Vehicle Reservations

MotorDesk allows vehicles to be reserved via the 'Reserve Vehicle' section for each vehicle, when creating a vehicle sales invoice, and optionally via the dealership website. Reserving a vehicle connects it to a contact/customer and prevents it from being sold to another customer without warning, it also marks the vehicle as reserved.

Marking as Reserved

When a vehicle is marked as reserved it will be marked as reserved thoughout the MotorDesk system, and also on the dealership website. When using AutoTrader the advert will also indicate the vehicle has been reserved, other sales channels are not currently updated automatically.

Cancelling & Refunding

To cancel a reservation go to the 'Reserve Vehicle' section for the vehicle, you will then be given the option to cancel the reservation without a credit or refund. You will also be given the option to credit the reservation, this creates a credit note in MotorDesk to reverse the financial transaction but any actual refund must be handled manually. When an online or terminal payment has been processed via MotorDesk you will be given the option to refund the payment, in this case the actual financial payment will be returned to the customer and a credit note will be created accordingly.

VAT Invoices

Reservation invoices are created as VAT invoices and not margin scheme invoices because the margin scheme can not be used until the vehicle is being sold, by using this approach we simplify the accounting process if the reservation is cancelled, and in particular when the payment is not refunded and VAT becomes applicable.

Once a vehicle is sold under the margin scheme the original reservation VAT invoice will be automatically credited and the payment will be transferred to the vehicle margin scheme invoice, removing the VAT liability. This transfer is clearly documented on the vehicle sales invoice and on the reservation credit note.

Terms & Conditions

You can add terms and conditions to the website reservation process by editing that website page, but note this process does not support electronic signatures.

You can add multiple versions of your terms and conditions (which can be selected when creating invoices) in your Business -> Invoicing section.

To have a customer agree to your terms before invoicing please use the Create Order method rather than Create Invoice - note this may be called Create Offer or Proposal depending on your settings. Alternatively, simply invoice with the electronic signature process enabled, and then take a part payment for the deposit - this is done by adding the payment and clicking save rather than mark as paid, and the invoice will then show the remaining balance to pay.