Community-driven garage management system Garage Hive has published a customer webinar hosted on 19th October.

The session was scheduled to make a popular seminar delivered by Garage Hive director Alex Lindley at The Blend 2022 available to a wider garage audience.

‘How to Set a Gross Profit Target and Why It’s So Important’ starts with Alex delivering an engaging summary of his journey from a productive technician in a single site family business, through a difficult spell as a learner book-keeper on to becoming a highly respected garage business expert.

The session explores reasons for unwelcome cash flow ‘surprises’ and makes plain the limitations of conventional backwards-looking monthly management profit and loss accounts.

There are insightful observations on gaps garages can fall into between book profit and bank cash, delivered by someone who’s overseen Lindley’s Autocentres growth from one to ten locations, now employing over 100 people.

Alex persuasively explains the need for garage owners to understand their business’ cash requirements how planning ahead can prevent unexpected difficulties.

“We hit problems in 2014 that caught us by surprise,” said Alex. “That was the wake-up call that led to me developing the methods and processes that have since seen us grow.

“The number one priority for garages should be setting a daily gross profit target.”

Garage Hive Reporting Suite uses Microsoft Power BI to easily exchange data from templates and spreadsheets to track performance in real-time with easy-to-understand charts.

The methods Alex advocates involve calculating a daily profit target that removes distortions such as uneven cost attribution and fluctuations in the number of monthly working days.

The foundation for this gross profit plan is a detailed cost analysis. This expense budget is then used as the foundation for creating cash-positive targets that build in retained earnings requirements and equipment financing overheads.

Once you have a gross profit target, Alex explains how to check your efficiency target is viable, this being the percentage of available workshop hours you need to sell to hit the target.

“It’s more important than ever in the current climate of rapidly rising costs that garages review monthly to be able to see problems early and avoid getting ‘caught out’,” said Alex.

“Garages can’t make plans or achieve their ambitions without accurate targets.”

Garage Hive has recently enhanced the Reporting Suite profit target reports available.

You can watch the webinar now on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QstGcoAwHxE or for more information on Garage Hive please visit www.garagehive.co.uk.