Know what's working
Busy doesn't mean profitable.
Your ramps are full. But do you know which jobs make money and whether your labour rate covers your costs?
You've got a rough sense of how the business is doing. The workshop is busy. The invoices are going out. But could you say, right now, what your recovery rate is? Or which jobs actually made you money last month? Or whether your parts margin is holding up?
Most owners set their labour rate based on what the competition charges and hope it's enough. They find out it wasn't when the VAT bill lands or the accountant calls. You shouldn't need your accountant to tell you something's wrong three months after the fact.
What the numbers show you:
- Revenue that makes sense. Daily, weekly, and monthly revenue alongside jobs completed and average job value. Not buried in a spreadsheet. Not a rough number from your head. The actual figures, updated as jobs close out.
- Tech efficiency and recovery rate. See how many hours each tech is billing versus how many they're clocked in for. If your recovery rate is low, you'll know whether the issue is under-quoting, slow work, or too much dead time between jobs.
- Parts margin, job by job. See your actual cost against your sell price on every job. Not an average across the month. If your FOH is giving away margin on quotes, you'll spot it before it adds up.
You already know the cars inside out. Now you'll know the business just as well.