Work orders aren’t paperwork — they’re profit, protection, and a powerful management tool hiding in plain sight
When I was a service manager, there was never a time you could walk into my office and not see a stack of work orders on my desk. Reviewing work orders wasn’t optional — it was part of my daily routine.
I know that sounds daunting, but what you learn about your business may astound you. I once asked another service manager to do this exercise. He called me afterward and said, “I can’t believe how much money we’ve been leaving on the table.”
I broke my work order reviews into three categories: warranty work orders, lost opportunities, and service advisor billing efficiency.
Warranty work orders: self-audit and peace of mind
I always started with warranty work orders. I treated this as a self-audit — or self-compliance exercise. Every single warranty work order was reviewed for potential infractions.
I used a spreadsheet with the following categories: missing signatures, the three Cs (complaint, cause, correction), add-on repairs, straight-time authorization, overlapping labour, comebacks, head office authorization, and in/out mileage.
Before you say, “Of course my advisors know how to do that,” grab a coffee, sit in the customer lounge, and listen to the conversations happening at the counter.
You can — and should — create your own categories based on what your manufacturer considers critical. For each work order, I logged any infractions I found. I also tracked which service advisor wrote the repair order and which technician or apprentice worked on the vehicle.
Patterns emerged quickly. I could identify which advisors or technicians were responsible for repeat issues, then meet with them to explain the problem and develop an action plan to prevent it from happening again.
For example, if one advisor consistently failed to record in-and-out mileage properly, I could explain why that step is so important in the warranty process and ensure it was corrected going forward.
Yes, I reviewed every warranty work order after the claim was submitted by the warranty administrator — but before it was filed.
This did a few important things for me as a manager. It ensured warranty documentation was complete, allowed me to coach and train my team on proper processes, and gave me real peace of mind. If a manufacturer auditor called and said they were coming in tomorrow, I slept just fine.
Lost opportunities: where hours per RO go to die
The next category was lost opportunities — and this one is critical.
Let’s say your hours per RO are sitting at 0.7. You know that’s low, but do you really know why? We track hours per RO to make sure our service advisors aren’t just order takers. We want them actively selling — or more accurately, recommending.
If a customer books an appointment for an oil and filter change, does your advisor know how to confidently recommend the manufacturer’s scheduled maintenance? Turning a 0.5-hour oil change into a 2.0-hour scheduled service isn’t upselling — it’s doing the job properly.
Before you say, “Of course my advisors know how to do that,” grab a coffee, sit in the customer lounge, and listen to the conversations happening at the counter.
We are not selling unnecessary work. We are recommending what the manufacturer says must be done to keep the vehicle operating safely and reliably. I’ve visited dealerships that did little more than oil and filter changes. When we reviewed their scheduled maintenance menus together, the service manager turned ghostly white. Transmission, differential, and transfer case fluids weren’t being changed — or even discussed.
Think about the lost revenue. Now think about the liability exposure when required maintenance isn’t recommended or documented.
Here’s another question for service managers: when a client comes in for an oil and filter change only, do you reset the service reminder light? Should you?
If a vehicle is due for a 120,000-km service that includes a transfer case fluid change and brake fluid flush — and you only performed an oil change — resetting that reminder light borders on dishonest. In my view, it’s time many dealerships revisit their policies.
Billing efficiency: getting paid for the work you do
The final part of my work order review focused on billing efficiency — for both customer-pay and warranty work.
I had my advisors calculate billing efficiency as a percentage: how much time was in the repair order versus how much was actually billed. If that number was below 100 per cent, the advisor needed service manager sign-off.
If we couldn’t bill for the time we had into the job, we had a problem.
One common issue was advisors being hesitant to bill diagnostic time. My position was simple: if you’re transparent with the customer and keep them informed throughout the diagnostic process, the dealership deserves to be paid.
When service managers implement a policy requiring authorization for billing efficiencies below 100 per cent, hours per RO increase — every time.
Work order review isn’t busywork. It’s one of the most powerful management tools a service manager has.
Build it into your daily routine. Your profitability, compliance, and long-term success depend on it.
