03 December 2020

PARTNER FEATURE

The old slogan ‘cash is king’ no longer applies to the motor retail industry; but it is certainly true that ‘cashflow is critical’.

A recent survey by Cox Automotive rated cashflow as the second most pressing concern for motor dealers (just behind the health and welfare of staff and customers) while dropping sales volumes was the third. And, in the wider market, UK Finance, which represents the banking sector, found that a fifth of small firms had less than one month’s cash reserves left during lockdown.

Of course, the motor retail sector is used to running with debt (just think of all that stock funding) and, to a certain extent, the crisis has been mitigated by generous government support and broadly supportive banks. But what will happen as those support packages begin to be removed and we start to operate in a normal commercial environment again?

Reporting on cashflow, and the wider science of annual budgeting, are key modules of Mazeinsight, our business intelligence software that enables you to harness the power of your data.

Accurate reporting

After the flurry of new car sales activity in September, it will be the reporting structure you have in place for Q4 that will enable you to monitor cash flow and avoid any potential pitfalls to the year end. Not only that, having the right tools in place to fully understand and use your business data will give you a competitive advantage.

Business intelligence software that delivers actionable insights in a format that is quick and easy to understand will enable you to react to a rapidly changing market. The Cox Automotive survey found 79% of retailers were changing their business plan for 2020 and advised that dealers should have a three-month rolling operational budget which they should revisit as a priority. These are sound business sentiments which we totally endorse.

But, as we all know, producing repeatable, accurate and consistent plans from multiple data streams on a regular basis is not as easy as it sounds. We are all familiar with Excel as a planning tool but many of us will also be aware of its limitations when it comes to data validation and consistency; errors can easily creep in.

A single view

Mazeinsight offers Excel functionality but works behind the scenes to gather inputs from multiple sources, not just your DMS. It gives you, and your management team, a single view of performance, allowing complete end-to-end management of your business with confidence and security.

As fellow operational professionals, we understand Q4 will be critical to the motor retail industry. Whether you are working on cashflow reporting, or any one of the many other datasets we all use these days, it’s vital you base your actions on insights that are accurate, current and gathered from across the business.

BY Tracy Ellam, commercial director, Mazepoint

Tags: Mazeinsight, Mazepoint, partner feature