Choosing a Database for a Car Dealership
Sunday January 20, 2008
In a recent forum posting, Jim wrote:
"My spouse originally created an Excel workbook with multiple monthly spreadsheets to manage back end sales and profits (F&I) for a motor vehicle dealership. It is an annual accounting (including charts) which is then broken out by month, product type (new, used, atv, etc) and then finally by customer on a daily basis. This accounting includes the customer info, sales price which is manually entered, but then I use several data tables to calculate profits for various products which have varying terms and prices.
As info: This was a totally manual process before using different calculation for each product. Very time consuming with no real / poor visibility to stats. I have been advised that Access is not the solution....
Here is my question: I know there is a need in the marketplace for an automated product which is user friendly. I know I can sell this product if developed properly. I need to do this with as little development / up front cost as possible. My spouse if provided with the appropriate software can do this.
Can someone guide me to the right software out there?
Have some advice for Jim? Interested in what others are saying? Visit our forum!
"My spouse originally created an Excel workbook with multiple monthly spreadsheets to manage back end sales and profits (F&I) for a motor vehicle dealership. It is an annual accounting (including charts) which is then broken out by month, product type (new, used, atv, etc) and then finally by customer on a daily basis. This accounting includes the customer info, sales price which is manually entered, but then I use several data tables to calculate profits for various products which have varying terms and prices.
As info: This was a totally manual process before using different calculation for each product. Very time consuming with no real / poor visibility to stats. I have been advised that Access is not the solution....
Here is my question: I know there is a need in the marketplace for an automated product which is user friendly. I know I can sell this product if developed properly. I need to do this with as little development / up front cost as possible. My spouse if provided with the appropriate software can do this.
Can someone guide me to the right software out there?
Have some advice for Jim? Interested in what others are saying? Visit our forum!
First, I love MS-Excel and MS-Access is an excellent development environment. With that said, here is what I recommend (with over 20,000+ hours of database programming). Don’t be so sure a product isn’t already out there that does 95% to 100% of what you want to do, including reports and graphics and linking with Excel. NO, it is not QuickBooks!!! Read this years round of Intuit’s latest goofs in InfoWorld. The product is an off the shelf copy of Peachtree Complete Accounting for $400/single user, to $800/muliuser.
I have clients in Atlanta that run $15M to $25M a year companies on Peachtree. Call Sage software for a 100% working Trial CD.
I once setup an HVAC company that wanted to combine three different vertical market parts and labor databases into one. This was done externally and then 15,000 items were imported into Peachtree.
First rule of database programming is do not get greedy and try to code a half-baked database system that mimics parts of a secure, rock-solid accounting package.
Happy New Year and best wishes!
Regards,
DKWagner
Hey Jim,
I am currently developing a dealer management Access database. I have completed the marketing and prospecting side, and I am currently working on invoicing/stock control.
If you have any specifics we may be able to collaborate on, why not get in touch.
Regards,
Chris
Hey Jim,
What about this database
http://crm-exporter.com/ ???