How to read your repair reports

A repair shop measured only by sales is measured half-way. These four answer the questions a bench actually raises — what is sitting too long, whether volume is growing, who is finishing on time, and which jobs are worth doing.

1. 1

   Start with Repair Ticket Aging

   Open tickets by how long they have waited, as of today. This is the only one of the four that is about right now rather than about a period, and it is the one to open every morning. The oldest ticket on it is usually a customer who has stopped calling because they have given up.

2. 2

   Read Repair Volume and Trends for the shape of the work

   Ticket counts and trends over time. Use it for the question "are we busier than last quarter, or does it just feel that way" — and to see the seasonality that tells you when to hire and when to order parts.

3. 3

   Read Repair Performance for how the bench is running

   Turnaround time, completion, and whether you are meeting the times you promise. Turnaround is the number a customer judges you on, and the one most shops guess at.

4. 4

   Read Repair Profitability for what is worth doing

   Margin per repair after parts and labor. This is the report that changes prices: a job you do five times a week at almost no margin is worse for you than one you do twice at a real one.

5. 5

   Know what makes them true

   All four are only as honest as the tickets. Two habits carry them:

   • The part goes on the ticket. Profitability is price minus parts, so a ticket with no part attached looks like pure margin and quietly flatters every average.
   • The technician is assigned. Performance and completion are per person; unassigned work belongs to nobody and shows up as nobody's problem.
6. 6

   Compare two of them before deciding anything

   Volume rising with performance falling is a hiring conversation. Profitability falling with volume flat is a pricing conversation. Either report alone can be read to mean whatever you already believed.