Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for car and bike dealers.
A checklist built from how car and bike dealers work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Enquiries from every source
- Deal stages and follow-ups
- Vehicle stock and listings
- Finance and instalment tracking
- Deal documents
- Schemes and exchange bonuses
- Invoices, collections and commission
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For dealer principals and GMs
- For sales executives
- For the loan and insurance desk
- For accounts
- For service advisers
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Enquiries by source and by executive, and how many of them became confirmed bookings
- Deals stuck at quotation, negotiation or loan sanction for more than a week, listed by executive so a manager can step in
- Stock by model, variant and colour, with how long each chassis has been waiting on the yard and which ones are booked
- Bookings waiting on bank sanction, insurance cover note or transfer papers
- Balances owed on booked and delivered vehicles, with the promised payment date
- Commission by executive for the month, split into base incentive, trade-in bonus and finance subsidy, each worked from payment received
- Service reminders due and bookings made from them
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- Accounting export
- SMS
- Website and auto portals
- Mobile wallets and payment gateways
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- Does it replace my brand’s own dealer system?
- Can two-wheeler dealers use it?
- Does it work for used car dealers?
- Which portals receive our stock feed?
- How is tax handled on a used vehicle sold at a margin?
- Can our accountant post this in our own books?
- Can our enquiries and stock be moved from Excel?
- Who owns the customer and sales data?
- What does it cost?
- Is it too much for a small sub-dealer?
- When could the showroom start working deals in it?
- What does the dealership need on hand before it begins?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Enquiries lose momentum
- Finance files are held separately
- Sold vehicles remain listed online
- Ageing stock is noticed late
- Commission is calculated in different ways
Prefer to talk it through? See the car and bike dealers page.