have you seen the new Gm Statement

[Michael White]

Took my first glance at the new GM statement. Looks interesting. the first thin that I hated was the combining of truck and cars. I guess GM does not want you to know how fast their car business is shrinking. Statements are tools. Why would they do this? they want to separate all fleet and quick lube business, as well as accessary business.. So far, the only problem I see is the lack of a computer system (R&R) that can separate the work on the RO. I must confess, however, have seen very little , in fact nothing from R&R, and almost nothing from GM about the new statement.

[This message has been edited by Michael White (edited 01-23-2004).]

[jazdale]

Mike,
You seem a little bitter, but I can't tell who you're trying to point the finger at.

For what its worth.
The new GM chart is designed to isolate each franchise on its page VS the old way of bundling the financials into the 'other' column. This is similar to the VW statement, which I think is one of the best.

For the most part, GM was one of very few that broke car from truck service sales. Honestly, I don't understand the value of the break-out. So I did 100k in car and 120k in truck service this month - so what!?!

I'm sure theres a way to do the break-outs on your current system, it'll just take a some setups and getting used to.

[petepuma01]

Michael

Era will allow you to break out car and truck sales for your own purposes. In 3622/3624, you can establish specific makes (there are separate ones for cars and trucks). Once the makes are established, you can then create separate sales journals and thereby assign different G/L accounts. I'd be surprised if you're not set this way already.

So, you can have separate sale accounts for car and truck. When it comes to the financial statement, the individual accounts can be related to the one financial statement line.

Post more details about what you're trying to do or send me an e-mail.

[Michael White]

the things that bother me about the GM statement is the lack of pre-information, and organization with the computer companies. I read just about every bit of information GM sends out, I do not remember them sending me some pre-info about the new statement. We recieve several hundred pages of info monthly on GM Messenger. Even when we do, there is a lot of times the Messages have to have addendums becuase they are unclear, or incorrect. I definitely have not recieved anything from R&R about setting up any differentt accounts. The only thing we have recieved in fixed operations was last month from GMSPO, describing what they want to put in their new accessary line for parts. If you follow to the "T" what they want in there, you will be putting shop supplies in there.

I have always lived by the statement if you can monitor and track it, then you have influence on it. Yes, I can make special programs to track just customer pay. But it just adds more time to my already busy schedule. there are only a couple of things that GM has doen for us service managers to make our lives easier or more cost effective. List all the good/bad (cost savings vs cost increasing) things GM has done to our dealerships. If you do it would be depressing. I think it is more important to track cars vs. trucks, than tracking fleet business. But that is me. Right now car sales for GM and domestics are in a serious decline, while the japanese vehicles are in a serious increase in market share. Looking at yearly relationships of new car/truck sales to service sales slaes for cars and trucks can show a lot of informantion. I am not saying everyone needs to do this. But I think I should. I get this info from our statement because it is really easy data to get.

GM has been working on this for years. when GM introduces something new, Why is it a mystery when going into it? Why is it when GM introduces a new product line, I.E. the Pontiac Vibe that is made by Toyota, it takes months to find out what the correct fluids are in this vehicle, let alone GMSPO stock ing those things? Look at the new truck wheel program. It is not doing very good. Why? Because GM does not really understand that market, and especially did not listen to their dealers and they still think they can drive the market. With the GM tire program, why is it a customer can buy a Michelin tire cheaper than I can buy it from GM? This is still the attitude they had in the 70's and 80's when they started their severe drop in quality and market share?they want to influence the market instead of listening/watching the market, and then putting out a product to that is taking advantage of the market trends?? GM spends billions in designing new cars. Then we get something like the Azytec. The Aztec is a geat little car, But find me a major player in the auto news/press that thinkgs the look is attractive? GM says they move very slowly because they want to be careful, etc, etc. But being careful and accruate should also include communication with the dealer body. Now to be on the positive side, I think GM is doing a great job in setting up sytsems to find and identify probelms immediately. In fact, I am confident their systems are the best in the world. Relaying those items is also outstanding, and very helpful and reduces warranty wastes and increases customer satisfaction.

But in general, I think GM does not do a good job communicating ( at least 2 way) with their dealers on a significant amount of important/critical items at least for parts and service . And with all of this said, I still like working with them. Go Figure!!

[This message has been edited by Michael White (edited 01-23-2004).]