Articles for Legal & Accounting Experts
Friday, April 15, 2011
Attorney Thomas Hudson discusses how proactive customer relationship management can potentially avoid sticky legal situations in the future.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Attorney Thomas Hudson shares one dealer’s reaction to non-compliance in the dealership.
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
James L. "Butch" Williams, CPA, describes the health insurance credit available to small businesses in depth and even provides an example calculation.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
The legalities surrounding bird-dog, or referral, programs vary from state to state. Attorney Tom Hudson reminds readers why it’s important to seek legal advice before implementing such programs.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Thomas B. Hudson - What's a dealer to do in order to avoid an up-close-and-personal meeting with his state's AG? We recommend that dealers prominently price all their cars (as some state laws require). The price is the price, no matter who is buying or how they are paying.
Friday, January 21, 2011
David Keller - As more dealers rely on used vehicle sales since new sales are significantly down from years past, it’s important to keep your eye on used sales as new sales incrementally increase.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Deceiving and defrauding customers is one easy way to get the attention of your state attorney general. Tom Hudson details how and why one dealership paid big for engaging in illegal practices.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Managing two aspects of a business at once may seem like it saves you time, but Author David Keller points out that’s not the case in BHPH. Without 100-percent focus on the task of collections, repossessions and delinquency rates will increase dramatically and profitability will decrease quickly.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Thomas B. Hudson - When the buyer listed on a retail installment sales contract is someone other than an individual (i.e., a corporation, partnership, association, etc) or when the primary use of the vehicle is for business use, many claims and defenses the buyer might otherwise have against the dealer evaporate.
Friday, November 12, 2010
David Keller - Following are some basic policies and procedures you should have for your accounting department to be compliant with good internal accounting controls—including properly segregating duties, adjusting of journal entries, reviewing of cash disbursements, archiving cash receipts and authorizing of purchases.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Thomas B. Hudson - Joseph Heller’s 1961 World War II novel, “Catch 22,” dealt with the rules that governed how many deadly missions B-25 pilots had to fly before they could go home. I’ll bet Mr. Heller never envisioned that the phrase would be used in connection with the sale of VSI insurance in an auto finance transaction.
Friday, October 15, 2010
David Keller - After reviewing many dealerships’ financial statements over the last six months, it seems the used vehicle department is the king of profits and volume. Most dealers, with new vehicle sales still depressed, are selling more used vehicles than ever. It is more important than ever to manage your vehicle inventories.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Thomas B. Hudson - Life is difficult enough when you at least know what you don’t know. But when you don’t know what you don’t know, life gets downright dangerous.
Monday, September 20, 2010
David Keller - The massive health care legislation, signed into law by President Obama, contains provisions that will affect every employer, but the timing of different pieces of the legislation ranges from items that apply immediately in 2010 to a variety of tax increases that become effective from 2011 to 2018.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Thomas B. Hudson - If you’re running a bait shop, life is pretty simple. You keep the frozen bait frozen, the fresh bait cold and the live bait alive. If you screw it up, you lose some bait.
Friday, July 23, 2010
David Keller - I recently assisted a client with reviewing their claim for insurance due to business interruption. Their facility’s main roof collapsed due to the weight of an excessive ice and snow storm, causing damage to a substantial amount of equipment and making the facility unusable for approximately eight months until it was rebuilt.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Thomas B. Hudson - I excitedly ripped open the “Owner Notification” from an area car dealer who sells the sort of SUV that we use to haul ourselves and the dogs to and from our place in South Carolina. Our old bus is pushing 70,000 miles, so I’m thinking that in this market, maybe I’ll get a real steal.
Monday, June 21, 2010
David Keller - Your service department is one of the busiest departments in your dealership. Service deals with more customers than any other department on a daily, monthly and annual basis. The service department also sees more potential customers than any other department.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Thomas B. Hudson, Cathy Brennan - Often a plaintiff’s lawyer has a choice about where to file his or her client’s lawsuit. Those choices can involve whether to file the suit in state court in an urban or rural county or whether to file the action in a federal court rather than in a state court.
Monday, May 31, 2010
David Keller - Review your year-to-date income statement as compared to the prior year, specifically whether vehicle gross profit percentages remained consistent or were lower than the prior year.