How we built a perfect workflow solution for Commander Financial

“Lending to used-car dealerships is a very niche business. Skeleton Key took the time to figure it out and build an app for what we needed. It works, and it makes us extremely efficient.”
— Josh Tarbet, Co-Owner of Commander Financial Services, LLC

Professional services firms live or die on the strength of the relationships they build. Firms that make it easy for clients to serve their own customers create strong foundations for the future.

What many leaders don’t consider are the roles that data and workflows play in the strength of those foundations. They may not stop to ask the questions that would lead them to consider these factors:

Are the ways we work, and the technology we use to work, helping us stay competitive – or are they holding us back?
Are we able to process data efficiently, as well as accurately and securely?
How much value are we sacrificing (in money, time, or customer goodwill) because we’re working harder instead of smarter?

Commander Financial Services, LLC is a perfect example of a business that not only runs more smoothly, but can “punch up” and compete with much larger firms because they took the time early on to ask and answer these questions.

Based in Springfield, Mo., Commander Financial helps used-car dealerships maximize profits and operate more efficiently. They facilitate loans that dealers use to secure vehicle inventory to sell — a process known as floor planning. They also help dealership staff easily track and manage those loans, as well as the vehicle inventory on which those loans are based.

The challenge

“Even though we’re a small company, from the beginning we had the goal of acting like a big one,” said Josh Tarbet, co-owner of Commander Financial. “We wanted to have the capabilities that all the giants in the industry have, while at the same time remaining smaller and more nimble.”

Ten years ago, Commander Financial had built a good reputation on strong relationships. But they knew that in order to remain competitive, they needed to handle thousands of transactions each week with levels of communication, speed, and accuracy that matched what the larger firms provided.

At first, Commander Financial’s team relied on spreadsheets for critical calculations. But it quickly became clear that entering and updating the necessary data would be a bottleneck.

“It wasn’t so much that the calculations themselves were challenging,” Josh said. “It’s the ability to manage those calculations and also to archive data.” For example, spreadsheets didn’t provide the ability to calculate daily interest reliably across multiple transactions at the scale the business required.

At the same time, as Josh and others approached potential lenders, they had to be able to demonstrate that the funds were being used as intended by tracking and verifying vehicle inventory on dealer lots.

That’s when Josh reached out to our team at Skeleton Key.

The solution: Software tailored to how auto dealers do business

We met with Josh to thoroughly understand the business, from long-term goals to the details of day-to-day operations. Armed with this knowledge of their needs and challenges, we built a custom application to handle financial transactions.

We built a custom database and a web-based portal for Commander Financial’s dealership clients. Staff at the dealerships use this custom software to manage active loans, make payments, and run reports – saving them time and cutting down the chance of human error.

In addition, staff use our custom app on iPads to record accurate, real-time inventory information from dealer lots. Everyone involved in the floor planning process gets the information they need, delivered quickly and securely.

A foundation for future growth

A decade after we first started working with Josh and his team, the technology we built is still at the core of Commander Financial’s business.

“We’re on version 3 now,” Josh said. “Each version has built on the previous one, adding more features. We’ve evolved the software to be more efficient, because the data we work with keeps growing.”

Just as optimized workflows and custom software have been crucial to Commander Financial’s success, we believe our relationship with them has been successful because we took the time to ask the right questions at the beginning – then, deliver exactly what they needed. We helped them reduce the effort required to manage each client’s transactions, making their day-to-day interactions with dealerships simpler.

“The feedback from dealers about the software, in a nutshell, is that we don’t get feedback. It’s clear, concise, and accurate, and it’s working. It delivers what they need.”
— Josh Tarbet

Moreover, what we built for Josh and his team is not only reliable, but flexible and scalable to support future expansion. Commander Financial can easily franchise their business without changing the software and processes that have made them successful.

What can we build for you?

Let’s go back to the three questions that were posed at the start of this case study:

Are the ways you work, and the technology you use to work, helping you stay competitive – or are they holding you back?
Are you able to process data efficiently, as well as accurately and securely?
How much value are you sacrificing (in money, time, or customer goodwill) because you’re working harder instead of smarter?

Whether your firm is starting from the ground up, dissatisfied with an off-the-shelf solution, or struggling with spreadsheets, we can help. We’re skilled at empowering firms to remove friction from their engagements with clients, improving workflows, and transitioning manual processes that rely on paper forms or spreadsheets into fast, secure, integrated custom software solutions.

Book a no-charge, no-obligation consultation with us and we’ll help you get started right away.