4 Benefits of Using Electronic Receipts at Your Dealership

I’m sure you wouldn’t argue that more paperwork is a good thing at your dealership. It’s difficult to organize and maintain tons of paperwork, and it may feel like there’s no escape from it. It’s simply part of the job.

What if I told you that digital signatures and electronic receipts are rapidly changing the status quo? Just as document management systems are helping you digitize and manage customer files, Virtual Terminals are making it effortless to do the same for your receipts. There are numerous benefits of incorporating a Virtual Terminal into your payment processing configuration.

Get Searchable Transaction Histories

Have you ever had to face an unhappy customer who needed a transaction edited or was requesting a refund? When such things happen, you often need to find the receipt, which may now be at your central office or on its way to a storage unit.

With a Virtual Terminal, you can search for a transaction with the cardholder’s name, transaction date, amount, RO or VIN number, and more. This makes it easy to find the transaction, much like you would find the answer to a question on Google, and quickly assist the customer. If a customer has a question about a past transaction or if you’d like to see whether a payment was made in full, you can look up the customer’s purchase history with a just few clicks to answer questions and provide a smoother customer service experience.

Eliminate Your Courier Service

If you are a controller or work in management at a multi-location dealership, you may work with a courier service. These drivers cart receipts from your various locations to your corporate office, often for your bookkeeper to review in detail before they’re sorted, boxed and stowed.

With electronic receipts, you can entirely eliminate or greatly reduce your dealerships reliance on courier services, which will save your dealership money and save your team precious time reconciling accounts.

Rely Less on Department Managers

Let’s face it, there can be a lot of hand-holding involved with multi-location dealerships. Sorting and submitting all receipts each day may seem simple enough, but there always seems to be a missing receipt or overlooked step.

You can save time and better monitor your staff with a Virtual Terminal that tracks user activity. With electronic receipts, the risk of losing receipts is eliminated. At the same time, you gain greater visibility over every transaction run by your team members. If corrections need to be made, they can be implemented in a timely manner.

Likewise, you can adjust user permissions to limit certain team members from viewing or running transactions outside of their department or location, as well as restrict access to reports or data better shared on a need-to-know basis.

Save Money on Paper and Supplies

Running a dealership isn’t cheap, so it may be easy to overlook your paper receipt-related costs. Here are some estimates:

• Receipt printer = $29 – $400
• Paper rolls = $20 – $80 per case
• Storage space = $43 – $348 per month, depending on size
• Printer ink = $12 – $55 per cartridge

That’s potentially $883 right off the bat. It could cost up to an additional $348 monthly to retain storage space and $135 every few months to restock on paper and ink (and we’re not even including courier costs). Digital receipts are legally recognized as carrying the same legitimacy as traditional paper receipts, so there are no downsides to switching. Reducing your paper reliance can reduce clutter and costs while streamlining your day-to-day business operations.

Do you have any concerns or questions about electronic receipts? Do you have additional tips to share with our readers? We’d love to hear from you!