Finance Manager Career at Dealerships?
 

Long story short, I've a designated accountant, all my career 13+ I've been in industry doing finance and accounting for construction, logistics, retail restoration, banking industries.

I'm miserable at work but find the salary and perks hard to leave. But now, I'm at a point in my life where I can try and find an industry I am interested in, cars, and see how I can apply my professional skills there.

Anybody can offer any insight to the finance manager roles at dealerships? Would my skill set even translate over? Hows the compensation structure usually? Expected to work evenings and weekends?

Thanks in advance for taking the time.

All the finance managers I’ve dealt with were bitches. Not sure what they make but it seems just like : run credit checks, facilitate applications, try and sell some extra trash like extended warranty, paint protection etc.

Pretty brainless job. Doesn’t seem fun at all

I won't comment on what they do, I think there are different levels within the team... but I know one guy who is a finance manager and he is ballin so the pay structure can't be that bad!

Your work schedule is similar to sales. The finance guys are glorified sales advisors who sell additional warranty packages, ceramic coating, etc.. while lumping it into the monthly payment. So you will work evenings and weekends.

EX, it's only $30 more a month for Toyota extended warranty.

Finance manager is one of the gravy positions in the dealership so it's very difficult to get in.

Be expected to sell extended warranty packages+add ons to customers.
And if the customer says no, you try and sell it again, then they say no, so you just include the warranty package on their bill anyways, then when they ask why the warranty is on there, you try to upsell again

Cough, finance manager at Port Alberni GM, Cough

If you have morals or ethics, u won't make it.

Also, I would not expect that an interest in cars is going to have ANY relevance at all to shoving an extended warranty onto a minivan for a single mom.

If you think of yourself as a people person with good communication and sales skills, I would highly suggest you consider learning a little bit about commercial banking. I am a CPA as well and figured out pretty early on that being an accountant was pretty structured and not very lucrative - the same financial toolkit can earn you a lot more if you take a role with a sales target.

I was a commercial banker for 6 years and actually thoroughly enjoyed the job - I made the move to the wealth side of the business for long time career trajectory reasons but staying as a commercial banker and moving through the roles there still would have earned me a very good living with increasing responsibility.

If you want to talk to me or would like to be connected with another BMO commercial banker, you can PM me and I'll find somebody for you to have a coffee with.

-Mark

Is this why you work at Wendy's? :(

As far as I can tell, the only 2 car-related perks that a car dealership finance manager would be able to get are:

- the on-going opportunity to drive different models of the dealership's cars
- access to the dealership auto group's employee pricing

A friend has been working as the finance manager for a major auto group probably for 15+ years now, and he had used his employee pricing quota multiple times.

But that was all before COVID. Given how the vehicle sales landscape has changed since COVID / Ukraine war, I am not even sure whether they'd still be entitled to this sort of employment perk.

Your compensation is absolutely related to the number of sales you can make, and you will be working evenings and weekends because you'll basically need to be there when you are closing the sale with the customer (on vehicle delivery day).

My finance manager friend is able to negotiate with his store manager to avoid working on Friday evenings and Sunday mornings because he needs to attend religious services during those times, but I feel like it would be more difficult to use other personal reasons to avoid working on specific days on a recurring basis.

Wow ... sounds like the grass is DEFINITELY not greener on the side of dealership.

I serve all my clients ethically.

i read that as ethnically :lol

how do you even get into a finance manager role in a dealership without prior experience in sales?

it is really just a sales role, i'm a cpa too so i don't see how our skillset translates whatsoever

You're better off joining the financial operations of the group that owns the dealership such as openroad or dilwari etc with a CPA

@OP
On a side note, what do you think the range of CPA's in Vancouver are making after 5 / 10 / 20 years of work experience? CPABC is reporting $116K median salary across all of BC and $180K after 20 years. But I do not see any roles that are paying this upper band anywhere aside from Big 4.

Connected with a controller at one of the big groups @ Open road / destination / Etc and they said that the job sucks if you expect it to merge your hobbies of cars and work. It's a ton of work, underpaid vs sales, and not many car related things you can do. Said you're better off making more money and doing car related things with that money. Which leads to what lowside mentioned, you gotta take your CPA and go to sale side if you wanna make money to unlock all the fun cars / trackdays.

I creeped someone on LinkedIn recently that transitioned from a Vancouver company to Mclaren's F1 racing team in their finance and accounting department. That could be a move that could merge your hobby of cars + CPA. Looks like it pays a lot too since it's in London.

At my friends Toyota Dealership, he said his FSM's make around $120 - 260K depending on your selling performance. They stay till after hours waiting for clients to close on their sales. Or come in super early to make sure they can sell the warranties in the morning too. He said they work longer hours than his sales / sales managers. He doesn't expect the gravy to end for Toyota due to the long waitlists. He said it's a super protected position since they make so much, so it'd be hard to get in without knowing a GM / Sales manager.


I saw them commit fraud on the finance application to get a lower rate / approval lol

take this for a grain of salt; salary ranges vary wildly across industries

$180K is not far fetch if you get to a Director of Finance level in the private sector, vs. public sector which will only about pay around $120K for the same level

the mining and energy sector is generally the sector that pays the most if we are talking accounting and FP&A roles

That's just business as usual.

It's a sales, wait, no, "solution selling" skill set, so the only way I can see it being translated is if CL Type S has the stuff to make to be a Partner in public practice, then it could translate to selling financing, warranties, and add-ons by flexing his charisma and conversational skills.


As someone working in public practice accounting, coworkers here around 10 years of experience are making around $120-140k+ depending on the individual's performance and ambition

I know a girl thats a CPA and shes jumped back and forth between firms and is now making 250k but she puts in long hours

Money means nothing without hours attached to them

I used to be a lot guy and had a finance manager yell at me for something I didn't do.

He fucked up big time cus he didn't know we were unionized and immediately got his ass handed to him :lol

Finance manager is the most money making position in the whole dealership.
A decent finance manager makes average 150g to 250g per year and I have seen someone made over half a mil in a year by being an absolute crook.
Being an accountant does very little to the box office.
A finance manager needs to get people approved and sell F&I products to be successful.

Apparently public got a big bump in 2023.

When I graduated in 2019 / 2020, starting was $40 - 45K/year. Friend in 4th year got offered for 2024 start date at $57K at big 4 :lawl:

Apparently seniors are all around $80 - 95K band now before bonus. When it was like $55 - 70K pre 2022. I was shooketh to hear managers making sub $100K pre-bump.

I'd say 50% of them work at least 2,500 - 3,000 hours a year at public, so most CPAs work for that sweet $16 - 20/hour when they first start and graduate to $40/hour. Everyone praying for that late game boost.

On the other hand, all my friends who work in private are clearing $90 - 130K working like 5 - 20 hours a week. With a full 30 - 50hr at month-end.

Dude, no!

Your problem statement is that you're miserable at your job because you don't give a damn about the context of the work. So much so that you're willing to put money and perks aside in priority. In order to move into the automotive industry which you actually do give a damn about. Right?

First off, the Finance Manager role at a dealership has zero relation to your professional skillset. It's a sales job, which is an entirely different expertise, and really it's not the role that taps into a passion for cars: you're selling extended warranties, not even the actual car. Everybody on this thread who is telling you you'd make bank, is missing your point. You weren't doing it for the money, or you wouldn't have said what you said.

No. You're a CPA with 13 years of experience. For fuck's sake, you should at least be looking at something more like this:
https://careers.multimatic.com/?career_id=3722
Multimatic
Financial Analyst
You know what Multimatic makes? The Mk2 Ford GT. And other cool shit like the spool valve damper systems on the Ferrari SF90 Stradale and Purosangue.

It's a move to Toronto, but the upside is then you can hang out with bcrdukes. ;)

Now, if you're willing to move down to the states on a TN visa (instant US work authorization under NAFTA: you're a CPA):

https://careers.rivian.com/careers-h...995?lang=en-us
Rivian
Senior Analyst, Strategic Finance
Strategic fucking Finance, at Rivian. How badass would that be?

Seriously dude. Open your mind, think of the possibilities. 13 years later you're finally willing to come out of your comfort zone, go BIG!