A type of car dealership where the dealer loans you the money directly to buy the car, and you make your loan payments directly to them instead of a bank.
The daily cost a dealership pays just to have a car sit on their lot unsold, including insurance, interest on loans used to buy the car, and depreciation.
LIVE
Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Monday Minute, 52 weeks to a better dealership. A quick reset
help you lead better, think clearer, and build your dealership with intention. But before
we get started, make sure you have reviewed the Sunday's newsletter. The newsletter lays
out the full theme for the week, the why behind it, and exercises you can work through with
your team. The Monday Minute is the mindset, and the newsletter is the roadmap. Jeffrey,
what we got?
Let's talk about one of the most exciting parts of your dealership, for me at least,
and that is the accounting. Honestly, I say that because I really believe it. I love the
numbers. I love the money side of it. I tell people if I could do buy here, pay here with
refrigerators. I would do it with refrigerators. I'm not necessarily a car guy. I don't love
selling Ford Focuses and Grand Caravans, but I love the numbers. Here's the thing. The
reason you need to know the numbers is because your dealership can look busy. We all know
dealers that sell a ton of cars. They move a lot of inventory, but they ain't making
any money. If your accounting isn't tight, you're just operating blind, and a blind
business will eventually crash. This time of year is a perfect time during the dog days
of summer to take a look back and ask some really hard questions. Do you have the right
accountant? Do you have strong cash controls? Are every expense being verified? Is everyone
reviewing the numbers beyond just paying the bills? Because accounting isn't just bookkeeping.
It's operational intelligence. You need to know your business, and the numbers tell
that story. Where is my profit at? Where am I making it? Where am I not? Where are my
expenses creeping up? What's changed? Why? What does my inventory strategy look like?
What's my holding costs? Where is my cash flow? All of these things help you understand
the story, and they help you lead your dealership effectively.
Yeah. Everybody knows I love accounting. Jeff, what day of the month do you like to have
the books closed from the previous month? Everything reconciles out. Everything.
Oh, the fifth, if I can. The second I get my bank statements, I do all my journal entries.
I do my reconciliation, and I send it off to my accountant to get things buttoned up.
And that's strong. You need to have a date in the month that is done by, and I love that
the fifth is a great day. So let's talk processes and how do we get there. What happens at your
dealership, number one, when cash is collected? Does a drawer get reconciled every month?
Who's balancing all the quick book ledgers? Who's doing all that? How are expenses getting
approved? And who is reviewing and giving you financial reports? I mean, hopefully that's
you. That's what I've always done in my dealership. But some people use outside
accountants, but we got to know how this is done. Is the process written down? Because
it should be. Everyone just knows, oh, this is how we do it. Because if you don't have
a consistent accounting system in place, we're just going on memory or trust, you're creating
risk, especially in the buyer pay here's space where cash is here, there and everywhere.
That's a problem. Strong operators build controls. They don't just trust everyone. You know, you
don't want to distrust the people, but you need to have processes in place so you can
trust and then verify because that's going to protect your business. Here's your assignment
this week. Write down your accounting processes, cash handling, reconciliation, expense approvals
and financial review. Then schedule time with your CPA and go over these. Make sure you're
doing it right. And that these are the best practices in the industry. Don't just file
your taxes and be like, oh, yeah, we made money. You know, there's something that goes out
there that don't realize they lose money until they file their tax returns. So we need to
know what we're doing and you need to ask, where am I vulnerable? What controls am I
missing? And what do I need to be reviewing monthly to make sure that I am making money?
Because great dealers don't just do the hard work. They know their numbers. If you know,
then if you know your numbers, you can be profitable more quickly because you can fix the
problems. And that is why we're in the business is to make money and to provide for all our
employees and our families. So let's build this thing together.
About this episode
Dealership success isn't just about moving inventory; it's about mastering the numbers. This quick-hit session tackles the critical, often overlooked world of dealership accounting, explaining why high sales volume can mask a failing business. The hosts share actionable advice on establishing tight cash controls, reconciling books by the fifth of every month, and building "trust but verify" processes to protect cash flow. Designed for independent and buy-here-pay-here dealers, it challenges owners to audit their financial workflows and collaborate with CPAs to ensure true profitability rather than just operational busyness.
Welcome to the Monday Minute — your weekly reset to lead better, think clearer, and build your independent dealership with intention.Your dealership can look busy and still be bleeding money. You can sell a ton of cars, move inventory all month long, and still have nothing to show for it — because if your accounting isn't tight, you're not running a business. You're running blind. And a blind business will eventually crash.
In this episode, Jeff and Luke get into the numbers side of the dealership that most operators avoid until it's too late. Jeff breaks down why accounting isn't just bookkeeping — it's operational intelligence. Where is your profit coming from? Where are expenses creeping up and why? What's your holding cost? Where's your cash flow? These aren't questions for your CPA once a year. These are questions you should be able to answer right now. They walk through what strong cash controls actually look like, why trust without verification is a liability especially in the BHPH space where cash is everywhere, and why the fifth of the month is the deadline that separates disciplined operators from dealers who find out they lost money when they file their taxes.Your assignment this week: write down your accounting processes — cash handling, reconciliation, expense approvals, and financial review. Then schedule time with your CPA and go over them. Ask yourself where you're vulnerable, what controls are missing, and what you need to be reviewing every single month. Great dealers don't just do the hard work. They know their numbers. And when you know your numbers, you can fix problems before they fix you.
Review this week's Sunday newsletter at TheIndependentDealer.com for the full theme and exercises.
