Repairs on your own vehicles

[gandgautorepair]

Wondering how you all handle repair work to your own vehicles. How do you pay, how do you handle parts costs, write an RO or not, how does it affect gross sales.

I currently write an RO, pay the guys time just like any other job, but cost the parts to myself. The RO is for zero sales but has tech time charged to it. Wondering how others do it. I also have too many vehicles...

[gandgautorepair]

I'm not a tech, and I don't work on my own vehicles, so wondering how others in my situation pay the guys to work on your personal vehicles and how you account for it.

[stvstbsvc]

I AM a Tech. (sometimes) but sometimes my crew works on my cars to fill time.  When that happens I flag their time but no labor cost (so they get paid the commissionable hours) and parts at 2% over my cost (to cover credit card fees).  Thus I have a record of the job and parts (for warranty) in my software and the sales tax is taken care of.  I keep an eye on it but so far I haven't cost myself a bump in the profit sharing plan yet.  That plan is based on gross sales (I know, I know - but I have my reasons!) and too much of this type of activity could hurt...  

[Hands On]

My accounting is done through my bank deposits, not my invoices. I write a full priced invoice for work to my own cars, then do the work myself or have the guys do it. When I sell a car I show these full priced invoices to help bolster the value of the car. It skews my end of month reports in manage a bit, and I pay a little bit of sales tax (2.9%). When I file my sales tax I get a tiny bit of the sales tax bill back as administrative costs (the state gives this discount every month) so it is offset. I do not pay the nvoice so my accountant does not show it as income in my books but I do show the loss as parts money coming out.

[samgoto96]

We write up an invoice with parts @ cost for sales tax purposes & no labor, if an employee did the work he gets his regular hourly rate.

 

[gandgautorepair]

I hadn't thought of the problem of paying the sales tax on those parts, right now I don't. Hmmm...

[OJ&BM]

This is a very good topic. Though I am not the owner but have managed multiple shops I always run into the question. Can I work on my vehicle during shop hours if we have an open bay and we are slow? Do we mark up the parts if they want to purchase them through the shop account? Do we open a repair order for insurance purposes? If the tech is paid salary do you charge him for the hours needed for the repair say like a valve cover replacement? I've been with many different independent shops and each owner does things differently. What do you all think is the right way to do it? 

[alfredauto]

I make an invoice for the parts at cost and pay it plus tax. ny is pretty funny about their sales tax so I'm paranoid. I could just buy the parts and pay sales tax on the spot and not write a r.o. But it's easier this way. 

My techs are hourly so they don't care or I just do it myself. 

Edited May 20, 2018 by alfredauto

[samgoto96]

12 minutes ago, alfredauto said:

I make an invoice for the parts at cost and pay it plus tax. ny is pretty funny about their sales tax so I'm paranoid. I could just buy the parts and pay sales tax on the spot and not write a r.o. But it's easier this way. 

My techs are hourly so they don't care or I just do it myself. 

This is how I do it also. I do not show any labor on invoices for our personal vehicles, just parts @ cost, for the trucking company I do the same thing just tax-exempt with a exempt form on file for the company.