Harley Davidson composite information
Contents
Summary
Harley-Davidson provide their dealers with a composite input system for performance monitoring. Dealers can monitor the profitability of their dealership in a standard format and see easily the areas where they are successful and the areas that need attention. Depending on your nominal ledger structure and use, you may be able to extract all the required information from your trial balance, rather than using the method detailed below.
This article will explain the following; a) how to configure your system so that the reporting can provide the data for the input document; b) how to produce the file for input.
More Information
Platinum will provide files to enable you, the dealer, to produce the composite in a straightforward and consistent manner. You will need to configure certain parts of the system carefully to achieve this, but this is no more than you should be doing anyway! You must have the latest version of Platinum on your system.
Configuring your system
You will need to pay attention to the following items.
Unit Sales
- New units need to be broken down by family and this should be done by using the "Features" tab on the unit itself or by assigning the feature to the model.
Go to " Unit Sales Add or Edit Units".
- Search for the units that are in stock.
- Double click on the first one, and then click on "Features".
- You will see 'Composite' category in the list on the left hand side. Click on it.
- In the middle box, you will see the available options.
- Click on the appropriate option for this unit and press <F6> or click [->].
- Press <Esc> and accept the changes made.
- Repeat this for all remaining bikes in stock.
Parts
- Hard parts, accessories, clothing and collectables are the categories into which the parts department is broken down for the composite. This should be done by using the Attributes tab on the part number.
Go to " Stock Control Add or Edit Stock Items".
- Search for the part numbers in which you are interested.
- Double click on the first item, and then click "Attributes".
- You will see 'Composite' category in the list on the left hand side. Click on it.
- In the middle box, you will see the available options.
- Click on the appropriate option for this part number and press <F6> or click [->].
- Press <Esc> and accept the changes made.
Workshop
For workshop, you will need to use the Real Time Labour Logging option to get all the information required. This option allows you to hold time attended, time taken and time charged for each technician. You will also need to make sure that some stock items are grouped correctly so that you can get to oil sales, sub-contract sales and so forth.
Accounts
- Your customers need to be broken down into Retail, Internal, Warranty and Trade areas. This should be done by setting the Account Group field on Internal, Warranty and Trade customers
- For Retail customers the group should be left blank
- For Internal accounts the group should be entered as 'INT'
- For Warranty accounts the group should be entered as {'WAR'
- For Trade accounts the group should be entered as 'TRA'
- If you are using the Platinum Accounts system, you will need to enter the composite reporting field codes into the Notes fields on the relevant Nominal Centres.
- Go to " Nominal Ledger Maintenance Options Centre Maintenance Add or Edit Nominal Centres"
- Click [List]
- For each centre that will include values to appear in the composite click [Edit].
- Click on the [Notes] tab.
- On the first line of the Notes tab enter the Composite Code e.g. 'I021'
- On the second line of the Notes tab enter the Composite field name e.g. 'Printing & Stationery'
- Click [Done] and [Save].
 | If some codes fall under the same category you can enter the same code and name and they will be totalled within the extract providing one line per Composite Code. |
 | You must have processed the month end prior to producing the composite reports for the period. |
 | If you do not use the Platinum Accounts system, then you will need to extract the expense information separately. |
Producing the file
- After discussion and consultation, the file should be produced manually. Whilst being able to press one button to create the file is desirable, there is a danger that significant items may be overlooked, such as changes to your headcount or your labour rates, and there are some variable items that cannot be produced automatically.
- Log into Platinum on today's date, which should be in the month following the month for which you want to produce your information. To be clear, if you are trying to produce June information for composite, your user date should be anywhere in July.
Go to " Harley Composite Reports" from your login screen and you will see the individual reports
| Contact your Platinum dealer or our support team on 0116 230 1500 or by using our website support contact page if this menu is not available. |
- Run the first 3 reports then choose option 4 to auto run the remaining reports. The first report will create the Composite Input file and subsequent reports will add the relevant data to build the input file.
- The file will be created within your '*:\SX\SXCo?' data folder and will be named 'HarleyComp.CSV' - if you have a multi-site operation, then there will be three extra characters denoting the site.
- You can view the input file before you import it by double clicking on the file. Be careful if you are making changes here, e.g. adding manual information, that you do not touch the data output from Platinum.
Entry to Composite
- Once you have produced the file from Platinum and checked that the figures are accurate, you can then set about entering them into the composite entry system. You should have had training and guidance from Harley-Davidson or the composite provider for this, and falls outside the scope of this document.
See also
