Glossary
The detailing & film shop glossary.
Plain-English definitions for the words that fly around a detailing, PPF, wrap, tint or ceramic shop — the products, the techniques, and the owner-side numbers that decide whether a busy shop actually makes money. No jargon for jargon's sake.
- PPF30%
- Tint25%
- Ceramic & detailing25%
- Business20%
Illustrative mix of how the glossary's entries spread across topics.
| Segment | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|
| PPF | 30 | 30% |
| Tint | 25 | 25% |
| Ceramic & detailing | 25 | 25% |
| Business | 20 | 20% |
Films & coatings
The products themselves — PPF, ceramic, tint and wrap vinyl.
- Paint protection film (PPF)
- A clear (or coloured) thermoplastic urethane film applied over a vehicle's paint to absorb rock chips, scratches and road debris. Also called a clear bra. Sold and installed by the linear foot off a roll, usually 60 inches wide.
- Ceramic coating
- A liquid polymer (often silica/SiO₂-based) that cures to a hard, hydrophobic layer bonded to the paint or over PPF. It adds gloss and makes the surface easier to clean, but — unlike film — it does not stop rock chips.
- Self-healing film
- PPF with an elastomeric topcoat that flows back to smooth when warmed, so light swirl marks and fine scratches disappear with heat from the sun or warm water. It repairs the topcoat only — not a deep cut through the film.
- TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane)
- The material modern PPF is made from. TPU is elastic, clear and abrasion-resistant, which is why it can be stretched over curves and (with the right topcoat) self-heal. It largely replaced older, more brittle PVC films.
- Vinyl wrap
- An adhesive-backed vinyl film applied to change a vehicle's colour or finish (gloss, matte, satin, chrome, colour-shift) or to carry commercial graphics. Reversible, unlike paint. Cast vinyl conforms to curves; calendered vinyl is cheaper but flatter.
- Window tint
- A thin film applied to glass to reduce light, glare and heat. Common types are dyed (budget), carbon (no signal interference, better fade resistance) and ceramic (best heat rejection). Darkness is measured as VLT.
- VLT (visible light transmission)
- The percentage of visible light a tint lets through the glass. A lower VLT is darker (5% is very dark 'limo'; 70% is very light). Legal VLT limits vary by jurisdiction and by window, so always verify the local law before quoting.
- Full front (PPF)
- A common PPF package covering the full hood and fenders, the front bumper, side mirrors and often the headlights — the panels that take the most highway rock damage. Broader than a partial front, narrower than a full-body wrap.
- Full-body PPF
- PPF coverage of essentially every painted panel on the vehicle. It uses several times the film and days of install time versus a full front, so it should be quoted from real film feet and labour hours rather than a flat multiple of the front-end price.
- Clear bra
- An everyday name for clear paint protection film, especially a partial-front kit over the bumper and leading edge of the hood. Same product as PPF — the term predates today's full-coverage installs.
- Hydrophobic
- Water-repelling. A hydrophobic surface makes water bead up and sheet off, carrying dirt with it. It's the headline property of ceramic coatings and many PPF topcoats, and the reason a coated car looks cleaner between washes.
Techniques & prep
How the work actually gets done in the bay.
- Paint correction
- Machine polishing that removes swirl marks, scratches and oxidation from clear coat to restore gloss and clarity. Graded by steps — a 1-step refines, a 2- or 3-step removes progressively deeper defects — and priced off the paint's condition and the bay hours it takes.
- Swirl marks
- Fine, spider-web scratches in the clear coat, usually from improper washing and drying. They're most visible on dark paint under direct light and are removed by paint correction, not by wax or a quick polish.
- Clear coat
- The transparent top layer of a factory paint system that provides gloss and UV protection. Paint correction works within the clear coat; cutting through it exposes the colour layer and means a respray, so measuring paint thickness matters.
- Decontamination
- The prep step that removes bonded contaminants — iron fallout, tar, industrial fallout — that a normal wash leaves behind, often with a chemical iron remover and a clay bar. Skipping it traps grit under film or coating and ruins the finish.
- Clay bar
- A malleable resin bar (or mitt) dragged across lubricated paint to pull off bonded contaminants the wash missed, leaving glass-smooth paint ready for correction, coating or film.
- Cure time
- The window a coating or adhesive needs to fully harden or bond before the vehicle is exposed to water or delivered. Ceramic coatings need protected cure time; PPF adhesive keeps bonding for days after install. Scheduling has to leave room for it.
- Plotter / pre-cut pattern
- A computer-driven cutter that cuts PPF or tint to a vehicle-specific pattern from a software library, instead of bulk hand-cutting on the car. It speeds installs and reduces waste, though every job still leaves some offcut.
- Offcut / remnant
- The film left over after a piece is cut — scrap you can't reuse (offcut) or a usable partial roll (remnant). Both are real money: you pay for the feet you consume, not the feet that end up on the car, so tracking them protects margin.
- VIN (vehicle identification number)
- The unique 17-character code that identifies a vehicle. Scanning it builds an accurate vehicle record — year, make, model — for the customer garage, warranties and service history, so the next quote or top-up starts from the right car.
Shop business & metrics
The owner-side numbers that decide whether a busy shop makes money.
- COGS (cost of goods sold)
- The direct cost of delivering a job — for a film shop, mostly the film and consumables it actually consumed, plus install labour. True COGS is what separates a job's revenue from its profit, and it only reflects reality when film is costed from the real roll, not a list price.
- Gross margin
- Revenue minus COGS, shown in dollars or as a percentage of the price. It's the number that tells you whether a busy calendar is actually profitable. A wall-menu list price is a revenue number; margin is the profit number underneath it.
- Live-margin quote
- A quote that shows projected profit in dollars and percent as you build it, costed from the real material on your shelf — so an underpriced package gets caught before you send it, not at month-end. Service VIN's core difference from a flat estimate.
- Film tracked to the foot
- Inventory that counts film by the linear foot remaining on each roll, at the real cost you paid, with lot numbers and reorder points — instead of treating a four-figure roll as a single line item. It's what makes true material COGS and reorder alerts possible.
- Average ticket
- The average revenue per completed job. Raising it with upsells (a coating over PPF, a windshield film, a maintenance plan) is often faster than chasing more leads, because it earns more from work you already booked.
- Close rate
- The share of quotes or leads that turn into booked, paid jobs. A low close rate usually points at slow follow-up or unclear pricing more than at price itself — which is why quote follow-up and speed-to-lead move it the most.
- Speed-to-lead
- How fast you respond to a new inquiry. The shop that answers first usually wins the job, so replying in seconds — even with an AI lead responder after hours — beats a polished reply that lands the next morning.
- Deposit
- A payment collected when a customer books, to hold the bay and commit them to the job — the money you order film against. Deposits turn a hopeful maybe into a committed booking and are the single biggest lever against no-shows.
- No-show
- A booked customer who doesn't arrive, leaving a bay empty for the day. Deposits and timed reminders are the standard defences — a held card and a well-timed text protect the calendar you worked to fill.
- Maintenance plan
- A recurring package — periodic washes, coating top-ups or inspections — that turns one-off details into predictable, recurring revenue and keeps customers coming back on a cadence instead of only when something goes wrong.
- Workmanship warranty
- The shop's own guarantee covering install quality — lifting edges, bubbles, peeling from application error — as opposed to the film manufacturer's warranty on the product (yellowing, cracking). Customers benefit from both; put what you promise in writing.
Software & workflow
The terms you'll meet running the shop on software.
- CRM (customer relationship management)
- Software that keeps every lead, customer, conversation and job in one place so nothing slips through the cracks. For a shop, a vehicle-aware CRM ties each thread to the customer's garage, quotes and history — not just a name and a phone number.
- Unified inbox
- A single thread that gathers every text, call and web lead for a customer, tied to their vehicle and history — instead of scattering the conversation across a personal cell, a texting app and a separate estimating tool.
- Online booking storefront
- A branded page where customers pick a service, choose a real open slot and pay a deposit 24/7 — so the shop keeps booking work while the phone is unanswered and the bays are closed.
- Double-book protection
- A scheduling guard that stops two jobs from landing on the same bay or installer at once. When it's enforced in the database (not just hidden in the UI), a busy day can't quietly overbook a bay you don't have.
- AI agent
- A task-specific automation that acts on the shop's behalf — a lead responder, quote-chaser, win-back or review-requester — drafting or sending messages in the shop's voice. Done right it's draft-first, with opt-outs and quiet hours enforced in code, not left to a checkbox.
- Data import / migration
- Bringing your existing customers, vehicles and invoice history into new software so you don't start from a blank slate. Service VIN imports from any CSV and directly from Urable, Tint Wiz, OrbisX, QuickBooks Online and Zoho Books.
- Two-way sync
- An integration where a change in either system updates the other — move a job on the board and the connected calendar follows, and vice-versa. It keeps two tools in step instead of leaving you to reconcile them by hand.
Put the good words to work
Live-margin quotes, film tracked to the foot, and an AI team on the phones and texts — the terms above, running in one shop. Try it free for 14 days, no credit card required.