Guide
Garage door company bookkeeping: service, installs and leads
Two businesses sharing a warehouse: same-day service from the truck, and special-order installs weeks later.
Reviewed by Darren Lim, US CPALicense CPA.742536024 min read
A garage door company is usually two businesses sharing a warehouse. Service — broken springs, cables, openers, off-track doors — is high-volume, same-day work where a technician carries the parts on the truck. Installation — new doors, often special-ordered — is project work with deposits, lead times and product margin.
The two have different margins, different selling costs and very different cash timing. Books that report them as one revenue line will not show which one is carrying the business.
Split service from installation
Separate income accounts or classes for service, openers and new door installs, with parts and labor following the same split. The ticket average, margin and callback rate of each are worth knowing separately, and they change for different reasons.
Parts on the trucks
Springs, cables, rollers, openers and hardware ride on service trucks and are inventory until they are installed. With many technicians and many part sizes, truck stock is one of the largest assets a service-focused garage door company has — and one of the easiest places for money to disappear.
Count truck stock periodically and compare what went onto the trucks with what was billed out. A gap is either parts installed and not billed, or parts gone missing. See truck stock and inventory and the truck stock calculator.
Special-order doors and deposits
New doors are often special-ordered and can take weeks to arrive. The customer’s deposit is a liability until the door is installed, and the door you have paid for but not installed is inventory or work in progress. See deposits and progress billing.
Mis-measured or mis-ordered doors are usually not returnable. Code remakes to the original job and track them over time — a rising remake cost points to a measuring or ordering problem.
What a lead really costs
Garage door service is one of the trades most dependent on paid leads — search ads, lead marketplaces, listing services. The cost of winning a job can be a large share of a small ticket.
Record marketing spend by source, and tie jobs back to where they came from. Cost per booked job, and margin after that cost, by source, is the number that decides where next month’s marketing money goes. The marketing ROI calculator does the arithmetic.
Technician pay
Many garage door technicians are paid on commission or a mix of hourly and commission. Record pay so it can be tied to jobs, and make sure the plan’s cost is visible against the revenue it produces. The technician pay plan calculator compares structures. Commissioned employees are still generally owed overtime under federal law — worth checking against your plan.
Maintenance plans
Annual tune-up or maintenance plans bring recurring revenue and repeat customers. Track plans sold, renewed and lost, and what servicing each plan actually costs. See are your maintenance agreements actually profitable — the same questions apply.
Warranty and callbacks
Return visits for noisy doors, failed openers or spring adjustments belong to the original job. Manufacturer warranty work may be reimbursed if claimed — log it by manufacturer with what has been claimed and received. See what callbacks are really costing you.
Related
General information, not tax or legal advice. Wage and commission rules vary by state.
How we do this
We build this into your books. Starting with a month that costs you nothing.
Service and installs on separate lines, parts on every truck checked against what was billed, deposits held on special orders, and marketing cost tied to jobs by source.
- Every transaction categorized, accounts reconciled, the month closed
- Reviewed and signed by Darren Lim, US CPA — license CPA.74253602
- The 24-Hour Guarantee: Your first month back in 24 hours, or the next month is free.
On a small service ticket, the lead can cost more than the part. One month of books tying jobs to their source shows which marketing is worth paying for. Free, back in 24 hours.