“The right controller can mean the difference between dealers that thrive and those that are struggling to survive.” – Karli DeVall, CFO, Tim Dahle Nissan
Your dealership’s back office is easy to overlook when things are going well. But behind the scenes, accounting managers and controllers work hard to keep the lights on and the budgets balanced. Identifying a rock star controller—and elevating potential leaders—can empower your accounting team to improve profits and elevate your entire dealership’s operations. Here are seven quick ideas to build up your accounting team for the optimal back office.
1. Prioritize Training
Give your team a structured onboarding program and ongoing training opportunities to keep them engaged. When your accounting team and controllers are well-trained and have a clear path to high performance, they can see their role in the dealership plan and contribute to the bigger profitability picture.
2. Improve Communications
Give your accounting team the tools they need to communicate more efficiently with each other and with your technology. Better communication can empower your team to boost efficiency and evolve with time and new technologies.
3. Adopt Paperless Processes
Provide your team with the infrastructure to adopt paperless processes and digital document scanning. Going paperless improves communication between your teams and departments, and creates efficiencies throughout the dealership.
4. Unlock the Data in Your DMS
Your accounting team has access to troves of data, but they need a way to filter it down to metrics that matter. Empower your team with technology that makes month-end reporting accurate and timely, while also helping them to meet monthly sales and performance objectives and trends.
5. Invest in Automated Technology
Embrace digital technologies that eliminate manual processes. When your accounting team is free to work without restrictions that slow their progress—and ultimately reduce the risk of error—they flourish and thrive! New reporting tools that streamline reports and manually compile data with fully automated General Ledger mapping, like Critical Analytics, are designed to increase efficiency and free your accounting team from the burden of manually compiled spreadsheets from multiple locations that add hours to your team’s workload.
6. Help Your Team Embrace Change
Change can be difficult for accounting team members. But truly great leaders can help them to see their vital role in how technology is implemented and used at the dealership level. When they’re better able to embrace technology, the entire dealership stands to benefit by becoming more efficient and more profitable.
6. Identify Accounting Team Superstars!
Identify true leaders among your accounting team—those who use and embrace technology. Empower them to take the lead when it comes to training new hires, being an ambassador, and rolling out new technology. Find ways to connect your leaders and super users together to unlock the true potential of your team and technology.
To learn more quick ways to build up your accounting team and thrive as a dealership, visit the Controllers’ Hub.
