Auto repair & detailing
Auto Repair Shop Profit Calculator
Work out what the shop keeps across a month once every bay, technician and fixed cost is counted.
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 utilisation, which caps revenue no matter how good the pricing is.
- Technician efficiency against book time across the whole team.
- Fixed overhead, which continues whether the bays are full or empty.
Where this one goes wrong
Growing revenue by adding low-margin work to fill bays. It raises the top line and can lower the bottom one, because the added work consumes the same bay hours as better work would have.
Questions
About this calculator
What is the most useful shop metric?
Gross profit per bay hour. It captures pricing, efficiency and mix in one number, and it makes the cost of an idle or badly used bay visible.
Should I add a technician or raise the rate?
Raising the rate takes effect immediately and adds no cost. Adding a technician adds cost before it adds revenue and only pays if there is genuinely unmet demand. Test the rate first.
How do I know whether the shop is at capacity?
Compare hours sold against hours available across several weeks. Most shops that feel full are selling well under their available bay hours.
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.