ShopLevers — Accounting that tells auto repair shops which lever to pull

Tekmetric and QuickBooks, tied out to the penny

Before Penny answers anything, the books have to agree with the floor. Sales tie line by line. Parts are reconciled three ways: what vendors invoiced, what hit the card and bank, and what was actually put on closed ROs. The gap on this shop is real — and Penny knows where it is.

Line

Tekmetric

QuickBooks

Labor sales

$54,579.91 =

$54,579.91

Parts + tires

$53,195.34 =

$53,195.34

Shop supply fees

$3,663.60 =

$3,663.59

Sublet

$3,020.32 =

$3,020.32

Discounts

$3,400.27 =

$3,400.26

Parts

Used on ROs

Purchased (QB)

Parts + tire cost

$33,620.94 ≠

$28,515.25

$5,106 of part cost on closed ROs with no matching vendor invoice yet — sitting uncoded on the Amex.

What Penny watches every day

A CPA firm sends you a P&L six weeks late, laid out for a dentist, with no context. That's not advice. These are the numbers that actually move a shop's profit — and Penny watches them because the answer lives half in Tekmetric and half in QuickBooks, and she reads both.

Sales tax, collected and paid: Tax collected on every closed RO in Tekmetric, compared against the liability in QuickBooks and what was actually remitted. Penny also checks the rate your POS is charging against your jurisdiction. She reminds you when the return is due and walks you through it.
True technician cost: Loaded cost per flagged hour — wages plus payroll taxes, and fully loaded with benefits if you carry them — next to net labor per hour and labor GP%. Not "payroll was $12k" but "$38.42 an hour, 74% labor GP."
Gross profit by technician: Labor and parts GP on every RO rolled up by the tech who did the work, per billed hour. The answer to "who's actually making me money" instead of "who bills the most hours."
Advisor cost against gross profit: Front‑of‑house pay, including commission on GP, next to the GP each writer actually produced. Discounting by writer, too — that's where margin quietly leaks.
Actual marketing cost per car and per new customer: Advertising spend against real car count and real new‑customer count from Tekmetric, broken out by source — so you know what a new customer costs you and which channels are bringing in the $1,400 ROs.
Parts bought vs. parts used: Vendor invoices on the bank and card feeds matched against part cost on closed ROs. The gap is either inventory, a missed credit, or a problem. Penny tells you which.

Payroll and pay plans, done in real time: Tell Penny how your people are paid — flat rate, hourly, guarantee, commission on GP, bonuses — and the math runs on your live numbers. Flagged hours and clock time come from Tekmetric; she builds the run, shows the cash need, pushes it to your payroll provider for approval, and updates tech cost in the books the same day.
Balance sheet, reviewed like a CFO would: Clearing accounts that never clear, negative receivables, card balances, deposits that don't match sales. Reviewed monthly, flagged the day they drift.
Liabilities that match real life: Sales tax, 401(k), payroll tax, vendor AP compared to statements from the agencies and vendors. If QuickBooks says you owe $1,667 and the state says otherwise, you'll know.
Accruals for the big annual bills: Property tax, pay‑at‑once insurance, workers' comp audits. Spread monthly so December doesn't look like a disaster and July doesn't look like a miracle.
A text every morning: Yesterday's sales, closed ROs, cash, and anything that moved. Reply to the text to ask a follow‑up.

Not a bookkeeper. Not a CPA. Your shop's finance department.

The accounting gets done, correctly, without you thinking about it. What you get back isn't a report — it's the short list of things to act on this month, with the numbers behind each one. When a decision needs a human who's run a shop P&L, one steps in.

P
Penny, on call around the clockReads QuickBooks and Tekmetric live. Answers by chat or text, watches tax, payroll, parts and cash every day, and raises a hand when something drifts.
BK
Bookkeeping, done or supportedFor most shops, ShopLevers is the bookkeeper: posting, vendor matching, payroll, monthly close in QuickBooks. Multi‑store groups with an accounting team use it as that team's tooling instead.
CFO
People who have run shop P&LsAvailable 1:1 when the answer isn't a number — pay plans, pricing, expansion, cleaning up years of bad books.

Getting started takes one call and about two weeks

Connect and clean up

We connect QuickBooks, Tekmetric, your bank and card feeds. Then we fix what's already wrong — clearing accounts, uncategorized transactions, a chart of accounts that doesn't match how you run the shop.

Read‑only bank and card connections
Historical months re‑tied to Tekmetric
Chart of accounts mapped to labor, parts, sublet, fees

The back office runs daily

Sales posted from closed ROs, parts invoices matched, payroll prepared, sales tax accrued. Discrepancies land in front of your bookkeeper, not in next month's close.

Morning text with yesterday's numbers
Payroll estimate before each run
Sales tax reminder with the number filled in

You ask, Penny answers, we act

Ask anything in plain English and get a real figure. Penny writes up what changed at each close; when you want a human on it, book time with one.

Monthly close with a written review
1:1 help on pay plans, pricing, cash when you need it
No long‑term contract

See the difference

Question	Today	With ShopLevers
"How was July?"	Wait for the close. It arrives around the 20th, if it arrives.	Ask Penny on August 1st. Net income, margins, and what moved.
"Is sales tax right?"	You hope the POS rate is right and the bookkeeper paid it.	Collected vs. remitted vs. liability, checked monthly, rate verified.
"What do my techs really cost?"	A guess from the last payroll report.	Loaded cost per flagged hour and labor GP%, by tech, updated every payroll.
"Did we get the parts credit?"	Someone remembers to check. Sometimes.	Vendor invoices matched to ROs, missing credits flagged before you pay the card.
"Who's my best tech?"	Whoever bills the most hours, probably.	GP per billed hour by tech, with parts and labor cost against every RO.
"Can I take a distribution?"	Look at the bank balance and wince.	Cash after upcoming payroll, card, tax and accruals, in one answer.

Who this is for

We're looking for owners who want to dial in profitability, not just add revenue. A bigger top line with the same leaks is a bigger shop with the same problems.

Likely a fit

You own an independent shop, or a small group of them, doing $750K or more a year
You run Tekmetric and QuickBooks Online, or you're willing to
You want to act on your numbers, not just receive them
You care about real numbers, expenses and profitability, not just what your point‑of‑sale system shows
You'd rather know about a problem the day it happens than at the close
You'll hear an uncomfortable number without shooting the messenger

Probably not

You just need someone to file the return and stay out of your way
Business and personal spending run through the same account and you'd like to keep it that way
You don't want your books restructured, even if the current layout hides where the money goes
Revenue is the only number you look at
You're not interested in connecting what happens on the floor to what's in the books

Built by people who've run the shop

ShopLevers exists because the two of us spent years wanting this and couldn't buy it.

Anders Gustafson

Co‑founder · former shop owner

Anders owned and ran an independent repair shop and lived every problem on this page: books that didn't match Tekmetric, sales tax that might or might not be right, a CPA who sent a P&L six weeks late with no idea what a flagged hour was. He built the first version of Penny to answer his own questions.

Dave Markert

Co‑founder · former owner and CEO/CFO, 15‑store group

Dave built and ran a 15‑location auto repair group to $45M a year and 180 employees, serving as both CEO and CFO. He knows what the finance function of a shop looks like at scale, and what a single‑store owner is missing when they don't have one.

Questions shop owners ask us

Do I have to leave my current accountant?

Not today. Your CPA still files your taxes, and they'll get a cleaner file than they've ever had. For the day‑to‑day books, ShopLevers replaces the bookkeeper for most single and small multi‑store shops; larger groups with in‑house accounting staff run their team on it. Tax preparation and filing under the same roof is on our roadmap.

Which systems do you work with?

QuickBooks Online and Tekmetric are fully supported today. Other shop management systems are on the roadmap; tell us what you run when you book a call.

What does Penny actually have access to?

Read access to QuickBooks, Tekmetric, and your bank and card feeds. Penny cannot move money. Entries she prepares are reviewed by the ShopLevers team, or by your own accounting staff if you have them, before they post.

Can Penny handle payroll?

Yes. Flagged hours and clock time come straight from Tekmetric; you add bonuses or corrections. Penny builds the run, shows you the cash need, and pushes it to your payroll provider for approval. Tech cost in the books updates the same day.

Is this only for European or specialty shops?

No. The demo shop happens to be a European specialist. The same work applies to any independent shop with a service writer, techs on flat rate or hourly, and parts margin to protect.

Is my data safe?

Connections are read‑only, encrypted, and revocable by you at any time. Your data is never used to train models and never shared with other shops.

Numbers you trust. Decisions you can make.