A cylinder head somewhere in town
A car came in with a head gasket failure. The head has gone to the engineering shop for skimming and pressure testing. The car sits in the corner, half stripped. The customer rings to ask when it will be done. The advisor thinks the head went out on Tuesday. Or was it Wednesday? Nobody wrote down when the machine shop said it would be ready.
A different car went to the auto electrician across the road for a wiring fault and came back yesterday. Their invoice will arrive at month end. Will anyone remember to add it to the customer's bill? The customer has already paid and gone.
Sublet work falls between systems
Your garage management system tracks jobs your technicians do and parts you buy from factors. Sublet work is neither. It is a service from another business, often arranged by phone, sometimes with the car or part physically leaving your premises, and invoiced to you separately, often later.
The job card might say "head to machine shop", but not when it went, when it is due, or what the quote was. The specialist's invoice lands in the office weeks later with a reference the advisor has never seen.
Sublets also tend to be arranged by whoever is free, so the knowledge of who agreed what with the specialist sits with one person. If that person is off the next day, nobody else knows the machine shop said Friday, or that the auto electrician quoted for two hours and warned it might be more.
What goes wrong with sublets
| Sublet stage | Common failure |
|---|---|
| Sending out | No record of what went, when, or with what instructions |
| Waiting | Nobody knows the due date until the customer asks |
| Coming back | Part or car returned but nobody tells the technician |
| Invoicing the customer | Sublet cost left off the bill |
| Paying the specialist | Invoice arrives with no link to the job |
The largest single cost is sublet charges that never reach the customer's invoice. They are paid by you and not recovered, and nobody notices because the specialist's invoice arrives after the job is closed.
Communication with the customer suffers too. A customer whose car is waiting on a sublet wants to know when it will be back, and an advisor who cannot see the due date either guesses or has to ring the specialist while the customer waits on the other line.
How we build a sublet tracker
- Sublet specialists are set up once: machine shop, auto electrician, calibration, windscreen, alloy repair, bodyshop and anyone else you use.
- When work is sent out, the advisor adds a sublet line to the job: supplier, what was sent, instructions, the quote if given, and the expected return date.
- The job cannot be closed for invoicing while a sublet line has no cost, so the charge is either on the bill or deliberately written off.
- A sublet board shows everything that is out, with due dates, and anything overdue at the top so the advisor chases before the customer rings.
- When the item or car comes back, it is booked back in with a tap, and the technician on the job is notified.
- When the specialist's invoice arrives, it is matched to the sublet line by job number, registration or reference, and any difference from the quote is highlighted.
A week of sublets you can see
The cylinder head shows on the board as out since Tuesday, due Friday. On Thursday the advisor rings the machine shop and confirms Monday instead, and tells the customer the same day. When the head returns, the technician gets a message and starts the rebuild.
The auto electrician's job cannot be invoiced until the cost is added. The advisor rings for the figure, adds it, and the customer's bill is right. At month end, the specialist's invoice matches the sublet line exactly.
- Everything sent out listed with a due date
- Sublet costs on the customer's invoice before it goes
- Returns flagged to the technician
- Specialist invoices matched to jobs
Is sublet work slipping through?
- You send parts or cars to specialists most weeks.
- Due dates for sublet work are not written anywhere.
- Sublet charges have been left off customer invoices.
- Specialists' invoices arrive with references nobody recognises.
- Customers ask for updates you cannot give.