Most shops don't measure film cost per job — they assume it's "normal" and move on. SalesThumb logs exactly how many inches came off a specific roll for every install, which rolls up into real cost and usage views in Inventory and on the staff leaderboard.
Step 1 — Record usage (and waste, on mobile)
On the appointment detail screen (web) or the roll's own detail page, "Add film" captures the Roll and Inches used only — there's no waste field in either of those. On the mobile app's job screen, "Log film" adds a second Waste inches field (optional, defaults to 0) that installers can fill in on the spot.
If your installers complete jobs from the web app instead of mobile, your waste numbers in Step 2 will read near-zero — not because the feature doesn't exist, but because nothing is feeding it. Waste capture is effectively mobile-only today.
Step 2 — Look at the real waste views
- Inventory → COGS shows a dedicated Waste KPI — dollar amount and percentage of total product cost — computed from logged waste inches, alongside cost-per-product and total COGS for your date range.
- Staff → Leaderboard ranks installers by waste percentage and breaks out scrap rate by window/glass position — both driven by the same roll-usage log (specifically the `wasteInches` field from Step 1).
Both are real waste-percentage calculators today, not placeholders — they're just only as accurate as what gets logged, which currently means mobile usage.
Step 3 — If your waste numbers read near-zero, check the capture path first
The waste views in Step 2 are real calculators, not placeholders — but they're only as good as what gets logged, and waste inches can only be entered from the mobile app. Before concluding your shop runs 1% waste, confirm your installers are actually completing jobs from mobile and filling that field in.
While waste capture is thin, total inches used per install is a workable stand-in: watch it trend over time for a given installer, film type, and vehicle class, and treat a sudden jump on comparable jobs as worth a look.
Step 4 — Act on outliers
When one installer's usage trends noticeably higher than the shop average on comparable jobs, sit with them through a few installs. Usually one of:
- Cutting pattern is inefficient
- They're being overly cautious and trimming more than needed
- The vehicle class is genuinely harder (don't penalize for a run of EVs or SUVs)
- Equipment issue (dull blade, miscalibrated plotter)
Don't punish — train. Efficient cutting is a coachable skill, not a personality trait.