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Dealership F&I · The F&I Desk Engine
F&I stip tracking and contracts-in-transit automation for dealerships
Stips chased, contracts in transit aged and escalated, and every customer who said no in the box asked again on a schedule. Everborn builds the system that runs the desk's follow-up, so your managers are back in the box instead of on the phone about a pay stub.
Who it is for
Built for the F&I director or finance director, with the GM and controller in the room. The CRM we build holds deal status and communication only. The credit file stays in the DMS and the credit portal, and nothing derived from a bureau pull enters the marketing system.
Running the sales floor and BDC? See the Dealership Sales system.
Where the F&I office's day goes
The day starts with the CIT meeting and the heat sheet: which deals are unfunded, with which lender, for how long. Then turnover from the desk, credit apps out through RouteOne or Dealertrack, callbacks with stips, menus in the box, contracts, deliveries. In between, the funding clerk rebuilds packages for kickbacks (returned contracts), the title clerk works temp tags and lien perfection, and on Monday the director builds the PVR and penetration report by hand.
Lithia's and Sonic's 2025 annual reports describe contracts in transit typically coming back in five to ten days. Every day a deal sits there is a day of floorplan carry and a day the money isn't in the bank.
How a deal moves, and where we sit
Turnover → credit app → lender callbacks and stips → menu → contract → delivery → funding package → funded → title and lien → cancellations and chargebacks.
The credit file stays in your DMS and credit portal. The CRM we build holds deal status and communication only, and runs the chasing, the aging and the follow-up around them.
The F&I Desk Engine and what comes off your plate
Launch: every lead answered, every call returned. A credit-app page with consent capture and no payment or rate language, an instant "we have your application" reply that is never a decision, round-robin to F&I managers, calendars for re-signs and deliveries, source tags by lender portal and salesperson, and a daily recap of deals written, funded and in transit.
Growth: Launch plus The F&I Desk Engine
The named block of ten deliverables in the Growth package, built for Dealership F&I.
- Stip chase
A per-deal checklist, a secure upload link texted to the customer, re-pings at 4, 24, 48 and 72 hours, and a who-owes-what screen.
- The CIT board
Unfunded contracts aged 0-3, 4-7, 8-15 and 16-plus days, the way most desks run it, escalated to the F&I director at day 7 and the GM at day 15, with a 7am CIT email.
- Funding follow-up
Lender tasks at days 3, 7 and 10 with the deal number and the outstanding item, plus a monthly why-we-get-kicked-back report by lender and by manager.
- Re-sign and kickback recovery
A returned contract triggers a two-way text with a re-sign booking link, escalating reminders and an automatic re-offer on a no-show.
- Declined-product campaign
A 7/30/60/90-day sequence that references the vehicle generically and offers a conversation with F&I. No pricing, payment or coverage claims; stops on reply. In California, every written product mention says it is optional and not required to buy or lease the vehicle.
- Cancellation and refund tracker
Intake, provider-specific packet assembly, a state-aware refund clock and escalation at day 20.
- Chargeback ledger
Provider chargebacks posted against the originating deal and producer, rolled up monthly by product and by manager.
- Menu compliance gate
A deal cannot advance until menu-presented-and-signed is logged, with a weekly exception report.
- Title and tag deadline board
Temp-tag countdowns, lien perfection tracking and an out-of-state title queue. The DMV work stays human.
- Delivery handoff
Delivery triggers the review request and a first-service booking link.
Plus an adverse-action task on the Reg B clock (30 days from a completed application in most cases): the file cannot close until the notice is logged in your system of record.
Full Engine: Growth plus the partner program and the operating system
Lender and product-provider lanes, the credit union direct-lend lane, the insurance agent binder lane, a second-look lane where the customer self-refers to a credit repair partner, statements with counts and dollars and never people, a recruiting funnel for F&I managers, CIT meeting prep, refund-clock and temp-tag alerts, and the monthly automation think-tank.
The money desk: sign-up, billing and commissions
The package each item starts in is shown under its name.
| What it is | What it does |
|---|---|
| Secure two-step sign-up Growth | Customers never text or email credit-application data, IDs or pay stubs. They go through a secure form into your system of record, never the marketing CRM, and the message says plainly not to text or email them. |
| Commission ledger Full Engine | F&I manager pay calculated from DMS deal data, counting money actually collected rather than deals written, under your own pay plan (product commissions, reserve, chargebacks), with a monthly statement per manager and a needs-attention list. |
The customer who said no, and the partners who send deals
StoneEagle put VSC penetration at about 45% and GAP at about 40% in Q1 2026. The customer who declined in the box is the easiest one to ask again, within the first 90 days, in generic language, stopping the moment they reply. Partners get tracked links and monthly statements with counts and dollars only: no customer name, no score, no deal detail beyond a deal number, because the Privacy Rule and the Safeguards Rule follow the data.
Follow-up length and the never-list
How long it runs. Declined products get 90 days (7, 30, 60 and 90), then the record joins the store's owned-list cadence. StoneEagle put VSC penetration around 45% and GAP around 40% in Q1 2026, and few stores systematically re-approach the customer who said no.
Blocked in every template. No credit score, band or tier, ever. No approval, decision or reason for a decision in a text; that is a compliant adverse action notice. No payment, term, APR or rate. No SSN, date of birth, income or stip contents in a message. No customer names to a partner. No product described as required. A VSC is never called a warranty: under federal law it is a service contract.
Built for California's CARS Act (SB 766)
From October 1, 2026, California dealers must say in writing that each add-on is optional, can't charge for add-ons the buyer can't benefit from, must show the total of payments on written payment quotes, and must give used-car buyers a 3-day right to cancel. For California stores, the desk's system is set up around those rules.
| What the system does | How |
|---|---|
| Tracks | Per deal: the signed "not required" add-on disclosure, product benefit checks (no oil-change plan on an EV, no catalytic converter marking without a converter, nitrogen at 95% purity or better, GAP loan-to-value), and on used cars at or under $50,000 the signed 3-Day Right to Cancel form, the deadline and the restocking fee. |
| Reminds | Provider payment due 10 days from signing, with proof kept; a 48-hour refund timer on any cancellation; the paid 2-day contract cancellation option, which ended October 1, 2026, flagged if it shows up on a deal. |
| Filters | Any written product mention carries "This product is optional. You are not required to buy it to buy or lease this vehicle." It is flagged for translation when the deal is negotiated in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese or Korean. A written payment quote can't go out without the total of payments and the down payment or trade assumed. |
| Keeps and reports | A per-deal record checklist kept for two years, including deals the lender never bought (contracts and credit documents stay seven years), and a CARS Act report for the F&I director and GM. |
The system tracks, reminds and reports; the dealer and its counsel make compliance decisions. Not legal advice. Two questions stay with your counsel: whether the doc fee sits inside the advertised total price (California excludes it; the FTC's September 2026 guidance says include it), and how 2-4 unit business deals are treated under the fleet exemption.
Three fixed packages
Launch
$3,500 build + $697/mo
Every lead answered, every call returned
Tracked number, consent-capturing forms, a reply in under 60 seconds, missed-call text-back, booking, a 5-day drip, review requests and weekly reporting.
Growth
$6,500 build + $1,197/mo
Launch plus The F&I Desk Engine
Adds The F&I Desk Engine, onboarding, payment links, long-term nurture, list re-activation, retention, an after-hours assistant and the owner's report.
Full Engine
$9,500 build + $1,697/mo
Growth plus the partner program and the operating system
Adds lender, product-provider and credit union partner lanes with statements of counts and dollars, never people, plus alerts, written procedures, an F&I recruiting funnel and the monthly automation think-tank.
Same prices in every industry. Half the build fee at signature, half on delivery; month to month after 90 days. Each monthly includes a $197 platform license (take it off if you already pay for the platform). Free week-one compliance review for regulated industries. Your accounts and data are yours and export any time. The system we build runs in your accounts, and you keep the right to use it even if you cancel.
Websites and search add-ons
Starting points, confirmed in your written quote. Sites are built and hosted on the platform your monthly already covers. We never guarantee rankings or traffic.
| Add-on | What it is |
|---|---|
| Bundle: Online Presence Starter $1,800 | Core site, Local SEO foundation and social profile set-up ($2,200 separately) |
| Bundle: Online Presence Complete $3,200 | Full site, Local SEO foundation, brand kit and social profile set-up ($4,000 separately), first month of Local SEO growth free |
| Website build: core site $1,200 | Up to 6 pages, lead capture and booking wired to the CRM, compliance and disclosure pages, mobile, basic on-page SEO |
| Website build: full site $2,400 | Up to 15 pages: services, locations, team or rep pages, recruiting, blog set-up |
| Website redesign or migration $900 | Existing site rebuilt or moved, with redirects kept |
| Local SEO foundation $750 | Google Business Profile optimization, citations, on-page SEO and schema, Search Console and analytics |
| Google Business Profile set-up $250 | Set-up and optimization, standalone |
| Local SEO growth $350/mo | Two articles a month, weekly Business Profile posts, citation and review monitoring, a rank and traffic report |
| Website care plan $49/mo | Hosting, updates, backups, uptime, compliance-page upkeep, small edits |
Also available: additional pages ($350 per 5), brand kit ($600), social profile set-up ($250), accessibility review and fixes ($450), Google Ads account build ($600). Other one-time add-ons bought with the build are 15% less; monthly add-ons and bundles don't get that discount.
Snap Credit Fix, a California credit repair company, runs on a system I built for them.
Chris Magee, Everborn Productions
Dealership F&I questions
We're a GLBA financial institution. Can customer data go in a CRM at all?
Only the right data. The CRM holds deal status, appointments and communication; SSNs, dates of birth, income documents and anything derived from a credit report stay in the DMS and credit portal. We act as your service provider under the Safeguards Rule: written safeguards agreement, MFA, encryption, role-based access, your vendor assessment, and cooperation with the FTC's 30-day breach-notice requirement.
Will it talk to my DMS?
It depends on the DMS: CDK via Fortellis, Reynolds via RCI (the most restrictive), Dealertrack via Opentrack, Tekion by API. Everything status-based runs on a scheduled export from day one: not real-time, but accurate and running in week two. True write-back is scoped separately with your DMS rep, because the fee is theirs.
My F&I managers live in the DMS and hate CRMs. Will they use it?
Their only input is marking a stip received or a deal funded: two clicks. In exchange the stip chase, re-sign bookings and CIT board are done for them.
We're a California store. Does this account for the CARS Act?
California's CARS Act (SB 766) becomes operative October 1, 2026 and adds cancellation, add-on and record-keeping requirements. The menu compliance gate, the cancellation tracker and the exception report add the California checks listed above: the add-on disclosure, product benefit, the 10-day provider payment, payment-quote totals and the used-car 3-day cancellation. The system tracks, reminds and reports; your counsel makes the compliance decisions.
Our back end is already strong. What would this move?
Hold it to three things: declined-product recovery, fewer days in transit, and the director no longer building the Monday report. Measure against your own numbers. If none of it moves in 90 days, the same reporting will show that plainly.
Book a build call
Tell Chris what your team still does by hand. You will get a straight answer on which package fits, or whether none does.
Email [email protected]
Call (916) 541-3415
Chris Magee · Sacramento, CA · serving clients across the United States