Pub. 15 2016-2017 Issue 2

N E W J E R S E Y C O A L I T I O N O F A U T O M O T I V E R E T A I L E R S 11 new jersey auto retailer W W W . N J C A R . O R G Everyone who comes into your office has a monkey on their back. Their goal is to get that monkey off their back and onto your back. At the end of the day, you’re exhausted and weighed down from these interruptions and problems. I’ll admit that training and supervising the accounting office was my least favorite chore as a CFO/Controller. During my last job as a Controller, I wasn’t sure what everyone did after recently being hired, so I had them all create a list of their tasks and indicate when they performed them. Next I asked each office person to document the task in a format that I called “How to.” When I got the full list, including my own left by the prior Controller, I rated the tasks into 3 categories (ABC.) The highest “C” level was for CAT - Confidential, Accurate and Timely tasks, “B” for Better tasks and “A” for tasks that could be completed by Anyone. I was shocked at how many tasks my best staff, (C-level) were doing that could be done by anyone (A-level) and how many tasks were missing. My new dealership had no internal control, profit, or asset manage- ment tasks. Many times, Controllers are doing an unfair amount of tasks including toomany lower-level tasks that could be done by any- one. This takes themaway frombeing amore profit-focusedmanager. How can you better organize your accounting office and get more time to help your dealer and fellowmanagers? The best place to start is when you are hiring your next office replacement. Instead of hir- ing to replace a desk – move some of the lower-level items from other desks and hire a new, lower-priced “A” person. Move the important tasks to your “B” staff that want to grow into a “CAT.” It is critical that staff be cross-trained on various tasks conducted throughout the dealership in order to cover for vacations and sick leaves. There are many ways to motivate office staff to learn new tasks, including bonuses based on deals worked, a bonus for having a certain amount of B or higher tasks assigned – or four hours free time off if the close is completed in three days. You can download a copy my comprehensive list of tasks by going to my website www.sandijerome.com and clicking on Free Downloads. As a profit-focused Controller, if you can help your dealer or GM push that profit rock up the hill, then you’ll not only elevate yourself in their eyes, but make life better for everyone and increase profit for the dealership. Sandi Jerome is the founder of Sandi Je- rome Computer Consulting. She can be reached at 360.406.5062, x706 or at sandi.jerome@ gmail.com. Using my accounting background, I developed a break-even analysis customized for our industry. I studied how we made money and found the five key profit areas and then the dozens of profit points that branch off of those key areas.