What do you do when book time is way off from real time?

Find out why before you decide who pays. Check the lookup first: the wrong engine or the wrong procedure explains a lot of big misses, and that one is on the shop. When the tech hits something the labor guide leaves out, like rust or a broken bolt, the extra time is billable once the customer approves it, before the tech keeps going. A job that ran short still bills at the price the customer approved.

Key takeaways

• Re-pull the operation before blaming the tech. Check the engine, the procedure option and the footnote.
• Rust, seized parts and broken bolts sit outside published times, so that time is billable with approval.
• Techs flag the problem the moment they hit it. The advisor calls before the extra work happens.
• Write down why the job ran off, so the next quote for that job is right.

This post covers the ticket in front of you. For what the gap between the two numbers says about a shop or a tech over time, see book time against actual time.

What should you check first when a job runs way over?

The lookup. It takes two minutes and it catches the most expensive misses. Pull the operation again and run this list:

• Engine. Same model, different engine, different time. Check the VIN, not the model name.
• Procedure option. Some jobs list more than one procedure. Mitchell 1's example is a cylinder head gasket on a 2003 4WD Trailblazer 4.2L: "The updated procedure, using the special tool, is 9.0 hours versus the original procedure time of 23.1 hours." Quote the one your tech can do with the tools you own.
• The footnote. Read what the operation includes and excludes. An alignment, a machine operation or a related part may sit outside it.
• Overlap. Two jobs quoted at full time each when they share teardown will look like the tech beat book. Labor overlap when two jobs share a teardown covers it.

If the quote came from the wrong line, the customer approved a number the shop got wrong. The shop owns it. Bill what the customer approved, and fix the canned job or the lookup habit before the same job comes in again.

Who pays for the extra time?

Use the cause to decide. Mitchell 1 publishes the conditions its labor times leave out, prefaced with "Mitchell 1 doesn't factor in the following issues into our labor times." The list includes "Time necessary to free up parts frozen by rust or corrosion" and "Broken bolts, studs, etc." along with machine operations and diagnosis unless indicated. Work on that list was never in the published time.

Your guide may word its exclusions differently. Read the footnote in the one you use.

When do you have to stop and call?

Before the extra work, in any state that regulates it. California's statute says no charge beyond the estimate may be made "without the oral or written consent of the customer," obtained after the shop learns the estimate is short "and before the work not estimated or posted is done." Florida allows the written estimate plus 10 dollars or 10 percent, whichever is greater, capped at 50 dollars. Past that, the shop needs authorization.

Half an hour at a 100 dollar door rate reaches the Florida cap. So give your techs a simple rule:

Stop at the first seized or broken fastener. Walk it to the counter with an estimate of the added time. Don't cut, drill or heat anything until the advisor says go.

What do you say on the approval call?

Say what the tech hit and why it wasn't in the price. Then give the new total and stop talking. The customer needs a moment to decide, and filling the silence usually sounds like pressure.

"Hi, it's [name] at [shop]. Your control arm is halfway out. Two of the bolts are rusted solid and one broke off in the frame. The time we quoted assumes bolts that come loose, and these didn't. Getting them out adds an hour and a half of labor and three new bolts, which brings the job from [old total] to [new total]. Do you want us to keep going?"

If they hesitate, give them the real choice:

"If we stop here, we put the old arm back and you're where you started. If we keep going, it's [new total] and you leave with the new arm."

Then record it on the RO the same minute:

[time]  Added labor approved by phone. Called [number].
        Approved by: [name]. Reason: seized/broken fasteners,
        not included in published labor time.
        Added: [hours] hr labor + [parts]. New total: [amount].

How to re-authorize a job that grew covers what California requires in that note.

What does that ticket look like?

An illustrative example. The vehicle, hours and rate are made up to show the format.

A lower control arm on a high-mileage truck from a salt state, quoted at 1.6 hours from the published operation at a 150 dollar door rate. At 1.2 hours on the clock, the tech has two seized cam bolts and one mounting bolt snapped off in the frame. Both conditions are on the exclusion list, so the tech stops and walks it up.

10:38  Tech: 2 cam bolts seized, 1 frame bolt broken off.
       Est. 1.5 hr to cut, extract and chase threads.
10:42  Called customer (cell). Explained seized and broken
       hardware, not included in published time. Added 1.5 hr
       labor + 3 bolts/nuts. Customer approved.
       Approved by: vehicle owner, name recorded. New total given.

The invoice shows both lines. The customer sees what they approved first and what was added, with the reason.

What if the customer says it didn't take that long?

Bill the approved price and explain flat rate in one breath. The Federal Trade Commission describes it to car owners this way: "This published rate is based on an independent or manufacturer's estimate of the time required to complete repairs." A script:

"We price the repair, not the clock. The time comes from a published labor guide, and it's the same price whether the job goes smoothly or fights us. When it goes long, we don't charge you more unless you approve it. When our tech is fast, that's the price you agreed to."

Discounting the fast jobs breaks the deal. The shop carries the slow ones without renegotiating, and it can only afford that because it keeps the fast ones. If a job beats book every time, review the canned job for it. Don't discount one ticket.

How do you keep the next quote from missing?

Write down why it ran off, where the next advisor will see it. After any job that ran more than half an hour over, add a note like this:

LABOR VARIANCE: quoted [x] hr, clock [y] hr.
Cause: [rust / broken fastener / wrong procedure / wrong engine / tooling]
Fix: [update canned job / add seized-hardware line / matrix / none]

Then fix it where it belongs:

• Wrong lookup: correct the canned job so it points at the right engine and procedure.
• Vehicle condition: a labor matrix by vehicle age covers it across the board. On jobs that always fight back in your area, add a separate "seized hardware" line to the first estimate, priced and approved up front, so the call later is expected. Check your state's estimate rules for how that line has to read.

Where book time comes from covers adjusting published times. Diagnosis has its own rules, covered in should you charge for diag when you can't duplicate it.

What does the customer see when they ask why?

The source of the number. "It's 1.6 hours because the published time for your engine says so" ends most arguments, and it only works if the advisor can see where the number came from. Mechanica shows the source of every line on the estimate, your canned job or published book time for the exact year, make and engine, so your advisor can check the lookup before the quote goes out and point to it when the customer asks.

More on pricing labor is on the blog.