Introduction
This article will cover two modules that are commonly used together - Maintain Dealer Groups and Maintain Dealers.
Maintain Dealer Groups
The Maintain Dealer Groups module is used to create, modify, and delete Dealer Groups to which Dealers belong. This is important when certain Dealer Groups receive discounts, deals, special fee assignments, or their inventory is handled a specific way across the entire group.
Creating a Dealer Group
Some dealerships are included in a family or group of dealerships, such as "Johnson Chevy" and "Johnson Ford" belonging to "Johnson Auto Group". To create a Dealer Group, navigate to the Maintain Dealer Groups module, located in the Dashboard under the Accounts category of modules and select "Open New Dealer Group".
A window will open, prompting you to fill in information regarding the Dealer Group - such as the Dealer Group's primary address, contacts, Fee Deductions, Automatic Lights and Announcements, Remarks, and Memberships inclusion - then click save at the top of the window.
If you set Lights and Announcements, all units stocked under dealerships belonging to this Dealer Group will adopt those lights and announcements automatically. The same applies to Contract Remarks.
Modifying a Dealer Group
You can also modify a Dealer Group that has already been completed by clicking on it and editing the information in the pop up window. Changes made WILL NOT apply to units already in inventory.
Example
For this training example, we will create a Dealer Group for a fictional group of dealerships. We will name the Dealership "John Smith's Auto Group". For this example, we will intend to encompass John's 2 dealerships. All vehicles that John sells are trade-ins and will be sold AS-IS. Additionally, John is a big customer for our fictional auction, so we agree to deduct $10 per vehicle in Pick-Up Transportation services.
To do this, we will click "Open New Dealer Group", name our dealership, add fake filler information for the location, contact information, and contact names. We will select the Pick-Up Transportation Fee and set this to $10. Then select the Red Light, or AS-IS light to be applied automatically (since all of John's vehicles are sold AS-IS). Then, we will click save.
Now we need to create the two Dealerships (using the Maintain Dealers module) to be included in this Dealer Group before returning to this module and adding the dealerships into the group.
Maintain Dealers
The Maintain Dealers module - located on the Dashboard under the Accounts category of modules - is where you will create, modify, and delete Dealers who wish to buy or sell at your auction. If a dealer belongs to a dealer group, you can set the membership to the dealer group after the groups and dealer have both been created.
Managing Dealers
The list here shows all created dealerships in your system. You can add, delete, or navigate these records using the bar (pictured above).
Creating New Dealership
To create a new dealership, click "New Dealer". You will be prompted with a window to set a Dealership name. Once entered, press TAB on your keyboard and the Prefix and Dealer Number will populate automatically. You can customize the Dealer Number if you wish, though this is not recommended. If you wish to change the numbering scheme of your dealerships, this can be set in the Master Configuration module.
Dealer Configuration
Info
After selecting a dealer - general information for a dealership, such as their primary rep (created in Maintain Dealer Reps module), the type of dealership, their address, and phone number is seen and edited to the right.
Dealer Number: This will pre-fill for most dealerships once you enter the name. The system will use the first letter of the dealer's name as a prefix and populate the number with the next available designation.
Auction Access: If the dealer belongs to an Auction Access account, Auction Access will manage the dealerships information after initial configuration. Merely enter the AA number in this field, and the system will update their information on the next scheduled rotation.
Status:
Status Not Set - This means the status of the dealer has not been set and the dealer will not be able to buy or sell until their registration has been completed.
Active Dealer - This means the dealer has completed registration and has no flags.
Barred Buying - This means the buyer can sell cars, but cannot buy cars.
Barred Selling - This means the buyer can buy cars, but cannot sell cars.
Bar Buy and Sell - This means the buyer cannot buy or sell.
Marketing Only - This sets the dealership to not buy or sell, but allows them to market their inventory if necessary.
Needs Review - This status is typically used to flag a dealer to be reviewed and have their information verified before being changed to "Active Dealer".
Public Dealer - This sets the dealer as a Public Dealer, and places restrictions based on your system settings intended for Public Dealers.
Type: This status identifies the type of Dealership the dealer is and whether they sell New, Used, or Repossessed Units, Lease or Remarketing Units, Factory New Units, salvage units, Public or Government units, etc. Most items in this dropdown are self-explanatory.
It is important to note, FLOOR companies will be set to the "Type: Floor".
Dealer Name: The full name of the Dealership.
Primary Rep: If the Rep has already been created and registered, as well as set to this dealership, you can select that rep in the dropdown here to be set as the Primary Rep.
Email: This is the email address of the Dealership.
Contact: This is the Primary Contact's name for the Dealership.
Phone: This is the phone number to use when contacting the dealership.
Fax: This is the fax number to use when sending documents to the dealership.
Parent Corp: This is the name of the corporation to which the Dealer Belongs. This is not the "Dealer Group", merely the name of the corporation.
Group
In this section, you can set the Dealership's membership into an already created Dealer Group (configured in the Maintain Dealer Groups module).
Contact
In this section, you can assign a salesperson to handle this auction's IF sales, contacts of the auction, contact updates for notifications, and Dealer Reps that you wish to assign other than their primary sales rep (configured in the Maintain Reps module).
| Updates | Auction Sales Reps | Dealer Reps |
| This will track the communication updates of your auction to the dealer. You can select "New Contact" to create a new entry when you speak with this client. | This is where you can assign who primarily handles the client's needs or requests for the auction. This is typically your salesperson assigned to handle this client. | This is where you set the list of Reps that are authorized to represent the dealership. |
Address - This section will allow you to configure the Physical, Mailing, and preferred Title address for a dealership.
Finance - This section will allow you to configure the financial details of the dealership such as their accepted pay types, financial institutions, floorplan companies, etc. This is broken down below...
- Buyer Payments
- Pay Types - Here you can set the accepted pay types of a dealership. This is also how you can limit how a dealership pays. For example, if their checks are often not reliable and wished to remove checks as an accepted form of pay from that dealer.
- Auct Crdt Limit - This is the credit limit for a dealer. After they reach this amount in their A/R or bidding limit, they will no longer be able to bid on units for sale until the credit limit is paid down.
- NSF's, or Non-Sufficient Funds, will allow you to track if the dealer has ever written a check that bounced or could not be cleared.
- Banks - Configure/Set banks for a dealer. (Maintain Banks)
- Floors - Configure/Set floorplan companies for a dealer. (Maintain Floor Plan Companies)
- Allowance
- License and Bond
- Tax Info
Fees & Inventory - This section allows you to manage fees/deductions for dealers and customize inventory preferences.