Services

HOW MUCH IS THAT JOB REALLY COSTING YOU?

Information is key when it comes to both short-term and long-term business profitability

When you get down to the granularity of job management, accurate records help you determine where a project went right or where a project went wrong. Over time, this data can help you build trends. Does a certain contractor always take more time on specific jobs than others? Has the price of materials or parts gone up since the job was originally quoted? These real time business analytics help you maintain and improve your business profitability. How do you ensure you’ve got real time reporting? There are a number of tools available to you, and it starts right with the ubiquitous mobile device. Using a smartphone or tablet, you can provide your business (and your customers) with real time updates via tracking software. This allows you to track the time spent on every job, optimise routes for more efficiencies, and automatically feed this information into the accounting system. Many businesses have time and expenses leakage that they’re completely unaware of. Software integrations and workflow management software have adapted, providing higher levels of business analytics and visibility. Without these tools many businesses don’t have a true understanding of project workflow, travel time and non-billable hours. For many businesses, not understanding the true cost of a job means that by the time missed expenses, real hours are added to a job, you’ve lost any profitability. Unbillable hours such as ‘free quotes’ and internal meetings should all be incorporated into your workflow management. With customised job costing reports and clear gross profit goals, you can make data-driven decisions by knowing: • Are jobs delivered on budget? • Are we within our target profitability margins? • Who are the most profitable and least profitable clients? • Which clients do we need to re-price?

EBAY DOMINATES MARKETPLACE SALES OF AUTO ACCESSORIES

A car or truck part sells every three seconds on eBay.com.au

The continuing digital evolution of the automotive industry is well embodied in the eBay marketplace with an estimated AUD $15.7 billion of car parts and accessories sold globally across its various country sites including ebay.com.au Alongside prominent sector retailers including Supercheap Auto, Sparesbox, Online Auto Parts and Autobarn, a substantial amount of eBay’s automotive category sales is sold by small to midsize retailers and merchants. Zellis (www.zellis.com.au) Chief Executive Officer, Tim Davies, says this is a huge opportunity. eBay launched in Australia 22 years ago initially as a peer-to-peer auction website, and underwent a massive transformation about 10 years ago, onboarding manufacturers and retailers to satisfy consumer demand for specific brands and products. Today, many of the top Australian retailers have their own eBay stores including BigW, The Good Guys, Country Road, Peters of Kensington and many more. eBay is today home to over 40,000 business sellers. As Australia’s most visited shopping site and with nearly 12 million shoppers visiting eBay every month, and two out of every three Australian adults having bought something on eBay in the past year, it remains the largest online marketplace in Australia. Today over 90 percent of products on offer are brand new, fixed price. Over the past few years, there has been an explosion of marketplaces in Australia including Amazon.com.au, Kogan.com, Catch.com.au, Mydeal.com.au, and Ozsale.com.au, to name just a few. The popularity of online marketplaces is perhaps best understood by comparing them to a shopping centre as opposed to a standalone shopfront. As consumers ourselves, it often makes more sense to visit a shopping centre to browse a range of retailers rather than driving all over town to visit a series of individual shops. That’s why the online marketplaces are gaining so much popularity, and even more so as pandemic restrictions and lockdowns encourage more of us to shop online. eCommerce sales volume has roughly doubled in the past 18 months, and Tim says the experts are forecasting that of the estimated $11 billion to be spent by Australian consumers in the lead up to Christmas 2021, around 48 percent of it will be online. Zellis is a specialist automotive ecommerce agency assisting accessories retailers, dealers and brands launch and grow their business online through cart-enabled webstores and marketplaces including eBay. For more information, visit www.zellisauto.com or contact Zellis on 1300 935 537.

• Do we have operational inefficiencies? • Are there employees / contractors with certain trends on jobs? • Who are the most productive employees/ contractors? • Where are we seeing time leakage? Having a job management software with dynamic forms also means you remove the reliance on paperwork, as there’s no more loose forms or lost paperwork. When it comes to where you find this software, JourneyPRO says it has the solutions you need. If you want to know more about JourneyPRO, explore how it could add value to your business or register for your exclusive AAAA early-bird access to the free trial launching later this month, then contact helenas@realinnovationgroup.com or call 1300 JRN PRO (1300 576 776).

ACS’ TOOL HIRE PROGRAM

Supporting workshops nationwide

The Australian Clutch Services tool hire program was introduced to the market over two years ago and was developed to support customers around the country with access to Dual-Clutch Transmission (DCT) removal and installation tools as well as specialised tools for more conventional clutch jobs. The tool hire program has proven very successful in the market with many ACS distributors taking advantage of the program to help expand their offerings for their own customers. “The tool hire program has been a great success in the market and is helping to support workshops with this transition into DCT servicing and repair,” ACS Sales Manager, Colin Jevons, said. “We have received great feedback on the program and have continued to revise the offering and process to keep everything as simple and efficient as possible for our customers around Australia.” The tool hire program is available with the purchase of any applicable ACS clutch kit and includes a range of popular tools, predominantly focused on dry and wet type DCT removal and installation. These tools suit various applications from Volkswagen, Audi, Hyundai, Kia, Renault, Ford, Alfa Romeo, Fiat and Jeep. “Most of the replacement clutch assembly units for dry dual-clutch transmissions require both a universal tool and also a specialised tool for that particular vehicle,” Colin said. “We have the universal tool and a variety of these specialised tools available in the program to avoid workshops having to go out and purchase these to complete the job. “If they find they are regularly replacing these units in a specific vehicle type, we also offer these tools for outright purchase.” Australian Clutch Services has been investing heavily into its DCT program to help support the Australian aftermarket with the components required for this popular transmission type. “Our DCT program continues to grow and evolve as the new car market changes,” Colin said. “We have seen a major increase in the number of workshops taking on DCT work and now offer a range of complete replacements kits for dry or wet style transmissions, gearbox service kits, dualmass flywheels, replacement accessories and the tool program. “These products fall under our standard replacement brand, ClutchPro, and offer OE level quality and performance.” For more information on the ClutchPro DCT range or tool hire program, please visit www.australianclutch.com.au