Arkona / Dealertrack

[Ichabod Farquar]

Getting ready to look at "Tier 2" DMS providers and I have heard of a potential problem with Dealertrack. I have been told that parts that are billed on repair orders sometimes disappear by themselves. Inventory remains accurate because part remains subtracted. However, inventory value suffers because no one ever pays for the part and the part is simply "not there" on the repair order.

Anyone else heard of this?

[MovingForward]

We have been on the system a little over 2 years now. Can't say I have ever experienced the problem in which you are inquiring. I have experienced a few "quirky" things happening once in a great while that no one can explain. We were on ADP prior and can say we haven't experienced anymore problems then we did with them.

As with change, I wasn't excited about the switch when we were getting ready to do it. However, I knew I had no choice so I embraced the switch and things have been pretty good for us. There are definitely things in which you will have to get used to but over all I really like the system. I can honestly say that I would not want to go back to ADP now.

If you have any other questions feel free to contact me. My email should be listed.

[Richard]

That's an old glitch that we discovered several years ago when it was still Arkona. Someone is service had too much authority and was deleting Special Order parts off RO's because they didn't understand how the prepaid credit worked. The money didn't 'disappear', you just had to clear the special order deposit acct manually in the accounting office. That issue was fixed quite some time ago, but you do need to make sure your service people do NOT have the authority to delete parts.

[greenthumb-38]

I echo the comments above... far less quirky than ADP, that is for sure. Dealertrack has its limitations or quirks, but I am very comfortable with day to day usage and the price is right, very right. These are the concerns that come to mind. there are others...

1. Auto Sourcing not available that I have found.
2. Flat pricing parts for specials can still be discounted (ie AutoClub discount, or Senior Citizen discount), so many labor ops lose money after the discount is applied.
3. Cores are discounted when using all types of RO discounts, but not the core credit.

~ gt

[Richard]

I echo the comments above... far less quirky than ADP, that is for sure. Dealertrack has its limitations or quirks, but I am very comfortable with day to day usage and the price is right, very right. These are the concerns that come to mind. there are others...

1. Auto Sourcing not available that I have found.
2. Flat pricing parts for specials can still be discounted (ie AutoClub discount, or Senior Citizen discount), so many labor ops lose money after the discount is applied.
3. Cores are discounted when using all types of RO discounts, but not the core credit.

~ gt

3. It depends on your set-up. I had cores set up in a separate stocking group that allowed no discounts or mark-up, they were purely a pass-through.