🔩Automotive · bookkeeping in-house

Bookkeeping for Auto Repair Shops

Bookkeeping for auto repair shops starts at $500/month: monthly close, categorized transactions, reconciled bank and card accounts, and a plain-English P&L. Our in-house team handles what makes auto repair shops different — parts vs labor, cores, and sublet work.

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What makes auto repair shops bookkeeping different

A repair shop is really two businesses sharing one invoice: a parts business and a labor business, each with its own margin. Add supplier credits, core charges, and work sent out to other shops, and the books only tell you the truth if those pieces stay separated.

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Parts and labor are separate margin engines

One repair order contains marked-up parts and billed labor hours. Collapsed into a single revenue line, you can't tell whether you're underpricing labor, losing margin on parts, or both.

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Core charges and warranty returns flow backward

Cores returned, parts sent back, and warranty credits from suppliers are money coming back to you. Booked as revenue instead of reversing the original cost, they quietly inflate both sales and cost of goods.

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Sublet work has to land on both sides

Alignment, machine work, or upholstery sent to another shop and rebilled to the customer is a cost and a sale on the same ticket. Missing either side makes gross profit on that job meaningless.

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Deposits on big jobs are held, not earned

Money taken up front on a build, a paint job, or a special-order part is customer money you're holding until the work is done. It belongs on the books that way so a busy deposit month doesn't read as a profitable one.

What’s included

One flat monthly rate for your auto repair shop. Everything below, every month.

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Monthly close, every month

Categorized transactions, reconciled bank and card accounts, and books that are actually current — not six weeks behind.

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A P&L you can read

Plain-English monthly statements. Revenue, costs, margin — and what changed since last month, flagged for you.

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Ad spend inside the books

Marketing cost broken out per channel and set against revenue. “Did the ads make money” becomes a line you can point to.

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Catch-up & clean-up

Behind on your books? We reconstruct and clean up past months first, then keep the rhythm going.

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Tax-season handoff

Your CPA gets a clean, organized file at year end — fewer billable hours spent untangling, fewer surprises.

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One team, one thread

Questions answered by the people who keep your books — in-house, not a ticket queue.

How it works

01

Free books review

We look at your current books and tell you honestly what shape they're in and what the monthly scope would be.

02

Catch-up if needed

Past months reconstructed, categorized, and reconciled before the ongoing rhythm starts.

03

Monthly rhythm

Close every month, statements delivered, questions answered — flat rate, cancel anytime.

Starts at $500/month

Simple, flat pricing

$500/month and up

The exact flat rate for your auto repair shop is scoped to your transaction volume and account count — quoted after the free books review, with no long-term lock-in. Already running marketing with us? Your books and your campaigns live in one data picture.

Planning the marketing side too? See what marketing costs for auto repair shops.

Frequently asked questions

How much does bookkeeping cost for a auto repair shop?

Bookkeeping starts at $500 per month. The exact flat rate is scoped to your transaction volume and account count, and it's quoted after a free review of your current books — so you know the number before you commit. No long-term lock-in.

What makes bookkeeping for auto repair shops different?

A repair shop is really two businesses sharing one invoice: a parts business and a labor business, each with its own margin. Add supplier credits, core charges, and work sent out to other shops, and the books only tell you the truth if those pieces stay separated. Two examples that come up on almost every auto repair shop’s books: “Parts and labor are separate margin engines” and “Core charges and warranty returns flow backward”.

Do you file my taxes?

No — your CPA handles filing, and we don't give tax advice. What we do is keep the books that make filing easy: categorized, reconciled, and closed every month, so your accountant gets a clean, organized year-end file instead of a shoebox. If your books are behind, we run a catch-up and clean-up pass first.

Do I have to be a marketing client to use your bookkeeping?

No. Bookkeeping stands on its own for any auto repair shop. But when we run both, your P&L and your campaigns share one data picture — which is where the “did the advertising actually make money” answer comes from.

All bookkeeping services →

How in-house bookkeeping works, what's included, and how the flat rate is scoped.

Marketing for Auto Repair Shops →

What we actually run for auto repair shops — channels, campaigns, and targeting.

What marketing costs for Auto Repair Shops →

Honest budget tiers and what moves the number up or down.

Start with the free books review

No commitment — we look at where your auto repair shop’s books stand today and tell you exactly what monthly upkeep would look like.

Book the review →