Auto repair & detailing
Auto Detailing Profit Calculator
See what a detail leaves after burdened labour, product and the bay hours the vehicle occupied.
Result
Gross profit is what is left after the cost of doing the job. Overhead comes out of that: the building, the office wages, the vans, insurance, software and advertising. A healthy gross margin still loses money if overhead is larger.
Get a Free Business AuditWhat moves the number
- Bay hours consumed, which is the real constraint on a detailing business.
- Product cost, calculable from dilution ratios rather than guessed.
- Whether the job displaced another booking that would have paid more.
Where this one goes wrong
Taking a long, low-priced job because the bay was free. The bay was free for a few hours, not for the day, and a full-day correction at a wash price blocks everything else.
Questions
About this calculator
What is the most useful number for a detailer?
Gross profit per bay hour. It compares a two hour maintenance detail against a ten hour correction fairly, which a per-job margin cannot do.
Should I take on heavy correction work?
Only if it is priced for the hours it consumes. Correction work is skilled and sells at a premium, but it occupies a bay for a long time and blocks throughput.
How does mobile work compare?
Different constraint. A mobile detailer's ceiling is travel plus working time rather than bay count, so the profitable job shape is different.
The formula
gross profit = revenue - direct costs
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How to use this calculator
- Revenue ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $75,000.
- Direct labour ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $16,000.
- Materials and equipment ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $11,000.
- Other direct costs ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $2,200.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to gross profit, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Revenue | $75,000 |
| Direct labour | $16,000 |
| Materials and equipment | $11,000 |
| Other direct costs | $2,200 |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| Gross profit main result | $45,800 |
| Gross margin | 61.1% |
| Total direct cost | $29,200 |
| Profit per working day | $2,082 |
That is $45,800 at a 61.1% margin, about $2,082 for every working day. Overhead still has to come out of it.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only revenue, this is what happens to gross profit. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Revenue ($) | Gross profit |
|---|---|
| $37,500 | $8,300 |
| $56,250 | $27,050 |
| $75,000 example above | $45,800 |
| $112,500 | $83,300 |
| $150,000 | $120,800 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Revenue ($)
- A money amount, starting at $75,000.
- Direct labour ($)
- A money amount, starting at $16,000.
- Materials and equipment ($)
- A money amount, starting at $11,000.
- Other direct costs ($)
- A money amount, starting at $2,200.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| Gross profit | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Gross margin | A percentage. |
| Total direct cost | A money figure. |
| Profit per working day | A money figure. |
Estimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.