OpenFlex Configuration User Guide

The purpose of this guide is to enable you to configure all aspects of the Openflex tool.
It is structured according to the sections accessible from the "Settings" menu.

Accessing settings:

Simply hover over your initials (1) to access the settings menu (2).

Settings - Group

This section allows you to configure the organisational structure of your environment, manage user accounts and access rights, and customise the visual identity used in generated documents.
It is divided into three subsections:

•Group, entities and points of sale: defines the structure of your organisation, including the designation of the group's legal representative and the management of points of sale.

•Users, groups and rights management: allows you to create users, assign them to groups and configure access rights and authorisations.

•Themes: allows you to customise the logo displayed on generic PDF documents generated in the Vehicles and Opportunities modules.

Groups, entities ans points of sale

This section allows you to define and view the group's organisational structure (See FAQ-007).

Synthesis

•View general information about the group

•Appoint or change the group's legal representative

•View information related to the head office and main entity

Points of sale

•View all points of sale associated with the group

•View information associated with each point of sale (address, distributor code, assigned brands, etc.)

•Search for a point of sale using the available filters

Group: users, groups and rights management

(1)

•Create a new user or group

•Export the list of users

•View existing groups and the number of associated users

•Quickly identify profiles and roles (Administrator, Sales Manager, Salesperson, etc.)

(2)

•Create and modify employee groups

•Define roles and access rights by group

•Assign users to a specific group

(3)

•View the complete list of users

•Search for a user

•Apply filters and sorting

•Add a user to an entity or group

After selecting a group, there are several possible actions to perform, and we can therefore define the rights granted to each group.

Creating a user:

Enter the employee's first and last name. Click on "Add a user".

Associate a group of employees in order to assign the corresponding user rights by clicking on « Allocate ».

Group: themes

Vehicles:

•Others: includes additional settings related to vehicles.

The reference qualification system:

Modifying the qualification system behaviour allows you to choose whether vehicles imported into the tool will go directly into stock or pass through this buffer space.

The settings are different depending on the type of vehicle.

If you choose to route a type of vehicle through the qualification area, you must then decide whether the vehicles matched by the system can enter stock directly. To confirm this setting, click on “Validate”.

The lifeline:

A vehicle's lifeline enables you to track its progress through the stock, from when it is expected to arrive to when it leaves.
 

A different lifeline can be configured depending on the type of vehicle (new vehicle, used vehicle, demonstration vehicle) and its destination (private individual, professional) for UVs.

The overall process synchronises the publication of advertisements and the availability of vehicles for sale on site.

The publication of vehicles can be activated as soon as they enter stock or wait until the end of preparation.

 It is also possible to choose at which stage the vehicles can be selected for a commercial offer.

The end of the process (removal from stock) can be carried out manually or automated by the DMS sales invoice (only if an interface is activated).

On the same page, you can add a custom step (status) to the lifeline.

Modifying a status allows you to change its name, completion deadline, whether it is compulsory or not, or delete it.

Warranties:

The wording used when creating warranties can be freely chosen. Each warranty created can be assigned to a vehicle type (Demo or Used).

Additional products-delivery packages:

You can create one or more delivery packages.

After entering the name of the delivery package, you must add an item by indicating the name of this item and its price, excluding or including VAT. The selected VAT rate will perform the necessary calculation. Click "Add".

After adding all the items that make up the delivery package, you must assign it to a vehicle type (new vehicle, used vehicle, demo vehicle) or even a make or model.
Then create the package.

Additional products-accessories:

You can create one or more accessories.

After entering the name of the accessory, you must add its product code (not mandatory) and its price, excluding or including VAT. The selected VAT rate will perform the necessary calculation.

You must then assign this accessory to a brand or model. Then Create the accessory.

Publications

In this section, you can configure the mandatory templates for publication.

• When a template is defined as mandatory but does not contain a photo on a vehicle's listing, its publication automatically changes to « unable to publish" status.
• The settings for the images to be published allow you to choose the minimum number of pictures required for a vehicle to be published.

Publications: advertisers contracts

• Click on “Add a contract” to create an advertiser contract.
• This must be done with each contract already configured in OpenFlex.
• See FAQ-057 for more details.
• Enter the contract name (Le Bon Coin, La Centrale…).
• Select the relevant destinations.
• Add this advertiser contract.

See FAQ-057 for more details.

Watermarks:

• The ‘Publications’ tab also allows you to incorporate watermarks into ad visuals to guarantee the authenticity of the published image by displaying your logo. Click on ‘Add a watermark’ and follow the instructions. Refer to FAQ-064 for more information.
• You can also add a comment to the advertisement using the field provided for this purpose.

Contacts:

The contact settings displayed on publications allow you to choose the employee whose contact details will appear on the advertisements. To know more about it, view FAQ-056.

Pricing policy

This section allows you to configure the pricing policy used both for trade-ins and for stock sales. Based on a given market value, these settings allow you to calculate a sale value and then a trade-in value. This top-down method (market value > sale value > trade-in value) allows you to estimate trade-in values and update the resale prices of vehicles in stock. FAQs 037 and 070 explain how you can set up and deal with prices updates.

The activation of automatic updates to the selling prices of used vehicles can be controlled either by setting a minimum margin for price changes,

or by ticking the box to control all calculated prices.
-FAQs 037 and 070 explain how you can set up and deal with prices updates.

UV sales value-adjustments:

The first section concern the various adjustments to the market value that allow you to define a sales positioning.

The monthly drop in value allows you to anticipate a decrease in market value over time. Here, you can set the expected percentage decrease per month. The system will apply a pro rata calculation based on the vehicle's estimated entry date.

The fact that the vehicle is subject to VAT recovery can be leveraged on subsequent resale. Similarly, the selling price of a first-hand vehicle could be adjusted upwards.

To confirm this setting, click on “Validate”.

The way in which options are valued enables a more precise comparison of the estimated vehicle with similar ones on the market, providing a more accurate market value.

The choice of calculation method determines how the adjustments will be applied during the calculation. A stepwise method will have a "staircase" effect, with selling prices that can vary sharply as soon as one of the set criteria is met. A linear method will tend to smooth out this effect.

You can increase or decrease the resale price of a vehicle based on fuel type, make, model, mileage and age by period.

There is no limit to the number of adjustment rules, so you can independently apply an adjustment to diesel vehicles, then create another adjustment for a brand, for example.

To confirm the setting, click on "Validate".

UV sales value-impact

The rotation impact allows you to set a resale price that is appropriate for the announced risk of the vehicle's holding period. Depending on the number of days of publication provided, you can impact the selling price by increment.

It is also possible to impact the selling price according to the origin of the vehicle (driving school, for example) and the interior and exterior colours.

As these factors can be important for resale value, the settings configured here allow for more precise calculations.

UV sales value-automatic destination:

Setting the resale destination allows you to apply various settings when calculating the selling price. Simply define the criteria that will determine whether the estimated vehicle is to be resold to private individuals or to professionals.

To designate resale to professionals, you must create one or more rules.

These relate to the type, make, age and mileage of the vehicle.
You can specify a pair of age-mileage criteria with the "and" condition or leave these criteria independent with the "or" condition.
In the first case, both criteria will have to be met; in the second case, either criterion suffice to guide the resale. (see FAQ-091)

UV sales value-professional drop in value:

As the resale price to a professional is lower than that of a resale to a private individual, it is possible to apply a specific discount to the market value of the vehicle. This takes into account the costs and margin that the professional will have to include in their own selling price to private individuals.

This discount can be set by vehicle market value bracket.

UV trade-in value-professional / private margin:

As the resale price is calculated according to the previous settings, the expected margin and the anticipated costs also need to be deducted to offer a trade-in value that will be consistent with the future resale positioning.

For the automotive professional destination, it is possible to create one or more margin grid(s) that will be applied as soon as the position of the vehicle matches.

These grids can be split by resale price range. The expected margin will differ according to the resale price of the vehicle.

Each margin grid can be assigned to a vehicle type, make or model.

For private individuals , it is possible to create one or more margin grids that will be applied as soon as the vehicle's orientation matches.
These grids can be segmented by market value bracket. Each margin grid can be assigned to a vehicle type, brand or model.

For example, you can create a specific margin grid for premium vehicles by defining different margin levels according to vehicle value brackets, then choosing to assign this grid to brands considered premium.

UV trade-in value: SOH diagnosis

The SOH diagnosis provides a reliable assessment of the battery's health, in order to refine and secure the vehicle's trade-in value.

SOH diagnosis settings

It is possible to:

•Enable or disable the use of SOH diagnosis in the trade-in process.

•Make the diagnosis mandatory: in this case, the user will not be able to finalise the trade-in estimate until the diagnosis has been carried out at the dealership and the SOH score has been entered. Refer to FAQ-084 for more details.

•Connect the tool to specialised partners via the marketplace in order to perform the diagnosis (e.g. Aviloo). 

UV trade-in value-expenses:

The financial costs reflecting the financing of the stock can be expressed for each trade-in as a percentage of its market value.

The financial costs that reflect the financing of the stock can be expressed for each trade-in as a percentage of its market value.

It is possible to value the costs associated with storing and reselling traded-in vehicles.

Internal costs are those linked with marketing the vehicle (warranty, aesthetic preparation, advertising costs, etc.).

It is possible to establish a grid of internal costs by value range. As warranty or preparation costs may be linked to the value of vehicles, this makes it possible to balance the charge on each vehicle traded in.
Several internal costs grids can be created, and you can choose to allocate them to types of vehicle or makes. You can also consider mileage or age criteria.

UV trade-in value-UV reconditioning costs

The number of photos to be taken during a trade-in estimate will be defined here.

UV reconditioning cost can be configured in detail.

Each repair element can be processed individually.

Tyre related costs can also be adjusted.

Maintenance costs are used to anticipate the costs linked with routine servicing of the vehicle, according to its mileage.

If the service handbook is not up to date when the vehicle is valued, these costs will be valued and deducted from the trade-in price. You can leave the option of unticking these costs so that they are not included in the price.

The valuation is done in tranches. For example, we can value €100 excluding VAT per tranche of 10,000 km, so a vehicle with 100,000 km on the clock will have maintenance costs of €1,000 excluding VAT.

Each external item can be configured one by one.
By clicking on an item, you can specify the list of possible repairs and the cost of each one.

It is possible to add a default or modify one of those already listed.
The cost incurred can be valued at the internal (professional) transfer price or at the public price (private individual).

Upholstery elements or other repairs can be configured in addition to exterior elements.

UV trade-in value-UV standard reconditioning fee

To ensure that the value of the reconditioning costs is realistic at the time of the trade-in estimate, you can set a minimum value that will be applied by default. This value will be based on the mileage of the vehicle to be traded in.

This calculation will then replace the value estimated by the employee if it is lower than the minimum calculated amount.

The valuation is carried out by tranches. For example, €75 excluding VAT can be valued per tranche of 10,000 km, so a vehicle with 100,000 km on the clock will have a minimum repair cost of €750 excluding VAT.

UV trade-in value-automatic validation

All the settings defined above are used to calculate the resale price and trade-in price of a UV.

It is therefore possible to let the system do an automatic validation of the trade-in price suggested to the customer.

Once you have defined the minimum possible trade-in value and the maximum age of the vehicles concerned, all you must do is specify the destination for which this automatic validation could be applied.

It is possible to define the cases excluded from this automatic validation. The validation will then require to be done manually.

The automatic validation of the trade-in price can be applied independently to privates or professionals (=Market value group).

You can choose when the system will not validate automatically.

All that is required is to specify the instances excluded from this automatic validation by specifying the appropriate criteria.

These criteria concern the type of vehicle, its make, model, energy, market value, age or mileage.

Opportunities: synthesis

The cancellation deadline for pending opportunities is set as the number of days of inactivity on the commercial offer.The default setting for the delay before entry into stock allows the system to calculate a trade-in price, particularly for estimates made online.
To save this setting, click on “Validate”.

Commercial offers and orders:

The validity period of commercial offers and purchase orders is subject to change.

Commercial discounts can be configured by vehicle type and customer type. Amounts can be specified in € or %. If you do not wish to limit discounts, leave these fields blank.

-The setting of the default validity period of commercial offers will set a date on the offer. It will be changeable manually.
-The setting of the default validity period of orders will set a date on the order form. It will be changeable manually.

Order numbering NV:

To make it easier to track NV orders, it will be possible to add a prefix to order forms.

Each prefix will be associated with a brand.
It will appear on the order form and on the delivery report in front of their numbers.

Default observation texts:

It is possible to set a default observation text on the commercial documents relating to the offer (NV, DV, UV) and order (NV, DV, UV).

These observations may be modified or deleted at will (See FAQ-049).

Trade-in campaigns:

It is possible to create an online trade-in campaign that will generate leads directly into the tool (opportunities waiting for a salesperson).

It is necessary to indicate at least the name of this campaign which by default will be active from the day of its creation.

It is also possible to define an end date to this campaign, to exclude brands to be traded-in, group’s points of sale, to limit the number of daily connections of an internet user and to modify the colours displayed on the page.

As soon as the campaign is saved, the URL of the campaign will be available. It can be communicated to a service provider to be integrated in a trade-in page on his own web page or used in a marketing campaign in order to capture trade-in requests.

PDF printing:

Update your general terms and conditions of sale by make and type of vehicle in the settings for the accompanying documents for offers or orders. Please refer to FAQ-033.

Others/digital sales path:

The digitalised sales process allows you to do several things, including setting the store's stamp. See the FAQ-007.

Paid options are also available to enhance OpenFlex's functionality. For example, you can activate e-payment to allow your customers to pay deposits online.

E-signatures simplify administrative procedures.

Financing-types of financing:

All types of financing (leasing, long-term leasing, traditional credit, etc.) can be set up in this menu by combining them with financial organisations.

It is also possible to make financing available for all or some makes or types of vehicle.

Financing-finance organisations:

Financial bodies can be added here.

For each (financial) organisation, you will need to indicate its name and an authentication code for logging on to the dedicated services.

Financing: stock simulations

Please refer to FAQ-036 to learn more about financing simulations. These are only available for standard loans and generally apply to demonstration and used vehicles.

In OpenFlex, commercial operations can be programmed to appear in offers as customer benefits. You can also choose to make discounts conditional on certain prerequisites, such as vehicle type, financing method, customer category, energy, etc.

Synthesis:

Your files will be automatically merged if the first and last names of an individual, or the company name and registration number, are identical in two files and if the files share the same email address or telephone number. The two files will be merged, with priority given to the most recent information.

Adding a field to the client's file:

Click on the menu « Customers » to add one or more fields on a client’s file.

Enter the name and type of the additional field.
Next, specify the type of customer contacts who will have this new field.
Finally, save your changes.

Identify a DPO

From the home page of the « GDPR » menu, identify a DPO specifying his contact details.

Setting the privacy policy

You can insert the text relating to the privacy policy from this page. This text will, subsequently, be included in the offers and order forms.

Example of privacy policy:

To comply with regulations, customer data can be anonymised in this menu.

Internal notifications-calendar entries

The system can notify each new entry in the calendar. Those new entries in the diary will be indicated by a red bubble located next to the user’s initials.

A notification email can also be sent at the same time.

Marketing communication:

Click "Modify".

Enter the sender's name and email address, which will appear when email campaigns are sent.

Third-party tools:

The ‘Third-party tools’ menu allows you to decide which data and fields can be modified by tools external to OpenFlex. Information rights can be selected based on vehicle type. You can configure your settings by entity and point of sale according to the rights you possess. Detailed explanations can be found in the
FAQ-096.

Accounting management:

To give accountants working with OpenFlex direct access to figures relating to the paid options they use, they can extract these costs from the ‘Accounting’ section of the ‘Settings’ menu. This information is exported in Excel format. Please refer to FAQ-043 for more details on how this module works.