Sara, what should I do when my techs ignore the process and won’t clock in and out of jobs, even though I’ve told them to?
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When a tech refuses to clock in and out, you’re dealing with two problems.
One is an authority issue in the service department.
The other is a revenue leak due to lost technician hours.
Let’s start with the first one, because if you don’t get that part right, the money part never gets better.
When Techs Don’t Follow Time Clock Procedures
When a tech ignores your process and nothing happens, guess who just became the boss of the service department?
It’s not you.
Letting it slide because you’re busy or don’t want the drama creates a ripple effect. Every time you let it go, you’re telling your team:
- You don’t have to follow the system here
- There are no consequences
- Your preferences matter more than our profitability
And if one tech sees they can get away with it, others start testing the waters too. Pretty soon, the employees are running the department. You end up with constant chaos, zero accountability, and a whole lot of
untracked labor hours.
Missed Clock-ins = Lost Revenue
Now let’s talk about the second part – the profitability impact of poor time tracking in the service department.
We all want our service departments to be productive, profitable, and predictable. But that doesn’t happen when time, the one thing you can’t
restock, is leaking out the sides.
Imagine losing 20 percent of your sales inventory off your lot every day. You’d file a police report, panic a little, and do everything in your power to
fix it.
But in service, we just shrug and say, “Sometimes it happens.”
It doesn’t have to.
How Much Time Are You Really Losing?
Let’s put numbers to it:
Take your labor rate and multiply it by 5 (for each day of the workweek).
Take that number and multiply it by 4 (weeks in a month).
Then multiply that by 11 (months in the year, allowing for training and PTO).
Now multiply that by the number of technicians you have.
Do the math. I’ll wait.
Now be honest. You’re probably losing more than one hour per tech, per day. That’s a lot of unbilled labor hours. And if you’re not tracking time correctly, you’re not just losing money, you’re also hurting your ability to measure technician efficiency and evaluate service department performance.
What Can You Do About It?
Here’s what we’ve seen work over and over again in successful service departments:
Start with daily meetings to set the tone
This is one of the simplest ways to move the authority back to the manager. A five-minute meeting at the beginning or end of the day gives you a moment to lay out expectations, celebrate wins, and reset anything that’s off.
It’s not optional.
It’s your time to lead, and your team’s time to listen.
Do it every day. No exceptions.
Keep track of time – No excuses
Tracking time for service technicians doesn’t have to be complicated.
If you have business management software, use it. Full stop.
If you don’t, grab a piece of paper. Have your techs write down what they’re working on, when they started, and when they finished. That’s it. It doesn’t have to be fancy; it just has to be done.
And don’t overlook the “off-the-books” jobs. If you send a tech to fix your mother-in-law’s air conditioner, even if you’re not billing for it, track technician time anyway.
Time is your inventory. If you don’t know where it’s going, you’re probably losing it.
Want to dive in more? We have programs for that!
Dealer Success Groups
Structure, support, and a bonus plan system that helps you run a profitable, efficient service department, without the drama.
Service Manager Certification
If you or your service manager needs help stepping into leadership and running a process that actually works, this course walks you through it all – start to finish.
You don’t have to keep losing money in your service department or handing over your authority to employees who don’t follow the system.
You’ve got this!
– Sara