March 27, 2024 —When Peterbilt of Atlanta Dealer Principal, Scott Pearson, first offered Renee Perkins the position of CFO and Controller, she had one condition—that they implement Excede as their dealer management system (DMS). Perkins had worked with several other solutions and found them frustrating.
Once she made the switch to Excede, she knew there was no going back. Pearson agreed, Perkins joined the team, and over the course of the next thirteen years, the dealership grew from a single location to eight. Throughout Peterbilt of Atlanta’s growth, Excede has served as the foundation of their accounting practices.
Despite the increase in locations, Perkins and her team of five have been able to significantly streamline day-to-day accounting practices and consistently close the month out in three standard working days.
Streamlining Day-to-Day Accounting Practices
With Excede, The Peterbilt of Atlanta accounting team realizes significant day-to-day operational efficiencies, can more readily identify and correct errors, and can more closely manage the bottom line. This is largely due to improved access to real-time data across every area of the business. Because it’s so straightforward to access their data and build reports, Perkins can get quickly and easily get the information she needs to make informed decisions—and she can help other teams do the same. Perkins also has a much higher degree of confidence in the accuracy of the data in Excede relative to other systems. If something seems off, it is straightforward for her to find the error it is tied to and correct it.
In addition, Excede’s flexible bank reconciliation feature means she and her team can quickly and easily reconcile their bank account on demand—even multiple times a day, if needed. This was especially advantageous when the dealership was first established, and cash flow was critical. Automation also plays a key role in the efficiency of the system. Perkins explains, “With Excede, almost any repetitive task can be automated, which saves time and increases accuracy.”
Perkins spends the time she and her team save on daily accounting practices consulting with other locations and teams and helping them improve performance. Perkins explains, “The time I get back in my day from using Excede, I spend being more involved with other critical elements of the business, including traveling to other locations and providing hands-on business process consulting. With Excede, I’m able to provide them with the data and information they need to make better informed business decisions and improve their margins.”
These efficiency gains also help Perkins keep overhead in check. She can support all eight Peterbilt of Atlanta locations with a small-but-mighty accounting team of just five FTEs, in addition to herself.
Closing the Month in Three Standard Working Days
Perkins cites her use of accrual-based accounting practices as cornerstone to being able to close the month quickly. Using this approach, she and her team can get a clear picture of where they stand at the end of each month while reconciling small discrepancies later. In addition, Perkins and team leverage key Excede functionality, including streamlined parts inventory, automatic accounting capabilities, and standardized recurring entries, to streamline their month-end processes.
Standardized recurring entries functionality means they do not have to recreate every entry each month at close. Instead, they simply pull them into the journal entries instead of posting them individually, which saves hours of time. Excede’s real-time database means they can see parts purchases in accrued payables, so they do not have to wait for paper to be submitted before closing, which is a common cause of delays. In addition, Perkins used Excede’s automatic accounting capabilities to establish rules that make it easier to book truck deals at the end of the month. By leveraging this functionality, her team just has to add a few numbers to each deal.
To make this process even smoother, Perkins and the team stay on top of daily activities like looking for suspended tickets and fixing errors. Then, they spend the first day of month focused on posting; the second day continuing to post, cleaning up details, and identifying and correcting errors; and the third day focused on bonuses, sales pay, and accruals that didn’t get turned in. After that, they close the month and run their internal reporting.
By taking full advantage of Excede accounting functionality and applying their own best practices, the Peterbilt of Atlanta team can consistently close the month in three standard working days, which is significantly less time than many dealerships using other DMS solutions take.
Excede, A DMS that “Just Makes Sense”
When Perkins was first introduced to Excede, her initial point of view was that it “just made sense.” Over the years, she has become an even greater advocate of the solution and highly recommends it to dealerships of all sizes. As she explains, “When other dealerships shadow us to learn more about Excede, I ask them to describe a process in their current system that they don’t like doing, is too complicated, or takes too long. Then, I show them how straightforward it is to do in Excede. Without fail, I can get the same result in less time—the system is that flexible!”
To learn more about leveraging Excede to streamline your accounting processes, please reach out to customersuccess@procedesoftware.com.