Job cards that close three days late

Some service desks close job cards as the keys go back. Others batch-close on Monday because Friday was MOT day and the printer jammed. A board pack that pretends labour landed on the calendar day of the clock will flatter one week and punish the next.

We print a lag note. It is a single line: median hours between last clock-off and card close, for the month. When that number crawls past a working day, occupancy and sold hours part company even if nobody is hiding work. The aftersales manager usually knows. The dealer principal often does not, because the pack they used to receive had already been “tidied”.

Late closes also break campaign completion. A recall marked complete in the portal on Thursday may still be open on the job card until Monday, so the ledger and the manufacturer bonus disagree. Priya Nair keeps those two dates in separate columns rather than picking the prettier one.

If your advisors cannot close same-day because the accounts clerk holds the file, say that in the kick-off. We will not design a pack that assumes a discipline the office does not have.