Sold order
What is a sold order: sold order explained
A sold order is a vehicle a dealership has sold to a named customer but has not yet delivered, because it is still being built at the factory, still in transit, or still sitting in the compound waiting for preparation. The deal is done. The car is not there yet.
You will see it written as sold order, sold-order, or shortened in reports to SND, meaning sold not delivered. In an order bank the same unit gets called a customer order, a committed unit, or simply sold awaiting delivery in the DMS status field.
What does sold order mean on the trading board?
It means the unit has a customer's name attached and is no longer available to sell to anybody else. That one fact changes how the car behaves in every system it touches.
- It leaves available stock. Advertising, showroom stock lists and third-party feeds should drop it the moment it is committed, or you will sell it twice.
- It stays on the floorplan. If the unit is physically on site, it is still being financed and still costing interest for every day it sits unprepared.
- It counts in the pipeline, not the month. Most manufacturers and most dealership P&Ls recognise the sale at delivery, not at signature.
- It carries a deposit and a date. The customer has committed money against a promise, which makes every slip in that date a phone call somebody has to make.
How does a sold order work, step by step?
- Order taken. Specification agreed, deposit taken, finance proposed, and the incoming vehicle valued if there is a part exchange.
- Order placed or allocated. The car either goes into the manufacturer's order bank for a build slot, or the dealer matches it to an existing allocation, a unit already in transit, or a car located at another dealership.
- Build and VIN. The order gets a chassis number and an estimated build week. This is the first date the customer will hold you to, and it is usually quoted with more confidence than it deserves.
- Transit. Factory to port, port to compound, compound to dealership. Weeks disappear in this stage and almost none of it is visible to the salesperson.
- Preparation. Arrival check, PDI, accessories fitted, valet, plates, registration and tax.
- Delivery. Funds cleared, documents signed, keys handed over. Only at vehicle delivery does the unit leave the sold order column.
Sold order explained: a worked example
A customer orders a specific trim in a specific colour with a towbar. Build is quoted as week 14, delivery around week 18. In week 12 the factory pushes the build to week 19 over a supply problem with the towbar. The salesperson finds out in week 16, when the customer rings in to ask about insuring the car. The order itself was never the problem.
Why sold orders decide the month
A dealership's month is not made by cars sold. It is made by cars delivered. Manufacturer bonus, executive commission and the trading account almost always key off registration or invoice, and both of those happen on delivery day.
So an order bank that looks healthy in March can still produce a poor April. If the units cannot be landed, prepared, registered and handed over inside the period, the sales sit in the pipeline and the month reports light. A manager tracking sold orders daily is really tracking three things: the build date, the arrival date, and whether anything is blocking prep.
Where sold orders fall over
- Date slip. The most common cause of cancellation by a distance. The specification rarely fails. The promised date does.
- Part exchange decay. A car valued in January is worth less in May and has covered another few thousand miles. Agree in writing at the point of sale whether the figure is fixed or reappraised on arrival, because that argument on delivery day is unwinnable either way.
- Finance expiry. Approvals lapse and rates move. A long wait means the quote gets rebuilt, and the monthly payment the customer agreed to is not always the one they are asked to sign.
- Silence. A customer with no news assumes bad news. Then they start looking at what is available immediately somewhere else, and the deposit is cheap to walk away from.
Sold order or stock unit: which is the customer really buying?
A stock unit is on the ground, unallocated, and can be delivered this week. A sold order is a specification the customer chose and a wait they agreed to accept.
The commercial difference matters. Stock carries a daily holding cost the dealership wants to clear, which is where the discount usually lives. A factory order is exactly what the customer asked for, so it rarely needs discounting to close. When the wait is the obstacle rather than the price, there is a third route: a dealer trade can turn a four month order into a four day delivery by sourcing the same car from another rooftop.
