The COO of DealerStrong, Harlene Doane, warns that many dealers have employees who are the equivalent of pickpockets and many of the pickpockets are working hard at taking money from the dealer’s profits. Some are intentional about it and some are just taking advantage of YOUR poor policies and procedures because it’s easy. See if any of these seven things happen in your store.

1. Are Employees
Your Profit?
By Harlene Doane

2. A person
who takes money
or other valuables
from someone
without the theft
being noticed at the
time.

3. Some employees are the
of a pickpocket.
They take advantage of your
poor policies and procedures.

5. Employees are able to make purchases
without purchase orders.
You require purchase orders, but allow the
same individual to match delivery, do
invoices, and authorize payments.

6. The amount of money they take
is often if your store
operates on a COD basis instead of
utilizing vendor credit.

7. The items are often ordered
and paid for in
for you to notice or question
the purchase.

8. the number of
individuals
who can issue
purchase
orders & make
payments.
Make sure a
person is
matching packing
slips & invoices
to purchase
orders for
payments.

9. Numerous employees are able
to sign checks or make
electronic bank transactions.

10. If signers of checks aren’t
vested in the company,
they won’t watch the
dollars leaving like you do.
As the number of signers,
or those with access to
your banking, increases so
does the opportunity for
misappropriation of your
money.

11. Since no one watches your
money quite like you do…

12. Part pricing gets overridden
and discounted.

13. Discounting parts is like a slow tire leak…
At first, you don’t notice, but eventually
your tire (Gross Profit) goes flat.

14. Review your part’s
gross profit regularly.
Look at staff overrides to
ensure your staff aren’t
abusing the discounts.

15. Service tickets are closed
to coupons, discounts,
or other internal
accounts.

16. A coupon runs and never gets
removed from the system.
Then it becomes too easy to
continue giving it to those
who shouldn’t have it.

17. Review your…
See if dollars were being written
off that were never authorized.

18. Employees get discounts
that you did not approve.

19. If so…
The one who received the service and
the one who gave it away.

20. Cover:
1.) Parts
2.) Services
3.) Vehicle Purchases

21. Parts are returned
for cash.

22. Say your shop orders a non-inventoried part
(Emergency Part) and it turns out to be the wrong one…
A runner goes to get the right part.
The right part is ordered.
(Maybe from a different supplier)
What happens to the part?

23. Since it’s not stocked in
inventory, it’s pretty easy for
the part to the
dealership, be , and
the just may not make
it back to you…

25. Sales department policy
authorizations are out of
control.

26. A crazy amount of dollars are
charged to policy because

27. Make sure sales management is
accountable for those charges through
their compensation plan.
Complete We-Owe’s on every deal, even
those where nothing is owed, and have
the customer sign it.
Set firm limits on policy authorization in
both dollars and who can authorize
them.

28. You wouldn’t like a pickpocket
rummaging through your pockets…