Repair Analytics: Patterns Invoices Never Show
Ask a repair shop owner which spare part they use most, and they will answer with confidence. Then open their records, and the answer is often wrong.
Not because they do not understand their own shop. Because human memory keeps what was memorable, not what was frequent. One difficult job that ate a whole day feels larger than thirty small ones finished in ten minutes each — even though those thirty are what actually pay the rent.
This page fixes that. It replaces the old Repair Dashboard, and not merely under a new name: what used to be five breakdown lists now comes with a period filter, day-by-day trends, period comparison and rankings.
What you can ask it are decisions you have been putting off. Which spare parts deserve permanent shelf space. Which faults deserve a fixed-price package. Which technician needs training in what. Which customers you cannot afford to lose.
One thing that sets it apart from the old dashboard and is worth knowing: failed and cancelled units are not counted as money. Such units were worked on and had parts fitted, so figures exist — but putting them into revenue means claiming income from work that never succeeded. Here they are counted separately, as event counts.
And one warning so none of it is wasted: an analytics page you only look at is entertainment. This tutorial closes with the rule that makes it useful — one finding, one action, then close it.
Before you start
- Repairs recorded in full, including unit type, brand, symptom, service and parts used.
- At least a month of data. A page holding five repairs shows no pattern at all.
Steps
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Open Analytics then Repairs
This page replaces the retired Repair Dashboard. Its scope is wider: besides those five breakdowns, it also offers daily trends, period comparison and rankings.
Start from the summary cards, not straight into a table. -
Set the period first, in the page header
Every card, chart and table below follows the range you choose. That is the core difference from the old dashboard, which had no period filter — and it matters most when comparing this month with last.
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Read the summary cards before anything else
The cards give a one-screen picture: how many units arrived, how many were finished, how much repair revenue came in. Only then move into the deeper tabs — going straight to a table leaves you without a reference point.
Trend answers direction, not just size. -
Use the Trend tab for direction, not size
One good month means nothing without a comparison. What helps is the change: a fault type rising this week, a brand starting to fade. Change warns you earlier than absolute numbers do.
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Use the Rankings tab for the top performers
Rankings sort technicians, brands, item types and fault types. Technicians come from two angles: counts of solved, failed and cancelled with their percentages, and the money side — units, revenue, cost, gross profit, profit share and average duration.
Rankings sort the top of every angle. -
Know that failed and cancelled units are counted separately
Money cards and tables only total repairs that genuinely finished. Failed or cancelled units are still counted, but as event counts — not as revenue. Merging them would inflate revenue that never existed.
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Use the Breakdown tab to dissect one angle
Choose by technician, by item type, by brand, by fault type, by customer, or by spare part used. The columns are uniform — Qty, Revenue, Discount, Cost, Profit, Margin — so all six angles can be compared with each other.
The spare part breakdown is a shopping list written by reality. -
Pair two angles instead of reading one at a time
The strength appears when two breakdowns are combined. The most frequent brand set beside the most used spare part gives a far sharper stock list than either alone.
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Turn one finding into one action — then stop
An analytics page without action is entertainment. Each time you open it, take one finding and turn it into one decision: stock one item, create one fixed-price package, train one person. Ten idle findings lose to one that gets done.
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Schedule the time; do not wait for curiosity
Fix one regular moment, for example early in the month before purchasing. A page opened only when you have a bad feeling always tells you too late.
What you end up with
You know which brands arrive most, which faults you handle most, which spare parts are genuinely used, which technician is most productive and which customers are worth the most — with the direction of change alongside.
If something goes wrong
I am looking for the Repair Dashboard menu and cannot find it
That menu has been retired and replaced by this page. Its old address now redirects to the Menu page, so your old bookmarks will not dead-end.
The page is empty or nearly empty
Three common causes: the period does not cover your transaction dates, there is genuinely not enough data yet, or repairs were entered without unit type, brand, symptom and parts. The third is the most common.
The numbers feel wrong
Usually there is duplicated master data: one brand spelled two ways, or one symptom under two names. Tidy the master data and the split figures merge on their own.
The spare part breakdown does not match what I feel is running out
Check whether parts are always recorded against the repair. Items taken off the shelf without being recorded will never appear here — which is also why system stock differs from shelf stock.
Revenue here differs from the Profit and Loss report
Align the periods first. If they already match and still differ, remember this page totals only finished repairs while accounting counts from journal entries.
Related tutorials
- Tutorial
The Analytics Module: Eight Pages, One Habit
The map of the module, so you know which page for which question.
- Tutorial
The Breakdown Tab: Six Measures, Every Angle
Dissecting the deepest tab on this page.
- Tutorial
Lite Financial Reports
The answer to "how much profit", the counterpart of "what happens most".