Things such as filing taxes, tracking revenue, staying on top of receivables and accounts payable, managing employee reimbursements, and administering payroll are all crucial to your business.

While it is relatively easy to manage these business tasks in automotive company operations, it can get challenging and increasingly complex as your business grows. Also, these tasks can sidetrack you from the more critical revenue-generating activities that need your attention.

So, how can you stay in control of your organization’s finances in a fiercely competitive automotive sector? What level of financial management facilitation do you require at the current point in your business lifecycle?

If your business has outgrown the DIY approach and needs more support than an accountant or a bookkeeper can provide, consider hiring a controller.

What are the Responsibilities of the Controller?

The controller works with the dealership management team. Their duties include overseeing reporting, accounting, budgeting, analysis, and more. Furthermore, controllers are the most influential people in any company’s finance and accounting department. A dealership Controller is no longer just a processor of the monthly financial statement.  They must provide analysis to the General Manager to help access the business.

Some of their responsibilities include:

  • Perform meaningful financial assessment
  • Ensure all accounting functions’ integrity
  • Facilitate tax information to the CPA
  • Assist management with finance-related decisions
  • Provide financial info to company executives
  • Mentor and provide job training to the accounting department
  • Help the accounting team with managing cash flow
  • Make sure all accounting schedules are reconciled

When is the Right Time to Upgrade the Controller Position?

While accounting managers and bookkeepers played a vital role in the past, expanding companies ultimately require someone with more financial expertise. Moreover, it is essential to remember that it takes outstanding leadership to manage accounting to help your business thrive.

A financial controller can put their experience and skills to work, helping your business in ways that other team members can’t. So, you might want to think about hiring one in these situations:

  • Your business operations are expanding. For example, suppose you are scaling your organization, and your company is becoming more complex as you increase In that case, your operations are at the risk of becoming disintegrated. Therefore, it is imperative to recruit someone to help you with financial data generation, making sound recommendations, allowing you to save money, and use your capital astutely wherever possible. This is where a controller can help
  • Your General Manager is overburdened. Not having the right controller can make it challenging for your management team to handle their duties. A controller can take that load off by taking over routine accounting team supervision and providing management with essential information. This helps management make precise financial forecasts to facilitate strategic decisions for your business in the long term
  • Make your Accounting office more efficient. Controllers can streamline your financial procedures and manage your accounting team. Also, they assist with recruiting new resources for your accounting unit while ensuring that you have the most proficient and qualified professionals

Wrapping Up

When your automotive dealership gets to the point where you need to ensure smooth financial operations, a controller can offer significant advantages while contributing to improved financial management and ultimately increased profitability.

Take adequate time to research and evaluate the benefits and costs of hiring a professional controller as a company’s financial aspects are complex but vital to make well-informed and data-driven decisions.

Managing a business can be overwhelming, but you don’t have to manage all the processes yourself. Instead, prepare a competent financial team to take your business operations to the next level.

So when you’re ready to have the recruitment team at Autopeople in your corner, give us a call at 1-800-659-9501, visit our website at www.autopeople.com or email us to discuss what Autopeople can do for you.