The silent gap: why you never see replacement opportunities
ServiceTitan has a feature that quietly hands you some of the best work in the trade: a running list of customers whose equipment is old enough to replace, flagged before the unit dies and before they call somebody else. Most shops get zero of these and never notice, because you cannot miss a lead that never shows up. Here is exactly how it works, why yours is probably silent, and the simple fix.
How it works, start to finish
Follow one furnace. Say a gas furnace that lasts about 15 years.
Phase 1: Setup (one time, done by the office). Three steps, done once when the book is built:
- Create the conversion tag, in Settings. Example: a tag called “Furnace.”
- Create the equipment type “Gas Furnace,” and on it enter a Replacement Age (say 15 years), attach that “Furnace” tag, and set the capacity range (tons or BTU).
- In the pricebook, give every furnace item a Type of “Gas Furnace,” and give every furnace-install service the matching “Furnace” conversion tag.
That is the whole setup. After this, nobody touches it again.
Phase 2: The install (the day a furnace is sold). The tech installs the furnace and invoices it, entering the Installed On date. That date is the only ongoing input, and it is something they are doing anyway. Because the furnace item is tied to the “Gas Furnace” type, ServiceTitan now knows this customer’s furnace was installed today and is due around year 15.
Phase 3: The wait (nobody does anything). For 15 years, nothing happens and no one does anything. ServiceTitan counts quietly from the install date.
Phase 4: The payoff (the system acts, then your people do). When the furnace hits its replacement age, ServiceTitan automatically drops a “Furnace” replacement opportunity on that customer. The CSR sees it on the Call Booking screen the next time the customer calls for anything. The tech sees it on any job at that address, in the mobile app. Your people raise the replacement. If the tech books the job, ServiceTitan credits them with the lead, and when it sells it is tracked as converted. That is what the matching tag on the install service was for.
So, who does what, when:
| When | Who | What |
|---|---|---|
| Once, at setup | Office | Build the tags, types, and replacement ages; assign the Type to every equipment item |
| Every install | Tech / office | Enter the Installed On date |
| For years after | Nobody | ServiceTitan counts down silently |
| At replacement age | ServiceTitan, then CSR and tech | The system drops the alert; your people pitch the replacement |
What a shop misses by leaving Type blank
If the Type field is empty, the countdown never starts. No alert ever fires, no aged-equipment list can be built, no replacement opportunity is ever surfaced. The shop just waits for the furnace to die and hopes the customer calls them first.
With Type filled in, you get the first call. Years of installs turn into a standing queue of customers who are due, and replacement and install work is the biggest ticket in the trade. That is the “a lot” most shops are missing: one blank basic field switches off the whole proactive-replacement machine, and they never see the leads they are not getting.
The part shops confuse: there are two equipment records
This is where it goes wrong for most people. Equipment lives in two different places in ServiceTitan, and they do different jobs.
- The pricebook equipment item. The catalog entry, the “Trane 3-ton AC” you sell. It carries the Type field. It is in the pricebook. It is the template.
- The installed equipment. The actual unit sitting at one customer’s house. It lives on that customer’s location, and it carries its own Installed On date, type, serial, and model. This is the record ServiceTitan actually counts from.
The pricebook Type only matters because it pre-fills the installed record when you sell. The countdown itself runs on the location, not in the pricebook. So who fills in that installed record, and when:
- When you invoice an install (every sale). ServiceTitan creates the installed record on that customer’s location for you and pulls the Installed On date off the invoice. No extra work. If the pricebook item had a Type, the record inherits it and the countdown starts. If it did not, the record is born with no type and nothing counts.
- For equipment you did not install (old units, customers from before ServiceTitan, systems a competitor put in). Nothing is automatic. A tech in the field (ServiceTitan Mobile, under a location’s existing equipment) or an office user (on the Location, under Equipment) has to add the record by hand: install date or age, type, make and model. This is the big backlog nobody does, and it is why a perfect pricebook still shows an empty board for the customers you already have.
- Bulk catch-up. There is a separate installed-equipment import to load many location records at once. Note it is a different file from the pricebook import, and you can only import new records with it, you cannot export, edit, and re-import existing ones.
- Ongoing. Keep the records current, and mark a unit as replaced when you swap it.
The fix
Two moves, and the alerts start coming.
Fix the future. Make sure every equipment item in your pricebook has a Type. That part is quick and it lives in the pricebook. The replacement age is not set on each item, you set it once on the equipment type itself under Equipment Types, so that is a one-time settings step. With both in place, every new install starts its own countdown automatically.
Turn on your current customers. Get the equipment already in the field recorded on your customer locations, with an install date. A tech can add a unit while on site, or the office can load a batch with the import. It is real work, but it is the move that turns years of past installs into a list of customers who are due right now.
One thing to get right while you are in there: put the conversion tag on the equipment type and on the install service, not directly on the pricebook equipment item as a replacement opportunity tag. ServiceTitan warns that a replacement opportunity tag placed on a pricebook equipment item sticks to it permanently and will not convert as sold. Let ServiceTitan apply that tag on its own when a unit ages out, which is what it is built to do.
None of this is a knock on ServiceTitan. The platform runs the whole countdown and the alerts for you, which is one of the better ways it pays you back for good records. It just needs the two inputs, and the one that matters most for the customers you already serve is the one most shops never filled in. Getting the Type right on every item is part of building a Pricebook that works, and loading your existing installed equipment onto customer locations is a workflow project we are glad to walk an owner through.
Quick answers
Why am I not getting any replacement opportunities in ServiceTitan? Usually two reasons together: your pricebook equipment items have no Type assigned, so no countdown starts, and your existing customers have no installed equipment recorded on their locations, so there is nothing to count. ServiceTitan counts from the install date on the unit at the location, not from the pricebook.
Where does the replacement countdown actually run? On the installed equipment record at the customer’s location, using its Installed On date plus the replacement age from that unit’s equipment type. The pricebook Type field only links each item to its equipment type. It is not where the countdown runs.
What is the difference between the pricebook equipment item and installed equipment? The pricebook item is the catalog entry you sell, and it carries the Type. Installed equipment is the actual unit at a customer’s location, with its own install date. When you invoice an install, ServiceTitan creates the installed record for you. For units you did not install, someone has to add that record before any countdown can start.
Source: ServiceTitan Help Center, Set up your account for replacement opportunities, Create equipment types, and Manage installed equipment.