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Automotive Dealership Accounting Software
What is Automotive Dealer Accounting Software?
Car inventory management is a main concern of auto dealership accounting software packages. Auto dealership accounting software should record and organize the wide variety of costs associated with the vehicles, such as internal and external repair orders. A particularly useful feature of auto accounting software is inventory age policy settings, which allow the user to set the age limit of a vehicle on the lot before it is marked down in price or moved to wholesale. Some software also records information on the performance of individual salesmen.
Auto Dealer-Specific Functionality
In addition to core accounting modules such as the general ledger, accounts receivable and accounts payable, auto dealership accounting software typically includes the following:
| Regulatory Compliance | Software should be designed to comply with Office of Foreign Assets Control and Specially Designated Nationals regulations, automatically checking the individual against the terrorist list and for ID verification. It should also support compliance for state, county, and city taxes, as well as any registration details. |
| Dealer & Traditional Financing | Auto dealerships’ payments typically come in one of two ways: from traditional lending sources like banks or from the customers themselves in a “Buy Here Pay Here” dealer-financing model. An auto dealer accounting program should support both, managing payments from multiple parties and ownership types, reporting to credit bureaus, sending out automatic late fee reminders and repossessing the vehicle when/if necessary. |
| Credit Checking | Since loans are involved, the dealership needs fast and easy access to the main credit bureaus. The software should be able to pull credit reports for Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion, and be able to report data to those bureaus as well. |
| VIN Database Records | Auto dealership software should connect to VIN databases and/or decoding tools, making it easy to add new vehicles to your inventory and record sales data. |
| Repair Order Tracking | Managing service center repairs is an essential component for most dealers. Repair order tracking software can help manage job progress and job efficiency. |
| Age Policy Settings | This feature, a specific benefit for automotive dealerships, allows the user to set the age limit a vehicle can reach on the lot before it is marked down or moved to wholesale. Issue automatic reminders, it will support the movement of old inventory before its costs exceed the value in keeping it on the lot. |
| Employee Performance | Tracking sales results for individual salesmen, this feature will automatically calculate commissions, generate reports for long-term results and perform other tasks to simplify and improve the sales incentive process. |
| Warranty & Service | Car sales usually involve some kind of warranty, either standard or supplemental. Some software will allow for the sale of service contracts, as well tracking service costs and managing parts inventory. |
Evaluating Auto Dealer Accounting Software
Regulatory compliance - including an extensive audit trail - is designed to mitigate risk and prevent potential government fines, so this is an important feature when purchasing automotive dealership accounting software. Franchised dealers will need to look for software with report-generation functionality that considers the specific instructions required by certain franchisers (e.g. Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ford) for composition of the financial statements.
When evaluating auto dealer accounting software, buyers should consider the following:
- Does the software provide built-in compliance settings for important federal regulations?
- Can the software adhere to particular franchiser requirements for financial reports?
- Can the software store information in enough parameters for inventory?
- Can the software link to a VIN database for easy information retrieval?
Have an opinion on this guide? Email the authors. We appreciate the feedback.
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Sage 300 ERP (formerly Sage ERP Accpac)
Ideal for small and mid-sized dealerships, Sage 300 ERP (formerly Accpac) is a scalable enterprise resource planning (ERP) software system offering applications for accounting, warehouse management, service and document management
Microsoft Dynamics GP
Dynamics GP is a good fit for many automotive dealerships because it can handle complex vendor and cost tracking and help maintain regulatory compliance. At the same time it is still relatively straight forward and easy to use.
Sage 100 Standard and Advanced ERP (formerly Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200)
Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 software systems are ideal for small and mid-sized auto dealerships looking for robust accounting functionality with capability to support full business operations.
NetSuite Financials
The NetSuite package of integrated applications includes project accounting, work order management, fixed asset accounting and more. The software also has modules to help with government compliance and repair order tracking.
Sage 500 ERP (formerly Sage ERP MAS 500)
Sage supports mom and pop car dealerships as well as large chain dealerships with their accounting solution. Regulatory compliance, VIN record database and repair order tracking are among the auto-specific features in the system.
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Oracle JD Edwards - Accounting
This system has several accounting features useful for small to large automotive dealerships. The software can pull reports from major credit bureaus, access VIN databases and track repair order requests among other things.
Fishbowl Enterprise
Fishbowl Enterprise offers a complete suite of applications that centralize & optimize all dealership operations. Companies can manage finances, inventory, purchasing, reporting, and payroll from a single location.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV
Microsoft Dynamics NAV is built on the .NET platform and can serve auto dealerships of nearly any size. Auto dealerships will find functionality for financing, credit checking, repair order tracking and warranty tracking.
Sage Fixed Assets
Sage Fixed Assets is an on-premise solution for automotive dealership professionals looking to track their fixed assets and account for asset depreciation. Sage offers vertical specialization to meet your unique needs.
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