I bill my jobs based on the Michell estimator. i also add 10% on top for cleaning, painting, gasket removing, broken bolt removal ext.. also i try not to overlap labor, like if estimator for spark plugs are 1.2 and wires is 1 i put 1.2 on spark plugs and wire.
I am the only one doing the service writing and the shop is pretty big. It should be a 2 SW and 4-6 Tech Shop. but i cant even keep 3 tech doing 40 billed hours each so why add one-two more techs and one more SW. So i have noticed that after ordering the parts from local parts suppliers they have been
coming in late and we did not have a a parts tracking system in place. i don't have time to keep track of delivery time and parts arrivals. I'm constantly putting out fires front to back.. I'm also a master tech so as much as I'm tying to avoid getting involved with the back i get sucked in it . So i get backed up in the front. This past week i hired a kid (21) to keep track of the parts ordering and his is in charge of putting all the parts in place to for the repair orders. policy is that the parts must arrive within an hour or he must call and push the parts supplier to for the delivery. You just cant rely on the parts suppliers they forget consistently and i end up finding out 2-3 hours later. its just hurting my production.
Some times i think I'm such a nice guy, this might be one of the issues... so everything in this list i will need to implement ASAP