YOUR REVIEW
Your labour rate review
This tool calculates from your own figures. It does not compare you with other businesses or recommend a market rate.
Illustrative example. All outputs annualised · GBP excluding VAT · P&L classifications require manager confirmation. Your figures stay in this browser tab and are erased when you close it.
WORKSHOP FULL COST / SOLD HOUR
—
Direct costs + allocated overhead
REQUIRED RETAIL DOOR RATE
—
Calculated at your target margin
PROPOSED WARRANTY RATE
—
Linked to retail net recovery
INTERNAL RATE AT SELECTED MARGIN
—
Full cost recovery + chosen margin
SCENARIO LABOUR GROSS MARGIN
—
After workshop direct costs
SCENARIO BUSINESS NET MARGIN
—
After finance costs · before tax
LIVE COMMERCIAL PICTURE
See what changes the return.
—
—
—
—
Move a slider to update the graphics and figures together. The margin target changes the required rate; use “Apply required rate” to put it into the forecast.
RATE POLICY / RETAIL RECOVERY
From door rate to achieved recovery
Use matched P&L retail labour revenue and sold hours to establish recovery. Enter the current published door rate separately. Hold warranty and internal rates where the agreement or policy requires it.
£
Excluding VAT. Enter the actual published price; this is not inferred from your accounts.Default comes from current door rate less achieved recovery. Override for a different pricing plan.
%
Calculated from your current recovery gap.£
Used only for a fixed pounds-per-hour reduction.Linked
£
Used only when “Use agreed warranty rate” is selected.Full cost
£
Held across retail rate and volume changes. Internal transfers create no external profit.CURRENT ACHIEVED RETAIL RECOVERY—
CURRENT DOOR-TO-RECOVERY GAP—
REQUIRED DOOR RATE VS CURRENT—
Warranty planning basis. When linked, this model calculates warranty recovery at the selected percentage of net retail labour recovery, after the reductions entered. If retail recovery falls, the modelled warranty rate also falls. This does not automatically change an agreed manufacturer reimbursement rate. Select “Freeze current warranty recovery” or enter the agreed rate where applicable.
The recovery gap may include discounts, fixed-price packages, write-offs and work mix. Confirm the same retail work and accounting period are used. A frozen “current” rate follows the reviewed current actuals if the source data changes.
01 / THE COST BEHIND THE HOUR
Your workshop cost breakdown
Scenario costs allocated to the workshop, including additional costs entered.
The ring is annual cost composition. The strip shows each cost contribution per scenario sold hour.
02 / RECOVERY BY WORK TYPE
Current and proposed labour rates
Compare net recovery per sold hour on the same basis, excluding VAT.
Current net rateProposed net rate
03 / THE PROFIT EFFECT
Gross profit through to net profit
Annual GBP, with current and scenario results shown numerically and visually.
These are different views of profit. Do not add them together. Business net profit is after finance costs and before tax.
04 / WHERE THE CHANGE COMES FROM
Business profit bridge
Trace the change in external profit, with internal transfers eliminated.
Internal rate changes affect departmental profit only. Investment return uses external profit improvement.
01 / ACCOUNTING DATA
Upload a P&L. Confirm what belongs.
CSV, TSV or XLSX, or paste a table. Extracted rows remain separate until you approve the mapping.
Import from your accounting export
Use a detail-level export with account names and one selected period amount. Subtotals and headings must be excluded to prevent double counting.
months
Annualisation = selected-period value × 12 ÷ months.Revenue must be positive, with sales credits negative.
| Source account | Period amount £ | Classification | Workshop allocation % |
|---|
Suggested mappings are rules-based and editable. They are not an AI audit.
Import scope and cost definitions
Direct labour includes technician employment costs and direct workshop consumables or subcontract costs. Indirect costs include workshop support, premises, diagnostic subscriptions and allocated business overhead. Full cost uses each cost line once, multiplied by its workshop allocation.
Classify other direct workshop costs as variable (consumables, sublet and subcontract work, which move with sold hours) or fixed. In scenarios, variable direct cost moves in proportion to sold hours; technician employment, fixed direct and other business direct costs are held.
Parts sales and parts cost of sales contribute to business profit, but are not allocated to labour rates. Internal labour transfers appear only in the workshop view. Classify matching internal recharge expenses as “Internal charge expense (eliminate)” so both sides are excluded from consolidated business profit. Finance costs are included in business net profit before tax; tax entries are excluded because this model does not forecast tax.
CSV/TSV use UK number format (1,234.56), with parentheses or a minus sign for negative values. XLSX reads stored numeric values, including cached formula results. Recalculate and save Excel first. PDF, scans, encrypted XLSX and legacy XLS files need conversion to CSV or XLSX. No OCR or live connector is active.
02 / OPERATING EVIDENCE
Hours, work mix and actual recovery
Enter sold hours for the same period as the P&L. A P&L alone cannot establish hourly recovery.
| Work type | Sold hours % | Current net £/h |
|---|
Sold-hour mix total—
Missing mapped sales are not treated as zero: include an explicit zero-value sales line or use manual rates. When unchecked, rates entered above provide the labour baseline and replace mapped external labour sales in the business forecast. They must represent net recovery, after discounts and credits.
%
%
Warranty is modelled at 90% by default. This is a planning assumption, not an agreed manufacturer reimbursement rate. Sold-hour mix is held constant in the scenario.
SOURCE RECONCILIATION
Your cost and recovery foundation
Annual workshop direct costs—
Annual workshop indirect costs—
Annual sold hours / current effective rate—
Current workshop operating profit—
Mapped P&L net profit before tax—
Labour baseline adjustment to P&L—
Business net profit before tax = external revenue − all direct costs − all overheads − finance costs. Workshop profit is after allocated operating costs and before finance and tax. The two views have different scopes.
03 / RATE AND MARGIN SCENARIOS
Set the return. See the commercial effect.
The target calculates the retail rate your own costs require. The proposed rate drives the forecast.
£
£
For example, extra support or depreciation. Treated as workshop overhead.£
Overtime, consumables or subcontracting. Reduces gross and net profit.PROPOSED RETAIL NET RECOVERY—
WORKSHOP OPERATING MARGIN—
EXTERNAL ANNUAL PROFIT MOVEMENT—
| Annual result | Current | Scenario | Change |
|---|
More sold hours require confirmed capacity and demand. Variable direct workshop costs move with sold hours; technician employment and other fixed costs are held, plus the additional costs entered. Internal rate increases transfer profit between departments; they do not create external business profit.
04 / INVESTMENT RETURNS
Test the return on investment
Workshop operating return on capital—
Incremental annual return on project spend—
Simple project payback—
Workshop return = workshop operating profit ÷ capital employed. Incremental return = external annual profit improvement ÷ one-off project spend. Payback uses this accounting-profit improvement as a proxy; it is not a discounted cash-flow appraisal. Enter related annual costs above. Leave capital or project spend at zero to show “Not entered”.
Rate and volume sensitivity
Business net margin before tax, around your proposed rate and volume. Each cell uses the selected retail reduction, warranty basis and internal rate basis.
Columns: retail door rate. Rows: sold-hours change from the current baseline. Work mix and additional entered costs are held constant; variable direct workshop costs move with sold hours. Higher shade indicates higher margin, including when all margins are negative.
Evidence, calculations and review record
Gross profit = revenue − direct costs. Gross margin = gross profit ÷ revenue. Operating profit subtracts overhead. Business net profit before tax also subtracts finance costs. Linked warranty = proposed net retail recovery × warranty ratio. Held rates use current actual or entered agreed rates. Full-cost internal = scenario full cost per sold hour ÷ (1 − internal margin).
Required retail net recovery = [required blended recovery − (internal share × internal policy rate)] ÷ [retail share + (warranty share × warranty ratio)]. With warranty held, its weighted fixed recovery is deducted before solving retail recovery. With internal held, its fixed rate replaces the full-cost rate. Percentage reductions divide required net recovery by (1 − reduction); pound-per-hour reductions are added to required net recovery. Required blended recovery = total workshop costs ÷ [scenario sold hours × (1 − target operating margin)]. Scenario variable direct cost = allocated variable direct cost × change in sold hours. Full precision is retained in calculations; displays are rounded.
Privacy. Everything you upload or type is processed in this browser tab only. Nothing is sent to a server, saved in the browser or kept after you close the tab. To keep your work, use Export review and store the file yourself; Import review JSON reopens it.