Controller Services for Boat Dealers
A dealership makes thin money on the boat and real money on F&I, parts, and service — and loses a little every day a unit sits on floorplan. A controller keeps the departments and the floorplan reconciled and reviewed, so the aging inventory and carrying cost stop eating the back-end profit while you watch the showroom.
Departments and floorplan need reconciling and review
Front-end unit margins are thin; the dealership earns its living on the back end — finance and insurance, parts, and service. A controller reports department gross separately and reviews it, so you manage the profitable departments on purpose instead of chasing unit volume that barely pays.
Floorplan is the discipline most owners underweight. Every unit is financed and accruing interest, and the floorplan balance has to reconcile to inventory to the books every month. A controller keeps that tie-out honest and watches inventory age, so slow units get flagged before the interest quietly erases a good sale.
What a controller adds over a bookkeeper
A bookkeeper records the transactions. A controller makes them right and turns them into a reviewed package: department gross, floorplan and inventory reconciliation, aging analysis, and the KPIs a dealership runs on — turns, days-in-stock, gross per unit.
With multiple departments and a lot of capital on the lot, standardized reporting is what lets you see where the money really comes from and which inventory is costing you to hold.
How Kaizen runs it
We sit on top of your bookkeeping — ours or yours — and run a documented monthly close on the same date every month. The DMS, floorplan, and inventory get reconciled to the accounting so departments, the lot, and the books agree.
Then the improvement part we're named for: each month the department and floorplan reporting tightens and the review catches more before it reaches you. Controller judgment without the salary or the eventual two-week notice.
What's included
- Reviewed monthly financials with a documented, same-date close
- Department gross — unit sales, F&I, parts, service
- Floorplan-to-inventory-to-books reconciliation
- Inventory turns, days-in-stock, and aging review
- Floorplan carrying-cost tracking per unit
- DMS-to-accounting reconciliation
- Standardized reporting across departments and locations
- Oversight of your bookkeeper or bookkeeping team — a second set of senior eyes
Pricing
Straight answers
We have a bookkeeper. Why a controller?
A bookkeeper records; a controller reviews department gross, reconciles floorplan to inventory to the books, and watches aging. Many dealers keep their bookkeeper and add us for oversight.
Can you reconcile floorplan and inventory?
Yes — the floorplan balance, the units on the lot, and the books get tied out every month, and carrying cost per unit gets tracked so slow inventory gets flagged early.
Where's our real money?
Usually the back end — F&I, parts, and service — not unit margin. We separate the departments and review them so you can manage to where the profit actually is.
Very small dealership. Overkill?
Possibly, and we'll tell you. A good bookkeeper may be enough until you carry real floorplan and multiple departments to reconcile and compare.
Related
Free 20-minute books assessment
We'll show you the five things we'd fix first in your books — useful whether you hire us, hire someone, or do neither.
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