Creating a Temporary Tag Registration

Issuing a temporary tag through Florida’s Electronic Temporary Registration (ETR) system, from starting the registration to pressing Issue the registration. For printing the tag once it exists, see Printing a Temporary Tag.

How long

Six screens, one sitting

What it costs

A transaction fee, plus one charge per record Florida looks up

Have ready

Verified dealer access, and temp tag paper in stock

Before you start

You must be a verified Florida dealer with registrations access before Florida will accept anything from you. If you have not done this yet, start with Verifying Dealer License and Business Information.

You also need temporary tag paper on hand — a registration cannot be issued without an available control number. See Obtaining Temporary Tag Paper.

What it costs

Two things are charged, and it is the second that dealers query.

• The transaction fee, for the issuance itself. Shown on the Transaction Type screen, on the card for the transaction you pick.
• Record lookups, one per record Florida resolves for you. Checking the VIN is a lookup; looking up a customer is a lookup. The state charges for the question, not the answer.

You are charged again only for a different question — a different VIN, a different customer. Going back and forth through the wizard on the same vehicle and the same buyer costs nothing extra.

Note

Prices differ by dealership, so this article does not print any. The Transaction Type screen shows your current transaction fee, and expanding What is a record lookup? on that same screen shows your lookup price and exactly which lookups this transaction can spend.

What you will be asked

The screens you get depend on the transaction type you choose first, and a temporary tag is one of the shortest paths through the wizard — six screens:

Screen	What it settles
Transaction Type	Which transaction this is
Vehicle	Which vehicle, checked against Florida
Buyer	Who is buying
Tag	Which temporary tag control number goes on it
Insurance	The policy on the vehicle
Review	The checklist, the fees, and Issue the registration

You can move between completed steps freely.

← Save and exit✓ SavedCancel this registration

Your vehicle

Transaction TypeVehicle

Owners

Buyer

Registration

TagInsurance

Finish

Review

Vehicle

The screens for this transaction, in order. A temporary tag is the shortest path through the wizard.

← BackNext →

IllustrationThe registration wizard, on the Vehicle screen. The steps run down the left in four groups — Your vehicle, Owners, Registration and Finish — with a tick beside the ones already done and the current one highlighted. Back and Next sit at the bottom. The header carries Save and exit on the left, and on the right a Saved indicator and Cancel this registration — the way out, which is a small grey link up there rather than a button at the bottom, and which asks Are you sure? in place before it does anything.

Note

A temporary tag does no title work. Florida is not transferring the title in this transaction, so you are never asked about the title, brands, liens, sales tax, registration use or length, or plate design. Those belong to a Title and Registration — and if you need to know what the state will charge for one, the fee quote walks those screens without filing anything.

Transaction Type

The first screen asks what you need to do with this vehicle, and it is the one decision that matters most, because it determines every screen after it.

Caution

The transaction type locks once the transaction has started with the state. Pick it deliberately — changing your mind afterwards means starting a new registration.

The vehicle

Enter the VIN and press Check Florida. This is the lookup described above, and it is what opens the transaction with the state.

What comes back decides the rest of the screen:

What Florida has

• No record→You enter the vehicle details yourself.
• One record→The details arrive filled in.
• Several records→You pick the right one, then the details arrive filled in.

↓Fields Florida is sure about are locked, and you continue.

IllustrationWhat Check Florida returns decides the rest of the step: with no record you enter the vehicle details yourself; with one record the details arrive filled in; with several records you pick the right one first, and then the details arrive filled in. Either way, the fields Florida is sure about are locked before you continue.

Where Florida has a record, most of the vehicle arrives pre-filled and the fields the state is authoritative on are locked — you are confirming, not typing. Where it has nothing, you enter identity and specifications yourself.

Owners

One owner per screen. Search for the buyer first — by Florida driver license, by name and birth date, by FLHSMV customer number, or for a business by FEIN or company name. A search that resolves a customer is a record lookup.

If the buyer is already on file with Florida, their details arrive filled in. If not, you enter them: an individual needs name, birth date, sex and addresses; a company needs company name, FEIN and addresses.

Co-buyer and third buyer screens appear only when the transaction supports them, and you can pass straight through if there is no second party.

Tag

The Tag step asks one thing: which temporary tag control number from your stock goes on this vehicle. Only numbers that fit are offered — motorcycle numbers on a motorcycle, regular ones on everything else — and if you have none left, the step says so. See Obtaining Temporary Tag Paper.

Insurance

A car cannot skip this. The app will only let you record no insurance on a motorcycle, a trailer, a mobile home, a vessel or an off-highway vehicle.

Review and Issue

The final screen is a checklist of anything still missing, the fee quote, and the Issue the registration button. That button stays greyed out until every step is finished — the checklist above it names what is left and links to the screen that fixes it, so this is the screen to read carefully rather than skip.

Note

If another temporary tag on this VIN is still live, the Review screen warns you and shows you the other one — the buyer, the control number and when it expires. It is a warning, not a refusal: Issue it anyway carries on, and Go back and check the VIN is offered because the usual cause is a VIN pasted from a different deal.

Review

Check everything before submitting to the state

Transaction TypeTemporary Tag

Vehicle2019 Honda Civic

BuyerMaria Santos

Co-BuyerNo co-buyer

TagA4419008

Insurance

A few things still need attention

Insurance: Insurance type required

Temporary Tag

Due when you submit

Issue the registration

Finish the remaining steps to submit

IllustrationThe Review screen lists every step with a tick or an empty circle beside it, the answer it resolved to, and a pencil to go back. Below the list, anything unfinished is named in red — here Insurance has no type yet — then the one amount due when you submit, and Issue the registration greyed out until the list is complete. Where there is nothing left to pay, that line carries a green Nothing more to pay chip rather than going blank, so a zero cannot be mistaken for a figure that failed to load.

If it will not let you continue

Issuing with Florida needs several things to be true about your dealership and about you personally. When one is missing, the app names it and links to the page that fixes it rather than just refusing.

Check this one first

Your own driver license — not the buyer’s. On a screen full of customer details that message is easy to misread, and it is the single most common reason a dealership that has been issuing tags for months suddenly cannot: somebody’s licence quietly expired. Fix it in Settings → Your Account → Personal Information.

The rest, in full:

What it says	Where it is fixed
Registrations are not enabled for your dealership	Finish setup in Getting Started
Your dealership is not registered with the state	Finish setup in Getting Started
Your dealership is not active with the state	Contact support
A dealer license, license number or license PIN is missing	Settings → Dealer Management → Tax and License Numbers
The registrations agreement has not been signed	Settings → Dealer Management → Tax and License Numbers
You do not have permission to edit registrations	An account admin changes it in Settings → Users
Registrations are not enabled for your user	Finish setup in Getting Started
Your user is not registered or not active with the state	Finish setup in Getting Started
Your own driver license is missing, expired, or not verified	Settings → Your Account → Personal Information
Your email has not been confirmed	Settings → Your Account → Personal Information
You have not set up email or phone verification	Settings → Your Account → Two Factor Authentication
You do not have enough credits	The screen offers to top up on the spot, then you click the action again
You have no temporary tag numbers left	Order more paper — see Obtaining Temporary Tag Paper

After you finish

Once issued, the temporary tag is ready to print — see Printing a Temporary Tag. If something was wrong, see Editing or Canceling Temporary Tags, and note that voiding has a same-day deadline.

Note

Temporary tags carry recordkeeping obligations that outlast the sale. See Temporary Tag System Compliance.