The Numbers Every F&I Manager Needs to Know

If you do not know your numbers, you cannot improve them. That is the uncomfortable truth many F&I Managers learn far too late. In every dealership across the country, the difference between an average F&I department and an elite one is not luck or a magic script. It is the consistent, disciplined use of key performance metrics. These numbers reveal your strengths, your blind spots, and the precise areas where your process either rises above expectations or silently bleeds profit. Gerry Gould, one of the most respected F&I trainers in the automotive industry, has coached thousands of managers. His message is always the same. The top performing F&I Managers know their numbers, track them daily, and use them to guide every part of their strategy. They do not guess. They do not hope. They measure, adjust, correct, and improve with intention.

Whether you manage a small independent store or a high-volume franchise, your numbers tell you a story. They show you where you stand and what must happen to get you to the next level. Yet most F&I Managers never fully leverage the power of their performance data. Some check their PVR once a week. Others only review penetrations at the end of the month. Some never break down cash versus finance versus lease performance. Others ignore product mix, reserve, chargebacks, or turnaround time. If you want to grow your PVR, increase product penetrations, reduce chargebacks, and build consistency in every deal, then knowing your numbers is the starting point. In this guide, you will learn what elite F&I Managers track every day, why each metric matters, and how you can use these KPIs to build a game plan that drives measurable growth.

This article is built using insights from Product Prep training and real-world examples from dealerships of all sizes. You will learn how the right metrics lead to stronger processes, higher profit, better customer experiences, and more controlled results. More importantly, you will discover practical steps to improve your F&I performance right now.

Key Takeaways

• Daily visibility into core KPIs determines F&I success
  The managers who perform at the highest levels always know their products per delivery, profit per delivery, and product penetrations.
• There are specific numbers every F&I Manager must track consistently
  These include PPRD, PVR, reserve, rate spread, chargebacks, turnaround time, and product mix.
• Your dealership’s product offering directly influences your performance
  Stores with more available products have more penetrations and higher PVR. Stores with limited bundles need different strategies.
• A structured plan based on KPI insights fuels long term growth
  Once you identify the gaps, you can focus your training, objection handling, and menu presentation to elevate every category.
  
  

Why F&I Managers NEED to Know These Numbers

F&I performance is not random. It is not based on personality, luck, or the monthly interest rate environment. It is based on process. When you understand your numbers, you understand your process. When a manager does not know their performance metrics, what they actually have is a blind spot. They may believe they are consistent when in reality they are inconsistent. They may feel strong in certain categories while the data shows large gaps.

The most successful F&I Managers Product Prep trains often start with a rude awakening. When they finally take a closer look at their numbers, they are shocked to see how many opportunities they missed. It might be service contracts. It might be excess chargebacks. It might be lease performance. Sometimes it is cash deals that ruin the whole month. Once these gaps are visible, improvement becomes possible.

Numbers provide clarity. They reveal how the dealership is trending, where profits come from, and where they fall off. They make your performance predictable instead of chaotic. And when performance becomes predictable, managers can set targets, build better menus, communicate more effectively with the sales tower, and coach their team to support the F&I process instead of interrupting it.

Beyond profit, numbers significantly impact customer experience. A slow turnaround time damages CSI. Overselling causes cancellations and chargebacks. Inconsistent product presentation creates confusion. When F&I Managers take control of their numbers, they take control of their customer experience as well.

In a market full of volatility, numbers provide stability. New interest rate programs, shifting lender guidelines, inventory fluctuations, and customer buying trends can create unpredictability. Metrics act as your anchor. They show you what is working regardless of the market and what needs to be adjusted as conditions change.

The Core KPIs Every F&I Manager Must Track

Products Per Retail Delivery (PPRD)

Products per retail delivery is the number one metric elite F&I Managers check daily. It tells you how many products you sell on average per deal, across cash, finance, and lease deliveries. This one number reveals:

• How effectively you present the menu

• How well you handle objections

• How diversified your product mix is

• Whether you are overly dependent on service contracts or GAP

• Whether customers see the value in your offerings

Managers who consistently sell two, three, or even four products per deal are rarely guessing. They follow a process. They tailor their presentation. They show value. They ask the right questions. Most importantly, they track their numbers and adjust based on performance.

Your PPRD is also heavily influenced by your product lineup. Some dealerships offer seven or eight products. Others only offer three items or force managers to sell bundles instead of individual products. The fewer products you have, the lower your PPRD will naturally be. But that does not mean you cannot drive strong penetration or profit. It simply means your strategy must shift toward higher value presentation and higher PVR per product.

Profit Per Retail Delivery (PVR)

PVR is the metric everyone looks at, but not everyone understands. It measures total profit per deal including reserve and product income. A high PVR requires more than selling a single high margin product. It requires balance, consistency, and control.

There are dealerships that hit high service contract numbers but struggle with every other product. Their PVR suffers because they over rely on one category. Other managers limit their profit because they are afraid to raise pricing, afraid to show more options, or unsure how to handle customer pushback.

Improving PVR involves:

• Reviewing the product mix

• Increasing profit per product incrementally

• Fine tuning reserve without sacrificing lender relationships

• Learning stronger value selling techniques

• Presenting the menu at full value instead of pre discounting

Even if your dealership limits product availability, you can increase PVR simply by raising pricing intelligently. A 100 or 150 dollar increase per product can change your month significantly.

Individual Product Penetrations

Penetration percentages reveal how effectively you sell each product individually. The most important categories include:

• Service contracts

• GAP

• Tire and wheel

• Key replacement

• Windshield protection

• Bundles

One of the most valuable benchmarks Product Prep teaches is the water line. This is the average penetration rate of all F&I managers in the Product Prep community. If you fall below that benchmark, you know instantly that there are improvements to be made.

Breaking down penetrations by product helps you identify patterns. You might sell 60 percent service contracts, which is excellent, but only 5 percent tire and wheel. That imbalance reduces your overall PPRD and limits your PVR growth potential. A well rounded F&I Manager knows how to present and sell every product, not just one or two favorites.

Cash vs Lease vs Finance Performance

One of the greatest mistakes F&I Managers make is treating every deal the same. Cash buyers behave differently than finance customers. Lease customers have different risk perceptions, different timelines, and different priorities. When you lump all three categories into one metric, you lose the insights that make targeted improvement possible.

Top performing managers break down their numbers by:

• Cash deal PPRD

• Cash deal PVR

• Lease deal PPRD

• Lease product penetrations

• Finance product penetrations

• Finance deal reserve performance

Cash deals often drag down product performance because managers perceive them as “tough,” but this perception is driven by mindset, not reality. Many Product Prep clients learn that cash buyers are often the easiest to sell to because they have no lender restrictions, no payment sensitivities, and no structured timelines. They simply need value presented in a clear and compelling way.

Lease deals require a different approach. Product Prep has trained thousands of F&I Managers to treat lease customers as high opportunity deals instead of low opportunity deals. Products like tire and wheel, key replacement, windshield protection, and lease wear coverage can turn a zero product delivery into a three product delivery quickly. Once managers start approaching lease products strategically, lease profitability increases immediately.

Finance deals offer the widest range of product opportunities, but they also require precision. Finance customers are influenced by payment. They are influenced by interest. They are influenced by lender guidelines. Understanding these factors allows you to tailor your menu presentation in a way that maintains compliance while still driving strong product acceptance.

When you break down your performance by deal type, you uncover exactly where your biggest profit leaks occur and where you have the greatest opportunity for growth. This level of visibility is a hallmark of elite F&I Managers.

Reserve, Rate Spread, and Lender Strategy

Reserve is one of the most misunderstood and often neglected areas in F&I. Many managers allow the sales tower to structure the deal without getting involved until it is too late. Others assume lenders will simply approve whatever is submitted, without realizing how lender guidelines shift month to month or even week to week.

Understanding reserve performance requires you to track:

• Average reserve per finance deal

• Rate spread tolerance

• Subvented rate penetration

• Lender mix

• Approval strategies

• Deal structure quality

If your average reserve is lower than expected, it may be because:

• The sales team is over discounting before you see the deal

• You are not involved early enough in deal structure

• You are assuming a lender will not allow a certain markup

• You are relying too heavily on subvented programs

• Your process needs better alignment between sales and F&I

In recent years, fluctuating interest rates have given managers both headaches and opportunities. When interest rates spiked, reserve became more difficult to secure. Today, with subvented programs returning and interest rates easing, reserve opportunities are coming back. A strong F&I Manager tracks rate spread closely because it directly influences profit and lender satisfaction.

A strategic approach to lender relationships is critical. Product Prep teaches F&I Managers how to build credibility with lenders so that approvals come faster, conditions stay manageable, and future deals are easier to structure. When lenders trust you, you win more approvals and avoid costly rehashing delays.

Chargebacks as a Diagnostic Tool

Chargebacks reveal more about your process than almost any other metric. They tell you whether you are overselling, under delivering, or failing to prepare customers properly for ownership. A high chargeback rate, especially above 10 percent, signals immediate danger.

Chargebacks typically come from two sources:

1. Buyers remorse

2. Early trade cycles

Buyers remorse is the result of poor expectation setting. If you pressure the customer or oversell value without clearly aligning it to their needs, they will cancel. If a product is not explained well, or if the benefits are not tied to the customer's driving habits, they will cancel.

Early trade cycles are harder to control, but they can still be managed. When you understand customer timelines, driving patterns, and usage expectations, you can present products more accurately so they remain relevant even when customers switch vehicles sooner.

Product Prep coaches F&I Managers on how to reduce chargebacks through stronger value selling, proper disclosures, and customer reassurance techniques that avoid overselling. Chargebacks destroy your monthly numbers. Eliminating them ensures your PVR and PPRD reflect true performance, not inflated figures that collapse when cancellations hit.

Turnaround Time and F&I Efficiency

Turnaround time is one of the most overlooked but impactful KPIs in the F&I office. When customers wait too long, CSI drops. When the sales team views F&I as slow, tension builds. When management sees delays, they blame the F&I office even when the real issue lies in the structure of the deal itself.

Tracking turnaround time helps you identify:

• Bottlenecks in deal flow

• Missing paperwork issues

• Communication breakdowns with the sales tower

• Workflow inefficiencies

• Menu presentation delays

• Slow lender responses

Many F&I Managers discover their delays come from the sales department sending incomplete deals. When a deal is missing stips, signatures, a payoff, or verification documents, F&I is forced to chase paperwork instead of focusing on value presentation. This creates frustration across departments and slows down the entire delivery process.

To solve this, the best F&I Managers hold routine meetings with sales managers, sales consultants, and the office. These meetings create alignment around deal structure standards, stips requirements, and submission accuracy. When everyone is on the same page, turnaround time improves dramatically.

Managing Variances and DMS Accuracy

Variance refers to errors between expected profit and actual booked profit. Variances happen when the DMS miscalculates reserve, a lender calculates differently than expected, or a product is priced incorrectly. Even small variances add up to large losses over time.

Tracking and correcting variances requires:

• Understanding how your DMS calculates profit

• Verifying lender reserve calculations

• Reviewing product pricing tables regularly

• Catching errors before they impact the entire month

When variances go unchecked, you may believe your PVR is higher than it actually is. This creates false confidence and prevents you from making necessary changes. Product Prep trains managers to audit deals weekly to ensure accuracy and eliminate surprises at the end of the month.

Real World Scenarios F&I Managers Can Learn From

Scenario 1: High Service Contract Sales but Low PPRD

A manager sells 60 percent service contracts but only averages one product per deal. They celebrate their service contract performance but ignore the lost profit in categories like tire and wheel, key replacement, and GAP. When we coached this manager, focusing on just two additional categories raised their PPRD from 1.2 to 2.3. Their PVR increased by more than 600 dollars per deal within 60 days.

Scenario 2: Strong Finance Results but Weak Cash or Lease Performance

Many managers perform well on finance deals because reserve gives them extra lift. But when cash and lease deals enter the showroom, their numbers collapse. After training this manager on lease presentation techniques and cash buyer mindset strategies, they saw lease penetration climb from 8 percent to 42 percent and cash penetration from 4 percent to 28 percent.

Scenario 3: High Chargebacks and Low Consistency

An F&I Manager who averaged 1600 PVR discovered that 18 percent of their deals were being canceled. At first, they blamed the customer base. But after reviewing their presentation style, we identified overselling patterns. By adjusting how they framed value and clarifying expectations, chargebacks dropped below 7 percent and true PVR increased to 1978 within 90 days.

Scenario 4: Strong Penetrations but Low PVR

One manager sold products at high penetration percentages but at low margins. They were afraid to increase pricing because they did not want to hurt acceptance rates. With targeted coaching, they learned incremental pricing adjustments that customers accepted easily. Within three months, their PVR increased by more than 300 dollars without sacrificing penetration.

How to Use These KPIs to Transform Your F&I Performance

Understanding the numbers is the first step. Using those numbers to develop a strategic improvement plan is where real growth happens. Every elite F&I Manager Product Prep has trained follows a consistent process. They track the data, interpret it, and then build a targeted plan to improve category by category. With this approach, you stop guessing and start growing with intention.

Step 1: Track Your Numbers Daily and Monthly

Daily tracking keeps you aware of how your month is shaping up. Monthly tracking gives you the long term view you need to identify areas that require strategic adjustment. Together, these two timeframes form the foundation of predictable performance.

Daily tracking should include:

• PPRD

• PVR

• Product penetrations

• Turnaround time

Monthly tracking should include:

• Cash vs lease vs finance breakdown

• Chargebacks

• Variances

• Reserve performance

• Lender approval trends

• Category specific penetrations

When F&I Managers track numbers only at the end of the month, it is already too late to make corrections. Daily awareness allows you to make mid day adjustments and mid month adjustments that keep you on track for your goals.

Step 2: Identify Profit Gaps by Product Category

Each product reveals a different type of opportunity. If your service contract penetration is high but your tire and wheel penetration is low, that is a training opportunity. If your GAP numbers lag but your reserve is strong, that may be a menu presentation issue.

Product Prep teaches managers to break down the customer journey to understand where a product is being lost. Some products fall off early in the conversation due to poor framing. Others fall off later because objections are not addressed properly. Understanding which part of the process needs attention allows you to sharpen your message.

Step 3: Build a Game Plan to Improve Each KPI

Once your gaps are identified, you can create a step by step improvement plan. This is where most managers fall short. They know their numbers but do not translate them into action. A strong game plan might include:

• Increasing service contract price by 100 to 200 dollars

• Adjusting menu layout to emphasize high value add ons

• Practicing specific objection handling techniques

• Introducing more open ended needs assessment questions

• Selling a second product on deals that start with only one

• Reworking your transition from sales to F&I

• Meeting with the sales team to align deal structure

• Reviewing lender guidelines weekly

These small adjustments lead to major gains because they are based on real performance data instead of assumptions.

Step 4: Leverage Team Collaboration for Stronger Results

F&I Managers who operate independently limit their success. When the F&I office collaborates with sales managers, the tower, and the sales staff, results improve quickly. The coordination ensures deals are structured with lender guidelines in mind, incomplete paperwork is minimized, and the sales team sets proper expectations before the customer ever walks into your office.

A well aligned team means:

• Fewer delays

• Higher CSI

• Cleaner paperwork

• More accurate deal structures

• Faster lender approvals

• More consistent menu presentations

F&I excellence is not a solo act. It is a coordinated system that requires communication and shared standards.

Step 5: Adopt the Product Prep Training Approach

Product Prep is unique in the automotive training industry because it combines real time coaching, structured curriculum, and interactive practice. This allows managers to improve consistently in every category, not just the ones they already feel comfortable with.

Product Prep Live is especially impactful because:

• Managers get real time feedback from top trainers

• Lessons are tailored to the current market and dealership needs

• Training covers compliance, sales technique, and behavioral psychology

• Managers build confidence quickly because they practice, not just listen

Dealerships that join Product Prep consistently see increases in:

• PVR

• PPRD

• Product penetrations

• CSI

• Compliance accuracy

• Lender approval rates

Unlike traditional one day training sessions, Product Prep provides ongoing development. This ongoing support is what creates lasting improvement, not temporary spikes.

FAQs

1. How often should F&I Managers check their KPIs?

Elite managers check them daily. At a minimum, you should review them every morning before the first deal and every afternoon before closing.

2. What numbers matter most for boosting PVR fast?

Your top three are service contract penetration, product mix diversity, and price per product. Small adjustments in these areas create large PVR gains.

3. Why do lease and cash deals hurt F&I performance?

They do not. They only hurt performance when managers assume they are low value customers. With the correct approach, cash and lease deals can outperform finance deals in product sales.

4. What can dealerships expect from live training with Gerry Gould?

Expect interactive sessions, real world examples, feedback on your process, compliance clarity, and strategies that boost product acceptance immediately.

Conclusion

Knowing your numbers is not optional if you want to reach elite F&I performance. Your KPIs guide every part of your strategy. They reveal what you are doing well, where you need improvement, and how to create a game plan that drives consistent growth. When you track PPRD, PVR, penetrations, reserve, chargebacks, turnaround time, and variances, you build a complete picture of your performance. F&I Managers who use their numbers wisely become more confident, more consistent, and more profitable. They understand their process, communicate better with their sales team, and deliver a stronger customer experience. Product Prep provides the training, coaching, and tools to help you master these numbers and grow your profit, your performance, and your career.

By the way, you’re invited to check out our world-class F&I training program where the average F&I Manager increases their PVR by over 30% in the first month. You’ll have access to 100+ hours of training videos personalized to your weaknesses. Plus, you get exclusive access to see Gerry Gould LIVE twice per month to ensure you continue to grow your skillset and income. Come join a community of the top F&I Managers in the country and the #1 F&I Training in the world. For $149 you can pay that off with one extra deal we’ll personally teach you in the first week of training.