Copperbeech Motors

Stock, preparation costs, test drives, sales, finance, warranties and part-exchanges for a used car dealer.

Download 278 KB16 tables, 15 queries, 10 reports, 5 print templates and 10,558 invented records, dated back from 2026-10-22.

The everyday tasks of Copperbeech Motors, a step at a time. Each step names the table, form, query, report or print template to open. Inside the database, the Start Here report holds the same steps. Every table has a form of the same name under Forms.

1. Buy a car and put it on sale

Open the Vehicles form and press New. Type the Registration, the next Stock No, the Make, Model, Year, Mileage and the other details from the registration document.
Choose Auction or Trade in Source and the seller in Supplier. Type the Bought On date, the Purchase Price and, from an auction, the Buying Fee. Leave Status as In preparation.
Add each preparation job in the Preparation form as it is done (choose the car in Vehicle, then the Kind, Description, Done By and Cost), and add its cost to the car's Prep Cost.
Add the car's features in the Vehicle Features form, one record each.
When it is ready, type its First Asking Price and Asking Price and set Status to For sale. Open the print template Window card, choose the car and press Print.

2. Book a test drive and follow it up

Find the customer in the Customers form, or press New and type their name, phone and e-mail.
Open the Test Drives form and press New. Choose the car in Vehicle, the customer in Customer and yourself in Staff, and type the day and time in When. Outcome starts as Booked.
After the drive, set Outcome to Bought, Thinking it over, Not for them or Bought elsewhere, and type what they said in Notes.
Each morning, run the query Test drives that did not buy, or print the report Test drive follow-ups, and call the people on it.

3. Value a part-exchange

Open the Part Exchanges form and press New. Type the next Number, choose the customer and yourself in Valued By, and type the car's details, its Condition and what you noted.
Type the Guide Value from your price guide, the allowance you offer in Offered, and Valid Until (usually a week). Outcome starts as Open.
Open the print template Part-exchange valuation, choose the valuation and press Print or Save as PDF to send the letter.

4. Take a deposit and agree a sale

Open the Sales form and press New. Type the next Order No, choose the car in Vehicle, the customer and the Salesperson, and type Agreed On and the Handover date.
In the sale's lines below, add the car (Kind Vehicle, the description and the Amount), the warranty and any extras, with each line's Tax Rate. Type the Price, the Total of the lines and the VAT they hold.
Type the Part-Ex Allowance, the Deposit taken and any Finance Amount, and the Balance left to pay. Leave Status as Reserved and set the car's Status to Reserved.
Where finance is used, open the Finance Agreements form and press New: choose the sale and the lender and type the terms and the commission. Set its Status to Approved.
Open the print template Sales agreement, choose the sale, print two copies and sign them with the customer.

5. Hand a car over

Run the query Deposits on unsold vehicles to see which cars go out today and what each customer still owes.
On the sale in the Sales form, type the next Invoice No, check the Handover date and set Status to Completed. Set the car's Status to Sold.
Open the Warranties form and press New. Type the next Certificate No, choose the sale and the plan, and type Starts, Ends and the Mileage at Start.
Open the print templates Vehicle sales invoice and Warranty certificate in turn, choose the sale or the warranty, and press Print.
If a car came in part-exchange, add it to the Vehicles form with Source Part-exchange and the allowance as its Purchase Price, then set the valuation's Outcome to Accepted and choose the new car in Taken In.
When the lender pays, set the finance agreement's Status to Paid out and type Paid Out On.

6. Review the stock each week

Print the report Aged stock. For each car, decide whether to reduce it, advertise it or send it back to auction.
To reduce a car, type its new Asking Price in the Vehicles form (keep First Asking Price as it was) and print its Window card again.
Run the query Preparation by vehicle to check that each car's Prep Cost agrees with its jobs.

7. See how the month went

Print the report Monthly sales for cars sold, takings and gross margin by month.
Print the report Salesperson league for the team, and Finance commission for what the lenders paid.
Run the query Warranty sales by plan for the warranty profit, and print Warranty renewals to start the renewal calls.

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