A glance into any dealership accounting office reveals a lot of paper. That’s because selling cars creates a LOT of paperwork. Although a “paperless” office may be the holy grail, we’re not there yet.

States require certain paperwork, and they insist you keep it. Retention periods vary by state, but the result is paper deal jackets crammed into filing cabinets, stored in piles of teetering cardboard boxes in unlocked offices, or jammed into storage facilities.

What you end up with is a lot of paper with sensitive customer information that is not secure, is not easy to search or retrieve, and is costing you money – whether via outside storage fees, lost employee productivity searching through boxes, or wasted office space taken over by documents.

However, we are seeing progress. States are revising regulations and reducing onsite retention periods. Most importantly, many are giving the green light to scanning deal jackets, storing them in electronic document storage platforms, and then shredding the originals.

California is the most recent state to revise its regulations. It reduced its onsite document retention period from 18 months to 90 days. This applies to documents related to vehicle purchase, sale, rental, and lease. Paperwork can be shredded after 90 days as long as a dealership has a document scanning solution for digital document storage.

The fact that deals can be scanned and then shredded is huge in terms of cost savings, employee time savings, and efficiency. Deals stored electronically can be sourced, reviewed, and even printed with a few keystrokes. Proper scanning and electronic storage also minimizes the risk of lost paperwork.

Dealerships don’t have to pay for offsite physical storage, or take up valuable office space with filing cabinets and document boxes. That office space can instead be used to centralize accounting teams or for additional employee desks. Wasted space becomes usable space.

It’s also a win for customers. Sensitive information is electronically secure and less likely to be stolen. According to the 2019 Identity Fraud Study from Javelin Strategy & Research, nearly 1 in 15 people were victims of identify fraud last year. Dealerships that can promote secure online data storage have an advantage over the competition.

Are you ready to implement document scanning in your sales department? It’s important to do your due diligence before hiring a document management platform. Make sure to ask these questions:

Is data storage onsite or cloud-based? Cloud-based storage is generally preferred for several reasons. Data is stored electronically on a server which provides data access controls not available when physically storing files. Cloud-based solutions generally have store-level, user-level, and folder-level permissions to minimize the accessibility of data to only the right people. The cloud also offers better resiliency against natural disasters.

What is your data security policy? Ensure a provider adheres to the highest standards of data security. Look for SOC certified providers, which is a standard developed by the American Institute of CPAs to define criteria for managing customer data based on security, among other service principles. All data transfers should be encrypted and databases should be backed up redundantly to multiple data centers to ensure business continuity and data integrity.

Are there safeguards to prevent missing documents? Scanning documents is simple, but it requires meticulous attention to detail. For example, a hidden staple can cause documents to be scanned together as one. Or a page of the deal may be missed altogether. Top providers have built in safeguards to catch these mistakes before documents are shredded. Ask about tools that ensure all deal documents are accounted for and legible before being placed in the permanent electronic deal jacket.

Who owns the data if I decide to end the relationship? It’s long been an issue in our industry that some DMS providers require you to pay hefty fees to retrieve your own data if you decide to sever the partnership. This should never happen with a document management company. The data is yours and should always remain yours. 

What training do you offer? There’s a misconception that scanning documents is a simple clerical task. In reality, the person scanning deals is acting as a compliance manager to make sure every deal is complete and legible before it becomes a permanent record. Look for a provider that offers onsite and virtual training to take the fear out of scanning and ensure the job is done correctly, every time.

Free your dealership from the tyranny of too much paper. Take advantage of changing regulations to explore electronic document storage. Scanning and electronically storing deals increases security, frees up office space, and eliminates the cost of offsite storage facilities.

Making a list and checking it twice is one of Santa’s best known practices. It’s worth emulating when trying to manage a lot of information. Like your list of vendor partners.

The average dealership has around ten vendor partners. Large groups can have hundreds. Whatever the length of your list, proper management helps you weed out the naughty (costing you money) from the nice (making you money). 

Vendor management is not a new topic; but it’s arguably more important than ever now with margins continuing to shrink and our industry rebuilding from the pandemic hit. A hard look at your vendors can save money by cutting under-performers, weeding-out duplicates, and consolidating services under better contract terms.

Now’s the time to prioritize vendor management and make 2021 a year to rebuild and rely on those you trust. Get started with these proactive tips:

Audit your current vendors. Prior to budgeting, create a list of all the existing vendors that work with your dealership. Pull a report from your check register or run a DMS vendor report. This list helps you understand what you’re paying for, and gives you a starting point to determine what’s working and what’s not. Look for extraneous vendors and duplicate services. Are you paying for a service that comes free from one of your OEMs? Are you paying two companies for the same marketing services? Dig deep and weed out what you don’t need. 

Commit to a 6-month audit period. Take a hard look at your vendor costs twice a year. It’s surprising what can happen over just six months. Prices can go up without your knowledge. A product or service that seemed like a great idea may be doing nothing to increase sales or reduce costs. A regular audit period allows you to cut your losses before they really hurt your bottom-line.

Discuss new products and services. Tell your team what you want to bring on board before signing a contract. A department may already be using a proven vendor for the same product or service. A multi-point store may discover one franchise already tried a vendor and the relationship failed.

Designate authorized signers. Authorize only one or two staff members to sign contracts and expense the product or service. This is especially important if you have multiple stores. As a former Controller, I can tell you it was extremely frustrating to uncover an auto-renewal for a contract I knew nothing about and that we were stuck with for another year.

Create one email box for vendors. All vendor-related email notifications should go through one shared email box. I liken this to physical mail. You have one physical address where the mail goes. The same should happen with email. Designate one or two people with monitoring that email box so you never miss vendor communications.

Store all agreements in one central location. Ease vendor auditing and make it simple to find and review contracts by storing them all in one central location. You can designate a filing cabinet for this, but digging through paper contracts takes time and ups the likelihood of missing a renewal or vendor duplication. Online storage is the best option. A third-party document management platform allows you to retrieve and view contracts with only a few keystrokes, create spending reports, and stay on top of auto-renewals. You also get corporate transparency into all stores to better consolidate vendors and build the case for bulk pricing.

Santa may be for kids; but the practice of making a list and checking it often is a great tip for vendor management and all kinds of business decisions. Make 2021 a year to rebuild with a plan for regular vendor check-ins to ensure every expense is necessary to your business and adding to your bottom-line.

It’s not an Internet Sales Manager to keep up with the surge in online leads that many dealerships are currently experiencing. It’s not additional service technicians, who are becoming increasingly scarce to hire.

Your most important hire in 2021 is…a Scan Operator. Surprised?

Although banks are more accepting of electronic paperwork and states are modernizing their requirements, the industry is still required to produce a lot of paper. A paperless dealership may be the holy grail, and all signs point that we’re headed that way, but the reality is that a truly paperless business is still in the future.

That’s why this position is so crucial now: As more dealerships increasingly move towards storing documents online, proper scanning of sales and service documents could be the difference between breezing through audits and paying thousands of dollars in fines.

Here’s an example of a multi-store dealer group in California. The group hired an entry-level Scan Operator who mistakenly piggy-backed multiple repair orders and scanned them into one document, and then shredded the originals. When the OEM came calling with a warranty audit, the files where nowhere to be found. The group was fined $50,000 and the Service Manager was fired. The Scan Operator had left the organization well before the audit, but the damage was done.

This example makes it clear that document scanning is not just a clerical task. Proper scanning can have a direct impact on your bottom line and the health of your business. It is a big responsibility that shouldn’t be handed to an entry-level employee. It deserves to be a proper department within your dealership headed-up by a trained professional.

A “paperless” office makes a lot of sense in today’s heavily-regulated retailing environment where maintaining compliance creates huge paper trails. Electronic document management reduces the expense of office supplies and wasted labor costs of employees digging through file boxes to find documents. It also greatly enhances security. It’s estimated that 1 in 20 paper documents end up lost. With the proper paperless system in place, documents can be scanned, filed, and tagged for the ultimate in security and efficiency.

Proper document management isn’t just about passing audits – it affects your entire organization. Consider the F&I manager working with a returning customer who needs to pull the previous deal jacket to review credit score and products purchased. Or the service advisor seeking information on a customer’s previous repairs. Electronic storage means these documents are available within seconds through a simple online document search. This improves customer interactions and speeds up the sales process for a better overall experience.

It takes a professional Scanning Operator to stop the paper chase without pitfalls. That’s why Harry Robinson Automotive Family in Fort Smith, Ark., created a dedicated scanning department over 10 years ago. True to its family-owned roots, the department is led by Sara Robinson, one of the founder’s daughters. She created a process that is organized and methodical.

“Pushing the paper through the scanner is the easy part of the job; it’s the checking of the document that is a little more difficult,” Robison explains. “If done correctly, all documents should be able to be read and it is important this happens because this is the permanent record of your document and this is the last time some of the documents will ever be touched again. In our service department, rummaging through file cabinets looking for folders full of documents is a thing of the past.”

A great Scanning Operator doesn’t necessarily have to have prior scanning experience. Proper training is a huge part of success. However, any candidate you interview should be:

Organized– A tremendous amount of paperwork will come across this person’s desk every day. If the paper is everywhere, you’re never going to keep it organized.

Methodical – You’re looking for someone who can maintain a repeatable and consistent process.

Accountable – The right candidate will take responsibility for themselves and others. If a document is missing, they will take the initiative to go and find it. They follow the law: “Inspect what You Expect”.

Knowledgeable – This person should have some general understanding of warranty processing, document retention laws, sales deal jacket contents,, and standard accounting practices. This person can be trained, but should show an aptitude for learning and retaining information.

Robinson adds that the job requires “someone with great attention to detail. It takes someone who wants to make sure the job is done correctly, not quickly. This person is the one watching out for you, your company, and in many cases acts a lot like a compliance manager.”

You should be able to lean on your document management provider for help with training. Look for a provider that offers both online and in-person training as well as ongoing on-demand education.

Just as important, your organization needs to emphasize to your Scan Operator that his or her role has a direct impact on your dealership. The job is not simply clerical. They can affect your business positively or negatively, so apply appropriate goals and compensation to keep them committed to success.

Robinson recounts hearing of companies that hire teams to do scanning at night and then get rid of the documents. “The thought of that terrified me!” she says. “All the things that could go wrong if the person doing their job doesn’t value their work, then the documents would be incorrect and they wouldn’t care or be fazed by the results. Would they pay attention to the technician notes on the back of the page? Would they notice two or three pages fed through at once? Would they care?”

As you look ahead to 2021, these are questions to ask yourself. You’ll likely be preparing to bring in plenty of revenue producing employees. But don’t overlook the surprisingly important hire that can save you money in the long run. Take the time to hire and train a professional Scan Operator and ban the paper trail while gaining peace of mind. 

How and Why to Make Your CPA Your Most Important Relationship

A store may be missing over $200,000. Or $745,000. Or as much as $4.1 million. These are all real amounts embezzled from dealerships by employees. Most embezzle for years before they are caught. In one case, an employee was only caught because she was on vacation when a company called the dealership to question a large check she had written.

Up to 51 percent of dealers have been victims of employee embezzlement and theft or know someone who has, according to auditing research from Reynolds and Reynolds.

Would you know if your dealership was missing money? Most don’t. Various reasons make dealerships vulnerable to internal fraud, including high cash flows, limited internal controls, and departments with insular environments. Also, outside auditors and CPAs have limited to no internal knowledge of operations.

It is easier for fraud to go undetected when your dealership is profitable. That’s when you’re least likely to scrutinize financial records. Many dealers cite lack of resources, time, or employees to detect and prevent fraud.

But virtually every dealer has a CPA or CPA firm. That person can be your second pair of eyes. When you consider the money you could lose due to internal fraud, the cost of paying your CPA is negligible. Your CPA should be an extension of your business, instead of just a once-a-year transaction to complete your year-end audit.

Invite your CPA to learn about your internal operations and they can be proactive in conducting financial analysis, preventing fraud, and uncovering financial mistakes that cost you money. Empower your CPA to help your business with the following initiatives:

Give them the right tools. Historically, dealership documents were stored as paper files, on CDs, or on thumb drives. While digital copies were better than paper, it still took a lot of time and effort to find and analyze records. Switching to an online document management platform allows you to give your CPA immediate access. Online document management makes it easy to search for and access all of your dealership documents. By storing documents outside of your DMS, your CPA does not have to be an expert in using your DMS and he/she can access data at any time without assistance from dealership staff.

This kind of access has been invaluable for Arnold Creekmore Sr. and Jr., who’s CPA firm in Florida has been helping dealer clients since 1969. “With online documentation, we can easily download data to an Excel file and it saves a lot of time,” explains Creekmore Jr. “Because it’s not time-consuming, we can do more analysis and help dealers make good management decisions.” He points out that he and his father always prefer a dealer-client use a third-party document management platform because it ensures dealership data is accessible even after a DMS change. “When you have to amend a tax return or ask an audit question and you’ve switched your DMS and not converted to online document management, how am I going to find that data? It would be a nightmare,” he says.

Touch base regularly. It’s standard for many dealerships to sit down with their CPA only at year-end. This is a huge missed opportunity. Regular check-ins and continued access to your documents gives your CPA the power to be your second set of eyes and to nip problems in the bud. It’s smart to have a third-party performing reconciliation so that the same person isn’t handling all of the accounting all of the time. When one person has total control over your books he/she may miss errors or be tempted to skim money off the top. As Creekmore Jr. explains, “Having another pair of eyes on the books helps everyone out. Internal control is the best way to prevent fraud. You want to catch it early on before it gets big.”

Provide access to vendor agreements. Access to vendor agreements allows your CPA to properly capitalize expenses throughout the year. He or she can also perform vendor reconciliations to find errors, fraud, and poor management decisions that can cost you thousands. Consider implementing a vendor document storage solution to help stay on top of contract terms and conditions. Your CPA can monitor this solution on a regular basis to control costs, avoid accidental renewals, and transition to new vendors when a contract ends or business needs change. 

Proactively look at books to reduce write-offs. A CPA proactively looking at books can help you see, understand, and eliminate costly write-offs. “We can look at schedules and start asking questions,” says Creekmore Jr. “For example, let’s say a dealership grosses $80 million in sales, nets $1 million but then has to write-off $150k of that profit. A lot of dealers will just do it without asking what are we writing off. Is it Receivables? Obsolete parts inventory? A good CPA will do an analysis, get the information to management, and help them stop mistakes to significantly reduce and even eliminate write-offs.”

Encourage fraud investigation & prevention. According to a report by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), the average time to identify theft or fraud is 18 months after the initial event. Approximately 58 percent of these cases do not lead to recovery for the dealership. Encouraging your CPA to regularly inspect for fraud can stop issues before they become a problem. Areas to investigate include unknown vendors, payments over $10,000, disproportionate departmental spending, month-over-month spending trends, improper rebates, false checks, and reconciliation of parts since it is not unheard of for employees to steal parts and sell them outside of the dealership.

The CPA relationship shouldn’t be a single occurrence to “get the year closed.” Dealers need to have two close third-party advisors: their lawyer and their CPA. Enable your CPA to be continually proactive throughout the year to uncover money saving opportunities, protect against fraud, and free-up employees to focus on higher ROI activities.

Digital uploads of vendor contracts and automated notifications of contract renewal or expirations ensure dealers are never caught off guard.

Indianapolis, IN – October 19, 2020 – One View, an auto industry-specific data solution specialist, today announced the release of its Vendor View contract storage and management platform. The web-based, user-friendly platform allows dealerships to upload copies of vendor contracts and receive automated notifications of upcoming contract renewal or expirations to better manage vendor relationships and control expenses. Vendor View can be implemented as a stand-alone product or added to a dealer’s existing One View Vault subscription.

“Controlling expenses and staying up-to-date on vendor contracts has always been important to our dealer clients, but it’s even more important now as our industry recovers from the coronavirus pandemic,” said David DeHaven, One View Founder & CEO. “Vendor View is one central place where dealers can quickly view and compare all vendor terms and conditions so they are never caught off guard, and can make informed vendor decisions moving forward.”

Vendor View allows dealerships to manage all vendor contracts from one uniform platform. Dealerships can easily and securely scan and archive vendor agreements. This replaces the manual and time-consuming process of filing paper contracts, and then digging through file boxes in an effort to stay on top of contract terms and conditions.

One central view also helps dealerships avoid the “vendor gotcha moment” whereby forgotten terms and conditions result in an automatic contract renewal for a vendor that may no longer be a best fit. When dealerships can quickly access and analyze digital contracts, they avoid accidental renewals and are empowered to transition to new vendors when a contract ends or business needs change. 

Five unique features simplify document management and ensure a contract renewal, change in pricing, or duplication of service, never slips through the cracks.

Automated Notifications: Set and receive automated email notifications of upcoming contract renewals or expirations.

Upcoming Renewals: Track all contracts with upcoming end dates via a user-friendly dashboard.

Search Contracts: Locate contracts based on vendor, products and services provided, expense account, executed by, or contract dates.

Add Context or Updates: Post document notes to a select group of users to communicate a change or update.

Categorize Vendors: Assess dealership spending by categorizing vendors into related groups. Use visual graphs to highlight percentage of dealership costs.

One View is a SOC 2 certified organization, and as such is held to the highest standards of data security. Developed by the American Institute of CPAs, SOC 2 defines criteria for managing customer data based on security, among other service principles.

All dealership vendor contracts are scanned and sent to One View Vendor View through encrypted transmission methods and databases are backed up redundantly to multiple data centers to ensure business continuity and data integrity.

“Dealerships across the country are seeking ways to cut costs and run more efficiently,” said DeHaven. “We’re proud to offer a platform that makes it easy to view and manage vendor relationships with an eye to controlling costs, all within a top-of-the-line data center that meets the highest standards for security.”

For more information about One View Vendor View, visit https://bit.ly/36TSKzX

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About One View

One View has been a trusted partner to thousands of automotive dealers across North America with a broad range of business solutions, including month-end data archiving, document scanning, and DMS data conversions. These solutions digitally capture dealer’s data from any source and provide immediate user access, insightful analysis, and management of their most important asset: their data. A preferred vendor, recommended by major CPA firms, manufacturers, DMS platforms, and dealer groups, One View has built a strong reputation of excellence by showcasing a solid product and a strong understanding of the automotive market. As the only auto industry-specific data solution specialist, One View has aided dealers with electronic data management for over 20 years. As the auto industry continues to move toward a more digital and paperless environment, One View is committed to preparing, consulting, and assisting dealers as they navigate into the data-driven 21st century.

Industry experts predict that manufacturers’ will continue to double-down on service warranty audits. After all, chargebacks are an additional source of revenue that is sorely needed now. 

Every service manager should take special note of this prediction. Here’s why:

It is the dealer’s responsibility to maintain a record of all warranty work and to substantiate all requests for reimbursement. In the event of a dispute between the dealer and manufacturer, the burden of proof is on the dealer.

Proper documentation of warranty work falls on the service department, not the accounting office, as is commonly presumed.

The service manager is responsible for the service department; therefore he/she is ultimately responsible for document management and for training service staff to meet warranty work requirements.

Service managers can, and have, been fired for chargebacks resulting from a failed service warranty audit.

Every service manager knows that they must keep accurate and complete records. The task is not complicated but commonly lands on the bottom of the priority list. Why? Because the process takes time, organization, and knowledge about retention requirements. 

What can a service manager do? Be proactive and prevent chargebacks with the following techniques and strategies.

1. Know document retention policies for your state and OEM.

Document retention guidelines are not uniform across states and manufacturers. Research what is required in your specific state and by your specific OEM(s). For example, so-called electronic audits are now commonplace for some OEMs but not for others. How and where you store documents can also vary by state and OEM. Not sure what’s required? Contact your state auto association or a CPA firm that has expertise in warranty parts and labor reimbursement analysis.

2. Manage your document retention workflow.

Never assume that your staff knows what to do when it comes to warranty job card compliance. Job cards require the completion of several checkpoints. If one or more checkpoints are violated, the claim could result in a debit during an audit. Define a process for how the job card flows between the advisor, technician, warranty administrator, service manager, and cashier.

Conduct a review monthly or bi-monthly to make sure the process is being followed, and employees know who is ultimately responsible for checking each point. Reviews and training are especially important when you consider the turnover rate for service advisors alone is nearly 50 percent, according to the 2018 NADA Workforce Study.

Consider scanning and archiving documents online. Online records are easy to search and cannot be altered by employees. Exception reporting also makes it easy to track documents so you know with certainty what has been archived and what hasn’t. Review this list with advisors every week to locate and scan missing documents before auditors come knocking.

3. Review your warranty processing.

You must have trust and confidence in your warranty administrator. Get to know this person. Is he/she a seasoned veteran or a rookie who may need more training? Is he/she comfortable with your OEM requirements and paperwork? Is this person organized? A desk covered in papers may indicate it’s time to start the search for someone new.

Another option is to hire a third-party warranty processing company. This can save you time and money, but weigh the cost-benefit ratio carefully. A low reimbursement rate from an OEM could mean you’ll be paying more for processing than you get in reimbursements. Conversely, if you’re a large group with multiple OEMs and your warranty administrator can barely keep up, a third-party processor could significantly increase your reimbursement dollars.

4. Pay attention to the details.

It’s not usually the absence of documents that results in chargebacks; it’s the little things. As the old saying goes: “You must inspect what you expect.” For that reason, be aware of common violations that result in chargebacks, including: lack of technician time punches; missing customer signature; missing service manager signature on internal repair or over-the-phone customer-authorized repairs; poor technician documentation; etc. Of course, all auditors and audits are not the same. Each OEM may interpret and enforce policies differently. Contact your OEM for a list of audit requirements.

As a service manager, what you don’t know can hurt you. Service department documentation is NOT handled by the accounting office. An office manager or controller will rarely lose their job if they fail an audit, but a service manager will. Take ownership over the process to reduce chargebacks and gain job security.

An eye-opening article in Auto Dealer Today cites dealers can generate as much as $12,000 per month in additional gross profit from retail reimbursement for warranty parts.

This makes sense when you consider that the majority of manufacturers pay on average 40 percent over cost. If a dealer is approved at 80 percent markup over cost, that dealer will in effect double warranty gross profit without increasing volume. 

Think about this for a minute: You can earn twice the gross profit simply by exercising your right for retail reimbursements for warranty parts.

Your state auto association is on your side. Thanks to their lobbying work, legislation in nearly every state requires dealers be reimbursed by manufacturers for warranty parts at retail, which is your customer parts rate. California is the most recent to join the crowd with a bill that went into effect on January 1, 2020.

Due to COVID-19, there’s never been a better time to maximize revenue opportunities. Every dealer is worried about coming out on top of the current economic crisis. Now is the time to put in the effort to secure the higher rates you deserve – and come out of this crisis better than you went into it. 

For example, Chantel Procell is the Fixed Ops Director for the Hiley Auto Group in Huntsville, Alabama. She recently went through the process of this type of audit for a few of her stores. "The process was pretty straightforward. I submitted to the info to the OEM. Most of our stores received 20-30% increases on the first request,” she said. “You can apply every year, so depending on the store, I have applied every year or two for some stores and get another 2-5%.”

There is no sugar-coating the truth: a typical process to increase your rate is time-consuming and costly in terms of labor hours. You must compile a lot of documents to make your case, but there are ways you can make the process more efficient and cost-effective.

The first step is to examine your parts-pricing matrix. This matrix is a chart of pricing structures for specific parts dependent on unit cost, volume sold, and discounts available. These variables can cost thousands of dollars in lost profit. 

What does this mean? Simply put, the OEM is looking for consistency. When evaluating reimbursable rates, the manufacturer does not want to see large swings in what the customer ultimately pays for a specific part. For example: if the retail pricing for a part is $200, and your team is charging between $135-$200 (dependent on your volume/discount matrix), the manufacturer is going to look at the average charge. Therefore, if you are only charging 70% on average due to an aggressive discounting structure, you’ll only be accepted at the 70% rate ($140). Now anytime you sell at full retail, you are losing out on a $60 difference.

It’s crucial to examine your matrix and discount policy before applying. Most manufacturers allow you to apply only once a year for a rate increase. Although it may be beneficial at that moment to apply favorable discounts for specific customers, you must understand the potential downside that this practice causes. Maintaining a consistent and tight parts structure will give you the best opportunity to maximize your reimbursed rate, therefore increasing your profit.

The second step is to get on-board with document scanning and online archiving. Your manufacturer will not just give you the rate increases. You have to make your case and that takes documentation.

Most state laws require a dealer to submit at least 100 sequential qualifying ROs to substantiate its retail rate. These documents must be detail copies that outline per-unit cost. Missing documents or in-correct versions can result in the manufacturer rejecting your submission.

A third-party document management platform makes it easy to simply type a RO number into a search bar instead of dedicating countless hours to digging through filing cabinets and boxes. Online storage also means you can retrieve the entire list of documents at once, documents can be accessed anytime and from anywhere, and there is no risk of misfiling pulled documents once you have accessed them.

The last tip is to investigate partnering with an automotive consultant who specializes in warranty parts reimbursement analysis. These companies can help you analyze your price matrixes, inform you of the laws in your state, and essentially build the “case” to the manufacturer. They will typically be specialized in certain manufacturers and know what the OEMs require to optimize the cost reimbursement percentage.

Time is important as the sooner you submit documentation, the sooner you can benefit from higher rates. With massive amounts of data and limited employee time, the combination of a scanning and archiving solution and a trained automotive consultant is likely your best bet to optimize your warranty parts and labor markups to get results faster.

Because of the current economic situation, a lot of dealers are actively seeking ways to cut costs while boosting gross profits. Do not overlook the profit potential of retail reimbursement for warranty parts. Take advantage of a document management platform and the expertise of an automotive consultant to efficiently and cost-effectively prepare a rate increase submission that, once approved, will pay dividends for years to come.

As the saying goes, the only guarantees in life are death and taxes. For dealers, you can add a third: audits.

The general trend in the industry over the past few years is manufacturers auditing more frequently, on a smaller scale. Manufacturers are struggling in the time of COVID-19, and it’s likely that increased audits will be a source of revenue for OEMs.

Many dealerships are also facing economic hardship due to the disruption caused by the pandemic. Now more than ever, it pays to be proactive in reducing liability to manufacturer warranty charge backs.

Once this crisis passes – and it will – where do you want your dealership to be? Now is the time to put documentation best practices in place to protect your business.

In a typical warranty audit 50-100 VINs are reviewed, depending on the manufacturer. Producing the required documentation for an audit is expensive in itself: a lot of labor hours are involved to pull and re-file all requested documentation. Compiling all those documents can lead to misfiling down the road.

Worst-case? You may be forced to fire your warranty administrator or service manager for failing the audit. This can lead to additional loss in productivity while you get someone new up to speed.

Fortunately, the following five steps can help you decrease this liability:

1. Scan all related documentation for easy, online retrieval. A missing document could cost your dealership an expensive charge back, so it is crucial to scan all documents including signed invoices, receipts, technician notes, diagnostic tests, and warranty claim reimbursement forms. Using a document scanning provider, you can quickly find all documentation associated with each VIN through web-based software for a painless, smooth audit. You can image how much easier it is to type each VIN into a search bar than it is to hunt through filing cabinets for hundreds of documents. It’s a simple solution with a big payoff.
2. Keep accurate and complete repair orders (ROs) online. By scanning and archiving your ROs online, auditors can access the requested information from anywhere as opposed to coming to the dealership. Keeping records online allows you to maintain them for the full retention period without taking up valuable floor space or dedicating employee time to searching through document boxes. Scanning also eliminates the risk of an employee altering the information with white out, black out, erasers, etc. Consider a third-party document management platform that is DMS-agnostic for your archives. Housing documents outside of your DMS guarantees they will be available anytime and from anywhere, even if you end up switching DMS providers.
3. Find a trusted consultant to review your dealership policies and procedures. Automotive consultants can help identify areas of concern prior to a warranty audit. These consultants specialize in the industry and know the process from working with other dealerships. The consultant can also recommend record retention and parts retention best practices and how to document consistent with standards. They will customize internal auditing procedures for your specific dealership or dealer group. Many also offer self-audit checklists so you can perform informal audits on a regular basis.
4. Designate an employee or vendor as your Compliance Officer. No dealership, large or small, should go without a compliance officer. This person should regularly spot check claims to ensure all supporting information is in the system and perform mock audits by randomly pulling a few job cards (warranty and shop copies) to ensure customer concern descriptions are clear and concise, bills fit the dates and times, and necessary signatures are included, etc. Performing self-audit reviews will most prepare your dealership for actual audits. When it is time for an actual audit, this designated compliance officer will handle the claims from beginning to end. This person should not be the service manager or the warranty administrator; this helps keep the self-audit process honest.
5. Host annual employee training sessions on the auditing process and internal procedures. The warranty process is complex and should be reviewed regularly with the team. Service and parts employees may need to be properly trained on documenting hours and repair work. Employees should make sure dates and mileage are recorded correctly. For example, technicians must note what was found as the cause of the customer’s concern and what was done to correct it to complete the 3 C’s (Complaint, Cause, Correction). The absence of one of the 3 C’s on any line may result in a chargeback during the audit. Documents of customer eligibility for incentives must also be documented to avoid being classified as fraud by the manufacturer. One employee not following the process could potentially cost the dealership thousands of dollars. Informing your team is key, they need to know what an auditor is looking for during their review in order to be prepared.

There are many helpful and free “self-audit checklists” available online. For example, this GM and Chrysler checklist breaks out the primary points that auditors look for by job category. Conduct an online search using keywords “self-audit” and the name of the vehicle manufacturer. Every manufacturer can also supply a list of audit requirements.

Don’t let expensive charge backs eat into your bottom line. Follow these 5 tips to ace your next audit while cutting preparation costs and time. 

One View Vault gives dealerships even more power to archive, access, and retain DMS documents.

Indianapolis, IN – September 15, 2020 – One View, an auto industry-specific data solution specialist, today announced the full transition of its customer base to the recently launched One View Vault. The company has officially sunset its former platform, Web-View. The new state-of-the-art system incorporates the highest standards of data security with a user-friendly, mobile-enabled interface that makes it easier and faster for dealerships to archive, access, and retain DMS documents.

“We heard from our dealer clients that they wanted a faster, more user-friendly system,” said David DeHaven, One View Founder & CEO. “One View Vault delivers that ease of use along with innovative permissions, workflow tools, and the highest levels of security, to help our clients find and use information more effectively to improve business performance. It also sets us up to implement several new products coming soon.”

One View Vault is unique because it is compatible with all DMS vendors. Dealerships can securely and easily archive and access their data anytime and anywhere via any web browser. Thousands of existing customers, including large dealership groups such as Hendrick Automotive Group, have already transitioned to the new platform. Dealers own their data and have the freedom to utilize it in any manner. 

Documents across dealership departments can be easily archived and stored. Fixed operations can capture repair orders, service invoices, parts invoices, technician’s notes, and more. Intelligent Exception Reports protect dealerships from audits.

Sales departments can electronically capture all deals and upload deal jackets directly to One View Vault from the DMS. Full deals, or other documents referenced during the sales process, can easily be retrieved, printed, emailed, or downloaded.

Accounting departments can COLD month-end files or scan in documents to provide an auditor or CPA access to specific accounting records to make audits fast and painless.

As a SOC 2 certified organization, One View is held to the highest standards of data security. Developed by the American Institute of CPAs, SOC 2 defines criteria for managing customer data based on security, among other service principles.

All dealership DMS data is sent to One View Vault through encrypted transmission methods and databases are backed up redundantly to multiple datacenters to ensure business continuity and data integrity.

“Data security has become one of our customers’ top priorities,’" said DeHaven. "We've always maintained a secure, top-of-the-line data center, but this certification allows us to ensure we are doing everything possible to put our customers' minds at ease."

For more information about One View Vault, visit https://bit.ly/2DZaVs1

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About One View

One View has been a trusted partner to thousands of automotive dealers across North America with a broad range of business solutions, including month-end data archiving, document scanning, and DMS data conversions. These solutions digitally capture dealer’s data from any source and provide immediate user access, insightful analysis, and management of their most important asset: their data. A preferred vendor, recommended by major CPA firms, manufacturers, DMS platforms, and dealer groups, One View has built a strong reputation of excellence by showcasing a solid product and a strong understanding of the automotive market. As the only auto industry-specific data solution specialist, One View has aided dealers with electronic data management for over 20 years. As the auto industry continues to move toward a more digital and paperless environment, One View is committed to preparing, consulting, and assisting dealers as they navigate into the data-driven 21st century.

Did you choose, or inherit, a DMS that isn’t working for your dealership and now you feel stuck? Do you keep renewing your contract because you’re concerned about losing data and documents if you switch to a new provider?

The typical DMS contract lasts five years. But the law mandates you retain documents for seven years.

Welcome to the DMS “gotcha” moment. It’s no accident that many legacy DMS contract terms fall just short of what the law demands. These DMS systems have one goal: catch you in a repetitive renewal cycle so you never make it to the end.

It doesn’t have to be this way. You can break the cycle, avoid that “gotcha” moment, and be DMS independent.

Independence is as simple as owning your data. When you implement a third-party platform to scan your documents and/or retain your month-end DMS data, you truly own that data. Your DMS provider no longer has ownership over it. It’s yours to access, retrieve, and retain, anytime, and anywhere. You don’t have to worry about document retention periods and the overlap with DMS contract renewals.

The power struggle over dealers’ data is a fight that legacy DMS systems are willing to fight; just take a look at the data ownership laws being passed in Arizona. Also, the recent Authenticom lawsuits, which sparked additional claims about anti-competitive behavior. These will surely set the precedent for the rest of the industry moving forward.

DMS independence gives you control over your dealership’s destiny. Consider the leverage you’ll have in DMS contract renegotiations. With a copy of critical DMS data saved outside of your system, it becomes easy to tell a current provider unwilling to meet your terms, “I don’t need you, I have my data.”

The stress of an audit becomes much easier to weather. Say you sell a dealership. You can still be audited for a number of years, even though you are no longer the owner. When you store documents outside of the DMS you can provide access to an auditor or CPA so audits are fast and painless.

During these challenging economic times, you may be faced with losing a dealership. Whether it is a manufacturer's decision, bankruptcy, or even lack of a succession plan; it's a sad fact that sometimes a store must close. As when selling a dealership, audits are still possible for several years after a dealership closes Proactively using a third-party company protects you in the future, and eases the transition as the store close.

On the other side of the spectrum, some dealer groups continue to acquire stores at a fast pace. These stores likely use a variety of DMS providers. That leaves the corporate office with a difficult decision: move all stores to one DMS, or allow the stores to keep what they are used to and what is working for that store?

When you have a third-party document management platform, this decision becomes much easier. There’s no need to force every store to transition to a DMS that may not be a best-fit based on size, sales, or location. You have one consistent platform to store and retrieve documents. This opens up a big opportunity to allow every dealership to keep a system that is working, and there are no conversion costs.

Take for example one large multi-regional dealer group with 19 locations. They currently use five different DMS systems. Why? Since many stores are regionally located, they allow the flexibility to use what provides the most bang for their buck. Since they use a third- party platform for scanning and COLDing their month-end accounting books, corporate can access all data from all stores in one consistent platform. New DMS? New acquisition? No problem.

Finally, data independence frees you from any DMS “pay me now, pay me later” schemes. In this scenario, a provider charges you to input your data into their system. Then when you want to make a switch, they demand payment again to release your data. It’s your data, yet they hold it hostage as a way to keep you on the system.

A third-party document management platform is the most effective way to avoid the DMS “gotcha” moment. When you are DMS independent you have the upper hand. You decide when to leave a system that isn’t working. You decide what system to keep. DMS independence allows you to tear down any exit barriers before they can even be built.