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Me thinks TheTrustedMechanic doesn't trust these guys! 😬😁 However, it's critical to be certain of where you stand, so I'm with you on that. Ownership of your data is a contractual issue. If it's not stated as yours, it's not yours. But, think about the reputation of the software companies that block you from transferring your data to the next guy... They would get a bad rap and not live much longer. Therefore, most will allow your data to be exported. Ask the SMS about this before signing up. Most SMSs can import data from other SMSs. Once the data export is completed, there is no need to access your data from the old SMS (with the caveat that not all items can be imported). See Import Example below. Personally, I don't have an issue with either on-prem(ise) SMSs or cloud-based SMSs. If you have on-prem, you must have a disaster plan in place for everything from hardware failures to virus recovery to ransomware attacks. And you must establish a solid backup process that ensures that you lose very little data in the worst case scenario. You are not impacted much by an internet outage. If you have a hardware or data failure, you are the IT guy that must bring it back up. You will likely get phone support from your SMS on the steps to recover. With redundancy and a stellar backup strategy and practice, this can be 30-60 minutes. It can be way longer depending on what the failure mode is. You are the IT guy! You will perform software updates when you approve them. With Cloud based SMSs, your data is stored in a professional data center. Backups and hardware failures are managed by the SMS. You are VERY dependent on the internet working as no internet means no SMS. There are mitigations that might help if your main internet goes down, such as using a Mobile Hotspot for temporary internet access. You are beholden to the SMS technical team to correct any software bugs / outages that might occur in the cloud. You can only complain and wait on resolution. Software updates on Cloud-based SMSs usually occur more often as these are easier deployments for the developer of the SMS. Pick whichever is better for you. Import Example: I use Protractor that allows me to have all customer family members, with separate emails and phone numbers per person under a single record. The software does not allow this on a number of other SMSs. There structure is a single person and phone number. By definition, if I were to import the data to another one, the import would discard the extra names and only select one to be primary contact, email and phone number. This is not horrible, but it is an example where data import is NOT Perfect. Personally, as a computer guy, I distrust computers. I know that they can fail on a moments notice. I have my own backup strategy and backup my data monthly on top of what the SMS is doing for me in the cloud. This includes my contacts, vehicles, invoice summaries, financials, etc. What I don't backup are the actual invoices. Now, this happens monthly. I also backup this data to an offline storage drive, but because I'm lazy or forgetful, this happens maybe quarterly. Ransomware cannot get a hold of a storage drive that is not connected to the network! Access to your data: I'm also using AutoFlow for DVIs. I asked them about their access policy should I desire to switch to the next new thing. They said that I would have access to MY data with no additional fees for as long as I need. It's read only data. I can't modify anything. I can't run reports, but I can access the completed DVIs. What a great policy by them!!! This is what stand-up companies do. Ask your potential SMS about this, and ask them to show you this in writing to be sure. They are likely going to have a solution. Ask the right questions and pick a good partner companies to work with that you trust! This should be considered on a case-by-case basis. Hunt with Paar Melis and Associates, an auto shop accounting firm, is mining his clients data with permission and presenting to all of us a set of baselines that may help us manage our businesses. This is a good use of data mining. Now, when I talked to RepairPal, they wanted access to my SMS and I had no desire to allow them into my system. I don't see any good reason why I should allow my customer data and sales to escape. Given that this was a contractual requirement, I opted not to work with them. Now, if Protractor wanted to mine my data for some statistical data exercise, I can't see how I could be hurt. Leave my customers alone and we're good. And lastly, I allow my marketing companies to access my customer data for marketing purposes. This benefits me and my customers and I'm trusting that they will not STEAL my customers.

😁 I should say casual reader... you won't find me reading a book for fun. However, I pound-down technical data though. My guys are at their computers often researching the system info, although this week, one was off on the model year and wasted some time because it changed that year. For a short while, we had one that didn't bother.... reading... tightening bolts... etc.

I'm not much of a reader. I'm going to wait on the movie to come out and couch-potato it. I'm expecting to see some Rocky-like scenes with you in the gym working off them retirement pounds for your comeback move!

First, if CarShield or American Car Shield graces your door, slam it shut! Never work with these consumer warranty companies. They will waste hours and hours of your time and they'll deny most claims. They are a consumer plan, not a shop plan. I work with other extended warranties, but we have a conversation. The warranty is a contract between you and them. Our invoice is a contract between you and us. You pay the difference. We'll fight for the best payout, but they are experts at their own fine print. We'll both learn what is and is not covered when we go thru this process. Are you ok with this? You can get a nationwide warranty through AutoZone or NAPA as well. I don't know their terms. Like any warranty, you want one that will pay out when it is needed and give your customer a positive warranty experience. Across the street from my shop is an AZ. I may spend $250-500 monthly with them. I'm both their closest and worst customer. We focus on brand names vs their white boxes. If you are going to price your parts right, then you will be selling them for more than 2x the cost of these parts. If you put the part number on the invoice and the customer googles that part to see what his cost would be, you will then have an unpleasant conversation. (And if asked, I say, Oh, that's the DIY price). This avoids the post-sale depression / regret by your customers. We build value before starting any repair and again build value at the end. We got that part installed. It's working like it should. You'll be happy, but if anything goes wrong, we have you covered. Bring it back and we'll make it right. If you are traveling call these guys and they will help you get it repaired elsewhere. If the customer does not leave nervous, they are less likely to want to dig into your invoice. You want them happy with the value that they received on the way out. Received Good Value means that they are not (likely) going to question your labor rate or parts markup. --brian

Welcome. I'll tackle a few points for you. Warranty: Likely no warranty on engine rebuilds from most places. You need to charge enough to pay for the possible disaster yourself. Engine rebuilds are a danger zone. We try not to do much engine internals, although I have one such project active now, but it's on the most beautiful 74 Bronco. It's a head turner. We're charging dearly for it. Most we refuse. Timing chains if basic and we are sure of the outcome. No learning on the job for these. Warranty: I like having a nationwide warranty for my customers because it gives ME peace of mind. When their car breaks down while a 1000 miles away on vacation, call the warranty company. I'm not involved. I've used Pronto Warranty which covered repairs 25 miles from the shop, with a reimbursement program, up to the cost of my repair and of course only if one of my parts is the failure. New failures are on them. This was about $600/yr. I've switched to TechNet Warranty. They are more expensive at $89/month (1$068/yr). They have the same coverage as Pronto, but they will refer customers to another TechNet shop for repairs. They also will cover labor for repairs in YOUR shop if and only if you bought the parts from one of their vendors: WorldPac or Advance Auto Parts. I think $75/hr labor warranty. They do cover anyone's parts when it is not in your shop. So, bottom line, you charge enough to eat the cost of warranty work when you must eat it. In this business, you win some and you lose some. Shoot for more wins than losses! You can get a 2/24K or 3/36K warranty. We have a 2/24K. We don't do much warranty repairs, but they happen. Parts Margin: You should be aiming for 60% gross margin (buy for $40, sell for $100, gives $60 profit: $100 * 60% GM = $60) I have a parts matrix that runs from 80% down to 42% GM at the bottom. Our parts margin for 2022 was 60.09%. Low $ parts sell at high margins and very expensive parts sell at a lower margin. MSRP is a made up number. I mark my dealer parts up just like the dealer does. The counter price is for DIY guys. Labor Margin: You should be aiming for 70% labor margin. Book times are not accurate and sometimes are downright wrong. My favorite mistake was 1.5 hours for a transmission valve body..... after it was on a table belly up. AllData wasn't exactly clear on this. We were expecting a pan drop and switcheroo. SMS: You need a Shop Management System. These tend to cost about $400-$600/month and are worth it. Possibly need a DVI system too. The one thing that I was told as a new shop owner was this: Watch out. Some customers prey on new shop owners and try to take advantage of you. Not every car that shows up is your customer. If it does feel right, don't do it. You might want / need that income, but when you marry it with the resultant warranty costs, you lose big. I had many used car lot salesmen tell me how much business they could bring me.... if I could cut them a deal. Start listening to the "Changing the Industry Podcast" - Lucas Underwood and David Roman. Also "Business by the Numbers" - Hunt Demarest. Do your best to attend the Ratchet and Wrench Management conference. I learned so much there.

My first reaction is hoping that he didn't also see MY resume on Indeed!!! 🥸 Depends. If you were ready for him to leave, do nothing. If you wanted him to stay, you should be on this yesterday. Technician Resumes don't stay posted on Indeed for long. It might be recoverable if you are quick. There's a chance that they are just checking their pay competitiveness and are ready to hit you up for a raise. Any other reason, one would hope that you already know why. Can you fix that problem? It's proving to be serious enough to have him leave. If it's pay, time to raise your rates and pay him more. Don't want to be penny-wise and pound-foolish.

I too am the shuttle driver most of the time. We never stopped giving rides even during the the pandemic. I agree, that we use our time together productively, building relationships and confidence in the team. We've recently started using Uber, twice now, because we have some people coming from way too far away.

You might take a look at ShopWare. I don't know their pricing, but it's growing in popularity. Protractor is $399/mo, a little less if you need less than 6 computers. Then on the new up and comers, you have Shop Monkey, ShopBoss, AutoLeap, etc. I'm intrigued by what they could have done to cause your headaches. I peeked at their website for screenshots, but they could be the old style.

You've heard the expression that you can't teach an old dog 🐶 new tricks, right? Well, my accountant is older than those dogs. He doesn't like anything new! So, I'm using a few programs that I might otherwise not want. As well, I spoke with the Paar-Melis Accounting team at Vision and their pricing is about 40% higher than my accountant. He knows this industry, is always accessible and otherwise doing good work, so I have no impetus to change at the moment. No change means no new accounting toys for me! P.S. Hi Gerald!!!

I pay weekly about 13 checks x 52 weeks. Averages out to about $6.09/person/paycheck. Paying less often is cheaper. (This is supposedly discounted 45% due to my CPA client discount vs me just calling and signing up. Who knows?) The advantage is that my CPA does not mess with payroll taxes and filings, so I pay less there. They pull the money, escrow the taxes, create and file all of the needed state and federal tax forms. All I have to do is enter hours / $'s. Look at the total. 😭 Then press the go button. 😉 Pretty much, CPA said he wouldn't work with me if I didn't use a payroll company. He said that I'd screw it up, some way, some how, then it would be VERY expensive for him to fix my mess. I'm about 99% sure that he was on target with this comment.

Maybe I can make you feel better. You can say "At least I'm not paying as much as THAT GUY!" I use ADP for my payroll (weekly) and last year, my fees were just south of $4000. 🤕

Well said! We raised our labor rate by $20 this year to $170. May not be high enough still. But my main issue that we're working to solve are the large leaks in the dam. We're correcting the labor guide to more closely reflect actual times or building contingencies into our estimate to allow for us to request more labor when needed. When communicated correctly it works. Then we are rounding up the labor. Labor guide is close sometimes and has errors or is misleading at other times. In a class today, we discussed bumping the actual labor time by 20-30%. Then he said to add 10% to the total and give everyone a loaner car or Uber. Being afraid to charge properly all the time was an expensive lesson. We're doing way better now. I feel like we are about 80-90% corrected. Also, need to keep one of my techs from doing unauthorized / unsold work too. When he gets on a roll, stop is not in his vocabulary. We're working on this too. Productivity isn't an issue for us yet as I'm staffed for where I expect to be (which is overstaffed for today). We'll be ready to manage that when it is required. I'm happy that our profitability has grown enough to allow me and my shop foreman to attend the Vision Training Conference in Kansas City. Today was the 1st of 4 days. Both of us had a great 1st day!

I'll make this easier for you.... No for Mitchell - Most Mitchell folks are happy after switching and wonder why they waited so long. Protractor is very complex and can be overwhelming if you are not used to a SMS. Protractor has a builtin accounting system too (that I don't use). When you need complexity it is your friend. At the beginning, it can be a foe. When they finally release an integrated DVI, they would be worth considering. ShopWare and TekMetric are liked by many, but I've seen people try it and leave it too. For you, I'd start with these 2. No one is 100% happy with any SMS. Remember this: Once you start using an SMS, switching to a new system can be a disruptive effort for the shop. Unless required, don't be wishy-washy. Pick a long-term winner. QB's is an accounting program. It works well. Use it for accounting. Some people integrate with back office to pull data into QB's. We don't do this. We make a daily sales entry into QB's manually. I balance my parts accounts using Protractor and when it's balanced, I transfer over the total owed for each vendor. This approach reduces the noise in QB's. I let the SMS be the expert Parts Handling System and Sales Management System. I let QB's do the books. Good luck.

Bah-humbug. Those cars were great money makers for your shop, but maybe before you truly figured out that 4-letter word: Profit. We all work on piles of junk from time to time. Like that hunk-o-junk in my shop right now: 2015 Range Rover with a blown head-gasket. Customer says that we blew her head gasket, not here driving it while overheating! LOL Besides, all the folks in that picture are happy with their cars. Now, don't call their babies ugly! 😁

By Hunt Demarest. I heard about this guy, but only vaguely. He was on my eventual to-listen-to list, but it hadn't bubbled up. Who wants to listen to an accounting podcast???? Well, the timing was right and I saw a new Podcast entitled "Accounting for Internal and Warranty Work". I listened and was pleasantly surprised. First, a shout-out to Hunt. He's not boring. This is very important as I normally listen to these while commuting. I don't want to fall asleep while driving! He's likeable, and he covers his subjects quite well After listening to this podcast, I immediately revamped my Warranty Work accounting method. I know knew WHY it was important to follow his process for dealing with warranty work. Previously, we just ate the costs and didn't document them religiously. I spent the time to fix up all of 2022 with some correcting journal entries. His CPA firm focuses on auto-shops. It seems that he is crowd-sourcing his topics by asking for topics or creating topics from frequently asked questions. There was a podcast on advertising. How much should you spend? Is zero enough? Is 100K monthly enough? There was another on Tax Tips and common questions, such as "Can I pay for my goomah with business funds?" (OK, not really, but you get the picture). Where are the legal boundaries with taxes? What qualifies and what doesn't? Is accelerated depreciation best? TLDR: Great podcast. Not boring, in spite of being accounting. Auto Shop focused. I recommend that you listen.

Go with an actual SMS (not QB's). It'll provide you tools that will directly aid you in ways that you don't even know about. You will spend about $400/month, but this will pay for itself many times over as it will provide you computer-calculated margins on parts and and will let you see your profit margins as you are building the ticket. If it is too low, you need to adjust. This live realtime feedback loop is how it pays for itself. You'll be able to order parts online without having to call your parts supplier, which saves you time. You'll get builtin reporting that lets you see your business health in realtime. I'm using Protractor. It has been around for a long time and has a deep breadth of features. It's missing a built-in DVI though. Others started with the DVI and have a lesser set of features. Stealing from Joe, I'd say consider these: Tekmetric, Shop Ware, Protractor, Mitchell1 (only to be used with Bolt On Technology). I was unimpressed by AutoLeap and have heard nothing great about ShopBoss. But these are also contenders. Most of these are cloud-based now. This means that you need a reliable internet connection. They handle the software backups for you. I still backup some of my data monthly, but it's just a subset. Lastly, stay away from the CHEAP SMS's. Just like in any business, you get what you pay for. Pay more to avoid the pig-in-a-dress! 😬 Your monthly fee allows them to continue innovating their software so that you get new features that may help you. Hope this helps!

Indeed it is brutal. I'm swinging hard for good candidates. I was looking for an A Tech and one came in that we liked. We hired him at $130K. My other A tech is over $50/hr too. We're in the Dallas area, with an overall medium cost of living, so these guys are doing well. They are our revenue producers, so we need them. The opportunity cost of going without someone for 2 months is higher than paying someone more. I have an offer out to a B tech for $30/hr + $7/flag hour. He should make $35 or more. My previous A tech quit and says he's going to buy, fix and sell cars from his house. My B tech moved to NC to be with his family. So, hiring became critical all of a sudden. I just raised my labor rate to $170/hr (from $150/hr), but I may need to bump it again soon. My main focus for improvement this year is correctly billing for labor hours. We are slowly getting better, but still not great. We're definitely going to see a downturn in the economy. With the rising prices of rent, groceries, gas and everything, it's tapping people out. I don't know how it will play out, but we'll likely see more cars get fixed than traded in.

In the past, you "bought" a copy of the software. It would seem that they've moved you to a Subscription model at $469/mo. and a second subscription for $290/yr for Back Office. I preach that you need to be paying the subscription cost so that the software company can continue to innovate. This is the new normal. I use Protractor and I'm paying $400/mo for unlimited computers.

Not sure how this helps them? With weekly pay, you're first check arrives at the end of the 2nd week. If you are accelerating their first EARNED paycheck, then there is a 2 week gap until the next earned paycheck. If you are paying them for a week that they did not earn, then you are indeed paying them a sign-on bonus, but not calling it such. It must be the latter.

Always private. It's a temporary measure to accomplish a goal. He who gets extra money is generally happy. Others are oblivious. But for the one receiving it, it is in writing... for 2 reasons: 1) So that the person understands what is happening and 2) So that I don't forget what I promised. Expand this thought beyond me: You raise a good question. If you are going to paper the neighborhood with BIG SIGN-ON BONUS, how is this received by current employees when the are not getting a bonus? They would be thinking that maybe they should leave to get one themselves. It's likely that I could get away with a sign-on bonus in an Indeed Job Posting that no one would hear about, but it's also likely that a technician's friend was looking for a job and saw my bonus. You'd need to be prepared for this conversation... 'cause it is a small world. If the techs are overworked and would be thrilled to have another tech, they might be all for it. But probably not.

I've only been to one national trade show and posted a stand-alone topic on it: I'm also in a specific trade association with Valvoline and have been to multiple of their private conferences. There are two tiers of value: 1) is the specific training and 2) is the networking with others. I went to an event last week and I've been communicating with a few folks since the show, trading tips and references. Sometimes, we don't have an after-show connection, but you might have learned a "golden-nugget" tip from a person at lunch. Gold nuggets are wonderful! While I do try to share, often, I'm only carrying tarnished pennies.

For my heavily bonused employees, I will offer a sign-on bonus that gets the to the next pay period. They may be in a full salary role. The last one I did said: Salary + $400 bonus paid weekly thru XX date. Then, monthly bonus from that point forward. This kept their salary at a competitive level until their earned bonus kicks in. The bonus was less than he would make hitting goals, so there is an incentive to have next month's payout bigger and better. NOTE: This is not a true sign-on bonus, but shows a method of implementation. It is implemented in weekly chunks so that if it falls apart, the business is protected and spends less on that hiring mistake. I've received bonuses in the past which had "claw-back" clauses. If I didn't meet the time commitment, it would be demanded back. I've made similar offers. If possible, I think it's best to avoid sign-on bonuses as a main-attraction. If this person leaves their current job for the bonus, will he leave here for the next bonus? You would prefer to have someone selecting their next job for better reasons. However, if adding a sign-on bonus helps you close a deal-that-you-like, then go for it. I'm a fan of structuring any bonus payout with a time commitment or earned over time vs a day-one payout. Sometimes that new hire does not pan out and it can be hard to claw-back what is already spent.

Truthfully? I have a super-smart rat that visits, eats the bait off of my snap traps, stays out of the sticky traps. He holds a dance party which set off my motion detectors. Sometimes 4-6 times nightly. Sigh. Since I don't have a shop cat, I've asked one of my employees to let his snake loose for a buffet. 😎 Currently, I don't really bring work home with me, including worries. Now, today is the 1st of the month. We had a record month last month, yet it is still not enough. So today, as I do every month on the 1st, I'm worried that this month will be terrible. Not a lot of traffic today, reinforcing my worry. My main focus is on how to grow volume. I'm tweaking our marketing, but at the same time feel helpless in the endeavor. I've got a trough of water with room for lots of horses, yet most of the horses are drinking elsewhere. 😁 Should I add Whiskey to the water or Honey? Or Market Both? It's just money. I was worried about my Garage Keepers insurance being renewed. The renewal notice came yesterday. Phew. I had a big claim in 2021 that made 2022 need to be error free and it was! Now, I have to worry about 2023. 😧 I have lots of day time worries... too many to list here. Luckily it does not often impact my sleep. --brian

We take the approach that "looking at it" is free and done by one of our service advisors and/or a quick under-car look by a GS tech. The only determination that we will make is whether or not it needs to come into the shop. If we hear a weird noise, it needs to come in. Now, we will use the data gathered to write a good steps to reproduce. Most of the time, if they have something that's clearly unusual, then the conversation gravitates immediately towards "it needs to come in". We do quite a bit of looking to confirm that there is a problem. We let them know if we think it is safe to drive for a few days or if it needs to come in immediately. This is not a diagnostic test, but rather helping someone plan their visit, if needed. We build trust with the free looks. We charge for most everything, including light bulb and wiper installs. For "emergencies", such as changing a spare tire, in our lot, I'll often say "tip the guy doing it. We won't charge you". We also don't charge for minor skid plate corrections. For some reason, I feel like flats are "taking advantage", when it is no different than a random light bulb burning out. (We don't fix or sell tires). You'd be surprised at how many people will suddenly want to install their own wipers when a fee is attached. I call these folks "takers" or "consumers". Not so much with light bulbs as they gave up on their self-install before arrival with a new bulb in hand. It sounds as if you have a lot more of the "I feel guilty for charging for... " than I do, but we're both guilty of being nice too much and should be hardened businessmen charging for all work done... 😉 or somewhere in-between.

While at the Ratchet and Wrench Management Conference, I was able to review most of the management software packages available. I have a few observations to share that might be helpful. Each software package has its own pluses and minuses, but, I see some high-level commonalities amongst them. At a high level, you can separate software packages into two groups based on age. The longer a software package has been available, the more likely that many of its features are highly refined and give you the most controls. The disadvantage of an older software package is that they are too busy keeping their customer base happy with fixes and minor features that they don't have time to take the leap of innovation (e.g. DVI). If the platform is really old and/or they are not charging enough money monthly to have the revenue to hire a good team, they may not be able to completely rewrite their software to utilize newer technology features. For these software packages, you are forced to change vendors to adopt new the new features. On the other hand, if the software package is new, they go straight for the snazzy features and also, try to fix the perceived problems of the legacy software packages. They excel in the basics, but lack the depth of feature functionality that only time brings. Mind you, both types of companies are trying to reach feature parity. New companies need to flush out features, adding complexity and older companies are working to build the snazzy features. Both of these take time. For the record, I'm using Protractor. I can tell you all of the good and bad of this package. I used my in-depth knowledge of this program to compare it to the newer packages. In other forums, the two main contenders for new appear to be: TekMetric ShopWare Other New: Shop Monkey AutoLeap Older More Mature Systems: Protractor Mitchell (I didn't look at this one) NapaTracs (I didn't look at this one) Many others not at this show I liked the snazzy new features that I saw in each new package, but quickly recognized that in my daily use, I'm using certain mature features that are not present in the new packages. Another observation is that each software package somewhat enforces a workflow methodology. You can choose to fight their internal structures (and lose), or go with their model. I noticed a few idiosyncrasies, but, they are all trending towards a seemingly similar workflow. This requires scrutiny when selecting a software package. The new guys are often pushing their "better way" as a solution to the problems of old. For instance, ShopWare had a unique approach to canned jobs that deserves investigation that I didn't notice in other packages. So, when shopping, make note of the real features that you must have. Don't be fooled by the shiny new outer skin. Balance it with your real needs. I do see that some of these new contenders are investing much money into development of new features, so over time, they will likely build the feature that you need today. As well, some mature packages are investing in the future. I will say this loudly. Your software vendor must be charging you healthy monthly fees to have the money necessary to continue to innovate. If you gravitate to the lowest price, features could take longer or never come. Just like us, we must first survive before we can do good work and be able to pay the bills.