FREE TOOL · AUTO REPAIR
Parts Credit Tracker
Every shop hands parts back. Returns, core charges, a part billed on the invoice that never came in the box. The vendor owes you a credit for all of it, and the ones nobody wrote down are the ones that quietly never show up.
Excel workbook (.xlsx), works in Excel and Google Sheets. No email, no signup, nothing to cancel.
What it does
This is not an inventory counter. It does not care what is on your shelf. It is a list of money your parts suppliers owe you, and it keeps each one visible until it actually lands on your statement. A verbal promise at the counter still counts as open.
- See what you are owed right now, as one number.
- See the oldest one, so you know which to raise first.
- See which supplier is holding the most of your money.
- Know what your vendors normally take, so a slow one stands out.
What is inside
TRACKER
One row per credit a vendor owes you. Three totals across the top: what you are owed, how many are open, and how old the oldest one is. Rows turn yellow while they are recent, red past 14 days, green once the credit posts.
DASHBOARD
Builds itself from what you enter. Shows which supplier is holding the most of your money, what the tracker has recovered month by month, and how long your vendors normally take to credit you.
START HERE
A plain-language page explaining when to log a credit and what each column means. Printer friendly, so you can put it on the wall by the parts phone.
MY VENDORS
Your supplier list. Fills the vendor dropdown on the tracker and the chart on the dashboard, so you never type a vendor name twice.
How you use it
- The day a part goes back, or a core gets dropped, type it in the next empty row. About 20 seconds.
- The days-outstanding count and all the totals fill in on their own. There is nothing to calculate.
- Before you call your parts supplier, look at the red rows and raise every one of them. That is the whole system.
- When a credit posts to your statement, set that row to CREDITED. It turns green and drops out of what you are owed.
200 rows are already set up with the formulas in them, so you never insert a row. The formulas and headings are locked so they cannot be wiped by accident, and every cell you actually type into is open.
Common questions
What is a core charge?
A core charge is a deposit your supplier adds when you buy a rebuildable part, like an alternator, starter, or water pump. You get it back when you return the old unit. It is your money the whole time, which is why an unreturned core, or a returned core the counter never credited, is a common quiet loss for a shop.
How do I track the credits my parts supplier owes me?
Write each one down the day it happens, and keep it listed until the credit actually appears on your statement. That is the entire method. A verbal promise at the parts counter is not a credit yet, so it stays open. This tracker is one row per credit, with the total you are owed and the age of the oldest one across the top.
Do I need shop management software to do this?
No. Tracking what a vendor owes you is a list and a date, so a spreadsheet handles it completely. Shop management software is worth paying for when you need scheduling, estimates, invoicing and parts ordering in one place. If your only problem is credits going missing, it is a much bigger purchase than the problem requires.
What counts as a credit worth logging?
Five things: a part you returned, a core charge you paid, a part billed on the invoice that never arrived, a part that came wrong or damaged, and a part sent back under warranty. A price or billing correction counts too. If a supplier owes you money for any reason, it belongs on the list.
Does it work in Google Sheets, or only Excel?
Both. It is an Excel workbook, and there is also a one-click copy into your own Google Sheets account. The formulas, the colour coding and the dashboard charts all work in either one.
Why it is free
This started as a fix for a shop owner we know who could not tell which returns had actually been credited back. The answer was not software with a monthly fee. It was a spreadsheet that does this one job and nothing else. Once it proved itself, we published it here.
We like building tools that are useful to a lot of people, and giving away the simple ones is part of how we work. It is also the same judgment we sell: sometimes the answer is build it, and sometimes the answer is that you do not need to build anything at all.
Wondering what AI could do for your shop?
Tell us what is eating your time and you get a straight read back, free and instantly, including the honest answer when a ready-made tool beats building anything.