The dashboard a Head of Business reads first
A dealership is really four number-systems working together: what sells, what the workshop earns, what it costs to run the site, and how customers feel about all of it. This Playbook covers each one — first the definitions, then the arithmetic (that's the part most guides skip), then the benchmarks, then your own live tracker.
How to use it
Tabs 2–4 define the KPIs. Tab 5 shows you how to calculate each one, with worked examples. Tab 6 gives typical UK ranges. Tab 7 is your live RAG tracker — enter target and actual, and it flags green, amber or red. Tab 8 is a blank org and capacity model you fill with your own roles and headcount.
Everything runs in the page. Nothing is sent anywhere. Works offline once loaded — including on an iPad.
The four systems
| Sales | Conversion, order take, F&I, renewals, stock health |
| Aftersales | Hours, recovery, upsell, fix-first-time, retention |
| Financial & site | GPU, overheads, absorption, prep pipeline |
| Customer | Satisfaction, reviews, complaint recovery |
The operating rhythm
KPIs only move if they're reviewed on a cadence. A simple daily / weekly / monthly rhythm keeps the whole site honest without drowning managers in reports.
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Sales KPIs
What comes in, what converts, what each deal earns, and whether stock is healthy. Definitions here; the maths is in How to Work It Out.
- Conversion & activity
- Enquiry → sale conversion
- Test-drive conversion
- Video walkaround completion
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Aftersales KPIs
The engine room. Aftersales is where a dealership's fixed costs get covered — the metrics here decide whether the site is protected in a slow sales month.
- Workshop productivity
- Hours sold per repair order
- Technician productivity
- Effective labour rate (ELR)
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Financial & Site
Where the money actually lands. These are the numbers that tell you, in seconds, whether the site is healthy.
- Margin
- Gross profit per unit (GPU)
- Service & parts gross margin %
- Site health
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How to Work It Out
The part most guides leave out. Every KPI above, reduced to arithmetic you can do on the numbers you already have — with worked examples using round figures. Swap in your own.
Conversion
Enquiry → sale. Count qualified enquiries in the period. Count orders from them. Divide.
Worked example
Do it again for test drives, and for new vs used, to see exactly where the funnel leaks.
Effective labour rate
ELR tells you what you really earn per hour once discounts and warranty rates are in the mix — almost always below your advertised door rate.
Worked example
If your door rate is £100 and ELR is £80, you're discounting a fifth of every hour away somewhere. Find it.
Overhead absorption
Absorption is the health-in-seconds number. Take aftersales direct profit (service + parts operating profit) and divide by total site overheads.
Worked example
Read it plainly: aftersales covers 75p in every £1 of overhead, so sales only needs to find the remaining 25p to break even. Over 100% is achievable with tight cost control — and means sales volatility barely touches you.
Stock turn & overage
Stock turn: units sold in the period ÷ average units held. Overage: share of stock past 60 days.
Worked example
Eight turns means the average car sells in about 46 days. Every extra day past 60 is depreciation you're paying for.
The return-to-workshop cost model
This is the number that changes conversations. A repeat repair — a car back in for something that should have been fixed first time — costs far more than the redo. Here's how to size it. Multiply out the annual lost value:
Worked example — annual cost of repeat repairs
Cost per repeat repair
- Deferred red/amber work left unsold — e.g. brakes flagged and not completed. That job walks to a competitor, or comes back as an emergency, and it's safety-critical either way.
- The satisfaction and reputation hit of a customer making a wasted second trip.
- Technician time lost to re-diagnosis — hours you can't sell to anyone else.
- Goodwill and courtesy-car cost absorbed on the return visit.
Where the inputs come from: jobs/day and average hours from your DMS; repeat-repair rate from your survey or comeback log; recovery rate, parts-per-hour, clean and loan costs are your own site figures.
Benchmarks
Typical UK franchised-dealer ranges for 2025–26, with a best-in-class marker where the data supports one.
- Sales
- Aftersales & site interactive
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My Targets
Your live RAG tracker. Enter a target and an actual for any KPI; the tool flags it.
- The full chapter, worked through in detail
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Org & Capacity
A blank version of the org chart a Head of Business really uses — not a static diagram, but a live capacity model.
- How the flag works interactive
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Leading the Numbers
The KPIs in this Playbook are only half the job. The other half is how a leader uses them.
- Numbers as coaching, not ammunition
- Give every number an owner — then grow the owner
- The one-to-one, structured by three numbers
- Succession through the scoreboard
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The Chain
Every KPI in this playbook is the last link in a chain. Chase the number alone and you get short-term movement and long-term damage; understand the chain…
- Process is what the KPI measures
- Reading a KPI honestly
- Accountability — clarity, not blame interactive
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SMART AI
AI is a capable analyst's assistant for everything in this Playbook — trend reads, variance commentary, formula checks, meeting packs.
- The 4Ds, applied to KPI work
- Delegation — what to hand over
- Description — how to brief it
- Discernment — how to judge the output
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