Build and Approve the Entire Deal on One Screen
Price, discount, accessories, trade-in, finance, insurance and fees — with the total and the operational margin visible before anyone commits. Then the VIN is allocated, and the deal becomes a specific vehicle.
Deal structure
Pending approval| Vehicle selling price | Base |
| Discount | − within limit |
| Optional equipment | + |
| Accessories & additional work | + |
| Trade-in allowance | − |
| Booking amount received | − |
| Down payment | − |
| Finance amount | + |
| Insurance premium | + |
| Registration & fees | + |
| Total customer deal | Calculated |
| Operational margin | Above minimum |
Approval route
| Salesperson limit | Exceeded |
| Sales manager | Awaiting |
| General manager | Not required |
What is deal desking?
Deal desking is the process of building the complete customer deal on one controlled screen: vehicle selling price, discount, accessories and additional work, trade-in value, booking amount, down payment, finance and insurance amounts, registration and fees. The result is a total customer deal and a visible operational margin, produced before the deal is submitted for approval.
Without a deal desk, the components live in different places — the discount in a message thread, the accessories on a workshop sheet, the trade-in in an appraisal file, the finance amount at the bank desk. Nobody sees the whole deal until it has already been agreed with the customer.
Margin is rarely lost in one large discount. It is lost in an accessory given away, a trade-in valued generously, a fee absorbed to close, and a small price concession — none of which look significant on their own. Putting them on one screen is what makes the cumulative effect visible at the moment someone can still change it.
Everything the deal desk holds
Vehicle and pricing
- Vehicle selling price from the applicable price list
- Special pricing where a campaign or programme applies
- Optional equipment pricing
- Discount, constrained by configured limits
Additional requirements
- Accessories and accessory packages
- Wheels, window tint, paint protection film, ceramic coating
- Styling and other dealer-fitted items
- Additional jobs raised as fitment work orders
Customer contribution
- Trade-in allowance from the approved appraisal
- Booking amount already received
- Down payment
- Required payment clearance before delivery
Finance and insurance
- Cash or finance deal type
- Approved finance amount, tenure and offer information
- Insurance premium for the selected policy
- Both linked to the deal and to the allocated VIN
Fees and registration
- Registration fee inputs
- Other applicable dealer fees
- Mortgage registration where the vehicle is financed
Result and control
- Total customer deal calculated, not assembled by hand
- Operational deal margin visible before approval
- Approval status and required approver
- Revision history with user and timestamp
Scenarios and approval workflow
An approval matrix defines who can approve what, usually by role, deal value and discount level. When a deal exceeds a salesperson's limit it routes to a sales manager, and beyond that to senior management. Minimum margin rules can block submission entirely. Every approval, rejection and revision is recorded with user and timestamp.
Multiple deal scenarios
A customer weighing cash against finance does not want to wait while two quotations are rebuilt. AutoFixia lets a salesperson construct scenarios side by side, present them together, and have a manager compare them before approving one.
- Build and store multiple scenarios against one opportunity
- Compare total deal and margin across scenarios
- Convert the accepted scenario into the approved deal
- Discarded scenarios remain in the history rather than disappearing
Controls available
| Control | Effect |
|---|---|
| Discount limit | Caps what a role can apply before approval is required |
| Minimum margin rule | Blocks submission where operational margin falls below threshold |
| Approval matrix | Routes by role, value and deal type to the correct approver |
| Sales manager approval | First escalation level for exceeded limits |
| Senior approval | Second level for larger exceptions |
| Deal hold | Pauses the deal with a recorded reason |
| Revision history | Every change recorded, nothing silently overwritten |
| Approval audit trail | Who approved, when, and on what version |
VIN allocation
VIN allocation is the moment a specific physical vehicle is committed to a specific customer booking or sales order. It usually happens once the sales order is approved and a suitable vehicle is available, whether already in the yard or identified on an inbound shipment. After allocation, the deal, finance application, registration file and delivery date all refer to that one vehicle.
| Reservation | VIN allocation | |
|---|---|---|
| What is committed | A specification, or a unit held provisionally | One identified physical vehicle |
| Can exist before stock arrives | Yes — against an inbound shipment | No — a VIN must exist |
| Typically backed by | A booking deposit | An approved sales order |
| Can lapse | Yes — booking expiry releases the unit | Only by deliberate deallocation |
| Stock status | Reserved | Allocated, then sold on delivery |
| Downstream effect | Limited — the deal is still specification-based | Finance, insurance, registration and delivery all reference the VIN |
Conflict prevention
The system blocks allocating a VIN that is already committed to another booking or sales order. This is the control that stops the same vehicle being promised to two customers.
Deallocation with audit
A vehicle can be released and reallocated when circumstances change, but never silently. The reason, the user and the timestamp are recorded, and the customer's deal reflects the change.
Ownership and visibility
Salesperson ownership stays on the deal, manager visibility stays on the pipeline, and the vehicle record shows which deal it belongs to — from either direction.
Operational finance and insurance
F&I stands for finance and insurance: the dealership function that arranges bank finance and motor insurance as part of a vehicle sale. Operationally it covers finance applications to one or more banks, offer comparison, approval and expiry tracking, insurance quotation and policy issuance, and the document checklists each requires. It is distinct from accounting.
Bank finance workflow
- Cash or finance deal type set at the deal
- Bank master with multiple applications per deal
- Finance offer comparison across banks
- Approved amount, down payment, tenure and rate information
- Finance document checklist per bank
- Bank communication log against the application
- Pending, approved and rejected states
- Finance approval expiry, so lapsed approvals surface before delivery day
- Bank disbursement status
- Finance linked to both the deal and the allocated VIN
Insurance sales workflow
- Insurance provider master
- Insurance quotation with multiple offers
- Offer comparison and policy selection
- Premium capture on the deal
- Policy issuance recorded with the policy document
- Insurance document checklist
- Status tracking linked to deal and VIN
- Insurance completion check enforced before delivery readiness clears
- Renewal handoff into the appropriate follow-up process
Trade-in inside the deal
A trade-in is two transactions pretending to be one: a vehicle sale and a vehicle purchase. Keeping them connected but distinguishable is what makes the deal margin honest.
The trade-in process
- Trade-in request raised against the new-vehicle deal
- Trade-in vehicle profile captured
- Appraisal and vehicle inspection with condition evidence
- Valuation, then a purchase offer
- Manager approval of the offer
- Customer acceptance recorded
- Existing finance and settlement information captured where applicable
- Allowance applied to the new-vehicle deal
- Vehicle acquisition with acquisition documents
- Reconditioning requirements, tracking and costing
Why it belongs on the deal desk
A generous trade-in allowance is a discount by another name. If the allowance is agreed in an appraisal system and the new-vehicle price is agreed on a quotation, neither number carries the other's context, and the combined margin is not visible to anyone until after the event.
With the allowance on the deal desk, a manager approving a discount sees the trade-in exposure at the same time — and can approve, adjust or decline knowing the full commercial position.
Reconditioning cost then attaches to the acquired vehicle, so used-vehicle margin is measured against what the unit actually cost to make saleable.
Additional customer requirements
Accessories and dealer-fitted work are a common cause of delayed handovers, because they sit between the sales team and the workshop and are often tracked by neither properly.
Raised on the deal
Accessories, packages, wheels, tint, paint protection film, ceramic coating and styling items are added to the deal, with cost and price recorded.
Become a job order
Approved additional work generates a fitment job order with a required completion date, rather than a note in a comment field.
Tracked to completion
Job status, vendor or outsourced work tracking, and additional cost recorded against the deal and the VIN.
Blocks delivery if incomplete
Delivery readiness includes an additional-requirements completion check, so an unfinished fitment prevents the handover slot confirming.
Uses the workshop, not a copy of it
Where AutoFixia Aftersales is in use, fitment work consumes real workshop capacity rather than being managed in a parallel mini-workshop inside the DMS.
Visible on the margin
Because cost and price are both on the deal, giving away a tint job is visible as margin rather than disappearing into a workshop cost centre.
Deal desking and F&I FAQs
Yes. Minimum margin rules can prevent submission entirely rather than merely flagging it.
The threshold is configurable by role, model or deal type. Groups typically start with a soft warning and move to a hard block once the team is used to seeing margin on the screen. Either way, the rule is applied at entry rather than discovered in a month-end review.
It uses operational vehicle cost, which can include accumulated landed cost where that is being captured.
The DMS builds landed cost per VIN from factory cost plus freight, duty, port, storage and inland transport. Where a group captures those costs operationally, deal margin reflects what the specific vehicle actually cost to land. This is an operational margin, not a statutory accounting figure — that remains with the finance platform.
Yes. Multiple applications per deal are supported, with offer comparison across banks.
Each application carries its own status, document checklist and communication log. Offers can be compared on approved amount, tenure and rate information before one is selected, and approval expiry is tracked so a lapsed approval is caught before the delivery date rather than on it.
The original VIN is deallocated with a recorded reason, and a new VIN is allocated to the same deal.
The released vehicle returns to available stock, keeping its original aging. The deal retains its history, so the change is visible rather than looking as though the customer always wanted the second vehicle. Finance, insurance and registration records linked to the VIN are updated as part of the change.
Only where such an integration has been built for that customer. AutoFixia does not claim otherwise.
The platform provides an integration framework and API management, so bank and insurer connections can be developed. Whether any specific connection exists is confirmed in writing during scoping. Everything described on this page — applications, comparison, approval tracking, document checklists, policy records — works as dealership workflow regardless of integration status.
See a complete deal workflow
From quotation and discount approval through trade-in, VIN allocation, finance and insurance to a delivery-ready deal jacket.