Fractional CFO for Auto & Fleet Repair Shops in Chicago
Every week an independent shop or fleet maintenance operation is buying parts, scheduling bays, and managing labor — a constant stream of activity that rarely gets turned into financial reporting anyone actually uses.
We turn that activity into clear reporting so pricing, staffing, and purchasing decisions are based on real performance, not instinct or last month's habit.
The Pattern We See in Auto & Fleet Repair
Parts Markup Erosion
Parts pricing drifts down over time as techs quote favors and managers approve exceptions. Nobody notices until margin has already slipped a few points.
Bay Utilization Isn't Measured
You can see the schedule is full. You can't see whether the bays are producing the labor revenue they should be, or just staying busy.
Fleet Contract Pricing Doesn't Reflect True Cost
Fleet maintenance contracts are often priced to win the account, then never revisited as parts and labor costs rise around them.
The Three Pillars, Applied to Auto & Fleet Repair
Governance & Operational Design
Clear approval steps for parts discounts and labor exceptions, so shrinking margin gets caught before it becomes a habit.
Financial Data Infrastructure
Your shop management system — Mitchell 1, Tekmetric, Shop-Ware, or otherwise — connected to financials you can trust bay by bay.
Reporting Operations
Bay utilization and fleet contract profitability reporting reviewed on a fixed monthly rhythm.
What Auto & Fleet Repair Operators Ask Us
Is this only for shops with a certain number of bays or trucks?
No — it's less about size and more about whether you're making pricing and staffing decisions without reporting you actually trust. Some of our best-fit clients are single-location shops that outgrew a shoebox of spreadsheets.
Do you replace our current shop management software?
No. We connect the systems you already run — Mitchell 1, Tekmetric, Shop-Ware, or others — into financials you can trust, rather than asking you to migrate to something new.
What does the first engagement actually look like?
It starts with The Read: a short, fixed-fee diagnostic covering your systems, money flow, and reporting. You get a memo on what's broken and what it's costing you, and you keep it either way.
Can you help price fleet maintenance contracts correctly?
Yes — that's core to Reporting Operations. We build contract-level cost visibility so fleet pricing reflects actual labor and parts cost, not the rate you quoted when you won the account.
Want a read on your own numbers first?
Take the Free Auto & Fleet Repair Mini Read →It doesn’t end with a deck. It ends with a system.
We Take a Small Number of Engagements at a Time.
Every engagement starts with a Read — a short, fixed-fee diagnostic that tells you plainly what’s broken and what it’s costing you.