Dealer profitability specialist ASE has warned dealers to ensure they have the right paperwork in place claiming for staff on furlough.
Chairman Mike Jones told Motor Trader that the government had done a good job in getting money to dealer groups but dealers needed to get their claims right to avoid penalties.
“That’s something that we’re going to be working with people on for the next few years. We are now moving into the world where the revenue is going to start reviewing it.
“Revenue is actively asking people to tell on their employer if it has been trying to get them to work for or provide services during the furlough period. So, I think we have had the sunshine period of getting the cash in and supporting the industry.
“Over the next few years, we will see HMRC getting much tougher going round and auditing and ultimately getting some of this money back,” he said.
Dealers will need to produce documentary evidence of what happened when it happened and how. I am expecting our team to be busy supporting dealers, as the HMRC does start picking up these visits. Retailers need to make sure they have got their house in order.
Did some dealer groups put too many people on furlough or perhaps the wrong people? According to Jones, ASE, using its experience in China recommended, to dealers that they did not cut back on key support staff such as contact centre workers. And this was regardless of size from the smallest dealer to the largest group.
“We were encouraging people not to cut too deeply and not to significantly furlough their contact centre staff. Because after a one-week hiatus of people starting to work from home, we then saw them start to increase their digital activity. So right from the very start, I was encouraging retailers not to cut back too much on their contact centres.
“We needed to make sure all the way through that we were responding to customers. It was important to keep talking to the customers to keep them and to build up a pipeline for when we open the doors. We have seen the benefits of doing that. As we have gone through June, most businesses have significantly exceeded their initial predictions for the month. July, again, is looking promising.