HHM Dealership Services | tax, audit, advisory

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It’s hard to put into words all of the ways we have helped our dealership clients, so we’ll put it in numbers. Over the years, we’ve helped our clients close $500 billion worth of deals. We’ve analyzed a client's reinsurance company organization, fees, and product mix and found $90,000 they could start saving. Then there was the time we simply restructured a client's buy/sell documents and wound up saving them 1.5 million dollars.

TAX PLANNING/PROJECTIONS

When you have a clear long-term roadmap for your organization, you can accomplish more. We can help you get there by preparing your Federal and State tax returns, cost segregation studies, estate planning, and proactive tax planning. Best of all, we’ll put it in writing and get it to you with enough time to implement.

ESTATE PLANNING

You do more than sell cars—your dealership is your family’s livelihood. This livelihood can reach far beyond immediate families, impacting key personnel within the dealership. Now is the time to start planning for the future. Trust our professionals to help you create an estate plan to care for your loved ones for many years to come.

SUCCESSION PLANNING

Do you have a viable exit plan in place? Let us give you peace of mind by ensuring that your ownership is distributed as you wish and that the business you have so carefully built benefits the ones you love. We have extensive experience in working with our clients and addressing family issues while working under the constraints of the manufacturers.

LIFO SERVICES

Are you looking for a better way to handle LIFO? Our LIFO process is efficient and your records will be returned to you in a paperless format for easy storage. Remember: your LIFO records are permanent items.

INTERNAL CONTROL REVIEWS

Have you taken the necessary steps to guard against theft and reporting errors? Sleep easy at night knowing that HHM experts have identified any potential weaknesses in your dealership. We’ll work with you to establish controls or checks and balances to hinder errors and employee theft.

AUDIT SERVICE

Do you wish there was a method to discover ways to improve your operations? We can audit, review, and compile financial statements to find more advantages for your dealership. We provide our dealership clients with forecasts and projections. Then, we identify concerns that we review at the end of the engagement.

BUSINESS VALUATION

You can spend years—maybe even a lifetime—building your business. We understand how hard it is to put a value on your labor of love because we’ve been building our own business for over 20 years. After being involved in well over a billion dollars of dealership transactions, we’ve learned the best way to discover what your dealership is truly worth.

COST SEGREGATION STUDIES

Would you like to increase your near-term cash flow? We can speed up your deductions with a cost segregation in the form of a tax deferral that uses shorter depreciation periods. As a result, you will receive a better return on capital from the investment you’ve made in your property. Whether your buildings are newly constructed or a little older, cost segregation studies can benefit your dealership.

401(K) PLAN SERVICES & INVESTMENTS

A huge part of running a successful dealership is having a viable exit plan in place. Proactive planning can ensure that your ownership is distributed as you wish and that the business you have so carefully built benefits the ones you love.

LITIGATION SUPPORT

Have you struggled to find a firm with expertise in litigation? Our staff holds certifications and licenses in business valuation and financial forensics, including: Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA), Master Analyst of Financial Forensics (MAFF), and Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).

EDUCATIONAL SEMINARS

Instead of relying on Google to find answers to all your questions, let us help educate your team. If you have a topic or issue you want to learn more about, we’ll arrange an onsite briefing for you and your employees — or we can host an event at our Chattanooga or Memphis office.

CONSULTING services

When obstacles arise in your dealership you need reliable professionals to help you plan a successful future. Our staff will work with you to strategize and give you informed advice for growing your business.

INTERIM CONTROLLER/OFFICE MANAGER

We work for you—literally. In the event that you have a vacancy in key positions like office manager or controller, we can provide you with interim coverage. We can even help you fill that vacancy with our comprehensive personnel placement services, which handle every aspect of the process—from placing the advertisement to screening the resumes and conducting interviews.

OPERATIONAL REVIEWS

You have certain performance expectations for your staff—we have a way to ensure they are met. Our operational review gives you an effective, efficient means of communicating and measuring expectations. The review process can be conducted as often as you like and will consider key areas of dealership management including profitability, sales, asset management, internal control processes, and business management.

EXPENSE ANALYSIS & CONTROL

Are you constantly working to keep expenses under control? Our industry experts can perform an expense analysis that will uncover patterns in your dealership and determine front-end costs that could be eliminated to increase profitability. We’ll also give you a strategic plan for your team to follow so you can keep growing your profit margins.

FLOORPLAN ANALYSIS

When it comes to floorplans, it’s important to focus on more than just interest rates. We will help you with all the details involved, from finding and comparing providers to reading and providing areas of concern in the agreements.

ACCOUNTING STAFF TRAINING

We understand the obstacles you deal with because many of our professionals have worked in dealerships as office managers, controllers, and CFOs. We have the ability to help train, reorganize, and/or help you consolidate your accounting departments so your dealership can reach its full potential.

DMS OPTIMIZATION

Are you using the right Dealership Management System (DMS) for your business? Our automotive professionals are well-versed in Reynolds & Reynolds, ADP, Dealer Track, and most other Dealer Management Systems. We can easily work with your office staff, in person or remotely, to find the DMS that best fits your needs. Or, we can help your staff better use your current DMS.

BUSINESS PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS & FORECASTING

From helping you retain your top talent to helping you establish best practice procedures to retain your top consumers, the HHM Dealership Services Group can conduct a thorough analysis of how your dealership is performing—and what you can do to increase its performance and profitability.

FINANCING ALTERNATIVES & CAPITAL ANALYSIS

Finding the best possible financing resources takes up too much of your time. Let us lighten your load by reviewing the legal documents associated with financing and making sound suggestions for you. If you’re looking to acquire a new store or refinance a floorplan, let us help you manage this process. Do you need to raise money from venture capital investors? We can help with that, too.

REINSURANCE COMPANY ALTERNATIVES

Rely on our network to give your business a competitive edge. We have relationships with dozens of providers and will stay actively involved with you well past negotiation of fees. Getting you the most favorable terms is our top priority. We’ll also make sure that the legal documents associated with the agreements match your expectations and allow for the flexibility you should have.

BUY/SELL STRUCTURE & NEGOTIATION

It’s all about who you know. Because we focus so much time on the industry, we are often the first to know of opportunities for buyers and/or sellers within the dealership industry. Our firm has orchestrated over 200 mergers and acquisitions and maintains close, professional relationships within the legal field to make structuring and negotiating simple and hassle-free.

RELATED FINANCE COMPANY STRUCTURING

If you are interested in exploring whether or not a related finance company (or Buy Here/Pay Here company) is right for your dealership, we have the experience to help you make that decision. We fully understand the nature of related finance company models, and can offer you guidance to help you make the right decision for your dealership and take the correct steps to finish the process successfully.

valuation services

Are you considering selling your dealership or acquiring a new one to expand your business?

Rely on the HHM Dealership Services Group to provide business valuation services to get you the best deal. Our group advises on both the buy side and the sell side of dealership transactions – so whether you’re in the market to buy a rooftop or interested in selling a store, you can depend on us to make the sale go smoothly.Outside of mergers and acquisitions, our services include valuations for tax purposes, including work related to estate planning such as stock gifting valuations or estate tax valuations. Our business valuations are often used in buy-sell agreements, partnership buyouts, and for other corporate planning purposes. We have a very active litigation and expert witness practice dealing with divorce and shareholder disputes, among other matters.

5 REASONS TO AVOID VALUATIONS FROM GENERAL PRACTITIONERS

1

Traditional valuation metrics often do not apply to dealerships, so it takes someone with a deep knowledge of your industry to provide an accurate valuation.

2

Practitioners who don’t specialize in dealership work don’t understand that blue sky value is mostly derived from the dealer’s sign, or sales and service agreement with the manufacturer, and a dealership’s market.

3

General valuation practitioners often miss things that our team doesn’t. Like the fact that even under performing dealerships still have value in their franchise, or that better management often makes an under performing franchise into a profitable dealership under the same sign.

4

Mishandled valuations can lead to lost time and money, and sometimes even a visit from the IRS.

5

Other practitioners usually don’t know that dealership franchise owners also have lower borrowing costs than business owners in most other industries and get enviable financing terms for purchasing inventory.

We’re not general valuation practitioners—we’re specialists with years of experience.

We're car people... we just happen to be CPAs, too.