Centralised and paperless solution sees reporting turnaround reduce from 2 days to less than 3 hours.
Motorline Group, one of the UK’s largest motor groups, has streamlined forecasting and capitalised on released resources to focus on sales and business expansion. Using Cooper Solutions’ range of integrated dealer management products, Motorline has created a more agile business that is successfully accelerating continued growth plans for this year.
Motorline represents eleven manufacturers and has increased its number of sites from 22 to 47 over the last 5 years. With a large geographical distribution, Motorline needed to be able to gain an overview of its entire network’s forecast in order to maximise growth opportunities and operate efficiently; FullForecast, and FullAccounts from Cooper Solutions has not only achieved this, but radically reduced the man hours previously spent by the business producing and reconciling such reports.
Paul Betts, Financial Director of Motorline Group, explains, “FullForecast provides us with an automated daily financial month-to-date and year-to-date report, including several department drill downs, such as vehicles sold and ordered or even labour hours and work in progress. This used to be a manual process for line managers to conduct every 10 days, and would take a good couple of days to compile. Now, it’s done automatically, within hours, and the accuracy means we can plan strategically and react to trends against both budget and forecast, which is vital given the wide geographic spread of the business.”
FullAccounts delivers additional reporting such as profit and loss, balance sheet and model analysis which has enabled Motorline to consolidate eight separate ledger systems, saving time and improving accessibility to information.
Betts continues: “With 17 management accountants using nominal ledger management, standardisation of the system has ensured consistency across the business. We can access information, at all levels, at the touch of a button. In addition, reporting has been maximised with benefits to the income side of the business, for example, we have better control of bonus income. The professionalism, consistency and ease of the management system ensures it has had complete buy-in at all levels of Motorline.
“Our partnership with Cooper Solutions has been instrumental in taking Motorline closer to becoming a virtually paperless system across the Group. On acquiring new sites, we introduce the products immediately as a matter of course. Teams see the benefits at once rating them as second to none. In addition, Cooper Solutions continues to develop and improve systems in reaction to our needs, delivering the innovation and stability we need to take our business forward.”
Andrew Whicher of Cooper Solutions concludes: “We work closely with retailers like Motorline to help them implement the latest, web-based solutions putting them back in control of their business. Using FullForecast with FullAccounts has freed up valuable time for senior managers allowing them to act upon financial data rather than producing it. This has a positive impact on performance, is motivational and ensures they can add value as required in their position. With insights into the business, financial and operational information can be analysed by dealership, division, entity and group.”
