The bay earns nothing until the car leaves.
Repair shops, body shops, tyre centres and car washes buy parts, pay technicians and keep the lifts running before a single invoice is settled. Insurance jobs and fleet accounts stretch that further.
The problem
A repair starts with a parts order and a technician's hours. The customer pays when the car is done; an insurance claim or a fleet account pays weeks later. Between the two, the shop has bought the parts, paid the labour and kept the lights on.
The equipment is the business. Lifts, alignment racks, diagnostic systems and paint booths each earn money only when they are working, and each costs more to replace than a month's margin.
Funders like the trade: steady demand, repeat customers, revenue that holds up in a downturn. Auto sales and dealerships are a different story with many of them, so a service business has to be presented as exactly that.
- How you get paid
- At pick-up; insurance and fleet accounts on terms
- Where the gap is
- Parts and labour before the invoice; the equipment that runs the shop
- What tends to fit
- Equipment financing, a line of credit, revenue-based financing
How we help
Lifts and booths financed as equipment
The rack, the booth or the alignment system financed against itself, with payments set against the work it brings in.
Parts and payroll covered between invoices
A line of credit draws for the parts order and the Friday payroll, and pays down when the insurance cheque or the fleet account clears.
Presented as a service business
We send the file to funders that fund repair and body shops, and make sure it reads as service, not sales.
What usually fits
Which one, or which two, depends on the file. These are the ones we reach for first with auto services.