CASH FLOW

Getting paid before you touch the car

Your income is exactly as lumpy as your calendar, but it does not have to be.

By Telmo Antunes · Published August 12, 2026 · 2 min read

Seen through the office glass: a detailing workshop with two empty bays and a single dark car mid-wash, the hose coiled on the wet floor

A studio paid per job lives through good weeks and dead ones, and controls neither.

A quiet week is not a marketing problem

When you charge job by job, your income is an exact mirror of your calendar. The problem is not a lack of clients, it is a lack of strategy.

What is a package?

A package is defined by you, not by the platform:

Number of sessions — A package can hold one session or several. Single-session packages are best for selling different services together, for example a package of full detail + ceramic coating. Multi-session packages are best when you want to sell the same service several times over, for example 5 interior details.
Price — The price has to cover every session in the package. For a single-session package, set a price that makes buying the package worth more to the client than buying the services separately.
Optional discount — The optional discount is there for the occasional marketing campaign.
Optional validity — On multi-session packages it is worth adding an expiry date, so that clients actually come back.

The Service Packages screen listing three prepaid bundles, each showing its session count, price, discount and validity window

The part that matters

The client buys it and pays online, before any work is booked. The payment is recorded against the purchase.

You can also assign a package to a client by hand, as compensation. Then there is no payment to process at all, and it is recorded all the same.

How do you use the sessions?

Each use takes one session off the total. You can always see who has packages available and how many sessions are left.
Transparency is the secret of this business.

The Issued tab: every client holding a package, the sessions left out of the total, and the expiry date

Using discounts without losing margin

The discount is the easy part to get wrong, you are buying commitment, not doing charity.

A small discount on a five-session package is enough: the client has already decided to come back five times, and that is worth more than any discount. A large discount turns a client who was already loyal into one who shops on price.

What lands in your account

An online purchase records three figures: the price the client paid, the platform's commission and your net amount.
This is the figure to use when you decide whether the discount was worth it.

This week

Build a five-session package around your most repeated service
Set a small discount — start at 5%
Offer it to the clients who have already come back three times or more
After a month, compare your net against what the same work would have billed job by job

Bookings in, chaos out.

Telmo Antunes

detailmasters agent

I've been passionate about detailing ever since I bought my first car. After filming and photographing for some detailing studios I fell in love with the craft and dreamt of one day being able to work in that market. That's why I created Detail Masters, and that's why you can trust me to help you scale your business to the success it deserves.

Run your studio on one platform

Online bookings, customer CRM, automated follow-ups and invoicing — built for detailing studios.

See how prepaid packages work