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PFW's “Executive Summary” Dashboard

Instant Business Intelligence

PFW Password - Summer 2005 The corporate "dashboard" is fast becoming a business necessity. Just as a jet pilot requires key gauges in order to safely complete their mission, business managers and owners require the same kind of information delivery. The pilot will need to check altitude and attitude, airspeed and instrumentation. Similarly, a business manager needs a tool with which to receive a snapshot of receivables status, inventory, contact management, or sales numbers at any given time.

Two years ago, PFW recognized this need for such a management tool and released PFW IntelliDealer’s Executive Summary, which today remains a competitive advantage for our company.

Executive Summary is a customizable management console that gives high-level staff a snapshot of dealership metrics. It’s all part of the effort to improve “business intelligence”, which is critical to growth and a better bottom line. Over 30 views (see “Current Executive Summary Views” box) are currently available through the Executive Summary—with more to come—and these reports contain everything from financials to inventory to contact management to sales—and any other trends and factors that are key indicators and drivers of the business.

Sales Management
Here is just a sample of real-world examples where Executive Summary is used by various aspects of the dealership:

Equipment Managers can get an idea of the competitive landscape with the Recent Equipment Lost Sales view. This view shows which competitor “won” the sale, for what price, and for what reason. This kind of information is invaluable to the sales initiative in terms of pricing, sales performance, discounts, and specials.

The Product Support Sales Manager can use the Aged Work In Process Executive Summary report in order to uncover service inefficiencies. See the work in process report for all work orders, showing the charges by category and aging period for each work order. The view’s graphic display provides an instant look at the dollar amounts and percentages of total for accounts that are defined by aging period. If, for example, a large percentage of the work in process starts to appear in the 31-60 day period, a service manager may need to act promptly.

Parts Sales Managers can utilize the Top Parts Sold YTD view in order to track the most-sold parts, which will influence stocking codes and inventory adjustments. The part number, vendor and revenue totals are shown in this powerful view.

Sales Analysis Options
As well, it is possible to show a chart of MTD sales and YTD sales breakdown. To get a more detailed picture of what this data represents, you can drill down to the actual invoice through Financial Management’s General Ledger, Account History. The Area Sales option allows you to specify a date range, and a hyperlink leads to the account number screen. This screen lists the accounts that compose that figure. By drilling down further, the user can see the numbers of the transactions that occurred on that date. As well, it is possible to view the actual invoices that were entered. If there is no invoice, the system will call up the GL details. As well as these sales breakdowns, the Yesterday’s Sales, LMTD Sales, and LYTD Sales reports can be run in the Executive Summary and a variety of other sales and marketing views are available.