documentation related to the inventory GE has financed such as ownership documentation.
4. The FSG may also follow up on any
requested copies of financial statements or insurance policies at the
time of the audit. If your account
manager has requested any of these
documents, you should have them
available for the FSG representative.
5. In certain situations, the mileage/
hours may be recorded by the FSG
representative on demonstration and
used products. If this is the case,
you should have the keys available
and on hand.
6. You should also note that the FSG
may have to verify some crated units
by cutting a small hole into the
packaging of the crated or boxed
items. In addition, they will complete a walk-through on a select
number of motorized units at every
audit.
In general, the GE field audits are
conducted much faster and more accurately when inventory is stored in an
organized fashion. This also helps
reduce the time needed to reconcile the
inspection. Unless previously approved
by your account manager, any products
that cannot be inspected represents an
incomplete field audit that remains a
concern to GE, and will therefore be
coded as such. This could ultimately
result in holds under your authorized
credit until a proper inspection can be
completed.
PRODUCT STORAGE TIPS
• Off-season storage racks – inventory
that is being financed should be
kept on the ground or on lower
shelves, as this will allow safe access
to the inventory. Retail customer
inventory in for storage can be
placed on upper shelves.
• Crated inventory should be stacked
so that model & serial numbers can
be read with enough space between
rows to walk through.
Unless previously approved by your account manager, any products that cannot be inspected represents an incomplete field audit that remains a concern to GE, and will therefore be coded as such.
• The FSG is unable to accept dealer
signs (i.e., serial numbers written on
shrink wrap or signs placed on unit
up on a storage rack) as verification
of the unit. They must verify original
manufacturer serial tags. While placing signs or writing on packaging of
units in storage is a good practice to
identify inventory at a glance, the
FSG cannot use this as confirmation
of the unit status.
The FSG audits are always unan-
nounced and conducted at random time
intervals. Accordingly, they hope all
dealers understand that the FSG cannot
accommodate any requests for call-
ahead appointments or to schedule cer-
tain days or times. Please also note that
they complete the reconciliation of the
audit at the time of the inspection. This
measure ensures that they do not have to
come back multiple times to reconcile a
single audit, which is why GE has asked
us to reprint this information. They
hope the dealers will understand that
requests to leave the list and come back
at a later date to finish reconciling can-
not be accommodated.
FYI
• Ensure that all your units on
demonstration are approved by the
manufacturer/supplier as any
demonstration units not approved
by your supplier will be subject to
curtailments up to and including full
payout.
• GE must also approve all locations
used for retail and/or storage use. So
please speak with your account
manager before moving units to a
location you have not yet received
approval for.
• Any dealer who anticipates difficulties in complying with these guidelines should contact their account
manager as soon as possible in order
to come to an acceptable solution. ;
If you require any further information on
the GE CDF Field Audit Process, please
contact your account manager.
Boating Industry Canada has reproduced this information from GE’s publication “Spotlight”, which is furnished as a
means of providing their clients with a general guide to, and broad outline of, certain
practices and procedures employed by GE
Commercial Distribution Finance Canada
(GE CDF). It is by no means exhaustive and
shall not be considered or construed in a
way whatsoever to be exhaustive as to the
policies, procedures or practices of GE CDF
with respect to your financing arrangements
with GE CDF. There may be events, circumstances or any other reason whatsoever that
may require a change or an alternate application of, the information provided in this
Spotlight by GE CDF. GE CDF reserves the
right, in its sole and absolute discretion, to
amend or alter the application of the practices and procedures described in this
Spotlight at any time. - Editor
