Repair Shop Reckoning

RSR Cash vs Accrual

May 29, 2026·1h 14m
Episode Description from the Publisher

In this episode of Repair Shop Reckoning, Kevin breaks down one of the biggest problems killing repair shops right now:Owners are doing the work… but they are not controlling the money.What starts as a conversation about cash basis vs accrual accounting quickly turns into a much bigger discussion about billing discipline, cash flow, overhead, collections, labor rates, and why so many shop owners stay broke while working themselves into the ground.Kevin explains the real difference between cash accounting and accrual accounting in plain English, why your numbers can lie to you if you do not understand what you are looking at, and how a shop can look busy every single day while still losing money behind the scenes.But the biggest takeaway in this episode is simple: If you are not invoicing your customers and collecting your money properly, none of the rest of it matters.You’ll hear why:Cash flow problems are usually discipline problems firstWaiting to invoice customers destroys profitabilityWhy “busy” does not always mean profitableHow overhead quietly eats healthy gross profit aliveWhy your labor rate should be based on your numbers — not the shop down the streetAnd why too many owners rely on their accountant to tell them what is happening instead of actually learning their businessKevin also gets into:Fleet accounts and the danger of bad receivablesWhy some customers become liabilitiesThe importance of savings during slow seasonsHow poor systems create chaosAnd the hard truth that many owners are acting more like charities than businessesAt the end of the day, this episode is not really about accounting. It is about discipline.Because if you do not know your numbers, write your invoices, control your overhead, and collect your money… eventually the business will control you instead.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/repair-shop-reckoning--6688688/support.

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