Most parts departments run on three things: gut feel, a hot-list whiteboard, and a year-end obsolescence shock. Louie tracks every special order to the customer, alerts you on obsolescence before it ages out, scorecards your vendors against their promises, and captures every lost sale so the AI can chase it back. The counter stops being a guessing game.
These are the conversations every parts manager has had with the GM at year-end. The platform should have caught them in January, not December.
December audit shows $74K in parts that haven't moved in 18 months. By the time you see it, the OEM return window is closed and the only liquidation path is pennies on the dollar.
Customer ordered a part 3 weeks ago. Vendor says shipped. Receiving says not received. The customer is calling. Nobody can find the trail.
New counter person on a Saturday. Wholesale customer wants pricing. Markup chart is on a wall poster from 2018. Margin walks out the door.
You "feel" that NAPA has been slow lately, but you can't prove it. Renegotiation is impossible without data. The slow vendor keeps the slot.
Customer walks in, asks for a part you don't stock. You quote 4 days, they leave. No record. No follow-up. Three months later they're a routine customer of the dealer down the road.
Cores stack up. Credit memos delayed. Nobody knows what's been returned, what's pending, what the OEM owes you. Six figures in working capital lost.
Every module below is built, in the demo, and runs against your DMS parts inventory the moment you connect. No per-counter seats. No "parts module" upgrade SKU. Your rooftop license covers the entire department.
Live counter board: today's invoices, gross margin, fill rate, top movers, walk-in vs. wholesale split. Comparison to last month and last year at-a-glance.
Every special order timestamped at each step: ordered, acknowledged, shipped, received, allocated, customer notified. Customer auto-texted when ready.
Slow-mover flags at 6, 9, and 12 months. Vendor return window calculated. Liquidation routes ranked by net $ recovered: wholesale, eBay motors, scrap-metal value.
Promised vs. actual fill time, damage rate, back-order %, pricing variance vs. competitor quotes. Monthly vendor rank with renegotiation prompts.
Auto-applies the right markup by customer class (retail, wholesale, internal, warranty), part category, and competitor benchmark. No guesswork at the counter.
10-second walkaway capture at the counter. AI drafts a 24-hour follow-up with sourcing alternative, price match offer, and delivery option. Recovery routed to a counter rep.
Every core scanned out, ship-back tracked, OEM credit memo matched, missing-credit flag at 30 days. Working capital recovered before it disappears.
Auto-suggested POs from min/max bins, recent demand spikes, upcoming campaign work, and vendor lead times. Approval routing built in.
Wholesale customer portal: online order entry, delivery route assignment, monthly statement, credit limit enforcement. Adds a sales channel without adding headcount.
Below is what a single Tuesday looks like through the manager view of a four-counter department. Same workflow scales from a single counter to a multi-store wholesale operation.
Modeled on a 4-counter department, ~$8K daily sales mix retail/wholesale/internal.
18 ROs needing parts today loaded into the queue. Pre-pulls staged on the bench, special orders received overnight matched to ROs.
2 alerts fire: brake rotor SKU at 11 months, 12 units on hand. Pricing-down opportunity to wholesale at +6% before OEM return window closes.
NAPA showing 4-day delivery this month vs. 2-day promised. Scorecard flags it; renegotiation prompt drafted for next vendor call.
Walk-in customer asks for an oil filter you're out of. Counter rep logs in 10 sec. AI drafts text offer with same-day sourcing option.
Counter brief auto-updates: $4.2K gross so far, 36% margin, 3 lost sales captured for follow-up, 1 core return processed.
Customer's catalytic converter received from vendor. Customer auto-texted "your part is in," appointment slot offered for tomorrow morning.
Demand forecast surfaces 7 SKUs hitting min bin by Friday. PO drafted, approved, sent. Vendor lead time pre-confirmed.
Daily brief: $8.4K gross, 38% blended margin, 96% fill rate, 3 lost-sale follow-ups queued, 2 obsolescence actions ready for tomorrow.
Same vendors, same SKUs, same counter staff. The difference is whether you see the leak in real time or at year-end.
| Task | Old way (DMS parts module) | Louie way |
|---|---|---|
| Obsolescence detection | December audit shock | 6/9/12 month rolling alerts |
| Special order tracking | Phone calls and a paper log | Step-by-step timestamps, auto SMS |
| Counter pricing | Wall poster, gut feel | Auto-matrix by class, category, competitor |
| Vendor performance | "NAPA seems slow lately" | Scorecard with renegotiation prompts |
| Lost sales | Customer walks, no record | 10-sec capture, AI follow-up drafted |
| Core returns | Pile in the corner, credits missing | Scan out, track ship, match credit memo |
| PO building | Manual min/max review | Demand-forecast auto-drafts |
We claim: the simulation engine models an 8.4-point gross margin lift, a 42% obsolescence reduction, and ~$28K/quarter in lost-sale recovery against a DMS-only baseline. Full methodology at /money.
We don't claim: every counter will hit identical numbers. Brand mix, wholesale/retail split, current obsolescence carry, vendor concentration, and counter staffing all change the math. The mechanism is mechanical: catch the leak earlier, price correctly the first time, log what walks. Your gain scales with how leaky the current process is.
$9,995 one-time license per rooftop. Every counter, every vendor, every customer class included. 3 seats included ($500 each after). No "parts module" upgrade SKU. You own the platform.