Most mobile service owners do a serious financial review twice a year: once when the accountant nudges them, and once when something is already going wrong. June is the quiet point in between - and the most useful time to look at the numbers, because there is still half a year left to change anything that needs changing. Below are eight numbers worth pulling up before July begins. Each one is fast to check, and each one tends to flag a different kind of drift.
How to use this: aim to spend 30-45 minutes on it. Look at the latest three months side by side. If a number is moving in the wrong direction, the goal is not to panic - it is to know about it while it is still cheap to fix.
Outstanding Revenue (Aged Debtors)
The headline question: how much money is currently owed to the business, and how is it aged?
- Total outstanding revenue across all customers.
- How much of that is within terms.
- How much is 1-30 days overdue.
- How much is 30+ days overdue.
- Which three customers account for the largest part of the overdue total.
Aged debtors is the single most useful number in a mobile service business, because it puts a price on every other operational issue at once.
Average Days to Get Paid (DSO)
Take the average number of days between an invoice being issued and the money landing. Compare it with January-March. If it is moving up, the cash flow problem is getting more expensive even if revenue is steady.
Useful context: in Coface's 2025 UK Payment Survey, 90% of UK businesses reported experiencing late payments, with an average delay of 32 days on top of agreed terms. If your numbers are tracking with that, you are not alone - but you do not have to accept it as the baseline either.
Quote-to-Cash Time
This is the wider lens around DSO. Measure the gap between:
- Enquiry received.
- Quote sent.
- Quote approved.
- Job completed.
- Invoice paid.
The gaps between those five dates often tell you more than the final DSO figure. Most owners discover the biggest delay is not "invoice to payment" - it is "completion to invoice" or "approval to booking".
Quote Conversion Rate
Of the quotes sent in the last three months, what percentage were accepted? Trends matter more than the absolute number:
| Trend | What It Usually Means |
|---|---|
| Conversion rising, average job value falling | You may be winning on price - check margin discipline |
| Conversion falling, average job value steady | Quoting speed or follow-up may have weakened |
| Conversion falling, average job value rising | Quoting for bigger work - watch for over-pricing or scope creep |
| Conversion steady, both values rising | Healthy - the operation is selling stronger work consistently |
Average Job Value vs Target
Set a realistic target average job value for your business at the start of the year. If you did not, pick one now based on the last six months. The mid-year question is simple: is the average moving up, flat, or down?
A quietly falling average job value is one of the most common slow-burn problems. The business looks busy. The diary looks healthy. But the work being booked is smaller, faster, and less profitable per visit than it was last year.
Recurring Revenue Base
How much of your monthly revenue is predictable before you do any new selling? This typically includes:
- Maintenance contracts.
- Service agreements.
- Recurring inspections.
- Subscription-style retainers.
Industry analyses across field service consistently find that service-agreement customers generate 2-4x more repair and replacement revenue than non-agreement customers, and that businesses with strong recurring revenue bases hold more value, weather slow months more easily, and renew at higher rates with the right workflow behind them. If recurring revenue is below 10-20% of your monthly total, that is usually the highest-leverage growth lever you have available in the second half of the year.
First-Time Fix Rate
Out of every 100 jobs completed in the last three months, how many were resolved on the first visit? The benchmark to compare against, from Aquant's 2026 Field Service KPI Benchmark Report:
- Top performers: 88%
- Industry benchmark: 77%
- Bottom performers: 60%
This is the metric that quietly determines whether your margin is holding. A 5-10 percentage point swing in first-time fix rate routinely shows up as a meaningful change in margin, customer satisfaction, and team capacity.
Cash Buffer (Months of Cover)
How many months of operating costs would the business cover if revenue stopped today? A rough but realistic answer is far more useful than a "should be fine" feeling.
| Months of Cover | Status |
|---|---|
| Less than 1 month | Fragile - any shock becomes a crisis |
| 1-2 months | Tight - manageable but vulnerable |
| 3-6 months | Healthy - room to absorb a bad quarter |
| 6+ months | Strong - room to invest from a position of safety |
Coface's 2025 survey found that around 50% of micro and small UK companies hold less than three months of cash reserves. Knowing where you sit on that distribution is itself useful information.
The Mid-Year Question Set
With the numbers in front of you, the useful questions are not "are they good or bad?" - they are about direction and decisions:
- Which number is moving in the wrong direction?
- What changed in the operation that explains it?
- Which single change in the next eight weeks would move it the most?
- Is anything in the diary unintentionally locked in by a habit rather than a strategy?
- What would the same review look like in October if you do nothing?
What Tight Operators Actually Do With This
The mid-year check is in the diary, not "when there is time".
Three months side by side is more useful than any single snapshot.
Trying to move all eight numbers at once usually means moving none of them.
One short follow-up review confirms whether the change actually worked.
Mid-Year Mistakes to Avoid
Where reviews quietly fail
- Reviewing revenue without reviewing aged debtors.
- Looking at "this year" without comparing month-on-month direction.
- Treating a flat average job value as fine without checking what it was last year.
- Ignoring quote-to-cash time because "the work is profitable".
- Talking about the recurring base aspirationally rather than measuring it.
- Doing the review and then not changing anything before October.
Bottom Line
A useful mid-year review is not about precision. It is about catching the drift early enough to do something about it. The eight numbers above will tell you, in less than an hour, what is actually happening underneath the day-to-day busyness. The half of the year between July and December is usually where small operational improvements compound the most - if you spot what needs improving while there is still time to act.
Get These Numbers Live, Not Annual
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