On the path to growth with tradition and digitalization

As part of its growth strategy, Nord-Ostsee Automobile GmbH & Co. KG has completely restructured its financial accounting system, thus preparing itself for the future.

This article is part of the special feature GründerNavi – for founders and young companies

It's not just young companies that constantly face the challenge of adapting their systems to their business model. Nord-Ostsee Automobile GmbH & Co. KG, a company steeped in tradition with over 100 years of history, operates today with the vision of being "the coolest AMG and Mercedes-Benz partner ." And they've been very successful, as the company now employs more than 1000 people in 16 centers.

And while rows of stylish vehicles are parked at all the centers and colleagues are ready to provide service, two locations have dedicated staff responsible for financial accounting. "It's clear that we can't start searching through invoice folders when a customer calls with questions about a receipt," says Monika Frühling , Team Leader of Financial Management at the GmbH & Co. KG . Due to the company's size and complexity, paper documents used to take up to a week to arrive via internal mail: "That's obviously no longer acceptable ."

One partner for all accounting cases

However, a historically grown financial accounting system with a multitude of upstream and downstream systems isn't something you can just switch over overnight. The compelling reason to do so, however, came in 2019 with the merger of Herbert Mühle GmbH into Nord-Ostsee Automobile GmbH & Co. KG , which suddenly brought four larger locations in the Hamburg metropolitan region into the group.

"We need a variety of systems because we are bound by the specifications of several manufacturers; integrating them with our financial accounting system was one of the major challenges our partner, DATEV eG , had to overcome," explains Frühling. "Our own most difficult task was developing the reconciliation table, as we also changed our chart of accounts during the transition."

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The successful switch to DATEV and the SKR51

The special chart of accounts SKR 93 for Daimler contract partners had to be transferred to the manufacturer-independent automotive industry chart of accounts SKR 51. This also meant a completely different system was introduced into the car dealership's accounting. Allocation to individual business units is now flexible via cost centers. They are now working with a streamlined, transparent chart of accounts that takes into account the requirements of current and potentially future automotive brands.

"Today, the entire company can be represented in the first six digits of the 12-digit cost center system ," says Frühling. While digits one and two describe the brands, digits three and four define the respective center, and five and six finally the business units: new or used cars, workshop, or parts service. This cost center system thus offers the necessary flexibility to support the company's expansion . New brands or locations can be easily added, if needed, using existing resources.

Generating profit and loss statements or balance sheets now works at the touch of a button , according to the CFO. The DATEV solution is much more convenient than the previous software, which only provided trial balances – "everything else was Excel," Frühling recalls.

The big plus – no booking without a digital receipt

But that's not the main advantage: "The most important thing for us is the complete company-wide integration, which ensures that we can access every outgoing and incoming invoice from any location at any time ," says Frühling, "regardless of whether a customer calls who has received a payment reminder and wants to discuss the invoice items in more detail, or whether the controlling department wants to understand why unusually high or low costs have appeared in a particular area." In both cases, a glance at the digital documents allows for immediate clarification. Another advantage of the fully digitized process is the straightforward organization of cover arrangements or working from home during the pandemic.

In this respect, the car dealership is no different from companies in other sectors: Consistent business processes are essential once a certain volume of documents is reached. "As a company, you are then simply much faster able to act ," says the finance expert from Nord-Ostsee Automobile GmbH & Co. KG.

Optimally positioned with fully digital commercial processes

The benefits increase with the level of integration. For example, of the approximately 200.000 monthly invoices processed by Nord-Ostsee Automobile, 90 percent are now generated digitally and subsequently processed in DATEV; the DATEV payroll system is also integrated.

Moreover, for all companies, regardless of industry or specific circumstances, the following applies: They can only meet the growing expectation of being able to provide information on their invoices, payment reminders, order statuses, or quotations at any time by means of consistent business processes . This demand is expressed equally by suppliers, customers, financial partners, and public authorities.

To meet this requirement, not only is professional financial accounting software needed , but also, and especially, the necessary integration of all programs used . The IT service provider DATEV lists suitable and tested solutions from its software partners on the DATEV Marketplace at www.datev.de/marktplatz/ . There are now almost 250 such solutions available , for example, from industry-specific providers or for specific upstream or downstream systems and functions. Furthermore, interfaces to DATEV solutions are integrated into many other IT programs.

Everything done right: Home office capable in time before Corona

Last but not least, a professional document management system is needed in the background to archive all data and documents and make them available for processing in the respective systems. Nord-Ostsee Automobile GmbH & Co. KG uses Enaio from Optimal Systems with DATEV document display as its document management system.

As part of the system implementation and digitalization strategy of Nord-Ostsee Automobile GmbH & Co. KG , the IT companies TA Triumph-Adler and DATEV jointly implemented the fully digital workflow "Invoice receipt with transfer of fully pre-coded documents to DATEV" and the option to access the "Digital Document" directly from within DATEV. "A feature that has proven invaluable to us, especially during a time when the need for coverage, spontaneous home office work, and flexible working arrangements are commonplace," says Frühling, "a perfect fit, so to speak."

Information on industry-specific DATEV solutions for the automotive industry can be found here.

Information on DATEV solutions for all craft businesses can be found here.