Auto-IT Pty Ltd  ::  June 2007 

From the CEO

The last six months has been a period of unprecedented growth for Auto-IT. Since our December newsletter Auto-IT’s software has been sold into 25 new dealerships and we have implementations booked for many months ahead.

Auto-IT is one of the very few global Dealer System Providers able to offer systems to retail dealerships on the world’s two most widely used platforms. These are the Microsoft Open server platform or the Linux platform. On the Microsoft open server platform we provide UNITS™ for the Automotive Industry and EQUIP™ for the Agricultural and Equipment industries.

Sales of UNITS™ and EQUIP™ are on a strong upward trend and as a result Auto-IT has embarked on a recruitment program to enable us to keep up with new system implementation demands resulting from our ever increasing sales.

We continue to provide full support services for our valued PACE2000 customers (see page 6 for Tech Tips).

For those dealerships preferring dealer systems underpinned by Unix / Linux architecture our PMDS™ Dealer System is still very much a live and growing product and the number of loyal Auto-IT users on this popular platform continue to grow steadily. Build R5.5 of PMDS™ will be made available to users within the next four weeks and some of the features of the build are detailed in this newsletter.

Presently our largest build ever for our Windows products, Build 2000 is in Beta test. We expect a commercial roll-out of this important new build to commence on the 1st of August 2007. Build 2040 role out is scheduled for June 2008 and users can expect to see some radical technological advances when 2040 comes to market.

In February 2007, Auto-IT announced an alliance with IBS Asia pacific. IBS is a Swedish company with 1900 people, operating globally and delivering supply chain solutions to five different vertical markets one of the most important of which is automotive. This alliance means that Auto-IT and IBS can now offer systems able to seamlessly address the requirements of Importers, Distributors and Retailers operating in the Automotive and Equipment industries. The alliance will significantly add to business opportunities available to both companies globally and will be yet another catalyst to our company growth.

Sales remain strong in New Zealand and North America as well as Australia and none of this would be possible if it weren’t for you our loyal customers and business partners. I look forward to passing on more good news in the next edition of the Occasional Newsletter.

Ken Fife
Chief Executive Officer

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New Automotive Factory Interfaces
 

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IBS and Auto-IT to expand territories via business alliance

A recently signed partnership will see IBS Asia Pacific and Auto-IT working together to expand their market share while providing a full compliment of IT solutions to the automotive and allied industries.

Chief Executive Officer for IBS Asia Pacific, Rajiv Parrab said: "We’re excited about this alliance and believe that it will revolutionise the Australian DMS and distribution markets locally and globally. We look forward to working closely with Auto-IT in this new venture.”

Ken Fife, Chief Executive Officer, Auto-IT commented: “IBS and Auto-IT have non competing products and this alliance will enable us to integrate our products and services to enable us to participate in business opportunities previously unavailable to either company.”

He added: “The alliance with IBS will help us immeasurably in those instances where Importer/Distributor organisations also own a number of retail dealership outlets. This is a not an uncommon situation throughout the Asia Pacific region.”

The partnership with Auto-IT will allow IBS to extend its reach beyond the OEM and distributor clientele through to the dealership marketplace. For Auto-IT, it is an opportunity to offer distributor owned dealerships a seamless view of the entire supply chain from manufacturer to user.

IBS develops and markets supply chain software at the manufacturing and wholesale end for niche industries such as pharmaceutical, publishing, food and consumer goods in addition to the automotive vertical. Auto-IT has a long history developing and marketing quality retail dealership management systems. The alliance between the two will allow IBS to market to its customer base Auto-IT’s Dealer Systems.

With combined 50 years experience, this partnership will certainly offer companies integrated solutions, stability and quality support from two experienced and long-term industry software players.

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Auto-IT at John Deere Product Launch

Michael Cross and Rohan Duncan (Auto-IT Business Development Managers) with Greg Goulden from Western Farm Service at the John Deere Product Launch.

The week of February 12, close to 400 dealers and 100 John Deere company personnel arrived in Melbourne for the largest product release John Deere has ever held in Australia.

The theme of the release was ‘Technology Driven’, with each of the sessions focusing on how technology provides a competitive advantage for John Deere products in the market place. 

Auto-IT personnel were there to demonstrate EQUIP^TM, John Deere’s preferred Dealer Management System, to the dealers during the event.

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PMDS™ Release 5-5 is Here!

This latest software upgrade provides some great new features as well as many minor enhancements to your PMDS™ system. Watch out for the new Complaint, Cause, Rectification concept that has been incorporated throughout the service module, and the added bonus for Holden sites as this integrates directly into your Holden Warranty claim screens. Maybe you would like to always print two copies of your service invoices? This can now be done, but don’t worry it’s not just for service invoices, but any document type! Specify any number of copies to be printed on any document type such as parts invoices, repair orders or purchase orders. A parts feature that might spark some interest is the ability to now restrict the issuing of credit notes unless they are within a specified number of days after the invoice date (and yes we do allow an override flag to be set for the managers!).

For those sites taking advantage of our Kaizen product there are even more features coming your way. In conjunction with PMDS™ Release R5-5 we are also shipping the latest version of Kaizen (1.08) which includes features such as e-mail notifications when non-productive codes have been clocked for a longer time than the pre-defined FRT. Another feature is that workshop charts will now paint a checkered time block on screen indicating the estimated completion time based on FRT data. As Kaizen continues to grow, so do the productivity benefits that can be seen throughout the dealership operation. If you haven’t heard of Kaizen, or don’t know its full capabilities we recommend that you contact your PMDS™ Account Manager as soon as possible to organise a full demonstration.

These are just a few of the items included within the latest release. Detailed information about these new features (and many more!) can be seen within the Release Notes. PMDS™ Release 5-5 will be distributed to all sites throughout June 2007.

Wesley Caldwell – PMDS™ Development Manager
 

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Skilled Staff Required!

Recently Rohan Duncan and Paul Johnson (pictured) attended the CPA Graduate Program Careers night in WA and found it to be a very worthwhile exercise.

Auto-IT is growing rapidly and requires highly motivated people to join the team – especially if they have experience in accounting, installation or support. If you have experience in any of these roles or you have dealership experience in accounting or fixed operations and you're interested in a change of career, we'd love to hear from you! Call us at any time for a confidential chat about an exciting career with Auto-IT.

Paul Johnson, WA Branch Manager, at the
recent CPA Conference.

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Interview with Aaran Newman - New Sales & Marketing Mgr

It could be said that petrol practically runs in your veins. How long have you worked within the auto industry?

I have been in the industry all of my life. I started in my school days working weekends and holidays as a yard hand washing cars and helping with parts stocktakes for the family business. After finishing my studies and backpacking for a year overseas I came back and worked primarily in accounts and as a Systems Administrator but also on weekends in Sales. My interest grew in computer systems and I moved to Newmans Information Systems (NIS). Then NIS merged with KGM to become Auto-IT and this is where I have been ever since.

How do you see the industry heading over the next five years?

The motor vehicle industry will always be very competitive and cyclical. There will be continued consolidation with larger players buying smaller dealers. But not all will survive. As I said it is cyclical and some of these mega groups will break up again. An example already has been the Sydney Ford retail joint venture.


What do you think are the key determinants of success for dealerships with their chosen dealer management system (DMS)?

Dealers, in general, don’t want to know too much about I.T. yet want it to save them time and money. Unfortunately these two objectives can’t always be met unless the management team invest a good percentage of their time in driving and getting the most out of their systems. My advice to dealership management is to build your relationship with your I.T supplier especially your Account Manager and invest the time in understanding your computer system as this area of your business always has the potential to lift productivity and sales.


How does Auto-IT plan to support it’s DMS users into the future?

Great service, fair prices, deliver on promise and simple and effective communication. In our industry it is important to provide value for money, that is if you charge for a product and or service you need to be able to deliver.

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Technical Tips - Units^TM & Equip^TM

What do I need to do before the end of the financial year to ensure a smooth transition from this financial year to the next?

Because UNITS™ and EQUIP™ are date entry driven, there are a few processes which we strongly recommend be done on the last day of financial year (after all daily processing) or at least, as soon as possible into the next financial year.
 

Prior to completing any financial reset function it is imperative to ensure that a full and verified back up has been completed. You should not run the year end reset without verifying a backup has been completed.
 

It is also advisable that prior to completing any year end reset all reports used to validate general ledger values are produced (either printed and/or saved to file).  If you have any questions about this please contact Support as they have comprehensive notes on this topic or can talk you through any issues.

What reports should I produce prior to Year End reset?

Prior to completing the financial year end reset it is advisable to produce a number of substantiating reports to backup the general ledger figures. A number of these reports will not be able to be produced at a later date for the year end (i.e. Aged Debtors and Creditors reports). These reports can be printed and retained on file, or saved to your reports directory printed and referred to at any time.
 

A list of reports which should be produced are as follows:

• Parts Stock Status Management

• Vehicle Valuation Report – Summary

• Floorplan Listing

• Stock Unit Debtor Report

• Aged Debtors Balance

• Aged Creditors Balance

• Creditor Purchase Order Control

• Warranty Control Status Report

• Work In Progress Listing for Service

• GL Trial Balance

• GL Balance Sheet

• General Ledger Reconciliation Report

• Payroll Summary Reconciliation Report

Note: This list should not be considered exhaustive and judgement should be made as to those reports which are required for your circumstances.

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Tech Tips - PMDS™

I have set-up a service technician which should be costing R/Os at their specific rate, however it is using the default costing rate - what can I do?

For a technician to cost at their specific rate, the service technician record and the staff master record must be linked together.

The ‘Payroll No’ field in F.252 – Technician Maintenance, must be the same as the ‘Staff Id’ field in F.1054 – Staff Master Maintenance. Then the ‘Technician’ field in F.1054 – Staff Master Maintenance needs to be the Technician number as setup in F.252 – Technician Maintenance.
The PMDS™ Support department recommend that you keep the all of these numbers the same for consistency (ie Technician Number, Payroll Number and Staff Id are all the same). For any further information, please contact the PMDS™ Support department.



How Often Should I clean the Servers tape drive?

Tandberg advise that tape drives should be cleaned after 8 hours of use, and also immediately after the initial use of new tapes. Generally, 8 hours of use would mean that the tape drive should be cleaned approximately once a week using a ‘dry’ cleaning cartridge. Tandberg tape drives have the ability to record the number of times in which the drive has been cleaned, which means that if a tape drive fails and needs to be returned to the manufacturer they can determine how many times the drive has been cleaned. Please note that it is possible for standard warranty to be void where regular tape drive cleaning has been neglected . If you would like any further information or would like to organize a new cleaning cartridge, please contact your Account Manager or the PMDS™ Support department.

Brent Jones – PMDS™ National Customer Services Manager

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Tech Tips - PACE2000

How do I run stock-takes more effectively with PACE?

Firstly, to avoid unwanted Stocktake Sheets for parts with a blank bin location, carry out the following:

1. Run the utility to Rebuild Stock from Purchases and Sales

2. Run a DFQUERY report on INMASTER and select all parts where location = “ “ (BLANK).
   Stock on hand QTY is <> (not equal to) “0”
   Stock on hand VALUE is <> (not equal to) “0”

3. Locate any stock on that report in a suitable bin

4. When running the Stocktake Extract – Select from BIN “A” to BIN “zzzzzzzzzzz” (so as not to produce count sheets for parts with a blank bin location).

Then proceed with the normal stocktake procedure:

Run the utility to rebuild stock from purchases and sales.

From the Parts Stocktake Menu carry out the following:
NOTE: It is advisable to run all output to disk and print sheets and reports from disk.

1. Run the Stocktake Extract – Say “N” to alternate sort key unless you want the sheets in that sequence. Say “N” to Ford sequence unless you are a Ford dealer and you want that sequence.

2. Run the Print Count Sheet.

3. Run the Print Blank Count Sheets

4. After stock has been counted – enter counted sheets (Note: all sheets MUST be entered even if zero qty.) (If qty = zero bring up on screen and “F10” to save.)

5. Enter Blank Count Sheets

6. Run the Uncounted Stock Report

7. Run the Stocktake Exception Report (locate parts into the correct bins)

8. Run the Merge Blank and Counted Sheets

9. Run the Stocktake Variance Report

10. Run the Stocktake Update

11. Run the Stocktake Valuation Report

How do I generate group certificates in PACE?

Once the last Pay run for the year has been run and reconciled, it is suggested that all the relevant payroll reports are run, printed and saved to disk.

The method by which you print Group Certificates with depend on whether or not your business has registered as an Magnetic Media Remitter to the ATO. This allows the business to print Group Certificates on plain paper and submit the Tax Office copies via diskette.

Prior to running the Group Certificates via Modem program, ensure that your Employee and Employer Maintenance files are set up correctly. The relevant items needed are:

• Employee Tax File Numbers do not have any blanks or dashes

• Employer Corporate Gateway User ID Number is entered

• Employee Maintenance State is in short form i.e. WA rather than Western Australia

• Magnetic Media Registration Number is entered in Employer Maintenance

• Contact details are entered in Employer Maintenance

Once completed you are ready to process the business's Group Certificates.
 

Please note this is a new file format and a new sta file. The Supplier File Reference can be any reference you wish to use, as it will be the reference the ATO will quote back to you in relation to the file you produce.

It would be suggested that you would run this for one employee only to test your printer settings for the number of lines to skip. Once happy with the outcome reset that employee and then run the Group Certificates for all the employees at one time.

How do I organise the General Ledger Year-End Roll-Over?

NOTE: The General Ledger should be the last PACE module to be rolled over. It is not essential that this be done at Year-End and can be left until all reconciliations of accounts have been completed. The General Ledger will operate correctly while still in last year, however you must be aware that there may be some financial reports which will not be available until the G/L is in the current year.

Before rolling the G/L, review any controlled accounts, as accounts with a “Y” control will carry forward individual transactions per reference number, Accounts with a “N” control will carry forward only the total balance.

To reduce the number of transactions carried forwards, it is advisable that only accounts such as Debtors, Creditors, Vehicle Stock and any other accounts which require individual referenced transaction for reconciliation be flagged with a “Y”.

If your Bank G/L account is flagged “Y” and you have a balanced reconciliation it is advisable to flag it “N” for Roll-Over and then re-flag it back to “Y”.

Recommended Steps for Roll-Over:

1. Re-index the following 3 files:
   GLTRANS No. 23
   GLMASTER No. 45
   GLDOLD No. 153

This can be done by shelling out to the PACE prompt via the PACE menu i.e. Utilities, System Utilities, Shell out to Operating System.
 

Make sure that no-one is using these files while you re-index, otherwise you will get an error 75 message. At the PACE Prompt, type DFSORT 23 <enter>. When finished repeat for 45 and 153.
If any duplicate or bad records are detected, these must be cleaned out. Call Auto-IT support for assistance.

1. Make sure that you have no unbalanced batches by running the program in the General Ledger Reporting Menu, GL Batch Control Listing, run this for everything in the current year and answer “N” for balanced batches. If you have any unbalanced batches, these must be dealt with before you go any further.

2. From the General Ledger Utilities menu, run the program Restore Master from Transactions. This will rebuild all the General Ledger period balances based on the transactions found.

3. Run reports for Trial Balance & Balance Sheet and make sure they are balanced.

4. Make sure you have sufficient hard drive space as the file GLTRANS will copy to GLDOLD.

5. Check that your General Ledger is in Period 12 and Beginning Year and Year- End dates are correct.

6. Get all PACE users out of PACE and turn off screensaver (if any).

7. Most important make an up-to-date copy of PACE or at least make a copy GLTRANS.DAT (this may have to be recovered if Roll-Over fails or if you discover any errors, and any entries made after this backup will be lost.)

8. Run the G/L Year-End Roll-Over Program “GLD090” making sure that Period Nos. and Dates are correct. (Make sure the program is not interrupted).

9. When update has finished, check for any unbalanced batches again, especially Batch 1 and run Trial Balance and Balance Sheet reports again (steps 2 & 4)

10. Only after you are sure that G/L has correctly rolled and all G/L account balances and opening transactions are correct should you allow other users back into PACE. Remember, any work done after roll-over will be lost if you find any errors and have to recover from back-up.

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