DealersEdge Professional Forums

I have this problem where the amount that GM has customers pay labor is often short of the time a technician will actually take to do the work. I'm sure this isn't uncommon. I try to go in and add extra time to compensate for that but I can't keep ahead of it.

Does everyone else just have the labor turned off? It doesn't seem like it in my area, but it's screwing us at this point a couple times a month for hundreds of dollars in labor.

Also accounting is a nightmare on these.

We use the book time that GM calls for. SM increased the accessory rate to compensate for the 'dealer unfriendly' install times. We have no issue with times that way.

Bookkeeping wise. Service writes an internal RO; parts tell service what they can bill $$ wise to the RO. We bill out the part to match the order. The whole RO gets charged to parts department as we got all the money from the online sale.

We use the times in the accessory catalog, but when we feel that the labor is too low the SM will go in and adjust those types of installations to reflect a higher labor rate.

As far a the accounting side:

We set up an account for e-comm., when we have an part only online order we bill the items directly to that account. When there is parts and labor, we write the work order in the customers name, and once the work is completed, the advisor directs the payment to that e-com account, just as you would for an outside service contract. This way you will have documentation for warranty on the installed items. When the payments come from GM they are cleared just as you would clear a warranty.