Customers

Customers is the people and companies that buy vehicles from you. A customer record is entered once and then reused: on this deal, on the next one, and on every form either of them generates. That reuse is the whole point, and it has one consequence worth knowing before you start — see One record, every deal.

Before you start

Nothing is required. You can create a customer with a name and fill in the rest as the deal comes together — the deal jacket tells you what is still missing. What you will eventually need depends on who the buyer is: a person needs a license, date of birth and address; a company needs its registered name, tax numbers and the person signing for it.

What it costs

Adding, editing and reusing customers is free.

One thing on the customer card is not: Look up with Florida, offered beside the driver license when you are working on the buyer or co-buyer inside a deal. It is only there for a customer set to Person — the state’s record for a company is the company’s, not the representative’s, so there would be nothing useful to pull. It fills their name, license, date of birth and addresses from what the state already has, and it uses credits. It is marked Optional, because it is — every one of those fields can be typed in by hand. The dialog tells you the cost before it asks the state, and checking the same person again is free for 30 days.

What you will be asked

Two answers near the top change what the rest of the record asks for, so get them right first.

Question	Why it matters
Who is this customer? — Person, Dealer or Company	A person is asked for a driver license, date of birth and sex. A company is asked for its legal name, tax and license numbers, and details of the representative — the person actually signing.
Do they pay sales tax? — Taxable or Exempt	Exempt means they hold a resale or exemption certificate. Only mark it if you have that certificate on file; the number goes in the business details.

The rest is the paperwork: legal name exactly as it reads on the license (this is the name that prints on the title), driver license and where it was issued, date of birth and sex, how to reach them, and two addresses.

Caution

The physical address decides the county tax rate, so an incomplete address gives you an incomplete tax figure on every deal this customer is on. The mailing address is only where the title and registration get sent — fill it in when it differs.

Who is this customer?

This decides which details are asked for and how sales tax is handled.

PersonAn individual buying in their own name.

DealerAnother licensed dealer, usually buying for resale.

CompanyA business, church, school or other organization.

Do they pay sales tax?

Only mark someone exempt if you have their certificate on file.

TaxableThe usual case — sales tax is charged on this deal.

ExemptThey hold a resale certificate or an exemption certificate. Record the number under Business details.

IllustrationA customer record opens with two questions, each on its own card with a sentence saying what the answer changes. Who is this customer? decides which details get asked for at all — a company is asked for a registered name and a FEIN, a person is not. Do they pay sales tax? decides whether tax is charged on every deal they are on, and the exempt option names where the certificate number goes.

Step by step

Create the record

You can start from either end, and it makes no difference which:

• From Customers, click New Customer.
• From a deal jacket, open the Buyer section. It asks whether the customer is already in your system: Yes, find it searches your existing customers, No, add it now creates one.

A customer created inside a deal is a full customer record. It appears in Customers like any other, and it is available to the next deal.

Reuse them on the next deal

In the Buyer section, choose Yes, find it and search. It matches on what is printed on the cards in the list, so a partial name is usually enough. The list caps at 50 matches and tells you when it has — if you see Showing 50 of…, keep typing rather than assuming your customer is not there.

Beside a customer that is already on other deals, a chip reads in 2 Deal Jackets (or however many). It excludes the deal you are looking at, so it is always telling you about somewhere else. Hover it to see which deals, without leaving the one you are in.

Keep the details current

Edit the customer wherever you happen to be — the record embedded in the deal and the one on Customers are the same record. Changes save as you type.

The record’s tabs are Customer Info, Deal Jackets, Checklist, Credit, Invoices, Files and Activity. Checklist lists what is still missing in plain language and jumps you to the field. Invoices is their billing profile without leaving the record — what they owe, their invoices and payments, and Take payment. Activity shows who changed what and when, which is the answer to “who put this address in”.

One record, every deal

A customer is one record shared across every deal they are on. The deals do not each keep a private copy. That means:

• Correcting an address fixes it everywhere. Fix a misspelled street once, and the buyer’s next set of forms is right — and so is the set on the deal from two months ago, if it is still open.
• The correction can move money. Because the physical address decides the county rate, changing it recalculates the sales tax on that customer’s deals that are still open. Deals you have already closed out are left alone — they are flagged on the Sales Tax Report instead, so the decision stays yours rather than a number changing behind your back. That report is part of the Accelerator plan and up; on a smaller plan, reopen the deal and recalculate by hand.
• So does a change of type or taxability. Switching someone to Exempt affects their open deals too.

The app says so where it matters: when a Florida lookup is about to overwrite fields, it warns that this person may be on other deals, and changing their details here changes them everywhere.

Two things this does not mean:

• Removing a customer from a deal does not delete them. They stay in Customers and can be added back at any time.
• Two people with the same name are not the same customer. If you are not sure the search result is the right person, check the license number or the address before you attach them. There is no way to fold two customer records back into one afterwards, so it is worth the extra look.

If it will not let you continue

• “Your account does not have permission to add customers.” Someone at your dealership can change this — see Adding or Removing Users.
• A warning that the buyer must be at least 18. Florida requires the primary buyer to be 18, and the state may reject the transaction. Check the date of birth, or make them the co-buyer.
• The deal will not e-sign: “Missing buyer email” or “Missing buyer name.” Electronic signing emails the buyer, so both are required before it will start. See Documents, Uploads and E-Signing.
• “Look up with Florida” asks for more first. The state search needs either a Florida driver license number, or a full name with a date of birth — and it opens against the vehicle, so the deal needs a VIN. Each message links to the field that fixes it.

After you finish

• Put them on a deal. Creating a Deal Jacket.
• Get their paperwork. You can send the customer a secure link to upload their license and insurance straight into the deal — see Documents, Uploads and E-Signing.
• Deleted the wrong one? Use Show Deleted Customers on the list and restore it.