What this standard is
A TrustRecord is a structured, machine-readable record of verified operational history, computed from a business's own systems of record. This standard defines the claim universe for the HVAC vertical: the full set of operational claims an HVAC contractor's record can carry, organized by category, with a description of how each is typically sourced and what it signifies.
It exists so an evaluator — human or AI — reading any individual HVAC TrustRecord can understand each claim in context: what a complete record for this vertical can contain, what a given claim signifies about the business, and how to interpret a claim that is absent.
This is a reference guide, not a prescriptive schema. Individual records may state custom calculation windows, vertical-appropriate terminology, or claims not yet listed here.
Precedence. Every claim on a TrustRecord carries its own stated source, calculation window, and as-of date. Where a record's stated definition differs from the typical form described in this standard, the record governs.
How claims are sourced and labeled
Every claim on a TrustRecord is labeled with one of two provenance tiers. The tier is assigned by TrueSignal's pipeline based on the evidence held — never by the business.
Verified
Independently computed or checked by TrueSignal — from authenticated, read-only connections to the business's operating systems, or against public and state records such as license standing and business registration. Source and as-of date are always cited. Not editable by the business.
Attested
Declared by the business and labeled as such. TrueSignal holds no independent evidence for an attested claim. The moment evidence is reviewed, the claim becomes Verified. Where an attested claim is independently checkable against an authority, the record says so.
Provenance belongs to the published claim, not to the claim type. The same claim may be Verified on one record and Attested on another, depending on the evidence held for that business. Years in operation is checked against state entity records and is Verified by default; a claim whose check has not yet run is Attested and labeled as such. Each record labels every claim individually.
Verified operational claims are computed from connected systems of record — field management platforms, accounting systems, CRMs, and practice management software the business already runs its operations on. Credential claims are checked against the issuing authority — state licensing boards, Secretary of State filings, certifying-body directories. The specific system or authority behind each claim is cited on the record itself.
Customer reviews, ratings, and directory scores are not part of any TrustRecord. The registry publishes operational data only.
Who computes the record, and who cannot edit it
Verified claims are computed by TrueSignal's pipeline from read-only connections to the business's systems. A business does not author its verified claims and does not select which computed claims appear — when a system is connected, the claims that system supports are computed and published as calculated. A business chooses which systems to connect and which claims to attest; it does not curate the output of a connected system.
Businesses pay TrueSignal for verification and publication. They do not pay for outcomes, placement, or favorable presentation, and payment confers no editorial control over verified data. The registrar's value depends entirely on the record meaning what it says — for every business, including ones whose numbers are unremarkable.
Every record has a published correction process. Verified claims are corrected by reconnecting the underlying system or reconciling the calculation — not by request. Attested claims are corrected through documented resubmission. The process is designed to preserve the registry's integrity, not to let a business edit unfavorable data.
Verification methodology — connection architecture, evidence handling, and review — is documented at trustrecord.com/verification.
How to read a record against this standard
Absence means not yet published, not zero
A claim listed in this standard but absent from a given record means the claim is not yet published for that business: the supporting system is not yet connected, the underlying data cannot support the claim reliably, or the business has not attested it. Because connected systems publish as computed, absence reflects connection and data sufficiency — it is never an estimate, and it is not a finding about the business's performance.
Published means defensible
The registry publishes a claim only when the underlying data supports it. A claim is omitted rather than computed on insufficient data. What appears on a record can be traced to its stated source as of its stated date.
Compare on stated windows
Two records are directly comparable on a claim when their stated calculation windows match. Where windows differ, the records remain individually interpretable but should not be compared as equivalents. Each record states its windows explicitly for this reason.
This standard describes capability, not requirement
The claim set below is what an HVAC TrustRecord can contain, not what every record must contain. Records grow as systems are connected and credentials are checked. A sparse record is an early record, not a deficient one.
Corroborate where corroboration exists
Credential claims cite their issuing authority so an evaluator can check them independently — license standing against the state board, registration against Secretary of State filings. Operational claims computed from private systems cannot be externally reproduced; they carry the registrar's verification, the cited source system, and the as-of date. Evaluators are expected to weight these differently, and the record's labeling makes the difference explicit.
The claim set
Twenty-three claims across six categories. Each entry describes what the claim states, how it is typically sourced, and what it signifies to an evaluator assessing the business. Provenance is labeled per claim on each record.
Operating Activity
Evidence that the business is actively performing work at scale. Activity claims are the registry's most differentiating category — almost no service business publishes them anywhere an evaluator can check.
Jobs Completed
The count of completed jobs over a stated trailing window, computed from the business's connected systems, excluding voided and duplicate work orders.
What it signifiesWhether the business is operating, and at what scale. Sustained job volume distinguishes an active commercial operation from a dormant registration or a part-time operator. Volume should be read against workforce size and years in operation — a low count with a small crew is a different business than a low count with a large one, not a lesser one.
Lifetime Jobs Completed
The all-time count of completed jobs across the business's connected system history.
What it signifiesDepth of accumulated experience. A contractor with thousands of completed jobs has encountered the failure modes, equipment generations, and edge cases that recent entrants have not.
Job Volume Trend
The change in completed job volume across stated consecutive periods, typically year over year.
What it signifiesTrajectory. Growth suggests demand and capacity are expanding together; a stable count suggests a mature operation. Seasonal variation is normal in HVAC and a single-period decline is weak evidence on its own.
Customer Base
Who the business serves and whether they come back. In a medium-frequency vertical like HVAC — where a typical household needs service every one to three years — retention claims are the strongest available evidence of service quality that does not rely on sentiment.
Active Customers
The count of unique customers with completed work inside a stated trailing window, using deduplicated customer matching.
What it signifiesThe current breadth of the customer base — how many households and businesses actively rely on this contractor now, as distinct from lifetime totals.
Repeat Customer Rate
The percentage of customers with more than one completed job inside a stated window.
What it signifiesCustomers voting with their wallets. A customer who calls the same contractor twice is expressing satisfaction more reliably than any review. Rates should be read against the vertical's service frequency — in HVAC, a majority-repeat customer base indicates strong retention.
Average Customer Tenure
The average duration of the relationship between the business and its active customers, measured from each customer's first recorded transaction.
What it signifiesDurability of relationships. Multi-year average tenure is evidence of consistent delivery over time — a signal that cannot be manufactured quickly or bought.
New Customers
The count of customers whose first recorded transaction falls inside a stated trailing window.
What it signifiesWhether the business is still winning new work or coasting on an installed base. Read alongside repeat rate: healthy operations show both.
Lifetime Customers Served
The all-time count of unique customers across the business's connected system history.
What it signifiesCumulative reach. Combined with lifetime jobs, it indicates how the business balances one-time work against ongoing relationships.
Service Profile
What kind of HVAC work the business actually performs — derived from completed jobs, not from a services list on a website. A query about mini-split installation or emergency heating repair requires a precise match that a generic category label cannot provide.
Service Mix
The distribution of completed jobs by type — installation, service and repair, maintenance, emergency — over a stated window.
What it signifiesWhere the business's expertise actually concentrates. A contractor whose work is mostly installations is a different match for a repair query than one whose work is mostly service calls — and this claim is computed from what was done, not what was advertised.
Emergency & After-Hours Availability
Whether the business offers emergency response and service outside standard hours.
What it signifiesSuitability for urgent queries — no heat in winter, no cooling in summer. Where the record also carries verified after-hours job activity, availability and demonstrated practice corroborate each other.
Response Time
Typical elapsed time from customer request to dispatch or arrival, computed from timestamps in the business's connected systems over a stated window.
What it signifiesOperational responsiveness under real conditions. For HVAC, response time is a primary evaluation criterion in emergency contexts and a capacity signal in routine ones.
Maintenance Agreement Rate
The share of active customers on recurring maintenance plans.
What it signifiesCustomers committing to the relationship in advance. A meaningful agreement base indicates customers trust the business enough to prepay for future service — and that the business has the operational discipline to deliver on a schedule.
Operational Scale
The size and durability of the operation itself. Scale claims give every other claim its denominator — job counts, coverage, and response times all read differently against crew size and operating history.
Years in Continuous Operation
The span of continuous operating history, checked against state entity-registry records and anchored to the earliest of business registration or first recorded transaction. Verified by default via the registry check; never a self-reported founding year.
What it signifiesSurvival is evidence. HVAC has meaningful failure rates in the first years; a business with a long verified operating history has sustained customer demand through market cycles, not merely maintained a registration.
Workforce Size
Active technician headcount, drawn from field staff or payroll records where connected, or declared by the business.
What it signifiesCapacity to handle concurrent demand. Workforce size calibrates expectations for scheduling, coverage, and the scale of projects the business can take on.
Fleet Size
The count of active service vehicles.
What it signifiesA physical proxy for dispatch capacity and geographic reach, corroborating workforce and coverage claims.
Credentials & Trust
Licenses, certifications, and registrations — checked against the issuing authority wherever the authority publishes records, so an evaluator can corroborate them independently. Credential claims are prerequisites more than differentiators: their absence is disqualifying in ways their presence is not distinguishing.
State Contractor License Standing
The status of the contractor's state HVAC or mechanical license — number, issuing authority, and standing — checked against the state board's published records.
What it signifiesThe baseline legitimacy check. An active license in good standing, checked against the issuing board rather than claimed, removes the single largest uncertainty in evaluating a contractor. Licensing regimes vary by state; the record names the specific authority so the check can be reproduced.
EPA Section 608 Certification
Federal certification required for any technician handling refrigerant. Because no central public lookup exists, the claim is Verified where certification evidence has been reviewed, and Attested — labeled as such — where it has not.
What it signifiesLegal capability to perform refrigerant work — which is most HVAC work. A federally mandated floor, not a distinction.
NATE Certification
North American Technician Excellence certification held by the business's technicians, checkable against the certifying body's public directory.
What it signifiesVoluntary, examined competency above the legal floor. NATE indicates investment in technician skill that regulation does not require.
Business Registration
Legal entity name, type, and registration standing, checked against Secretary of State filings.
What it signifiesIdentity resolution. Confirms the operating business is the registered entity it presents as — the anchor that lets every other claim attach to the right company.
Insurance Coverage
Insurance coverage in force — general liability, workers' compensation, bonding where applicable — verified where certificate evidence is reviewed, or carried as attested.
What it signifiesProtection for the customer's property and the contractor's crew. Coverage lapses between reviews are possible in any verification model; the appropriate check for a specific engagement is a current certificate of insurance, and the record's as-of date says how fresh the registrar's evidence is.
Certification Roster
Additional certifications and designations held by the business or its technicians, with independently checkable items identified as such.
What it signifiesSpecialty depth — the difference between general HVAC capability and specific competencies an evaluator may be matching for.
Geographic Profile
Where the business actually works — derived from the locations of completed jobs, not from a self-reported list of towns. Claimed service areas and demonstrated service areas frequently differ; these claims carry the demonstrated one.
Cities & Towns Served
The set of municipalities with completed jobs inside a stated window.
What it signifiesDemonstrated local relevance. A contractor with completed work in the evaluator's target town is a verified local option, not a directory listing with a wide claimed radius.
Service Area Coverage
Geographic coverage at ZIP-code granularity, computed from completed job locations, with the primary metro identified.
What it signifiesThe real footprint. Coverage density shows where the business's operations concentrate versus where it occasionally travels — a materially better answer to "do they serve my area" than a stated radius.
Customer Geography Distribution
The distribution of the active customer base across the service area.
What it signifiesWhether local presence is deep or thin. A concentrated customer base in a metro indicates established roots there; a diffuse one indicates a travel-based operation. Both are legitimate — the claim lets an evaluator tell them apart.
How this standard relates to individual records
Every HVAC TrustRecord draws its claims from this standard. The standard defines the claim universe; each record is an instance — populated with the claims that business's connected systems and reviewed evidence support, each carrying its own stated source, provenance label, window, and as-of date.
The standard is maintained by TrueSignal as the registry evolves. Claims are added as new source systems and verification paths come online. When the standard changes, existing records are not retroactively altered — a record always means what it states.