"Whether it's farm, industrial equipment or golf cars, it's all 'iron'. We're all still selling iron, still tracking it, just different models. If you want to manage your business profitably, if you want to be able to sleep at night, you need a business management system designed for dealers, not an 'off the shelf' accounting package. I highly recommend DealerWin^TM!"

Brian Schreyer, Apache Golf Cars, Mesa. AZ. DealerWin^TM customer since 2003.

Apache Golf Car, Mesa, Arizona
Charter Software Customer for Three Years

A Unique Operation
Looking at Apache Golf Car, in Mesa, Arizona, right now, things are so quiet at the dealership that you might not guess they gross four million in annual sales. While in a regional lull, they are undergoing renovations and gearing up for the next season. Owner & manager Brian Schreyer, with his wife, Nancy, run the dealership of 19 employees, most of them who are employed full-time.

Apache is unique in that they sell golf carts to individuals, not to golf courses. Personal golf cars for retirement communities, rough terrain cars for ranchland, electric & gas utility are among some of their markets. What really sets them apart, however, is Brian's savvy approach to business—and how he uses DealerWin^TM as his main business management tool to "keep all the gears in motion."

Now a top-selling dealership, Brian says it wasn't always that way for Apache. After retiring as a farm equipment dealer in Canada, Brian and Nancy settled in Arizona to "get away from the cold," but soon became bored with retirement, and decided to try something different by taking over a golf car dealership.

The Need for a Business Management System
It wasn't long after opening that Brian realized that he just didn't have the right systems in place to manage the business. He found that he could not keep track of parts inventory, sales history, track parts by category or seasonality, or manage whole goods inventory. He could make no provisions for over- allowances such as trade-ins at an inventory cost level, and was frustrated at the inability to separate profits by department. "I felt a lack of control over my business operations," he says.

One year, about $22,000 in parts could not be accounted for because he had no way to track the parts included on service work orders. Although each order averaged only about $12.00 per service repair, there were no records, and no way to cross-check inventory. They were using Quickbooks for their accounting, and Brian tried to set up a whole goods tracking system by exporting files from multiple programs into to Excel. "It was a mess," he says. "There were no consistent systems in place. We really needed an integrated system that would manage accounting as well as track inventory, service orders, etc." So he began investigating business management systems for equipment dealerships.

It was this quest for an integrated system that eventually led him to DealerWin^TM. A referral from the Far West Equipment Dealers' Association led him to Charter Software. After speaking with Cunningham Golf Cars, (a Charter customer who had successfully used the system) and he heard how impressed Cunningham was with Charter's support staff, he was sold on the product. Now he couldn't imagine running his business without it. "Now everything is accessible on one program- I just punch a button. I know where all my parts are going, and I also know the profit made on every single transaction. After we got the software up and running my life became a lot easier in terms of being a manager. Tracking my whole goods inventory became a piece of cake."

Breathing Easy with DealerWin^TM
Now, just three years since implementing the software, the Schreyers have seen a significant and steady rise in their parts, sales, & service profits. From a $250,000 year business in 2001, the last few years have seen increases to three million in 2005, and four million in 2006. Because they experience a more "business-like approach" on a daily basis, Brian feels he can breathe a lot easier now. "There is so much more control," he says. "We can't sell a part without going through the invoice procedure and we can't put a part through to service without a work order."

Brian also feels comfortable enough now to take some time off and enjoy leisure time with family without the feeling that things will fall apart when he leaves. When temperatures hit the triple digits, Brian likes to take his family north and visit relatives in Colorado or even head back to his native Canada. He loves the feeling in control enough to leave his operation for a few days or weeks. "With all the reports and tracking ability I have now, I feel I can leave the business behind, but can still watch it from afar." It's that comfort he takes in keeping on top of things that helps him to sleep at night.

Ongoing Training and Support
Like Ed and Bob of Cunningham Golf, Brian also found Charter's training and support to be a huge asset. Learning how to use the software's features and reports has helped us to become a more profitable business," says Brian. Charter showed us how to lay out our financials in such a way to be analyzed, and then we learned how to know where to find "the holes" and then how to fix them. Just by just knowing where the problem areas are I feel like I'm already half the way to solving the problem.

It's all "Iron"
To other golf car dealers who may be in the market for a similar type of system, Brian says while there is currently not a software system or module designed especially for golf car dealers, "Don't let that scare you. Whether it's farm, industrial equipment or golf cars, it's all 'iron'. We're all still selling iron, still tracking it, just different models. If you want to manage your business profitably, if you want to be able to sleep at night, you need a business management system designed for dealers, not an 'off the shelf' accounting package. I highly recommend DealerWin^TM!