Labour Hours Sold

A technician might spend three hours on a job billed at two standard labour hours, while another might complete a two-hour billed job in one hour. Sold hours describe the customer charge, not necessarily time on the clock.

Tekmetric reports technician hours and Shopmonkey documents time logs for repair shops, but their report fields can differ, so define the exact measure in the system used. A fictional workshop bills 40 labour hours this week while its staff clock 50 hours at work, including cleaning and training, so the 40 is not an attendance record.

A service quote may use actual time or a fixed labour allowance, and under flat-rate pricing billed hours can exceed or fall below actual task time, so check the contract and invoice method. A fictional mechanic repairs a car in 1.5 hours and invoices 2 standard hours, so the shop records 2 sold hours and 1.5 actual task hours, and both numbers serve different purposes.

Set rules for invoiced, approved but not invoiced, discounted and warranty work, since a rework job may consume time without new customer revenue and counting it as sold hours can distort results. A fictional agency completes 10 project hours but grants a full credit for an error, so it reports productive time and net sold hours separately, because the credited work does not become new customer revenue.

Calculate sold hours from invoice lines or approved billable records consistently, remove duplicates and reversals, and if a job crosses reporting periods, choose a recognition date and disclose it. A fictional repair order closes on Monday after work done Friday, so a Friday work log and Monday invoice report will differ, and the manager does not combine them without reconciliation.

Compare sold hours with paid or available hours only using compatible definitions, since labour utilisation, productivity and efficiency are related but not identical and the numerator and denominator should be defined explicitly. A fictional shop sells 32 hours with 40 paid technician hours, giving a sold-to-paid ratio of 80%, which does not prove workers were idle for the other eight hours.

Non-billable work may be necessary, since training, safety checks, administration and customer communication keep a business operating, and a sold-hours target should not penalise essential tasks. When a fictional service centre spends a morning training staff on a new safety procedure, sold hours fall temporarily, and the manager looks at long-term quality rather than calling the training wasted time.

Revenue per sold hour depends on labour rates and discounts, so two teams can sell the same hours but earn different amounts, as when a fictional shop sells 100 labour hours at an average realised $90 each for $9,000 of labour revenue while another sells 100 at $70, and equal sold hours do not mean equal gross margin. Monitor quality, rework and customer outcomes alongside hours, since pushing more billed time without proper service can create complaints or unfair bills and incentives should support accurate work, and when a fictional manager sees rising sold hours but more warranty returns, the team checks whether work was rushed, because the metric alone does not prove improved performance.

Seasonality and job mix affect comparisons, as diagnostic jobs, installations and routine maintenance may carry different labour allowances, and a fictional shop that assigns complex electrical diagnostics to one technician sees fewer sold hours for that person, so a fair review considers difficulty and rework. Reporting systems may allocate sold hours to technicians, teams or invoices, so clarify who gets credit when several people share a job, avoid counting the same invoice twice and keep parts or material revenue separate if the metric is labour-specific, and treat labour hours sold as a useful operating measure when definitions are stable, paired with actual time, costs, quality and customer revenue for a sound decision.