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Just wondering if any of you guys have a work shop , what paint do you use on the floor / walls to keep clean , especially the floor the work shop over the years have painted the floor but with in weeks the paint flakes off ! May be a special process is needed ? Anyone used anyone professional ? Something easy to clean and mop up ? Many thanks in advance Cheers UMESH

Just thought I’d see what thoughts everyone has on this topic. I don’t have a workshop, there is a separate business attached to my premises with workshop, they do pretty much all my work, servicing, repairs, mot, tyres etc. Like most of us, these modern cars are sometimes just too complex – the diagnostic machine doesn't always tell us what’s wrong, so the odd one or two are trial and error, not ideal [After saying that, I’ve had some cars sent to the main dealers and they have also been trial and error] just a general few questions about repairs / workshops to see what happens out there. • What do most of you do with repairs/ diagnostics? • Do you encourage customers to come back for serving repairs back to you even if you don’t have your own workshop? • What marketing do you do get them back? • Do you provide courtesy cars? Free? Collect & deliver etc? • If you have a workshop what qualifications do your staff have and do you send them to any training courses [main dealers obviously do] which ones? • How do you keep your staff motivated in the service dept and do you pay them on performance or simply hourly rate? • Is there any diagnostic equipment you would recommend or not recommend? • Do you find main dealers helpful if you have problems with cars that you/ your workshop can’t find faults with?

Hi I wonder if someone could help. We are an independent garage who have recently startng selling vehicles along side our existing repair business. My question is, can I charge labour on a vehicle to a sales ( internal ) invoice. My accountant believes that this can not be done., Surely my Technicians' are a direct cost to our company as is lighting, and general bills etc and also retail work that cannot be carried out whilst a sales repair is being carried out. Surely this comes off the profit of any vehicle sold thus lowering Tax. Say our Retail Labour Rate is £60 plus VAT could I charge that to a Sales job on the basis that I cannot carry out any retail work, or would I have to work out my direct cost I.e cost of Technician etc say £30.00 per labour and use that as an Internal Labour. I cannot see how there is not an internal labour cost as my accountant suggests as there is a cost to our business when carrying out additional sales work. Thank you