Fractional CFO for Boat Dealers
A boat dealership makes thin money selling boats and real money on F&I, parts, and service — and loses money on floorplan interest every day a unit sits unsold. A fractional CFO keeps that whole equation in front of you, so the aging inventory and the carrying cost stop eating the back-end profit while you're distracted by the showroom.
The unit sale is the bait; the money is behind it
Front-end unit margins are thin and getting thinner. The dealership actually earns its living on finance and insurance, parts, and service — the back end. If your books don't separate those, you'll chase unit volume that barely pays while the profitable departments run without the attention they deserve.
And then there's floorplan. Every unit on the lot is financed and accruing interest, so an aging boat isn't just unsold inventory — it's a meter running against your margin. A CFO tracks carrying cost and inventory age so slow units get dealt with before they quietly erase a good sale.
The math behind inventory, floorplan, and the season
Inventory turns, days-in-stock, floorplan carrying cost per unit, and department gross all decide profitability more than showroom traffic does. Layer on a sharp season — spring and summer sell, winter carries — and cash and stocking decisions become timing problems you want to model, not feel.
We build the department economics, the floorplan and aging analysis, and a seasonal cash forecast, so stocking, discounting, and financing decisions each come with a number instead of a gut sense of the market.
How Kaizen runs it
You get a senior CFO a few days a month on top of clean books that separate unit sales, F&I, parts, and service. We track inventory turns and floorplan carrying cost, build department gross reporting, run a seasonal cash forecast, and model stocking and financing.
It's the difference between moving units and running a dealership that makes money on purpose. One of those survives a soft season; the other discovers in December how much the lot cost to hold.
What's included
- Department gross by unit sales, F&I, parts, and service
- Inventory turns and days-in-stock reporting
- Floorplan carrying-cost tracking per unit
- Seasonal 13-week rolling cash forecast
- Aging-inventory and discount-decision analysis
- Stocking and financing scenario models
- Diligence-ready financials for a future sale
- Monthly board-ready KPI and margin pack
Pricing
Straight answers
We have a bookkeeper. Why a CFO?
A bookkeeper records; a CFO manages floorplan, department gross, inventory aging, and seasonal cash. Many dealers keep their bookkeeper and add us for the strategy and inventory layer.
Can you track floorplan carrying cost properly?
Yes — per unit and by age, so you can see exactly what slow inventory is costing and make discount and stocking calls before the interest eats the profit.
Where's the real money in our dealership?
Usually the back end — F&I, parts, and service — not the unit margin. We separate the departments so you can see it clearly and manage to it instead of chasing volume.
What size dealership is this for?
Usually dealers carrying real floorplan and multiple departments. A very small operation with clean books may just need solid bookkeeping and reporting — we'll tell you if that's you.
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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