YardStick tour: accounting
What this video answers: how many hours a month does this save, and is the reporting any better? Recorded on the YardStick development site with demo data, in TruckIQ (the YardStick fleet module). About 60 seconds.
Script
- Title card. For accounting: the monthly rental reporting, already done.
- Dashboard. Every month, someone pulls the rental reports out of the management system, branch by branch, and rebuilds them in a spreadsheet. YardStick does it every night. This is demo data.
- Branches Side by Side, Excel button. Every branch on the same definitions, side by side, and one click to Excel or CSV.
- Fleet Performance by Unit. Every unit's utilization, daily rate, revenue and financial utilization, ready for the month-end pack.
- Estimate card (see below). Our estimate: about two hours saved per branch, every month. That's pulling four reports, lining them up unit by unit, and chasing the contracts that don't tie. For a two-branch dealer like this one, close to four hours a month.
- Data Quality page. And the reporting gets better, not just faster. Contracts that don't add up are listed with the unit and contract number, so they get fixed in the system before month-end.
- End card. YardStick. Time on the numbers, not chasing them.
Hours saved per month: the basis (an estimate)
This is an estimate for a dealer the size of the demo (two branches, about 60 rental units each). It hasn't been measured at a customer yet. Every line says where its number comes from, so you can put in your own.
| Monthly task, per branch | Basis | Minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Pull and export the four reports from the DMS (unit P&L, utilization, revenue, units for rent) | 4 reports at 5 minutes each (assumed) | 20 |
| Line the reports up in one workbook, unit by unit | 60 units at 1 minute each. A time study of dealer accounting clerks measured about 2 minutes per document keyed; lining up one unit row is assumed to take half that. | 60 |
| Chase contracts that don't tie | 3 contracts at 15 minutes each. The demo data flags 5 contracts across 2 branches (2.5 a branch); 15 minutes each is assumed. | 45 |
| Less: review YardStick's export instead | 15 minutes a branch (assumed) | -15 |
| Saved per branch, per month | 110 (about 2 hours) | |
| Saved for two branches, per month | 220 (about 3.7 hours) |
How to firm it up: time one month-end at a pilot dealer (minutes per report, units per branch, and how many contracts need chasing), then put those into the table. Our own time studies have shown that first guesses can run high, which is why every figure here is on the low side and labelled.
Reporting quality
- One definition everywhere. Utilization, daily rate and financial utilization are calculated the same way for every branch and every unit, and the definitions are printed on the Market page.
- Refreshed nightly from the DMS, so the numbers aren't a month old when they're read.
- Traceable. Every figure comes from the contracts and units behind it. Contracts that don't add up (closed without a return date, overlapping another contract, open after billing stopped) are listed by unit and contract number.
- Export without retyping. Every table has Excel and CSV buttons.
Benchmark visibility
Accounting staff with a full YardStick account see the Market page. An account limited to the ROI calculator doesn't.