2024 Tekmetric Recap

Integrated payments help auto repair shops get paid faster by removing the steps between finishing a repair and collecting the money for it. When payments run inside the same platform as the repair order, the customer can pay from their phone the minute the work is done, the invoice closes itself out, and the day's totals reconcile without anyone rekeying a number.

What integrated payments actually means

Integrated payments means the payment function is built into your shop management platform rather than bolted on beside it. The repair order total flows straight to the terminal or the payment link. The payment posts back to that repair order. Refunds, disputes and deposits are handled in the same place you wrote the estimate.

A standalone processor works differently. Your advisor reads the total off one screen and types it into another. The two systems do not know about each other, so anything that connects them — the batch report, the deposit, the customer's payment history — has to be connected by a person.

That distinction sounds like a technicality. In a shop doing 20 cars a day, it is the difference between closing out at 5:15 p.m. versus 6:30 p.m.

Why the processing rate is the wrong place to start

Ask most owners what they pay to accept a card and they can tell you. Ask them how many days pass between a repair being authorized and the money landing, and it gets quiet.

Rate is worth negotiating. On high-ticket work it genuinely adds up, and any shop processing real volume should know whether they are on flat-rate or interchange-plus pricing and what that means for a $1,200 ticket. 

But rate is a percentage of money you have already collected. It does nothing about the money you have not collected yet. Cash flow is tight in this business — the average auto shop carries roughly seven days of cash on hand. At that margin, a week of delays costs more than a fraction of a percent ever will.

So start with the days, not the basis points for accepting cards and digital payments. 

The three places cash gets stuck

In almost every shop, delayed payment traces back to one of three bottlenecks.

1. The customer is not standing at your counter.

The work is done and approved. The customer is at their own job until 6 p.m. Someone has to be at the shop when they arrive, or the car sits overnight and the invoice sits with it.

Text-to-Pay solves this by sending the invoice as a secure link the moment the repair is finished. The customer opens it on their phone, reviews what was done, and pays. Because the invoice generates from the repair order, the advisor is not writing it up first. And because the payment posts back automatically, nobody has to remember to mark it paid.

Ron Rettig of Rettig Automotive Repair put it this way: "With Tekmetric Payments, my customers are paying online before I even finish the job.”

2. The repair costs more than the customer has today.

This is the expensive bottleneck, and it is not a payment problem. It looks like a declined estimate. A $2,400 job becomes a $700 job because that is what fits the customer’s budget this month, and the vehicle goes back on the road with the rest of the work unrepaired.

Buy Now, Pay Later changes the question from "can you cover this today?" to "can you cover this over a few months?" Tekmetric Payments includes Affirm, Klarna and Sunbit at checkout, and when Affirm and Sunbit are enabled, customers can pre-qualify inside the estimate link before they approve anything. The shop is paid on the transaction as normal. The customer carries the payment plan.

The effect on ticket size is not small. Shops that spread payments this way see up to three times higher ARO because customers say yes to the full recommendation instead of picking the cheapest line item on it.

Josh Anderson of Ideal Automotive on why financing mattered to them: "What really sold us on Tekmetric Payments was having financing built directly into our workflow. Our advisors can see everything in one place, and we can finally offer customers fair-term financing."

3. The day does not close cleanly.

The third bottleneck is not about collecting at all. It is about knowing what you collected. When payments live in a separate system, someone spends the end of the month cross-referencing batch reports against repair orders, hunting for the reason the bank deposit and the shop's sales record disagree by $340.

Usually the reason is a typo. An advisor keyed $1,050 as $150 on a busy Friday. With an integrated flow there is no keying, so there is no typo, and reconciliation runs in the background.

Jessica Butterfield at J&B Auto Service described what that gave back: "At the end of every month I go through and reconcile and Tekmetric has taken my process from hours down to just one hour." 

What to look for when you evaluate integrated payments

If you are weighing a move, these are the questions that separate real integration from a terminal sitting next to your computer.

• Does the repair order total reach the terminal without anyone typing it? If not, you still own the error rate.
• Does a completed payment close out the repair order on its own? Manual status updates are where invoices get lost.
• Can you send a payment link by text and take a card on file for the next visit?
• Is financing available at the estimate, not just at checkout? Pre-qualification before approval is what protects the bigger job.
• How fast is funding, and how fast is setup? Tekmetric Payments offers same-day setup and next-day funding.
• Are refunds, disputes and deposits handled in one place, or does each one mean calling a second vendor?
• Does reconciliation happen automatically, or does it happen on someone's Sunday?

Andrew Klement at Finley River Auto & Diesel summed up the integration case in a sentence: "All in one place. All integrated. One support number to call when there's an issue."

What getting paid faster changes in your numbers

Faster payment is not a soft benefit. It moves things you already measure.

Turnaround time from check-in to payment gets shorter because the last step in the repair order stops waiting on a person's schedule. Average repair order goes up when financing is available at the moment the customer is deciding, rather than after they have already trimmed the estimate. And customer satisfaction improves for a reason that has nothing to do with payments technology: nobody enjoys standing at a counter after a $1,400 repair bill. Paying from the couch is simply a better end to the visit.

Negotiate your rate. It is real money. Then go look at the three bottlenecks, because that is where the larger number is hiding. Integrated payments shorten the distance between finishing a repair and being paid for it.

When you started your auto repair business, you probably had to make some big investments, including property, equipment, and employees. Now, to take your shop even further, you might be considering investing in a shop management system.

A shop management system can quickly transform your shop. An ideal system helps you create more efficient workflows and keep track of critical metrics so you can make savvier business decisions.

However, the idea of transformation can cause some doubts. You might be worried that your team might not even like using the shop management system, that adjusting to change will take too long, and that the software ultimately won’t end up paying for itself.

To eliminate doubts, it’s important to find the shop management system that will:

• Transform your shop with little hassle, as quickly as possible
• Inspire your team to work more efficiently
• Grow your business’ profitability so that the investment is more than worthwhile
• Free up your time

So, what’s the best software for auto repair shop owners? And what features should you look for? Here’s what you should be considering as a shop owner.

The reality is that now is a better time than ever to set your auto repair shop up for success, and even start laying the foundation for multi-shop growth. Especially for shop owners willing to take the time to embrace a new toolset: a modern shop management system.

In our latest Auto Repair Industry Index we took a look at recent industry trends across the country, compiled data from industry resources, and compared it to our Tekmetric data. What we found was really promising!

With a cloud-based SMS, shops can leverage amazing features like Default Inspections and Smart Jobs to not only simplify their workflows and smooth out their operations to run like a well-oiled machine but also set their business up for future growth and success.