Make every shop number useful.

Why it matters: A small set of useful KPIs keeps the team focused on profitable capacity instead of noise.

Direction: The right direction depends on the metric; ShopIQ calls this out beside targets.

ShopIQ uses it: KPI cards, reports, recommendations, and the monthly improvement planner.

Assumption: A KPI is only as reliable as the shop data entered for it.

Why it matters: Consistent dates let ShopIQ compare days and build honest trends without double-counting.

Direction: Not better or worse; accuracy matters.

ShopIQ uses it: The daily ledger uses it to allow one normalized entry per day.

Assumption: Use the close date, not the date an invoice was edited later.

Why it matters: It shows volume and gives context to sales: more cars is not automatically better if value per car falls.

Direction: Usually higher when capacity and margin stay healthy.

ShopIQ uses it: Daily entry, ARO, recommendations, reports, and monthly comparisons.

Assumption: Count the vehicles represented by the closeout, using the same shop definition each day.

Why it matters: ARO helps separate a volume problem from a work-mix or estimate-approval problem.

Direction: Usually higher, as long as the work is appropriate and profitable.

ShopIQ uses it: Daily entry, targets, car-count recommendations, reports, and monthly planning.

Assumption: ShopIQ uses the entered ARO; it does not reconstruct line items or customer approvals.

Why it matters: Sales create the pool that must cover parts, labor, overhead, payroll, and the owner’s desired cushion.

Direction: Usually higher, but only useful when gross profit and capacity keep pace.

ShopIQ uses it: Daily entry, targets, sales pace recommendations, reports, and monthly planning.

Assumption: Enter the same closeout definition of sales every time; ShopIQ does not infer unrecorded work.

Why it matters: Pace tells the owner early whether the day is building enough revenue to support the plan.

Direction: At or above the chosen target or baseline is usually healthier.

ShopIQ uses it: The sales-pace recommendation card and daily operating review.

Assumption: A baseline needs enough prior entries; otherwise the card says more data is needed.

Why it matters: Gross profit shows whether added volume actually leaves money to pay overhead and create owner profit.

Direction: Usually higher; compare it with sales to protect the margin rate.

ShopIQ uses it: Daily entry, targets, recommendations, reports, and monthly planning.

Assumption: ShopIQ uses the owner’s closeout number and does not calculate cost of goods from line items.

Why it matters: Parts margin protects the gross-profit dollars inside each repair order; weak margin can make busy days unprofitable.

Direction: Usually higher, within the shop’s pricing and market guardrails.

ShopIQ uses it: Daily entry, targets, parts-margin recommendations, reports, and monthly planning.

Assumption: Enter the shop’s established parts-margin calculation; ShopIQ does not audit vendor invoices.

Why it matters: This rate funds technician pay, overhead, and profit; a low rate can make full bays look busy but still lose money.

Direction: Usually higher when the market and value delivered support it.

ShopIQ uses it: Labor-rate calculator revenue and pay-ceiling calculations.

Assumption: This is an owner-entered assumption; parts revenue is excluded from the calculator.

Why it matters: Overhead must be covered before gross profit becomes owner profit; ignoring it overstates affordable payroll.

Direction: Lower overhead gives the shop more room, when service quality stays intact.

ShopIQ uses it: Labor-rate calculator affordability model.

Assumption: Operating expenses are owner-entered and include whatever recurring costs the owner chooses.

Why it matters: Including burden keeps a pay ceiling realistic instead of spending the entire labor pool on base wages.

Direction: Lower burden leaves more allocation room, but undercounting it creates false room.

ShopIQ uses it: Labor-rate calculator loaded payroll and maximum-pay output.

Assumption: This is an owner assumption; ShopIQ does not import payroll or tax records.

Why it matters: A cushion gives the shop room for surprises, reinvestment, and actual owner profit instead of running at break-even.

Direction: Usually higher, as long as pricing and demand can support it.

ShopIQ uses it: Labor-rate calculator affordability and remaining-cushion outputs.

Assumption: The desired cushion is an owner-entered planning goal, not a guaranteed result.

Why it matters: Discounting can help close work, but repeated or untracked discounts reduce ARO and gross profit.

Direction: Usually lower, unless a deliberate promotion has a measured return.

ShopIQ uses it: Monthly improvement planner and future recommendation context.

Assumption: Not currently collected by the daily ledger; the planner marks it as not entered.

Why it matters: It shows the revenue opportunity attached to rework without claiming that revenue was guaranteed.

Direction: Usually lower for avoidable rework.

ShopIQ uses it: Comeback opportunity-cost calculator.

Assumption: Requires owner-entered or latest-saved sales per sold labor hour; it is an opportunity estimate, not actual lost revenue.

Why it matters: It connects rework to the profit cushion the shop could have created with those hours.

Direction: Usually lower for avoidable rework.

ShopIQ uses it: Comeback opportunity-cost calculator.

Assumption: Requires gross profit per sold labor hour; it is an estimate rather than a booked loss.

Why it matters: It lets the calculator compare actual or planned pay with the loaded payroll capacity the shop can afford.

Direction: Lower is not inherently better; it must be fair and fit the shop’s capacity.

ShopIQ uses it: Labor-rate technician roster guidance.

Assumption: Owner-entered; the calculator does not recommend a wage or account for every compensation detail.

Why it matters: It is the pool the labor-rate calculator uses before overhead, cushion, and payroll allocation.

Direction: Usually higher when rate and sold hours are both healthy.

ShopIQ uses it: Labor-rate calculator output.

Assumption: Parts revenue is excluded; the result is only as strong as the rate and hours inputs.

Why it matters: Loaded payroll is the realistic cost to carry the roster, not just the wage printed on a pay plan.

Direction: Must stay within affordable capacity after overhead and profit cushion.

ShopIQ uses it: Labor-rate calculator roster economics.

Assumption: Burden is optional and owner-entered; missing burden is not silently guessed.

Why it matters: It turns shop-level economics into a practical staffing check.

Direction: Staying at or below the allocation is usually healthier.

ShopIQ uses it: Labor-rate roster guidance and capacity comparison.

Assumption: This is a planning ceiling, not a guaranteed wage recommendation.

Why it matters: It gives the owner a boundary for a pay conversation while keeping the shop economics visible.

Direction: A higher ceiling gives more room, but fairness, retention, and market rates still matter.

ShopIQ uses it: Labor-rate calculator output.

Assumption: This is a pay ceiling, not a guaranteed wage recommendation; parts revenue is excluded.

Why it matters: Available hours are the denominator for capacity and efficiency; they show the ceiling before demand or rework consumes it.

Direction: More is not automatically better; it should match staffed, usable capacity.

ShopIQ uses it: Daily entry, efficiency, recommendations, reports, comeback cost, and monthly planning.

Assumption: Enter staffed, usable hours—not theoretical clock hours—and keep the definition consistent.

Why it matters: It shows demand captured and helps compare sold work with the hours the team could actually deliver.

Direction: Usually higher until capacity, quality, or margin starts to suffer.

ShopIQ uses it: Daily entry, productivity, efficiency, recommendations, reports, labor-rate inputs, and monthly planning.

Assumption: Use the shop’s sold-hour definition; ShopIQ does not estimate hours from sales or ARO.

Why it matters: Capacity keeps owners from promising work the team cannot complete or mistaking overtime and rework for healthy growth.

Direction: Healthy capacity is staffed, sellable, and not consumed by rework.

ShopIQ uses it: Recommendations, reports, comeback cost, and labor-rate roster guidance.

Assumption: The current app only measures capacity through entered hours and roster assumptions.

Why it matters: Productivity connects work mix and pricing to the hours already sold; it can rise without adding bays.

Direction: Usually higher, provided quality and customer value remain intact.

ShopIQ uses it: Productivity recommendations and monthly planning.

Assumption: The current daily ledger derives this only when sold labor hours are positive.

Why it matters: Efficiency shows how much of the team’s usable capacity turned into sold work.

Direction: Usually higher until quality, overtime, or comeback risk says the shop is overextended.

ShopIQ uses it: Reports, labor-capacity recommendations, and monthly planning.

Assumption: Efficiency is unavailable when available hours are zero; missing hours are not treated as zero.

Why it matters: Coverage protects promised completion times and prevents both idle capacity and overloaded technicians.

Direction: Healthy means the roster covers demand without relying on hidden overtime.

ShopIQ uses it: Labor-rate roster status and future monthly planning.

Assumption: The current daily ledger does not collect staffing schedules; roster calculator inputs are owner-entered.

Why it matters: It translates rework into the schedule space that could have served another customer.

Direction: Usually lower for avoidable work.

ShopIQ uses it: Comeback opportunity-cost calculator.

Assumption: The estimate depends on comeback count, hours per comeback, and positive available hours.

Why it matters: It translates a pay rate into expected loaded payroll and reveals whether roster assumptions match shop hours.

Direction: Higher is useful only when demand and quality support it.

ShopIQ uses it: Labor-rate roster coverage, affordable allocation, and hours-mismatch warnings.

Assumption: Owner-entered planning input; it is not a promise or a time-clock record.

Why it matters: It helps separate repeatable maintenance capacity from repair work that needs different tools, experience, or workflow time.

Direction: Use the label to group capacity; do not treat it as a certification or a hard limit.

ShopIQ uses it: Staffing coverage, technician assignments, performance, and labor-capacity context.

Assumption: Typical work and limits vary by shop, vehicle, training, equipment, and job complexity. This is not proof of certification or universal capability.

Why it matters: It gives staffing discussions a broad work-mix context without pretending every general technician covers every system.

Direction: Use actual job history and shop judgment before assigning specialized work.

ShopIQ uses it: Technician assignments, performance, staffing recommendations, and capacity grouping.

Assumption: The label is an operating assumption, not a certification claim or universal capability statement.

Why it matters: It signals that hours may be suited to heavier repair demand, while job-specific tooling and experience still matter.

Direction: Capacity remains raw hours; ShopIQ does not add a heavy-line productivity multiplier.

ShopIQ uses it: Staffing coverage, labor capacity, assignments, and recommendations.

Assumption: A label does not prove certification, tooling, or universal ability to perform every heavy repair.

Why it matters: It can help an owner discuss flexible coverage, but it should not erase workload, quality, or scheduling constraints.

Direction: Do not convert the label into a higher assumed output or skip job-level assignment review.

ShopIQ uses it: Technician performance, staffing recommendations, assignments, and capacity context.

Assumption: Master is a shop planning label here, not proof of a credential, certification, or universal capability.

Why it matters: It helps group likely work fit while keeping the owner responsible for checking equipment, training, and the exact repair.

Direction: Do not infer alignment equipment access, certification, or coverage of unrelated systems.

ShopIQ uses it: Assignments, staffing coverage, efficiency, and labor-capacity recommendations.

Assumption: This is not proof of certification or universal capability; actual job requirements still govern.

Why it matters: It gives the owner a way to group specialized coverage without changing the underlying hours arithmetic.

Direction: Do not infer rebuilding capability, tooling, or fit for every transmission or drivetrain job.

ShopIQ uses it: Technician assignment, capacity grouping, performance, and recommendations.

Assumption: The classification is an assumption for planning only, not certification or universal capability.

Why it matters: It helps distinguish diagnostic coverage from simple hour totals, while preserving the fact that diagnosis depends on tools, data, and the specific vehicle.

Direction: Do not assume every diagnostic technician covers every system or that the label changes efficiency math.

ShopIQ uses it: Technician assignments, performance, staffing recommendations, and labor-capacity context.

Assumption: This is not proof of certification, test equipment, training, or universal capability.

Why it matters: Targets turn a raw result into a decision: protect the pace, close the gap, or revisit the plan.

Direction: Higher or lower depends on the metric; the interface states the direction.

ShopIQ uses it: Daily targets, recommendations, and monthly planner target fields.

Assumption: A target is a planning input, not a measured result and not a promise that demand will cooperate.

Why it matters: The gap makes the size of the next decision visible instead of leaving “below target” vague.

Direction: A smaller gap is better; direction follows the metric’s higher/lower rule.

ShopIQ uses it: Monthly planner cards and recommendation comparisons.

Assumption: A gap only appears when both a current value and a target are available.

Why it matters: Context prevents a single day from being labeled good or bad without knowing what it is being compared with.

Direction: The more relevant and stable the comparison, the more useful the signal.

ShopIQ uses it: Recommendation cards and reports explain the comparison source beside the result.

Assumption: Recent baselines require enough history; ShopIQ says when a comparison is unavailable.

Why it matters: Calling this out prevents the shop from treating an unknown as zero and making a false decision.

Direction: Neither better nor worse; the next action is to capture the input.

ShopIQ uses it: Recommendation cards, planner states, calculator missing-input lists, and efficiency output.

Assumption: Future categories are explicitly marked not collected rather than backfilled.

Why it matters: Source labels make it clear which numbers are measured history and which are planning assumptions.

Direction: Not applicable; clarity is the goal.

ShopIQ uses it: Comeback-cost and labor-rate calculators show the source beside each carried value.

Assumption: A saved value is only as current as the latest daily entry available to the calculator.

Why it matters: Comebacks consume sellable technician capacity and can erase profit even when the original invoice was paid.

Direction: Usually lower is better.

ShopIQ uses it: Comeback opportunity-cost calculator and future monthly planning.

Assumption: Comebacks are not collected in the daily ledger yet; the calculator needs owner-entered assumptions.

Why it matters: Declined work reveals demand and follow-up opportunity without pretending that unsigned work is revenue.

Direction: Usually lower, while still preserving honest recommendations and customer choice.

ShopIQ uses it: Planned future recommendation and monthly planning category.

Assumption: Not currently collected by the daily ledger; it is not silently treated as zero.

Why it matters: Appointments help compare future demand with technician coverage before the day becomes a bottleneck.

Direction: More is useful only when coverage, quality, and margin can support it.

ShopIQ uses it: Future monthly planner and staffing/workflow recommendations.

Assumption: Not currently collected by the daily ledger; no appointment number is assumed.

Why it matters: Clear status labels let an owner act without confusing “not measured” with “bad.”

Direction: Healthy is favorable; below target needs attention; missing means measure it first.

ShopIQ uses it: Recommendation badges, planner badges, and labor-rate roster statuses.

Assumption: A status describes the available evidence; it is not a diagnosis of the whole shop.