Bookkeeping for Garage Door and Locksmith Companies: Service Calls and Parts

What garage door and locksmith books need to track

A garage door or locksmith business is not one number. It is the service calls you ran, the parts you installed, the labor you charged, the truck stock you bought, and the lead fees you paid. Each part needs its own line so your monthly income stays true.

When you track all of it by job, you can see which calls made money and which ones spent more on parts than they brought in. When you do not, you get one big pile of deposits and parts bills and no way to tell whether the spring replacement paid better than the lock rekey.

Most garage door and locksmith work is service calls. A broken spring, a door off its tracks, a lockout, a rekey, a new opener install. Each call has a labor charge and a parts charge. The parts come from the truck or from a supplier run. The lead may come from a dispatch service that takes a fee. When the books hold the labor apart from the parts and the fee apart from the pay, the business makes sense. You can read more about how we keep these lines tied on our bookkeeping page.

Here is what a clean call looks like.

When the labor and the parts sit on their own lines, your per call profit is real. When they sit together, a big deposit looks like a great day and the parts bill hides.

How service calls show up in your books

A service call is the work you do at the door. You drive out, you fix the door or the lock, you bill the customer. The call is the core of the business.

The clean way is to book the labor to a service income line and the parts to a parts income line. When you bill a call, the labor goes to service income and the parts go to parts income. The two sit side by side on the profit and loss. You can see how much of your billing is labor and how much is parts. When the parts share grows, your margins shift and you can see it.

The messy way is to book the whole invoice to one general sales line. Now your income is one pile. You can not tell if a month was strong because you billed a lot of labor or because you sold a lot of openers. You can read more about how we tie job income to the right line in our locksmith dispatch guide. The same idea works for any service call.

Here is how to keep the service call clean.

• **Book the labor to a service income line: ** not to one general sales line.
• - **Book the parts to a parts income line: ** so the two sit apart.
• - **Tag each invoice to the job or the tech: ** so the income sorts by call.
• - **Match each invoice to the bank deposit: ** the day the cash clears.
• - **Watch the labor to parts mix: ** a shift in the share changes your margins.

When the labor and the parts sit apart, your income is true. When they sit together, the story hides in one pile.

How parts show up apart from labor

The parts you install are a cost, even when you also charge for them. A spring you buy from a supplier is a parts cost. The same spring billed to the customer is parts income. The two are not the same and they need their own lines.

The clean way is to book the parts cost to a parts cost line when you buy the spring. Book the parts income to a parts income line when you bill the customer for it. The two sit apart on the profit and loss. You can see the markup on parts over a month. When a supplier raises prices, your parts cost goes up and your parts income should follow. When the two move together, the margin stays true.

The messy way is to book the parts bill to general supplies and the parts charge to general sales. Now the parts cost sits in overhead and the parts income sits in the sales pile. You can not tell if you are making money on parts or losing it. You can read more about how we track parts in our plumbing truck stock guide. The same idea works for a garage door truck.

Here is how to keep the parts clean.

• **Book parts cost to a parts cost line: ** not to general supplies.
• - **Book parts income to a parts income line: ** not to general sales.
• - **Tag each parts buy to the job when you can: ** so the cost sorts by call.
• - **Watch the parts markup: ** the parts income should track the parts cost.
• - **Match each parts bill to the bank: ** so no cost floats untied.

When the parts cost and the parts income sit apart, your parts margin is real. When they sit together, the markup hides and the true profit is a guess.

How to match each job to the bank

Every service call has to match the bank. The customer pays you. The cash lands in your account. The books need to tie the two together.

The clean way is to match each invoice to the bank deposit the day it clears. The amount in the books agrees with the amount that hit the bank. When a customer pays on a card, the deposit lands net of the card fee. When a customer pays in cash, the deposit lands whole. When a check bounces, the deposit does not stay on the books. The bank and the books always agree.

The messy way is to book the invoice and never match it. Now the books show a payment that may or may not have cleared. A check that bounced sits as income. A card fee that came out before the deposit hides. The invoice total does not match the cash that landed.

Here is how to keep the match clean.

• **Match each invoice to the bank deposit: ** the day it clears.
• - **Watch for card fees: ** a card payment lands net, so split the fee out.
• - **Watch for bounced checks: ** a payment that did not clear should not stay as income.
• - **Reconcile the bank each month: ** so the cash total agrees with the bank.
• - **Check the deposit total against the day end report: ** so the books agree with the till.

When each invoice matches the bank, your cash is true. When they float untied, the income drifts and the real profit hides.

How to track the parts truck stock

A garage door or locksmith truck carries parts. Springs, cables, rollers, locks, keys, openers. The stock is an asset until you use it. When you pull a spring from the truck and install it, the spring becomes a cost on the job.

The clean way is to treat the truck stock as a small inventory. Buy the parts into a stock asset account. When you pull a part for a job, move its cost from the stock account to the parts cost line, tagged to the job. The stock account shows what is still on the truck. The parts cost line shows what you used this month. When you run the profit and loss, the parts cost is real and the truck stock is not double counted.

The messy way is to expense every parts buy the day you buy it. Now the parts cost shows in the month you bought it, not the month you used it. A big supply run looks like a bad month. A month with no supply runs looks like a great month, even though the truck gave up its stock. You can read more about how we track truck stock in our plumbing truck stock guide. The same idea works for a garage door or locksmith truck.

Here is how to keep the truck stock clean.

• **Buy parts into a stock asset account: ** not straight to a parts cost line.
• - **Move the cost to parts cost when you use the part: ** not when you buy it.
• - **Tag the parts cost to the job: ** so the cost sorts by call.
• - **Count the truck stock now and then: ** so the stock account matches what is on the truck.
• - **Write off the parts that go bad or get lost: ** so the stock stays true.

When the truck stock sits in an asset account, your parts cost is true. When it goes straight to a cost, the month you buy looks bad and the month you use looks great.

How the month end close works

At month end, every call needs its lines added up. The labor, the parts income, the parts cost, the lead fees and any truck stock move all pull together. The income shows what you billed. The costs show what the work took. The net shows what the calls really made.

We start with the bank. We match each invoice to the deposit that cleared. We split the card fees from the net cash. We move the parts cost from the truck stock account to the parts cost line for each part that went out. We tag every line to the job or the tech. We run the profit and loss by tech so each one shows in their own column. We send you the profit and loss, a balance sheet, and a cash summary. The labor and the parts sit inside the report, side by side.

Here is a simple month end check.

• **Match each invoice to the bank: ** every deposit cleared.
• - **Split the card fees from the net cash: ** so the fee shows on its own.
• - **Move the parts cost from the truck stock: ** for each part that went out.
• - **Tag every line to the job or tech: ** so the profit and loss sorts by call.
• - **Check the truck stock account: ** so it matches what is still on the truck.
• - **Run the profit and loss by tech: ** so each tech shows their own column.

When the close runs every month, the call story stays clear. When it skips a month, the parts stack up and the next month is harder to close.

A situation we clean up

The service calls that all looked like one pile

A garage door shop runs service calls five days a week. Every invoice lands in one general sales line. The parts bills go to general supplies. The truck stock is expensed the day it is bought. The lead fees are never split out. At month end, the owner can not tell what the labor margin is, what the parts markup is, or which tech runs the most profitable calls. The bank and the books do not agree because the invoices float untied.

Here is how we handle it. We set up a service income line, a parts income line and a parts cost line. We go back through the open months and split each invoice into labor and parts. We move the parts bills from general supplies to the parts cost line and tag them to the job. We set up a truck stock asset account and move the parts cost to the cost line only when a part goes out. We match each invoice to the bank. When we are done, the owner can run the profit and loss by tech and see each one in their own column. We set up a rule so the next invoice splits the labor from the parts from the start.

Mistakes we fix

• Every invoice in one general sales line with no labor or parts split
• Parts cost in general supplies instead of a parts cost line
• No truck stock account so parts are expensed the day they are bought
• The parts income and parts cost in the same pile so the markup hides
• No match between the invoice and the bank deposit
• Card fees buried inside net sales instead of on their own line
• Lead fees never split out so the true per call profit is wrong
• No profit and loss by tech run at month end
• A bounced check still sitting as income after it did not clear
• The truck stock that was never counted so the stock account drifts

Common questions

How do I record a service call? Book the labor to a service income line and the parts to a parts income line. Tag each invoice to the job or the tech. Match each invoice to the bank deposit the day it clears. The two income lines sit apart so you can see the labor margin and the parts markup.

How do I track parts cost? Book the parts you buy to a parts cost line, not to general supplies. If you keep a truck stock, buy the parts into a stock asset account and move the cost to the parts cost line only when you use the part. Tag each parts cost to the job so it sorts by call.

How do I match a job to the bank? Match each invoice to the bank deposit the day it clears. Watch for card fees that come out before the deposit and for bounced checks that do not clear. Reconcile the bank each month so the cash total agrees with the bank.

How do I track the truck stock? Treat the truck stock as a small inventory. Buy parts into a stock asset account. Move the cost to the parts cost line when you pull a part for a job. Count the truck now and then so the stock account matches what is on the truck.