With social distancing rules implemented as a result of the current pandemic, we understand the renewed focus for automotive dealerships to improve efficiency in their administration department. Going electronic and being more efficient is essential in a time where physical handling of documents between departments can be challenging and time consuming.

Here are four steps dealerships can implement that will help boost efficiency in their administration department straight away:

1. Automatically process deals within your dealership

Typically, an administration department could take anywhere up to 25-30 hours a month manually processing 100 vehicle contracts. The gold standard and most efficient administration departments are automatically reconciling and are only having to manage any exceptions. Senior managers need to drive discipline in the Showroom Department to ensure all data is entered correctly by the salesperson. If your estimated gross is within your acceptable variance of accounting gross, these deals should be automatically posted to the General Ledger.

2. Eliminate manual data entry

Is your administration team individually entering invoice details, manually cross-referencing information and relying on their attention to detail to catch duplicate invoices, incorrect amounts, or out-of-policy expenditures? To solve this, you need a software solution that can automate the approval workflow and remove any potential human error. For dealerships of any size, there is little argument that adopting an automated invoice payment solution that is fully integrated to your Dealer Management System can help contribute to the bottom line.

3. Implement paperless workflows in your dealership

Are you using paper documents to run your business? Here are some facts that you may not be aware of:

• 1 out of 20 documents can go missing.
• The average staff member in a dealership spends 4 weeks each year looking for documents (400 hours).
• It takes an average of 10 minutes per paper document to retrieve, copy and re-file.
• Each folder drawer file cabinet holds an average of 10-12,000 documents and takes up 9 square feet of floor space and costs $1,500 per year.

Source: Gartner Group, AIIM, US Dept of Labour, Imaging Magazine, Coopers & Lybrand

Instant storage and retrieval of documents directly from your Dealer Management System will help save time, space and effort when you adopt paperless workflow at your dealership. Having an electronic document filing system for your DMS documents, mitigates any future risk of costly fines from your OEMs when you can’t reproduce those original warranty repair orders during your audits.

4. Monitor dealership performance anytime, anywhere

If your dealership has not implemented an interactive business Intelligence tool with live dashboards and full mobility, you are falling behind. In today’s competitive market, It’s important to have a point and click, drillable reporting tool to compare performance within departments, franchises and month-on-month trends to have the data that matters in the hands of your key staff making decisions.

If you’d like to learn more about strategies that could help boost efficiency in your administration department, feel free to get in touch with us. To find out how you can streamline your entire organisation with one suite of electronic document management products, click here.