What job costing is
Job costing compares what a job was invoiced with what it really cost. The direct costs are the technicians' time, the parts at what you paid for them, the paint and materials used and the sublet bills. What's left is the job's gross profit, and after the job's share of your overheads, its profit.
The quote is a prediction made before the car is stripped. Job costing is the check afterwards, and over a few weeks it shows which kinds of work, which work providers and which quotes make money.
A worked example
Take one repair at the example bodyshop from our labour rate guide. Its labour rate is £61.78 an hour, an hour of a technician's time costs it £31.68, and its overheads come to £39.87 for every hour a technician spends on a job. The repair was quoted at 18 labour hours, 7 of them paint:
- Labour: 18 hours at £61.78, one rate for panel and paint to keep it simple.
- Parts: charged at list, £1,600.00; the bodyshop buys them 20% below list, for £1,280.00.
- Paint and materials: £420.00 on the quote.
- A camera calibration sublet to an ADAS specialist, and recovery, charged at cost.
The job took 23 hours: a seized bolt, a panel that needed more work than the quote allowed and a second test fit. A bracket cost more than quoted, and clips weren't on the quote, so parts cost £1,395.00. The invoice didn't change.
| Invoiced | Cost as quoted | Cost as it went | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | £1,112.04 | £570.24 | £728.64 |
| Parts | £1,600.00 | £1,280.00 | £1,395.00 |
| Paint and materials | £420.00 | £330.00 | £330.00 |
| Sublet: ADAS calibration | £300.00 | £250.00 | £250.00 |
| Recovery | £150.00 | £150.00 | £150.00 |
| Total | £3,582.04 | £2,580.24 | £2,853.64 |
| Gross profit | — | £1,001.80 (28.0%) | £728.40 (20.3%) |
| Overheads at £39.87 an hour | — | £717.66 | £917.01 |
| Profit | — | £284.14 | -£188.61 |
Before VAT. The repair, parts, materials and sublet are made up for the example.
What the example shows
The extra 5 hours and £115.00 of parts turned a £284.14 profit into a £188.61 loss. Those hours cost £158.40 in technician time and kept the car in a bay long enough to use £199.35 more of the bodyshop's overheads.
Labour rate
£61.78
What every hour on the quote was charged at.
Earned per hour worked
£48.35
The labour invoiced divided by the 23 hours it took.
Efficiency
78%
18 hours charged for 23 worked.
Some of the lost time could have been charged. Hidden damage found after the strip goes back to the insurer or customer as supplementary work, with photos, before you do it. Our guide to writing a bodyshop quote covers authorising extra work.
The numbers to watch
Sources define some of these differently, so write down the formula you use and stick to it. We found no published UK benchmarks for efficiency, productivity or touch time, so your own figures, month on month, are the comparison that counts.
| Measure | How to work it out | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Average labour rate | Labour sales ÷ labour hours charged | The rate you really got across all your work, after each work provider's rates |
| Earned per hour worked | Labour sales ÷ hours technicians actually spent on the jobs | What an hour of your technicians' time really brought in |
| Efficiency | Hours charged ÷ hours the work took | Whether jobs run over the quote |
| Productivity | Hours on job cards ÷ hours paid | How much of the time you pay for you actually sell |
| Key-to-key | Days from keys in to keys back | How fast cars move, which insurers and customers both watch |
| Lead time | Days from the first call to the repair starting | How long work waits for authorisation, parts or a bay |
| Parts delays | Share of jobs held up waiting for parts | How much of your key-to-key time is outside your control |
| Gross profit by category | Sales less direct costs, for labour, parts, paint and materials, and sublet separately | Which part of the business is earning, and which is slipping |
Key-to-key and lead times in the UK
The best UK figures on repair times come from insurers. The FCA's review of motor claims gathered data from insurers on their own customers' repairs from 2019 to 2023:
| 2019 | 2023 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Key-to-key time | 11 days | 15 days | +36% |
| From the incident to the repair starting | 15 days | 31 days | +110% |
| Labour hours per repair | 17.6 | 19.4 | +10% |
| Labour rate | £35 | £45 | +28% |
| Labour cost per repair | £616 | £879 | +43% |
| Average repair, petrol or diesel car | £2,350 | £3,344 | +42% |
| Average repair, electric car | £2,908 | £4,197 | +44% |
FCA motor insurance claims analysis, July 2025. Eight or nine insurers, depending on the measure.
The FCA puts the longer waits down mainly to a shortage of mechanics and to parts delays. Thatcham Research puts the rise in the average cost of a collision repair at 50% between 2019 and 2024. Repairs are most of what insurers pay out: £1.9 billion of the £3.0 billion paid in motor claims in the third quarter of 2025, according to ABI figures in the Motor Insurance Taskforce's final report.
Parts shortages and green parts
Parts delays stretch key-to-key time and leave cars sitting in bays. In the ABP Club's 2025 survey, three in four bodyshops said parts shortages hit at least a tenth of their jobs:
| Jobs hit by shortages | Share of bodyshops |
|---|---|
| Under 10% | 25% |
| 10% to 19% | 37% |
| 20% to 29% | 21% |
| 30% or more | 17% |
ABP Club State of the Industry Report 2025, page 13.
Use green parts
91%
Recycled parts from salvaged vehicles.
Using more green parts
75%
Than a year before.
Using more non-original parts
59%
Parts not from the vehicle maker.
Each one changes the parts line on a job: a different price, a different margin and often a different wait. Cost them the same way as new parts, at what you paid, and check that the quote and the work provider agreed to them. Our guide to pricing parts and paint covers green and matching quality parts, and how paint and materials are worked out.
How to cost every job
- 1
Clock technicians onto the job
Record when each technician starts and stops on a job card, and on which part of the work. It's the only way to know the hours a job really took. - 2
Put every parts invoice on the job card
Including returns, credits and the parts added after the quote. A part that isn't on a job card makes every job look better than it is. - 3
Check paint and materials
On insurance work the estimating system can work out paint and materials: Audatex's UK calculation uses a module from AZT Automotive. We found no published figures for what they cost bodyshops, so check each month's paint supplier bill against what you charged. - 4
Put sublet bills on the job
ADAS calibrations, alignments, glass and recovery, with what you paid and what you charged. In ABP's 2025 survey, 44% of ADAS alignments went to specialists. - 5
Compare when the job is invoiced
Invoiced against cost for each category, and the hours quoted against the hours worked. Keep the excess and the insurer's share together for costing: it's one job. - 6
Review the week
Look at the jobs that lost money together, and find the pattern: an operation, a vehicle type, a work provider or a technician.
Using what you find
- Quote differently for operations that keep running over, and send supplementary work for authorisation before you do it.
- Order parts complete and early, and chase returns and credits, so parts costs stay where you quoted them.
- Look at each work provider's margins and key-to-key times before you take on more of their work.
- Use the hours you've measured, not hopes, when you work out your labour rate each year.
- Talk to technicians whose jobs often run over: it may be training, tools or the quotes they're given.
