Car dealers nationwide continue to feel the impact of last week’s CDK Global cyberattack. Many U.S. dealerships’ operations were halted, and this ransomware attack’s impact is still ongoing. Slowly, dealerships are coming “back online.” CDK Global has stated that systems restoration will continue through the end of the month.
The past 11 days have seen the automotive industry unite in ways never previously imagined. Dealers offering assistance to other dealers, industry software providers offering assistance to non-client dealers stranded in the wake of the CDK attack, and printing companies providing rush deliveries of paper buyers’ orders are all but a few examples of the camaraderie exhibited in the last week and a half. The industry deserves a well-deserved round of applause for the support shown to the dealers reliant on CDK. The automotive community is a resilient group, and its actions throughout this crisis have proven that dealerships will emerge even stronger than before.
Now that dealers are slowly beginning to come back online, they are challenged with having limited access to their systems. The return to normalcy will not happen overnight. Instead, it will be a measured process. Most dealers are eager to post their sales for the month, but please understand that a roadmap needs to be followed. DO NOT TAKE THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED! Dealers need to adopt a systematic plan to restore their data and adhere to it. CDK has provided their customers with a restoration guide to assist in reestablishment.
Starting with the parts department may be a dealership’s best course of action. Begin by adding parts to the repair orders, followed by the service team adding technician time to the repairs. As this happens, your finance department can build deals for the accounting office to post. Only after all other departments have completed their tasks can the accounting department post deals.
As always, Withum is here to lend a helping hand. The dealership and cyber teams are working closely to develop restoration plans.
Dealership To-Do Items
Below is an abbreviated list of “to-do” items before “letting your teams loose” on your DMS from an accounting perspective.
User IDs
- Verify that all key employees have access and that their access is correct for their responsibilities
- Consider a store-wide password change
- Users may need to be re-entered, updated, or removed
- Verify printers are up and working
PCs
- Clear Cache on all PCs
- RESTART (not power off and on) your computer
Service and Parts
- Run Job Stacks and Month End Reports IMMEDIATELY for June work
- Update Master Parts
- Complete Month End Tasks
- Complete incomplete Parts Tickets and RO's
- Beware of error messages as CDD has issued the following warning: "THERE MAY BE AN ERROR MESSAGE – DO NOT FOLLOW THIS OR YOU MAY INADVERTENTLY ERASE YOUR DATA WITH NO WAY TO RESTORE IT"
- Correct technician time as necessary
- Post to July (CDK does not permit posting to a prior month in Service or Parts)
- If desired, create a bulk entry to move sales to June. This entry will need to be reversed in July.
Sales
- Have F&I department create deals for all vehicles sold during the offline period. If you attempt to post manually, you will lose visibility of the deal which is necessary later for cancellation calculations etc.
- Ensure that all Parts tickets and Repair Orders have been posted to accounting prior to posting deals
- Inquire into each control number BEFORE posting to capture all costs for the vehicle
- Once all deals are posted and caught up, you will need to revisit commissions and true up and advances that were granted.
Check out our Cybersecurity Checklist: Response and Mitigation Strategies Post-CDK Global Cyberattack article, which addresses concerns and steps to take to ensure your dealership is as secure as possible. We are ready to assist you and are only a phone call away.
Our team is ready to support your needs and will continue to provide updates as they become available. Don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns; we will work with you to get your business back up and running.
Author: Michele D’Antonio | [email protected]
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For more information on this topic, contact Withum’s Dealership Services Team.
