The proper reporting of lost sales is paramount for your parts department when trying to properly monitor the demands made on it by customers. Recording lost sales is critical to accurate ordering and stocking levels. However, it is easy to find disagreement among parts employees over lost sales. Tracking lost sales is far from science and can take a lot of experience to understand. For some parts managers, a lost sale is registered any time a customer, or even if a service department asks about a part and the dealership can not say “Yes, we have that”. Others want many qualifying factors met, lots of questions, and lots of technique, either way, the tools are in your hands.
Here are some examples of lost sales and occurrences where there was not a lost sale:
- A customer comes into the parts department and inquires about the price of a new helmet. The parts person gives him the price and the customer asks to purchase the part. The parts person informs the customer the part is not in stock and will need to be ordered. The customer leaves the dealership and does not order the part LOST SALE
- A technician has put together a list of parts for an insurance crash estimate. The parts department doesn’t have the part in stock and the customer unit gets totaled out requiring only billing for the inspection hours. The parts were then not ordered. NOT A LOST SALE
- A customer needs a part normally kept in stock. When the customer tries to purchase the parts, they are informed it is on backorder for a week. The customer says, “That’s ok. I’ll see if I can get by for a week.” LOST SALE
- The customer calls on the phone. Asks the price of a part. Doesn’t make it clear as to any intention. NOT A LOST SALE
- A customer comes into the store to buy an XXS signature edition helmet. Typically you do not stock this size and when you inform the customer you would need to special order that helmet, the customer lets you know they want to check around town first. LOST SALE
- A customer comes into the parts department to buy a tire you have in stock. When the customer brings the tire to the counter they asks if you can match the online price of a competitor. You are not allowed to price match, so the customer leaves without purchasing the tire. LOST SALE
Each dealership must set Lost Sale guidelines for their parts department. If this is a new concept for your dealership and team, then this is a perfect opportunity to do some research, additional training, and develop the guidelines for recording lost sales. If demand is not tracked properly, it is very difficult to have the right products in your dealership, ready to take care of that next customer.
In this document we will show you how to:
- How to add, edit, and delete Lost Sale reasons.
- How to record, view, and order Lost Sales through a parts invoice.
- How to view Lost Sales in a Part Detail.
- How to view the Lost Parts Sales Report.
- Video Instruction
- How to add, edit, and delete Lost Sale reasons
- Go click your initials on the toolbar.
- Go to Dealership Settings.
- Go to Parts Settings and scroll to the bottom of the Parts Settings page.
- To add a new reason click the + icon.
- Enter a Lost Sale Reason and click Save
- To edit a reason click on the Pencil Icon. This will open the Loast Sale Reason where you can now edit the description.
- Keep in mind all legacy reporting will be updated with the updated reason.
- To delete a reason simply click the trash can icon next to the Lost Sale Reason.
- The deleted reason will remain in the legacy reporting.
- You can also add a new reason through the parts invoice and part detail. Those steps will be explained in the next steps.
- Go click your initials on the toolbar.
- How to record, view, and order Lost Sales through a parts invoice
- After adding a part to a parts invoice you will see the "Record Lost Sale" icon, click it.
- This opens the Lost Sale Part pop-up.
- Enter a Lost Sale Quantity
- Add or select a reason
- If permissions allow you can check the Add to Ordering box to simply do that when you click Save to record the Lost Sale.
- To determine if or how many of a part line item have been recorded as a lost sale on an invoice, you can click on the Part Information tab and look at the Lost Sale QTY value displayed in bold.
- In the example above I recorded a QTY of 5. If I leave that part on the invoice and click the Lost Sale icon to record another 5, it will display 10.
- If you delete that part from the invoice, add it again, then record a Lost Sale QTY of 2, it will show 2.
- All Lost Sale Part detail and reporting will always show the user who recorded the Lost Sale, not the user on the invoice.
- If you do not see the Add to Ordering Option you need to contact your system administrator and ask for the permissions.
- Permissions are available to turn on or off access to recording Lost Sales. The ability to Add to Ordering when recording the Lost Sale is management-level permission but can be turned on with custom permissions.
- After adding a part to a parts invoice you will see the "Record Lost Sale" icon, click it.
- How to view Lost Sales in a Part Detail
- From the Parts Invoice, you can select the desired part and then click the Part Information Tab.
- This will open the Inventory Item Detail where you can click the Lost Sale History Icon to view historical Lost Sales. You can also record a Lost Sale from this page.
- You can Filter by Reasons and Period of Time.
- From the Parts Invoice, you can select the desired part and then click the Part Information Tab.
- How to view the Lost Parts Sales Report
- Go to the Parts Reports tile from the dashboard or use the main menu to quickly open reports in a new tab.
- In the list of reports, you will see a report named "Lost Part Sales", click it
- The report dates default to the previous month but you can set any date period you like.
- You can also Filter by:
- Part Number
- Salesperson
- Reason
- Vendor Name
- Category
- Video Instruction
For more assistance please reach out to any number of the resources in the help dropdown menu
