Manager Forum

We're a small used car lot that moves about 1000 units a year and everything is done by VIN. The main problem is when I do a report for WIP the office staff can't assist me in tracking the vehicles unless I hand write the vins onto the report. The second problem I have is I might have 3 or 4 units that are basically the same vehicle and I have to use the vin to differentiate between them in the WIP screen.

I saw a post where another guy was using the reference section to add the partial vin but I'd rather not do it that way if I don't have too.

Thanks
Mike@ShookAuto

Welcome to the forum and thanks for your post.

Can you tell us a little more about the report frequency and detail level needed? Sounds like you're providing a WIP screen (non posted) progress snapshot? Please confirm what this report is to accomplish and which WIP report you're using so that we can discuss further.

Thanks for the quick response

It's just the "work in progress" report from the management tab in the reports section.

We started working with Mitchell in Feb and switched everything over to it for April 1. The problem I'm running into is our service dept being a car lot isn't like a normal one and cars get sold at various points of completion. I have open orders for vehicles that have been sold as well as a few incidents where the white 07 Silverado ending in 995 was billed out as the white 07 Silverado ending in 793... We have been really busy since July and I have simply lost track of what went where. The office girls are willing to help but as I mentioned earlier everything in the office runs under the vin.

MIke

What is the ownership of these vehicles during this time and do they have license plates?

BTW - There are 4 different WIP reports per type of records; which one are you using?

The vehicles are all owned by Shook Auto during their stay here. Until they come back for the first oil change actually, at the first oil change we transfer ownership to the new owner. We leave them under Shook Auto during the first few months incase there is any warranty work that needs done... that any work that is done is tax exempt and has the profit margins preset. Right now I have about 220 cars on the lot and that ranges from 150-300 pending on the time of the year.

Yes there are four different reports, I'm using the one that has the words written out, the other three all start with WIP.

I'm done for the day but I'll be back tomorrow, talk to later.

Thanks

It's possible that we'd add the VIN field to the WIP grid in the future; I'd need to inquire with development. in the meantime, I'd recommend copying the VIN to the Unit # for these reasons:

1. The Unit #* field data is visible in the WIP screen and could be used now. * some documents with Unit # may truncate (not display the entire #)
2. It stays with the vehicle so it wouldn't have to be entered each time an order is generated
3. it is also searchable by F3 key Find Customer function

Shookauto wrote:The vehicles are all owned by Shook Auto during their stay here. Until they come back for the first oil change actually, at the first oil change we transfer ownership to the new owner. We leave them under Shook Auto during the first few months incase there is any warranty work that needs done... that any work that is done is tax exempt and has the profit margins preset. Right now I have about 220 cars on the lot and that ranges from 150-300 pending on the time of the year.

Yes there are four different reports, I'm using the one that has the words written out, the other three all start with WIP.

I'm done for the day but I'll be back tomorrow, talk to later.

Thanks

Hi!

We are a used car dealership as well - before the whole VIN showed up on the top of the repair order screen - we put the last 8 of the VIN in the license plate field. It was easier to order parts with vendor's when we needed the last 8 of the VIN and also shows up on the WIP screen.

So it's possibly another option to use, if you don't utilize the license plates field.

Thanks for the replies, not what I wanted to hear but we'll work around it.

There are plans to greatly expand what can be viewed in the WIP in the future. We'll also implement a true column selector (like the Appointment tab of the Schedule for those familiar). This will allow you to pick which columns you want, and not just collapse the ones you don't.

That sounds great!

Well I spent a little over 2 hours adding the vin's to the unit section only to realize it doesn't print the unit # out on the WIP reports either...

Shookauto wrote:Well I spent a little over 2 hours adding the vin's to the unit section only to realize it doesn't print the unit # out on the WIP reports either...

There may have been some confusion. Your post title says 'WIP screen' but your post describes the WIP report. For identifying data to show on the WIP report, use the last 8 of the VIN as the plate number as previously suggested.

Most used car places I deal with have a unit number associated with each vehicle. If you do as well, another option is to place the unit number in the plate field.