickets, safety and a crew
Yamate keeps your tickets on file and tells you before they lapse — yours and your crew's. It'll draft a Safe Work Method Statement for a job from what the job actually is; you read it and sign it, and Yamate doesn't issue certificates or lodge anything with a regulator.
Taken someone on? The Founder plan includes up to 3 people. For larger crews, the Company plan includes 10 people, then $15/month for each additional person, and gives everyone their own login so you choose what each of them sees. And if you get stuck anywhere, Ask ya mate — type a question and it walks you through the screens, suggesting the tap rather than doing it for you.
Is this HVAC software, or just invoicing?
Both, and it is worth being straight about the difference. Search hvac software and you will mostly find products built for a business with several vans, a dispatcher and an office — fleet scheduling, asset registers against every unit, service contracts with SLAs. Good software, aimed a long way up the road from where most aircon businesses in this country actually sit.
Yamate runs the loop a one-van operator repeats: quote on site, book it in, do it, invoice from the ute, chase the money, and get the service call back in the calendar for next year. Licences tracked so they do not ambush you, GST and BAS figures kept as you go.
What it is not: a refrigerant register, a dispatch board for a fleet, or heat-load calculation software. If you are sizing plant off drawings or running six techs against SLAs, you want something else and we would rather say so here than in month two.
Free tools
General information only, and not legal advice. Refrigerant handling licences and trading authorisations are issued by the Australian Refrigeration Council; licence types and validity periods above were read from arctick.org on 19 August 2026. Electrical work on air conditioning is separately licensed by your state regulator — check both.