How to Desk a Deal in LeadLocate

Open the deal from the lead, decode the unit, pick cash, finance or lease, add the trade, and save the structure the customer will see.

1. Open the deal

   From the main menu choose Desking and pick the deal, or open the lead you are working and use Start New Deal. The customer, co-buyer and unit come off the lead record, so the worksheet opens with the people and the vehicle already on it.

2. Confirm the vehicle

   Type the VIN into Enter VIN to auto-fill vehicle info and click Decode VIN. Year, make, model and trim fill from the vehicle database. Enter the mileage and the selling price.

3. Pick the deal type

   Choose the Cash, Finance or Lease tab for the structure the customer is asking about. The Finance Deal Summary, Cash Deal Summary or Lease Deal Summary on the right updates as you type.

4. Enter the money

   Fill Selling / Cash Price, Down Payment / Deposit, the term and the rate. Sales tax, dealer fees and DMV fees start from the defaults in your Dealership Profile, and the tax comes from the 50 state matrix, so you change them only when this deal is different.

5. Add the trade

   If the customer has a car to trade, click Add a Trade-In and enter the Trade Allowance and the Payoff Amount. The worksheet applies the trade credit by the method your state uses and taxes negative equity where it should.

6. Show the options

   Expand the Multi-Pencil Grid to lay out several down payments across several terms and turn the screen toward the customer. When the customer names a payment, open Goal-Seek Desking, enter the Target Monthly Payment (required), and the solver tells you what price or down payment reaches it.

7. Save and set the status

   Click Save Deal. Set the Deal Status, for example Negotiating, so the rest of the store can see where the deal stands. From here you print a customer sheet, share a pencil recap link or send the customer deal page.

You need a LeadLocate CRM login with access to the Desking menu, which every user role has, and a lead or contact for the customer. A deal is always attached to a record, so if the customer is a walk in with no record yet, create the lead first or use Search existing customers on the worksheet to find the one that already exists. If there is a co-buyer, use Toggle to add a co-buyer / cosigner to this deal so both names carry onto the sheet.

The one piece of setup that makes every pencil faster is the Dealership Profile. A manager enters the store's sales tax rate, dealer fees, DMV fees, loan defaults, lease defaults and the default tab once, and every new worksheet opens with them. If nobody has done that yet, do it before the first deal of the day, not during it. The EZ Desking worksheets page explains each default.

A saved deal shows the customer and unit in the top bar, the structure on the active tab, and a summary block on the right with the amount financed, the taxes and fees, the trade credit and the payment. The Multi-Pencil Grid shows a real payment in every cell with its own rate row, and the Goal-Seek Desking panel shows the price or down payment that lands on the target you entered. The deal now appears in the Desking list with the status you set, and the lead record shows the deal in its history.

The deal view also carries the customer chat panel, the Road to Sale checklist and the deal jacket on the same page, so the paperwork and the conversation stay with the numbers. The mobile app shows the same deal under Deal Tracker with its status, so a manager off the lot can check it from a phone.

Leave your number and a lead specialist calls you back to answer your questions about pricing, coverage, and setup. Mon - Sat, 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM Pacific.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.

The VIN did not decode. Check that all seventeen characters are there and that the letter O and the digit zero are not swapped; a VIN never contains the letters I, O or Q. Retype it and click Decode VIN again. If the unit is a specialty vehicle the decode does not carry, type the year, make, model and trim by hand and the worksheet still runs.

The tax or fees look wrong. The worksheet starts from the Dealership Profile defaults. Open the profile, confirm the sales tax rate, the fee amounts and their taxable flags, and the Trade-In Tax Credit Method for your state, then reopen the deal. A deal that was saved with an old default keeps that default until you change it on the deal.

The deal did not save. A required field is empty. The summary block turns the missing item visible when you click Save Deal; fill it and save again. Printing never submits the form, so you can print a worksheet at any point in the write up without a required field error.

Once the deal is saved, the next tasks all start from the same deal view. Print the right customer sheet for the person in front of you, covered on print packets and mail. Send the customer a private page with the numbers, the documents and a signature, covered on customer deal pages with e-signature. Share a pencil recap sheet when the customer wants a link rather than paper. Capture the trade properly with the VIN scan and photos on the trade in capture page.

The Help Center lists every task in order, the desking tool page covers the worksheet in depth, and the LeadLocate CRM page shows where desking sits in the rest of the platform.

Desk from the lead, not from a blank worksheet. Start New Deal from the lead card carries the customer, the co-buyer and the unit the customer asked about, which removes the retyping that produces a misspelled name on a printed sheet. Set the grid defaults in the profile to the layout your desk presents most, three down payments by three terms for most stores, so the grid is ready the moment the customer asks for options. Save before you print, so the printed sheet and the saved deal always match. And set the status every time you touch the deal; a status the whole store can see is what keeps a second salesperson from pencilling the same customer an hour later.

Can I desk a deal without a VIN?

Yes. Type the year, make, model and trim by hand and the worksheet runs the same way. The VIN decode saves typing and fills the trim exactly, but it is not required to save the deal.

Where do the tax rate and fees come from?

From the Dealership Profile, where a manager sets the store defaults once, and from the 50 state tax matrix. You change them on a deal only when that deal is different from the store default.

Can I desk a lease?

Yes. The Lease tab carries residual, money factor, annual mileage, excess mileage rate, fees, security deposit and three lease tax methods, with lease defaults set once in the Dealership Profile.

Can a salesperson desk from the phone?

The LeadLocate mobile app shows every deal under Deal Tracker with its status, the deal jacket and the customer chat. The full worksheet with the pencil grid and goal seek is built for the desktop screen.

EZ Desking is part of every LeadLocate CRM plan, month to month. Set the Dealership Profile once and every pencil starts right.

Prefer to talk right now? Call or text 844-376-2274.