Good Morning:

Today is the morning of the 4th workday of October. Are the books ready to be closed and a final statement pulled by noon today? If not, why not?

Here, in my opinion, are some reasons why a dealership books aren't closed by noon on the 4th workday.

The dealer doesn't care.

You don't care.

You're a numbers dummy, not a CONTROLLER.

You don't delegate.

You do it all yourself.

You don't adhere to the daily close procedure throughout the month.

You didn't have "where you at" five minute daily meetings with your staff.

You waited until the end of the month to chase down problems.

You waited until the end of the month to purify schedules.

You sat in your office like a Buddha waiting for deals, vendor invoices, miscellaneous inventories, work in process, sales and finance logs and other data to be brought to you. You didn't rise and go get it.

You're waiting for the sales managers to give you bonus and incentive data for the sales staff.

You're waiting for fixed operations to close a repair order or two.

Throughout the close you didn't look at a trial balance or detailed general ledger or continually purify schedules to look for errors or find out what is missing.

You're a Whoosh and let the sales department control the close.

You're waiting for the final three deals from finance. The deals need a co-pilot or pay stub or drivers license. And of course the deals are dated September 16, September 21 and September 29.

THE SOLUTION - put the word out that the sales staff and other bonused employees won't be paid Friday because Ace, Queenie and Jack didn't get the paperwork right and we are still waiting. You will be amazed how fast the deals are completed and the "mind deal" suddenly disappears.

Why pay Friday? Builds moral and keeps the salsperson's mind off - when are we gettig paid. And it clears the deck for Monday. The mind won't be on a paycheck, but rather on this month's business. A paycheck can do that.

I am sure some are thinking, ya right, that doesn't work at our store; we've got this and we've got that. All stores are unique, yet all stores are the same. To put that in perspective when I was the corporate controller for a mega-dealer with 9 stores and 18 franchises and a stand alone mammoth body shop and two management companies, "all" were closed by noon on the 4th workday. The morning was used for a "just in case" review before the button was pushed.

Have a good day!