
Auto Repair Shop Books Cleanup Questions a shop actually asks
Short answers, each with a page behind it. The long version lives on that page.
Can one menu price stay one line?
On the wall, yes. In the books, only when nothing but time was consumed. A filter and oil have a vendor bill, and that bill is the parts cost. The page on a single price shows how we lift those parts out without inventing a number when the bill is missing.
Who runs payday?
The payroll company the shop already chose. We set the accounts up so the provider's report lands in the month it belongs to. Check math and the pay run both stay with the company the shop already hired. If there is no provider yet, the first work is choosing one. This practice is not that provider.
Will you sign an audit?
No. Reports a lender means by audit, review, or compilation are signed somewhere else. Read the refusals, all of them, on the disclosures page before you send a file. A cleanup of repair orders does not grow into an audit because a lender asked for one later. The refusal is spoken before any files are gathered.
What if the maker paid the warranty?
The customer can owe zero and the claim can still be income from the maker. Post it once, against that claim, not as a customer sale and then again when the check arrives. More on that claim lives on the warranty page.
Which mileage rate after July?
For a shop on the standard mileage rate, business miles through June 30, 2026 are 72.5 cents, and business miles from July 1 are 76 cents. Those figures are IR-2025-128 with Notice 2026-10, and IR-2026-29 with Announcement 2026-11. We do not blend them. The July page shows how a service-truck log gets split on that date.
Which papers belong on the first call?
One repair order, the vendor bill if the parts have one, and the deposit that should match. If the pain is a whole month entered as a single sales number, bring that deposit too and read the mixed-month page first so you know we will not invent the split.
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