Here’s What Should Be in Your Dealership’s Business Continuity Plan [Templates]

No matter what you do to prevent interruptions to your business, things happen. From natural disasters to cybersecurity attacks, there will be times when your business system goes down. When that happens, you don’t want your team to be put in a spot where they can’t serve customers. After all, disaster has a cascading effect; if a storm hits, that’s when your customers will need your services more urgently.

That’s why it’s crucial to have a solid business continuity plan that your team can easily access in the event that your system goes down.

Here are the things you absolutely need to have prepared should your system go down, so you can keep serving customers and keep sales flowing. We’ve also included some templates that you can keep handy, to keep track of invoices, employee time, and payments.

Keep an updated parts inventory pad

You don’t have to print it on paper; you can save an electronic copy. The key is to have it somewhere it can be accessed offline. This will give you the parts quantity that you have available at the time it’s generated, bin locations, etc.

In DIS, The Parts Inventory Pad lets you generate a list of your inventory by part number. The report can be generated for one or all divisions, vendors, and classes or any combination of these options. You can also include the dealer list, suggested list, internal price, dealer net, or average cost.

Read our guide for how to do this in DIS.

Keep electronic copies of Aged Receivables reports

Don’t just keep electronic copies but ensure that they’re updated regularly.

You will want to ensure that you have an Aged Receivables Summary report on hand that includes all or selected receivables with their past and current balances, as well as a summary by general ledger account according to the age of the balance of the receivable (31+, 60+, 90+, 120+). Here’s a guide to how you can run this report in DIS.

Keep electronic copies of your inventory/flooring reports

Your inventory flooring report should include:

All current inventory and specifications
Report recap of inventory account totals
All units that have been floored
Subtotals by vendor for appropriate accounts

Here is a guide for how to run this report in DIS.

Keep a list of your technicians and their information

Don’t forget that all of your employee information is stored in your system as well. Make sure you have a list of all your technicians, the numbers you can reach them at, and what their certifications are. That way, you will still be able to bring in the right person for the job.

Keep your documents stored where you can access them

If your power goes out, your team will end up relying on cell phones and paper. Ensure that your documents are stored in an unrelated cloud environment that is accessible by cell phone, so you can use them when you need them.

Have templates available for your team

Having a stack of templates ready for key reports and processes helps to maintain consistency in service and reduce oversights. Here are some key templates you may want to have on hand. They’re all free and customizable!