How to Design a HVAC form in Excel

The above HVAC Repair Checklist form features everything you need for HVAC repair! The form lists up to 4 HVAC units, repair recommendations, description of work, total summary, and has an extensive checklist. This form is available for customizing on our website but what if you wanted to take complete control over your own HVAC repair form? Doing it yourself gives you the creative freedom to place information where you want it without having to go through a third party.

Today I will be re-designing the above form using Excel 2016.

Step 1: Page Set Up

Using Excel, go to the PAGE LAYOUT tab. Click on the pop up menu button in the corner of the margins and page size box.

Since I am creating a horizontal HVAC invoice form, I’m going to choose landscape under the PAGE tab.

Click on the MARGINS tab and input .25 for the top, bottom, left and right margins. We want a quarter of an inch margin on each side so that our information will not be cut off when printed.

Click OK.

On your blank Excel document, you will now see a small dotted line between Column N and Column O as well as on Row 39. These are your boundaries.

You can also click on VIEW – Page Break Layout – which will give you a view of your page.

Step 2: Insert Text Box

Formatting text inside the Excel cells can get messy and sometimes it’s just easier to style using text boxes.

Go to INSERT tab and select TEXT BOX.

Draw a text box into your document by clicking and dragging a box across cells A-N.

Type in your company information.

Select your text and from the HOME tab, style your company information.

Choose what you would like for your font style and size. The align buttons next to the font styles will help you center the information inside the box.

Go to FORMAT tab and with the text box selected click Shape Outline – None. You can also Shape Fill – None.

Step 3: Insert Images

From the INSERT TAB choose PICTURES. Find your logo on your computer and hit OK.

Use the resize tools to make it fit next to your company name.

I’ve tried to keep the company information contained inside the first three rows.

Step 4. Excel Row Height

Right now it looks like the rows will be too small to write in. You can space out the lines by clicking the arrow at the left-hand corner. It’s located between the Row 1 and Column A.

Right click anywhere and choose Row Height. I put 20 in the box – you can space yours out however you see fit. Your lines should now look similar to the above picture. Row 30 is our new margin line.

Step 5: Create 3 Columns

This particular HVAC invoice form has 3 important columns: Customer information & AC unit column, description of work, and checklist.

MERGE the cells by clicking on Cell 4A and drag your cursor to 4E then downward to row 30. From the HOME tab choose – Merge & Center – Merge Across. This removes the vertical cell lines and leaves us with horizontal cells.

Do the same for Columns F-J and then K-N

You should now have three columns.

Step 6. Create Lines

When you open an Excel document, you see a spreadsheet of cells that are in rows and columns. You can see these cells while inside the program but if you were to export or save this document as a pdf as is, you’d see only the header we created across the top of the page. Excel does not fill the cells with any kind of styles unless you tell it to.

To define these three columns and rows, I’m going to be using the cell borders.

Select all three columns. From the HOME tab click on the border button (shown in the below picture) and choose “All Borders”.

Your document should now have thicker black vertical lines all the way down and showing 2 vertical lines that will define our three columns.

Step 7. Aligning Text in Cells

Double click into the first cell and type “BILL TO” in the cell.

With the text selected, change the font size to 6.

Select the cell and look at the icons next to the font size. These icons control where the text sits in the cell. Click on the first icon to move the text to the top of the cell.

Step 8. More lessons on Merging

In the second and third row of the first column on this HVAC form we have a place for date and phone number side by side with Street and Zip.

To create this in excel, select the 5th & 6th cells in the first column only and choose Unmerge Cells in the Merge menu. This gives you all of the cells back in these two rows.

Choose cells 5A-5C and once again merge across.

Do the same for 5D & 5E. You have now split this cell into two columns.

You need to do the same thing with Row 6 but now there’s a quicker way to do this. Select cells 5A-5E then click the paint brush on the HOME TAB. It’s right next to the font options.

Once you’ve clicked the paint brush, select rows 6A-6E. Excel has copied the styles in row 5A-5E to 6A-6E. Once you fill in the cells, it should look like this:

Step 9. Styling with Text Boxes

This particular HVAC repair form has a checklist for Work Performed. We’re going to create this on row 9 in the first column. The easiest way to format this in Excel is to use a text box.

Go to INERT tab – Text Box

Fonts: Calibri (8pt), and Wingdings (8pt)

To make the boxes, type in qSales and change the “q” to the font Wingdings.

Lining up the boxes: I just hit tab a few times to get them evenly distributed. If you’re having a problem with the tabs, select all of your text and right click inside the text box. Go to Paragraph – and there is a Tabs button on the bottom left. Click that and check the following settings.

I was able to get the boxes lined up perfectly using the above settings.

Step 10: Double lines

After the work performed cell, we’re going to start listing the HVAC unit models and serial numbers. By adding a double line to this cell, we can better define these sections and make them easier to read.

To do this, just select the 9A-E cell and go back to your borders option. There will be an option for Bottom Double Border. Do the same for 12A-E, 15A-E, 18E-E and 21A-E.

Step 11: Creating headings

At the bottom of our HVAC Checklist Repair Form there is a few lines for technician recommendations. We really want to make this section stand out so that customers can easily find and read what is recommended for their unit.

Click on the 22A-E cell. From the HOME tab, find the paint bucket and text color buttons.

Change the fill to black and the text to white.

When you type RECOMMENDATIONS inside the box, it should now be in white text. Make it bold and 11pt.

Step 12: Drawing Lines

The very last box in this column is completion of work signature box. I’m going to once again use a text boxes to create the look of this section.

First, merge 27A-E to 30A-E together.

Insert your text box and type in your legal verbiage. This text is somewhat standard but if you have any questions be sure to ask your legal adviser.

Hit enter a few times and then type in Customer Signature and Date with a tab between them.

Go to INSERT tab – Shapes- Choose a straight line. Draw two straight lines over the words Customer Signature and Date.

Progress Report

We now have one column completed!

Step 13. Step and Repeat

The very top of the middle column is going to be “Description of Work Performed”. You can style it by repeating Step 11 or by using the format paint tool in Step 8.

From there, just repeat the steps to split cells in Row 27F-J

For the PAYMENT DUE UPON RECEIPT box I just merged 28F-J & 29F-J and just typed in the information. Check with your legal adviser to make sure your company uses the correct terminology.

Step 14: Changing Box Border Colors

First, get your format painter and paint a heading for our Checklist area in Row 4K-N.

Find the border button under the HOME tab and choose Line Color – White. You’ll be able to paint the line cell between Description & Checklist white.

Step 15: More Fun with Text Boxes

The most important part of our HVAC Checklist Repair Form is our checklist. This is a long list with boxes and sections that need to be properly spaced. I wouldn’t even attempt to do this inside the Excel cells. Instead, I’m going to merge Rows 5K-N-25K-N

Now I have a big area to work with without Excel lines blocking my view.

Insert a text box and put the following information into it:

AIR FILTERS
CLEANED
REPLACED

COMPRESSOR
SUCTION _________________ PSI
HEAD ___________________ PSI
ELECTRICAL CONNECTIONS
CONTACTS TIGHT & CLEAN
CONDITION

CONDENSATION AREAS
INSPECT & CLEAN DRAIN
CONDENSER COIL
CLEAN COIL & CHECK FIN COND.

ELECTRICAL COMP’TS.
RELAY
CONTACTORS
OVERLOAD
PRESS SWITCH
START CAP.
RUN CAP.

FAN AND MOTOR
VOLTS__________ AMPS_____________
ELECTRICAL CONNECTIONS
CONTACTS TIGHT & CLEAN
FAN PULLEYS (ADJUST BELT)
CHECK MOTOR

HEATING ASSEMBLY
BURNER & HEAT EXCHANGER
FUEL SUPPLY & PRESSURE
PILOT ASSEMBLY
FLAME ADJUSTMENT
PRIMARY RELAY & FLUE
FAN & LIMIT SWITCH OPER.
BLOWER ASSEMBLY
RV VALVE
STRIP HEAT
DEFROST CYCLE

REFRIGERANT
LEAK
CHANGE

THERMOSTAT
OK
REPLACE

You do not have to keep this exact checklist. In fact, the whole point of this exercise is to give you complete control over what goes on the form. Use this opportunity to make sure this checklist has everything your company needs.

I used the font Calibri (8pt).

If you’re having trouble fitting everything into the box, adjust the space between the paragraphs.

Step 16. Finish up

This is again just repeating steps we’ve already done. Use your format painter to create the Total Summary box. Then you just need to unmerge the last 4 cells and fill in the text.

If you need more space for the cents column, you can drag that line more to the right.

Step 17. Save As

Your HVAC Repair Checklist form should look like the above or similar if you’ve made any adjustments.

The best option for this is to save it as a PDF. You want to try to avoid sending it as an excel because if the print shop doesn’t have the same version or they don’t have the fonts you’ve used, your form could end up jumbled.

Go to File – Save As PDF.

Step 18. Print Your Form

At Printit4Less.com you can upload your custom designed form when placing an order. Or you can skip the design part and purchase this HVAC Repair Checklist Form template right on our website! If you need further assistance with your form, our team of in-house designers will be happy to assist you!

Categorised in: Tutorials

This post was written by Progressive Printing Team

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