One word. Kerridge!
I have worked closely in the motor industry for most of the last 10 years. My first exposure to the accounting of motor dealerships was a daunting one. Not only was I being asked to cope with an entirely new sector with its jargon and finance structure, but I was also thrown in at the deep end with the industry-standard accounting package, Kerridge.
While I appreciate that many businesses require bespoke software packages to operate their business, it never fails to amaze me how much of an afterthought the accounts package tacked onto the whole monolithic software structure is.
The need in a motor dealership is to efficiently manage sales (with vehicle stock books and customer finance support), service with pricing, costing and CRM and parts – an extensive, diverse range of stock items. But the accounting for it takes …. some getting used to.
I have evolved a system which takes the accounts preparation away from the inbuilt system within Kerridge to an excel based workbook which can be tailored to the individual needs of the particular dealership. Such an approach This has proved very successful for both the directors and stakeholders who were finally able to understand the financial performance of the business.
I recall with great pride the day I sat with one director and took him through the first set of management accounts I had produced for him using this system. His words were something like, “Up until now I’ve felt as if I was flying the plane in the dark with no lights and no instruments and expecting to fly straight into the mountain at any time. Suddenly not only can I see where we are, but I can see how we get to where we want to go. “
From the starting point of these management accounts the challenges of forecasting and managing cash day to day become relatively straightforward.
The motor industry as a whole faces some very challenging times. No motor dealership can afford to be “flying blind.”
