Heat pump business software: site surveys, subsidy admin and maintenance contracts
Software for a heat pump business has to carry the whole journey: site survey with photos and a heat loss calculation, quote, scheduling, handover and yearly maintenance. The core is one record per customer holding survey forms, work orders and the documents for the customer's ISDE subsidy application, with recurring appointments for maintenance contracts.
By the makers of stiptUpdated August 6, 2026
Why is the heat pump journey so heavy on admin?
Selling a heat pump is one thing; keeping track of everything around it is the real work. Between the first enquiry and a running installation sit a site survey with a heat loss calculation and photos, a quote, a schedule with the right technicians, the installation itself and the handover. And then it really starts: the customer wants documents for their ISDE subsidy application (the Dutch subsidy scheme for heat pumps), and the maintenance contract needs a new appointment every year.
Every step produces paperwork that has to resurface later. The heat loss calculation backs the quote. The survey photos decide what the technician brings. The customer needs your invoice and the installation certificate for the subsidy. And since work on installations with certain refrigerants requires F-gas certified staff, you must be able to show who may do what.
In practice all of that lives in different places: photos in a group chat, the calculation on the surveyor's laptop, invoices in the accounting package and the maintenance schedule in an Excel list. While the company is small, that just about works. From a few installations a week onward, it becomes the biggest source of searching and mistakes.
From enquiry to maintenance contract, how a heat pump record runs.
- 1Enquiry
The customer asks for advice or a quote. A record is created with contact details, the address and the request.
- 2Site survey
A surveyor visits the home and completes the survey form: placement, heat emission system, meter cupboard, insulation and photos.
- 3Quote
Built from the survey data, with the heat loss calculation as backing. On approval it moves to scheduling.
- 4Installation
Technicians with the right certification are scheduled; the work order is completed and signed digitally on site.
- 5Handover
Handover form with photos, the invoice and the installation certificate. Everything the customer needs for the subsidy application is now in one place.
- 6Maintenance
The maintenance contract lives on the record and the yearly service visit comes back as a recurring appointment.
How do you capture the site survey in a digital form?
The site survey is where you collect the most information in one go: the current installation, the placement indoors and outdoors, the meter cupboard, the heat emission system and the insulation. A paper form or a loose notepad means someone retypes it afterwards, and something is always missing.
A digital survey form fixes that with structure. Fixed fields for the data you always need, required photos of the placement and the meter cupboard, and conditional questions that only appear when they are relevant: questions about underfloor heating have no place in a home without it. Split the form into steps and the surveyor simply walks their route.
The heat loss calculation itself is usually made in dedicated calculation software. Your CRM does not need to perform that calculation; the result and the report just have to end up in the record, next to the survey form and the photos. Whoever writes the quote no longer has to chase anything down.
A survey form on a phone, as in stipt: required fields and photos, built up in steps, and automatically attached to the record as a PDF after submission.
How do you help customers with the ISDE paperwork?
In the Netherlands, private homeowners usually apply for the ISDE subsidy themselves, after the installation. Yet most of the admin lands on you: the customer needs documents that come from your company, and every missing piece turns into another email or call.
Exactly which documents are required changes along with the scheme; the current overview lives at RVO, the Dutch government agency that runs it. The administrative pattern, however, is stable: the customer has to show what was installed, by whom, when and for what amount. That means your invoice, the installation certificate and the details of the installed device have to be findable the moment the customer asks.
Work with one record per customer, as in stipt, and that package stops being a search job: the quote, the invoice, the handover form and the device details already hang on the same record. One email with attachments, done. The difference between ten minutes and an afternoon is not in the subsidy, but in where your documents live.
Checklist: your customer's subsidy file
- Signed quote and the invoice, in the customer's name and address
- Installation certificate or handover statement with the installation date
- Meldcode (the device code for the subsidy application) or type of the installed unit
- Photos of the finished installation, taken from the handover form
- Survey report or heat loss calculation backing the chosen system
- Current conditions and document requirements checked at RVO
How do you run maintenance contracts without an Excel list?
A maintenance contract is the most predictable revenue a heat pump business has, and at the same time the easiest thing to let slip. A yearly service visit nobody schedules quietly becomes a contract you are not honouring.
The fix is to record the contract on the customer's record and leave the repetition to software. That can be a recurring task or a recurring appointment, with a reminder to the customer beforehand. The technician doing the visit sees the full record: which device is installed, what the previous visit found and which work orders already exist.
Certification belongs in this same list. Work on installations with certain refrigerants may only be done by staff with F-gas certification. Good software lets you record per technician which certificates they hold, so scheduling takes it into account and nobody without the right papers ends up on a job.
That way maintenance stops being an administrative debt and becomes a fixed rhythm: the contract is recorded, the appointments come back on their own and the record grows with every visit.
Loose tools next to one record
| Part of the job | Loose tools | One record per customer |
|---|---|---|
| Survey photos | In a group chat or on the technician's phone | Required field in the survey form, on the record |
| Heat loss calculation | A file on the surveyor's laptop | Attachment on the record, next to the quote |
| Subsidy documents | Digging through old emails when the customer asks | Invoice, installation certificate and device code together |
| Work orders | Paper, retyped at the office later | Digital form with a signature, instantly a PDF |
| Maintenance | An Excel list nobody keeps up | Recurring appointment or task per contract |
Frequently asked questions
Who applies for the ISDE subsidy: the installer or the customer?
For private homeowners in the Netherlands, the customer usually applies themselves, after the installation. The installer supplies the evidence: the invoice, the installation certificate and the device details. For business applications and the current conditions, RVO is the source; rules change and an article ages.
What is a meldcode?
A meldcode is a code that identifies the installed device in the Dutch subsidy application. Which devices qualify and which code belongs to them is published in RVO's device lists. Recording the brand, type and code in the customer's file at handover is enough.
Do I need separate work order software next to my CRM?
Not necessarily. A work order is essentially a form: work done, materials used, photos and a signature. If your CRM can attach digital forms to a customer record and turn them into a PDF, a separate work order app is an extra system without extra value.
How do I keep track of F-gas certification in scheduling?
Record per technician which certificates they hold and let your scheduling filter on it, so work on installations with certain refrigerants only lands with certified staff. Store the certificates themselves digitally too, with their expiry dates, so an inspection or audit never turns into a search.
What does software for a heat pump business cost?
For the Dutch market, expect roughly 30 to 250 euros per user per month, from bare CRM packages to broad suites with scheduling and work orders. When comparing, check what counts as a user: some packages charge the full rate for a technician who only fills in forms.