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Praxis · Warranty credit audit Request a scope review

For US residential and light commercial HVAC contractors, 10 to 80 people, dealing one or two brands

Find the warranty parts claims your office never got to, while the filing window is still open.

This is for the shop where the one person who knew the manufacturer portals left, and nobody has filed since. The returns bin fills up, warranty jobs cost out at negative margin, and nobody in the office can say which claims are still inside the window and which are already dead.

This is one pass over your last 180 days of warranty-flagged jobs. You get the register below, built from your own export, plus drafted claim packets for the items still live. You submit them on your own login. We never ask for the password.

$600 per Warranty Credit Audit One company, up to 180 days, up to three brands, up to 250 warranty-flagged jobs, up to twelve drafted packets. Invoiced after a scope review call, never before it.

Request a scope review

Claim register

Invented example. 184 warranty-flagged jobs, built 04 Sep 2026, rows 1 to 9 by newest service date.

  • Inside the window
  • Closing this week
  • Time-barred
  • Needs evidence

Every status below came from comparing one date against one published window. Nothing clever happens here. Comparing nine service and invoice dates against the filing window on file for each brand. Nine of nine rows compared. Four still inside the window, one of those closing this week, four time-barred, one waiting on a serial number.

Swipe or scroll the register sideways to read the rest of each row.

Nine example warranty-flagged jobs with equipment, serial, dates, filing window, status, estimated recoverable amount and next action. All data is invented.
Job Br Equipment Serial Service Window closes Status Est. recoverable Next action
WO-4444ACompressor, 3 ton19D2-7740424 Aug23 Oct49 days left$1,240Draft packet
WO-4412ACondenser fan motor21F4-8803129 Jul27 Sep23 days left$281Draft packet
WO-4387AInverter control board20K7-4116808 Jul06 Sep2 days left$612Submit first
WO-4351BBlower motor, ECM21M5-6381714 Jun16 Sep12 days left$438Draft packet
WO-4322BReversing valve22B9-1055202 Jun03 SepClosed 1 day ago$355 missedRecord only
WO-4290AGas valve20H1-5227619 May18 JulClosed 48 days ago$174 missedRecord only
WO-4263BEvaporator coilnot on the job27 AprunknownNeeds serialnot estimatedFind serial
WO-4198AThermal expansion valve21C8-3091431 Mar30 MayClosed 97 days ago$203 missedRecord only
WO-4155BIgniter and pressure switch19G6-7044812 Mar10 JunClosed 86 days ago$96 missedRecord only
Inside the window
19 jobs $7,410 estimated
Time-barred
38 jobs $11,860 estimated and gone
Needs evidence first
12 jobs serial, date or RGA missing
Not a parts claim
115 jobs labor only or out of term

Brand A here files 60 days from the service date. Brand B files 90 days from the invoice date, which is why two rows close later than the service column suggests. Both rules come from the dealer terms you send us, and the file you receive prints the source and the date we read it next to every window. Estimates use the published parts allowance where one exists and a stated assumption where it does not, with the method printed beside each number.

These figures are invented to show the shape of the document. They are not a forecast. Some registers come back mostly time-barred, and when the first pass looks that way we tell you at the scope call instead of selling you the audit.

  • What we need from you

    A 180-day job export with serials and service dates, your brand and dealer numbers, a photo of the returns bin, and about forty minutes of your office manager's time across two calls.

  • What you get in five business days

    The register above built from your jobs, a one-page summary naming the live total and the time-barred total with both methods, up to twelve drafted claim packets, and a missing-evidence list.

  • What we never do

    We never ask for a dealer portal password. We do not submit or appeal claims, we do not call your customers, your distributor or your manufacturer, and we change nothing inside your software.

The delivery

Five documents and one screen share.

Five business days from the moment every input is in hand. The scope review call happens before the invoice, so you know the start date before you pay anything.

  1. The claim register

    One row per warranty-flagged job, with the brand window, the live or time-barred flag, the estimate, the method and a ranked work order.

  2. The one-page summary

    The estimated live total, the estimated time-barred total, and the method behind both. The time-barred number is delivered even when it is the larger one.

  3. Up to twelve claim packets

    Drafted for the highest-value live rows. Each one carries the complaint, cause and correction narrative, the serial, the dates, the part detail and the evidence still missing.

  4. The missing-evidence list

    Row by row, what your office manager has to find for each near miss. Usually a serial photo, an RGA number or an install date.

  5. The forward routine

    One page on what to capture at the truck when a warrantable part comes off, so the backlog does not rebuild behind you.

  6. The first three submissions

    A screen share where your office manager submits the first three packets in your portal, on your login, while we watch. We do not type.

How it works

Your export in, a document back, your hands on the portal.

What you send

  • A job or invoice export covering the last 180 days, filtered to or including warranty-flagged jobs. ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, Jobber, or a CSV out of anything else. We read the file. We do not connect to your system.
  • Equipment model and serial numbers and install dates wherever your software holds them.
  • A photo or a written list of what is sitting in the returns bin right now.
  • The brands you deal and the dealer or account number for each.
  • The name and email of the person who actually holds the portal logins.
  • Your parts and labor allowance terms, if you have them to hand.

What we do

  • Normalize the export: one row per job, re-dispatches deduplicated, model and serial split into their own columns.
  • Read each brand's published filing window and allowance terms, and record the source and the date read next to each.
  • Compute, per row, the service or invoice date plus that brand's window, then flag it live, closing within 14 days, or time-barred.
  • Score every row against a fixed six-item evidence checklist: serial, model resolves, install date, service date, failed part identified, return or RGA status known.
  • Estimate recoverable value on live rows and print the method next to the number.
  • Reconcile the returns bin against the export and list orphan parts as open questions, not as claims.
  • Draft the packets for the highest-value live rows.

Where a person signs

  • A second reader goes through the register cold against your raw export before it leaves, and signs it.
  • Rows we cannot resolve go into a named unresolved section with the reason. They never enter the recoverable total.
  • If more than a third of rows land unresolved, we do not publish a total at all. You get the register and a written explanation, and we refit or cancel.
  • If the export arrives with no serials or no service dates for most jobs, we stop, say so, and either refit the scope or do not invoice.
  • You submit. Every claim in your portal is filed by your staff, on your credentials, and the manufacturer decides all of it.

Worth a scope call

  • You deal one to three brands under a dealer agreement and file your own claims.
  • Your software holds a serial and a service date for most warranty jobs, even if nobody has looked at them.
  • Someone left, went on leave, or fell behind, and the filing stopped for a stretch you can name.
  • The returns bin has parts in it that nobody can tie to a claim.
  • You can approve $600 yourself, without a committee.

Not this

  • Your bookkeeper files every week and the credits already show on the distributor statement. You do not need us, and we will say so on the call.
  • Your export has no serials and no service dates. We would be inventing a register, and we will not.
  • You want us inside the manufacturer portal. We stay at packet preparation and we do not ask for the password.
  • You want the fee tied to what gets recovered. We do not price on recovery, because that creates pressure to file weak claims.
  • You need extended warranty or third-party service contract administration. This is manufacturer parts and labor allowance only.

Fair questions

The seven an owner asks before writing the check.

Our field service software already tracks warranty jobs.
Some of it does, which is exactly why the audit starts from your export rather than from a new system. Your platform holds the job, the serial and the install date. What no platform we know of does on its own is compare each warranty-flagged job against the manufacturer's published filing window and tell you which ones are still live this week. If yours already produces that register, you do not need us and we will say so on the scope call.
Why would we trust you with our job data?
Do not trust us with anything expensive on the first pass. The audit takes a read-only export and returns a document. We never touch your dealer portal, we never ask for a password, we do not talk to your manufacturer, and we move nothing in your system. If the register comes back wrong you have lost $600 and a CSV export, and you will know it is wrong inside an hour, because the serials and the dates are yours.
Why $600?
It buys roughly a day of skilled review across up to 180 days and three brands, plus up to twelve drafted claim packets and a screen share walking your office manager through the first three submissions. The only published price we found for a comparable HVAC warranty credit audit is $500 one time, and it covers record review and workspace setup rather than drafted packets (operlay.com, read 07 September 2026). Your other alternative is your office manager's time, which is not free and is already spent.
What do you actually need from us?
The 180-day export with serials and service dates, a photo of the returns bin, your brand list and dealer numbers, and about forty minutes of your office manager's time across two calls. That is the whole ask. If pulling the export turns into a project, we stop and tell you, because a useful review starts from records you already have rather than from new data entry.
Who talks to our customers?
Nobody. We do not contact your customers, your distributor or your manufacturer at any point. Every conversation in this engagement is between us and the two people you name.
What if it goes wrong?
The likeliest failure is that the audit finds very little live money, and there is a stop rule for it: if the first pass shows fewer than five claimable jobs still inside their window, we tell you before we finish and you can close the engagement at the scope-review stage instead of paying for a thin report. If a packet we drafted is rejected, we will tell you why we think it was rejected and what a corrected packet would need. We do not appeal claims and we do not promise that any claim will be approved. The manufacturer decides every claim, not us.
Why not put a VA on it, or use a warranty processing company?
A virtual assistant is a reasonable choice once you already know which jobs are claimable, because at that point the work is data entry. This is not that. The work is deciding, per job, whether the window is still open and whether the evidence is complete, which needs someone who has read the dealer terms and can read a job export. Against an outsourced warranty back office the difference is scope and disclosure: they price on volume, quote by phone, and run continuously. This is one fixed-price pass with a published number and a named reviewer, and then it ends.

Free, ungated, yours either way

The warranty credit leak checklist

One page. Walk it with your office manager and the returns bin before you decide whether the paid audit is worth anything to you. If you get to the bottom and everything is already handled, that is a good outcome and it costs you nothing.

Warranty credit leak checklist

Page 1 of 1

Write down your own windows

These are blank on purpose. Every manufacturer publishes its own, they differ, and anyone who fills them in for you without reading your dealer terms is guessing. Read yours, then write the source and the date you read it.

Brand you dealClaim filing windowPart return / RGA windowRegistration windowWhere you read itDate read
1
2
3

Twelve checks, in order

  1. Pull a 180-day job export filtered to warranty-flagged jobs. Write down the row count.
  2. Count the rows that carry a serial number. Under four in five is a finding on its own.
  3. Count the rows that carry both a service date and an invoice date. You need to know which one your brand counts from.
  4. For each brand, work out service or invoice date plus the filing window, then subtract today. Sort by that number.
  5. Mark every row where the number is under 14 days. That is this week's work and nothing else is.
  6. Mark every row where the number is negative. Do not delete them. That column is the case for changing the routine.
  7. Photograph the returns bin. List every part, model and serial written on the box.
  8. Match the bin list against the export. Parts in the bin with no matching job are the loudest leak you have.
  9. Check that each returned part has an RGA number and a date against it. No RGA usually means no credit.
  10. On the five highest-value live rows, check the failure narrative names the complaint, the cause and the correction. A packet with no stated cause is the first thing we would send back for a rewrite.
  11. Read the last three distributor statements for credits you were expecting and did not receive.
  12. Write down who holds each portal login today, and who holds it the week that person is on vacation.

The arithmetic, on your numbers

Take your own average approved parts and labor allowance per claim and divide $600 by it. At $250 a claim, the audit pays for itself at three approved claims. At $600 a claim it pays for itself at one. We cannot tell you how many of yours are still inside the window, and neither can anyone else until the register is built. That is the whole reason the register comes before any number.

Worked on invented figures. It is arithmetic for you to redo, not a projection of your recovery.

Print it and walk the bin

Checks 7 through 9 need you standing next to the returns shelf with the job export open. That is the half nobody does, and it is where the orphan parts turn up.

Nothing here comes back to us

There is no form on this checklist, no email gate and no tracking of what you write in it. Fill it in on paper if you like.

If it all checks out, stop

A shop whose bookkeeper files weekly and reconciles the distributor statement does not need a paid audit. Reaching the bottom of this page and finding nothing is a good result, and it costs you nothing.

Take the sample apart

The register and the checklist, as files.

Both files are invented and safe to open. The register carries the exact column layout an audit is delivered in, including the estimate method next to every number. The checklist is free and ungated, and it is yours whether or not you ever talk to us.

CSV Download the example claim register

Twenty three invented rows lifted from the example register, with the brand window rule, the live or time-barred flag, the evidence score, the estimate and the method printed next to every number.

Download MD Download the leak checklist

One page, twelve checks in order, and a blank table for your own filing windows. Print it and walk the returns bin with it.

Download

The workspace behind this

Praxis is where the register and the packets are built.

Praxis is a workspace that holds people, AI agents and business apps in one operating context. For this audit that means your register, your packets and the source note for every filing window sit in one place instead of in an inbox. A person reads your export and builds the register, and anything drafted for them is checked by that person before it moves.

You are not asked to migrate to it, log into it, or learn it. You send an export and you receive files. If something in the register looks wrong, you reply to one named reviewer at Superalignment, not a queue. You get that person's name and direct address in the scope note, before you are invoiced.

Ask for the scope review first.

Tell us how many brands you deal, roughly how many warranty jobs you run in a season, and when the filing stopped. No customer records, no logins, no export needed to start the conversation.

$600 per Warranty Credit Audit, invoiced after the scope review confirms the export and the brands.

Request a scope review

A request is read by a person and starts nothing automatically. There is no checkout on this page, no charge, and no account. If the scope call shows your windows are all closed, we say so and do not invoice.