Front & back-end gross, together
Every deal carries front gross, F&I back gross, and total gross per unit (PVR), rolled up by salesperson, F&I manager, new vs. used, and rooftop — so nobody is guessing which deals were actually profitable.
Dealership reporting
Power BI Consultant for Car Dealerships
A Power BI consultant for car dealerships: front and back-end gross per unit, days-to-turn, inventory aging, F&I penetration, service absorption, and CSI in one dashboard built on CDK, Reynolds & Reynolds, Dealertrack, Tekion, VinSolutions, or DealerSocket data. A senior US-based engineer builds it and keeps it refreshing. Most builds in 3–5 business days.
Representative dashboard — sample data
The gap between busy and profitable
A full lot is not the same as a profitable month
Most dealer principals can tell you units sold yesterday and cannot tell you, without a spreadsheet fight, which deals actually made money once F&I, pack, and floor-plan cost are counted. That is exactly the gap a Power BI consultant for car dealerships closes: your DMS already holds every deal, every repair order, and every stocking record, but the answers — front gross, back gross, days-to-turn, F&I penetration, service absorption, effective labor rate, CSI — are scattered across canned DMS reports, F&I menu exports, and a controller's month-end workbook.
We build one model over your DMS and CRM that joins sales, F&I, inventory, and fixed ops into a single source of truth, so a dealer principal, GM, or controller sees where the margin actually comes from — by rooftop, by department, and by advisor. The result is a dashboard that is current every morning, without anyone exporting a report.
What we build for car dealerships
- Front & back-end gross per unit
- Days-to-turn & inventory aging
- F&I product penetration
- Service absorption
- Effective labor rate
- CSI by advisor
Try us risk-free for 4 hours
Buy a block of prepaid Flex hours and, if you're unhappy within the first 4 hours, we refund you in full — no questions asked. Hours are deducted only for work you've reviewed and approved, there's no project minimum, and your banked hours never expire.
Why dealer groups call us
Reporting that answers dealer-principal questions
You send the request; a senior engineer models your deals, inventory, and repair orders around how a dealership actually runs.
Days-to-turn & aging buckets
Inventory age bucketed 0–30, 31–60, 61–90, and 90+ days, by make, model, and trim, so aged units get a price or trade action before they become a floor-plan cost problem.
F&I product penetration
VSC, GAP, and other product attach rates by F&I manager and deal type, next to PVR — so a penetration push shows up in profit, not just in a compliance report.
Service absorption & labor rate
Fixed-ops gross profit against fixed overhead (absorption), plus effective labor rate and technician efficiency, so sales and service sit in one dashboard instead of two disconnected reports.
CSI & retention
Customer satisfaction index trended by advisor and department, next to repeat-service and repeat-purchase rate, so quality problems show up as a trend instead of an unhappy survey.
Multi-rooftop roll-up
One network view across rooftops and brands, with row-level security so each general manager sees their own store while the dealer group sees every one — built the same way we handle any multi-unit network.
What makes a dealership deal profitable?
Three things decide it: what the vehicle actually cost against what it sold for (front gross), what F&I products attached and at what reserve (back gross), and how long the unit sat on the lot earning floor-plan interest before it sold. A profitability model has to carry all three — deal-level cost and sale price, F&I income by product, and days-in-stock — or it will flatter a high-sticker deal that quietly carried ninety days of aging cost.
Dealer principals are often surprised by what the combined view shows. A high-volume salesperson can look strong on units and weak on total gross once back-end performance is netted in, and a slow-moving trim can still be the most profitable segment on the lot because of F&I attach rate rather than sticker price. Those conclusions only appear when deals, inventory, and F&I sit in one model with consistent definitions — see Power BI dashboard development for how we build it.
DMS reports vs the Power BI dashboard version
Here is where the canned reporting in a dealer management system stops and where the dashboard we build picks up — the same deals and repair orders, made historical, comparable, and joined to cost.
| KPI | What it measures | Typical DMS/CRM source |
|---|---|---|
| Front-end gross per unit | Vehicle sale price minus cost, before F&I | DMS deal jacket (CDK, Reynolds & Reynolds, Dealertrack, Tekion) |
| Back-end (F&I) gross per unit | Finance reserve plus VSC, GAP, and other product income per deal | F&I menu system, usually inside the DMS |
| Total gross per unit (PVR) | Front gross plus back gross — the core per-vehicle profitability number | DMS deal register |
| Days-to-turn / inventory turn | Average days a unit sits in stock before it sells | DMS inventory records |
| Inventory aging buckets | Units grouped 0–30, 31–60, 61–90, 90+ days in stock | DMS inventory records |
| F&I product penetration | Share of deals attaching VSC, GAP, and other add-on products | F&I menu system |
| Service absorption rate | Share of fixed overhead covered by fixed-ops gross profit | DMS fixed-ops / repair order data |
| Effective labor rate | Labor gross divided by hours sold, after discounts | DMS service module |
| CSI (customer satisfaction index) | Manufacturer or third-party survey score by advisor and department | OEM survey feed / CRM (VinSolutions, DealerSocket) |
Where does the data come from?
Deals, inventory, F&I, and repair orders come from your dealer management system — CDK Global, Reynolds & Reynolds, Dealertrack, or Tekion — via their reporting exports or API, and your CRM — VinSolutions or DealerSocket — adds lead source, BDC activity, and follow-up data for sales and service. Some rooftops also route internet-lead follow-up through HubSpot alongside the DMS-native CRM, and we can bring that in too. Accounting for rooftops that keep the ledger outside the DMS, in QuickBooks, joins in for a full P&L view.
To be direct about it: DMS platforms differ a lot in what they expose, and some require a data-sharing agreement before third-party access is granted. We confirm the exact connection method for your system in the scope estimate before any hours are used, so there are no surprises mid-build. Once connected, we configure scheduled refresh in the Power BI service — Microsoft's documentation on data refresh in Power BI (opens in new tab) describes the mechanism — so the numbers are current each morning without anyone exporting a thing.
What does it cost, and how fast?
You buy prepaid Flex hours that never expire: Starter 20h at $125/hr ($2,500), Growth 40h at $115/hr ($4,600), or Power 80h at $100/hr ($8,000). A first gross-per-unit and inventory-aging build typically fits inside one block, with F&I penetration and fixed-ops absorption added from the same hours afterwards. Most builds ship in 3–5 business days once you approve the scope estimate.
Traditional Power BI firms charge $175–250/hr, set project minimums, want $10K+ to start, let unused hours expire, and don't begin for 4–6 weeks. Flex Support is $100–125/hr, no minimums, banked hours that never expire, and a start this week. Hours deduct only for approved work. See how prepaid Flex hours work for the full comparison.
Who is this for?
Dealer principals, general managers, controllers, and fixed-ops directors at franchise and independent car dealerships without an in-house analyst — single rooftops and small groups alike. Multi-rooftop groups managing separate P&Ls per store are close to our Power BI for franchise owners page, built for the same network-roll-up-with-per-owner-security problem; the dealership build simply substitutes gross-per-unit and F&I metrics for royalty and same-store sales. Vehicles are a different retail motion than general merchandise, so if you're selling parts or accessories as standalone retail rather than through the service drive, see Power BI for retail instead. And a service-only or fleet-maintenance operation that looks more like a field service business than a sales lot should start at Power BI for HVAC and field service companies. Contact is form-only — send your request and we'll reply with a scope estimate.
Dashboards we build for dealerships
- Front & back gross per unit
- Inventory aging & days-to-turn
- F&I penetration by product
- Service absorption & labor rate
- Multi-rooftop network roll-up
3–5
business days, typical
Prepaid
hours, never expire
You
own everything
A first gross-per-unit build usually fits inside one Flex block, and hours deduct only for work you approve. See Flex pricing →
How it works
From DMS exports to owner-ready numbers
- 1
Send your request
Tell us your DMS and CRM, how you track gross, and which KPIs matter most. We reply with a scope and hours estimate — including the confirmed connection method — before any work begins. Hours deduct only for builds you approve.
- 2
We model & build
A senior US-based engineer joins deals, inventory, F&I, and repair orders into one model, writes the measures for gross per unit, aging, penetration, and absorption, and reconciles totals to your DMS — typically 3–5 business days.
- 3
Publish & maintain
We publish to your workspace, set scheduled refresh so figures are current each morning, and hand over the model and credentials. You own everything; we keep it healthy from your banked hours.
Representative perspective
We could see units sold every day but never total gross without waiting on the controller's month-end packet. Having front gross, back gross, and F&I penetration together every morning changed how we manage the sales floor.General manager, single-rooftop franchise dealership
Representative perspective
Inventory aging used to be a Friday-afternoon spreadsheet somebody built by hand. Now aged units flag themselves by age bucket and trim, and pricing decisions happen days earlier.Dealer principal, multi-rooftop dealer group
Find out which deals actually make money
Tell us your DMS and the questions you want answered. We'll scope the task and tell you the hours before any work begins — drawn from prepaid Flex hours that never expire, with no project minimums and no obligation.
FAQ
Questions from dealer principals and GMs
CDK Global, Reynolds & Reynolds, Dealertrack, Tekion, VinSolutions, DealerSocket, and most other dealer management and CRM systems, via their reporting exports, API, or a scheduled data feed. DMS platforms vary widely in what they expose and how, so we confirm the exact connection method for your system in the scope estimate before any hours are used.
Yes. We join sales and F&I transactions from your DMS so every deal carries front gross, back gross, and total gross per unit, then break out F&I product penetration — VSC, GAP, and other add-ons — by advisor, deal type, and rooftop. That combined view is usually the first build dealer principals ask for.
We build inventory aging buckets (0–30, 31–60, 61–90, 90+ days) for new and used units, alongside days-to-turn by make, model, and age band, sourced from your DMS inventory records — so aged units surface before they become a floor-plan cost instead of after.
Yes. Service absorption rate, effective labor rate, and technician efficiency come from the same DMS, joined to fixed-ops schedules and repair-order data, so sales and fixed operations sit in one dashboard instead of two disconnected reports.
Yes. We configure scheduled refresh in the Power BI service so the numbers are current each morning without anyone exporting or re-keying anything from the DMS. Refresh frequency depends on how your platform delivers data, which we confirm during scoping.
No. We are an independent, Microsoft-certified consultancy. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by CDK Global, Reynolds & Reynolds, Dealertrack, Tekion, VinSolutions, DealerSocket, or Microsoft; we simply build Power BI reporting on the data those platforms hold for you.
Book a free demo
Get senior Power BI help, on demand
Tell us the task. We scope it, you approve, and a senior consultant delivers — typically in 3–5 business days. Prepaid hours that never expire.
- Prepaid hours from $100/hour — and they never expire
- Senior-led delivery — 20+ years on the Microsoft platform
- Typical 3–5 business day turnaround
- Full refund if you’re unhappy in your first 4 hours
The fastest way to reach us is the form — tell us the task and we'll reply within one business day.