* One of the most commonly found errors is when repairs are closed as warranty, but are internal or customer pay repairs. * It's important to have staff well versed on warranty coverage to be able to distinguish warranty from customer pay. You'd think this would not be a common mistake, but it is. * You might also find yourself surprised if you gave your staff a quiz on powertrain coverage. * Knowledge gaps exist and the only way to combat them is to have open conversations about existing concerns. Things can come to light in the discussions and you can provide employees with the information they need to be successful. For instance, if you can identify a category of repairs that has a high volume in shop comebacks, you can take the time to sit with your technicians and have them commit to upgrading their knowledge to reduce shop comebacks in that area. A low trend score in certain other repair categories may show a sign of potential loss of opportunities. Correcting those will not simply affect your warranty business. Discovering and correcting this will affect the nature of all repairs and reduce your shop comeback volume overall. This in turn will yield you higher profitability - not to mention a better reputation. REVIEW YOUR MONTHLY SCHEDULES Successful warranty processing companies have been reviewing schedules for decades. Over the years, many items have been found that were creating discrepancies in the books of service departments. Predominantly, these errors are completely avoidable. Getting your books in order should be your priority over everything else. You can't run a smooth operation if you don't know where you stand. Reviewing the schedule is the best way to find overarching errors and patterns so you can get ahead of pitfalls. I am going to list some common finds when conducting schedule reviews along with solutions for each instance. JANUARY FEBRUARY 2025 || FIXED OPS MAGAZINE * Missed revenue is also a common find. Common examples are missed revenue due to not knowing your state's exchange allowances for additional labor. * If you are unsure whether or not your state allows for additional labor or exchange allowances, review your state's laws. * Missed revenue finds can also include miscellaneous for recalls. * Always thoroughly check the bulletin when it is released for new recalls. You will want to get together with your parts department, advisors, and technicians to make handling recalls as profitable and as efficient as you possibly can. * Incorrect parts markups are also a frequent inconsistency. * It's important to regularly check your schedule against adjustments to determine any inconsistencies in payout. * Having a regular labor rate for maintenance repairs is a simple error that is common. * Rate errors can add up fast causing huge discrepancies in your books. * Adjustments need to be reviewed and find out why they were made. * Reducing adjustments will give you a clearer picture of what's to come in your service department. It is incredibly important for you to be able to more accurately budget on a month-to-month basis. * It's also important to pay attention overall to labor rates for the same basic reasons. 61