Our KPI Was the EFTPOS Report. How Daniel Barry Fixed It
Daniel Barry at Danbar Automotive in New Norfolk measured his business by the till:
"We used to gauge how well we did the day based on what the EFTPOS reconciliation report was. That was our KPI."
Money through the machine today. That was the scoreboard.
It is a more common measure than anyone admits, and it explains the thing he could not work out:
"How are we so busy and everyone's happy, we're billing so much, but we're not making any money, we're going backwards."
Why the till is a bad scoreboard
Because it tells you what arrived, not what you kept.
A good EFTPOS day can be a loss. A quiet day with the right work on it can be your best of the week. The till cannot tell those apart, so an owner reading it is flying on an instrument that does not measure the thing they care about.
Daniel was working a night shift contract and a day shift contract on top of the shop:
"I was doing a night shift contract and a day shift contract and flat out working and just wasn't going anywhere."
What changed
He wrote everything down. What comes in, what goes out, into separate accounts. Nothing clever, just visible.
He bumped the labour rate. His own verdict on it:
"Bumping our labor rate up was huge. That was a game changer."
He set tax aside before the bill arrives, which changes how the whole year feels:
"Having everything allocated away for tax and stuff like that before the bill rocks up, it's like I don't need to worry about the bill because the money's there."
He moved into the service advisor seat himself. That cost him a technician off the floor, which sounds like the wrong trade until you see what it fixed: it kept him away from invoicing, and away from what he calls "the old emotional discounting".
Emotional discounting is a good name for something most owners do and few would defend. You know the customer, you know the number feels big, and you take some off before anyone asks.
Then a routine that protects Tuesdays off and a four-day week.
Where Danbar is now
Some days are "double what we'd hit on target".
The tax money is there before the bill arrives.
He took a week off over the public holidays and nobody rang. The team's line was that they did not even need to.
He is working towards being completely debt free once an asset is paid off, which is a target he has set rather than a result he has banked.
Why the till is such a convincing scoreboard
It is not stupidity that makes owners judge a day by the EFTPOS report. It is that the till is the only number that is immediately available, unambiguous and emotionally satisfying.
Everything that would actually tell you how the day went arrives later and takes work. Margin on the jobs that went out. Hours billed against hours paid for. What the parts cost against what they sold for. None of that is on a screen at five o'clock.
So the brain takes the number it can see. A big EFTPOS day feels like a win, and the feeling is strong enough to override a bank balance that is not improving.
The trouble is that takings and profit move independently. A shop can take more money every week while keeping less of it, which is precisely what Daniel described: busy, billing plenty, going backwards. The till was reporting honestly. It was reporting the wrong thing.
Changing the scoreboard is therefore not an accounting exercise. It is the difference between steering by something that correlates with survival and steering by something that does not. Everything Daniel changed afterwards, the labour rate, the tax allocation, moving off the floor, became visible only once he was looking at numbers that could show him whether they worked.
Which part of this sounds like your shop?
If your measure of a good day is what went through the machine, that is the before, and it is the easiest thing on this list to change.
If you discount because the number feels big rather than because anyone pushed back, that is the emotional discounting, and moving the person who invoices is a surprisingly effective fix.
If tax bills arrive as a shock, the money was spent before it was ever yours.
Is this one shop getting lucky?
Daniel's change was not clever. It was ordinary, and that is the point.
Thirteen years, more than 10,000 auto repair shops across five countries, and over $175 million in additional profits generated for the owners we work with. Almost none of it came from a tactic nobody had heard of. It came from owners finding out what an hour costs, charging accordingly, allocating the money before it could be spent, and getting themselves out of the seat where the discounting happens.
Every one of those is available to you this month, in your own automotive workshop, without buying anything.
Questions auto repair shop owners ask
Should I hire a service advisor or another technician?
Daniel went the other way: he took himself off the floor and into the service advisor seat, losing a technician's output to gain control of the counter. It worked because the counter was where the money was leaking.
Won't raising my labour rate lose customers?
It did not here, and he names it as the thing that turned the business around. Most owners expect a reaction that does not come.
How do I stop discounting?
Separate the person who does the work from the person who presents the invoice, if you can. Daniel's fix was structural rather than willpower, which is why it held.
How much should I set aside for tax?
Enough that the bill is not a surprise, moved the moment the money arrives rather than at the end of the quarter. The exact percentage is a conversation with your accountant; the habit is the part that matters.
What should my KPI be instead of the till?
Something that reflects what you keep rather than what arrived: your margin, your billed hours against hours paid for, and whether you are hitting the benchmarks for your mechanics workshop or automotive workshop.
What to do tonight
Look at the last five days. Write down what the EFTPOS total was each day, and next to it, what you actually made on the work that went out.
If you cannot fill in the second column, that is the problem, and it is not a small one. It means the only number you have been steering by is the one that cannot tell you whether you are winning.
Work out what an hour really costs you with our free break-even calculator.
Daniel is one of many. Our clients are named auto repair shop owners, and garage owners across five countries, on camera, telling you what changed.
Where to go next
- How to why you're busy but not making any money
- How to raise your labour rate without losing customers
- How to hire your first service advisor
- How to fix your cash flow
- How to take a holiday without the shop falling apart
More on this topic: all Money & Profit articles.
Whenever you're ready, here's how we can help.
- Free. Shop Talk, a 30 day reset for auto repair shop owners, and our free resources.
- Under $50,000 a month? Auto Superstars Academy, $997 one off. Your service advisor, service writer or service adviser is where discounting starts.
- Over $50,000 a month? The Engine Room, where Daniel did this, with one on one coaching on demand from a business coach who is a current or former auto repair shop owner.
