Deal types: cash, finance, wholesale, BHPH
What each deal type means and how they differ — who funds the sale and what paperwork or financing applies.
Every deal has a deal type. It tells AutoDealer who funds the sale and which paperwork and financing apply. You pick it when you create the deal.
The four types at a glance
There are exactly four deal types. In the New deal form's Deal type dropdown they read:
- Cash — the buyer pays in full (their own cash, a check, or an outside loan you don't manage). No lender on the deal.
- Finance — you arrange a bank/credit-union loan. The lender pays you in full at signing and the customer pays the lender.
- Wholesale — a dealer-to-dealer sale. No retail buyer financing.
- In-house (BHPH) — Buy-Here-Pay-Here. You carry the note yourself and the customer pays you over time.
The deal type drives the rest of the deal: what's required before you can mark it sold, and whether there's a loan to manage afterward. Everything else — vehicle, customer, price, fees, trade-in, taxes, OFAC/Red Flags compliance, e-signature, and printing the package — works the same across all four types. See Create and close a deal for the full 5-step flow.
Cash
The simplest type. The buyer covers the full price (their own money or an outside loan you aren't tracking here).
- No lienholder needed.
- Marking the deal sold flips the vehicle to sold and creates the title work.
- There's no loan to set up afterward.
Finance (external bank loan)
You desk a loan and the lender pays you in full at signing. The customer then makes payments to that lender, not to you.
- Create the deal as Finance. The New deal form has a Lienholder (optional) dropdown listing the lenders already on file. (It's optional at this point, but the lienholder must be on file before you can mark sold. Set it here when you create the deal — if it's not in the list yet, add the lender under Lienholders first, then pick it.)
- If you didn't set a lienholder when you created the deal, there's no way to attach one to the existing deal — there's no edit capability after creation. Cancel the deal while it's still draft or pending and start a new Finance deal with the correct lienholder selected.
- In the deal's Finance terms section, enter the APR (%), term (months), down payment, and amount financed. The monthly payment, finance charge, and total of payments are estimated from these (monthly, simple amortization) to populate the Truth-in-Lending (TILA) figures on the Retail Installment Contract.
- Run Compliance, paperwork, and e-sign as usual, then mark sold.
A Finance deal cannot be marked sold without a lienholder on file. You'll get a "Finance deals need a lienholder before they can be marked sold. Attach one to the deal first." error. Because the lienholder can only be set when the deal is created, the fix is to cancel the deal and start a new Finance deal with the right lienholder selected. Cash and Wholesale deals don't have this requirement.
AutoDealer computes and displays the TILA numbers (monthly payment, finance charge, amount financed, total of payments). It does not auto-generate a signable, state-compliant Retail Installment Sales Contract — have your own contract reviewed by counsel.
Wholesale
A dealer-to-dealer sale. There's no retail buyer financing to manage.
- No lienholder needed, and no finance-terms section.
- Marking the deal sold still moves the vehicle to sold and creates the title work, so the car leaves your active inventory cleanly.
In-house (BHPH)
Buy-Here-Pay-Here: you are the lender. You carry the note and the customer pays you on a schedule. This is different from Finance, where an outside bank pays you up front.
- Create the deal as In-house (BHPH) and close it like any other deal.
- Mark the deal sold first.
- On the deal's In-house financing card, click Originate in-house loan. On the loan calculator, set the APR, number of payments, payment frequency, cash down (and any pickup / deferred-down payments), plus optional grace-period and late-fee terms. A live preview shows the schedule; click Originate loan to create it. AutoDealer generates the amortization schedule and a payment ledger.
- Manage the loan, record payments, and run payoffs from Accounts (the deal's In-house financing card also links to it via Open account).
The loan is not created automatically when you mark the deal sold — origination is a separate, explicit step. Until you originate it, the deal shows "Originate the in-house loan to set the terms and generate the payment schedule."
You cannot unwind a BHPH deal that has an open loan. Resolve the loan first (pay it off, or charge it off and close it) — there is no automatic "un-originate." This protects the live schedule, ledger, and collections history.
BHPH loan servicing is built and live (amortization, ledger, payoff quotes, late fees, NSF reversals, payment reminders). Some compliance pieces are deliberately off pending legal sign-off: there's no APR/usury cap or warning (any rate is accepted), no auto-generated TILA/RISC contract, and the payment allocation order (fees → interest → principal) isn't configurable per state. Confirm these with your own counsel before relying on them.
Can I change the deal type later?
The deal type is set when you create the deal. There's no in-place edit to switch a deal from one type to another afterward — pick the right type up front. If you chose wrong, cancel the deal while it's still draft or pending (cancelling a pending deal frees the reserved vehicle) and start a new one.
FAQ
What's the difference between Finance and BHPH?
Both involve payments over time, but the money flows differently. Finance = an outside bank pays you in full at signing and the customer pays that bank. BHPH = you carry the note yourself; the customer pays you, and you service the loan in-house.
Why won't my Finance deal mark sold?
The most common reason is no lienholder on the deal. Finance deals require a lender on file before they can be marked sold, and the lienholder can only be set when the deal is created — there's no way to attach one to an existing deal. If the deal has no lienholder, cancel it (while it's draft or pending) and start a new Finance deal with the right lender selected. (An unresolved OFAC match will also block mark sold — see Create and close a deal.)
Do I need a lienholder for a Cash or Wholesale deal?
No. Only Finance deals require a lienholder before mark sold. Cash and Wholesale have no lender on the deal.
Where do I set the BHPH loan terms?
After you mark the BHPH deal sold, click Originate in-house loan on the deal to open the loan calculator, set the APR, number of payments, frequency, and down payment, then click Originate loan. That generates the schedule. You manage the resulting loan from Accounts.
Does marking a deal sold create the loan automatically?
No. For BHPH, marking sold only sells the vehicle and creates the title work. You must then click Originate in-house loan as a separate step.