A lien payout is the amount still owed to a finance company on a unit a customer is trading in. When a customer financed the purchase of their trade-in unit, the finance company placed a lien over it — meaning the finance company can seize and sell the unit if the outstanding balance is not paid in full.
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When a customer trades in a unit with a lien, the dealership is responsible for paying out that balance so the unit can be resold with clear title.
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For example: Mr Smith is trading in a unit on a new purchase. He still owes a finance company $2,000 on the trade-in. That $2,000 must be factored into the figures for his new deal, and the dealership must pay out the finance company before reselling the trade-in unit.
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The Trade In section of a Customer Order > Unit Deal contains two fields for recording a lien payout.
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1. Enter the amount still owed in the Lien Payout field. This field accepts a dollar value and defaults to 0.00 — leave it blank if there is no lien payout.
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2. Once an amount is entered, the Finance Company field appears. Select the finance company that is owed the outstanding balance on the trade-in unit.
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After completing both fields, the Trade In section reflects the lien payout amount alongside the trade-in value.
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The Finance Company field is a dropdown populated from your Vendor list. If the finance company does not appear in the dropdown, it has not been set up as a Vendor in Blackpurl.
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If the finance company does not exist as a Vendor, you need to:

If the finance company already exists as a Vendor in Blackpurl, navigate to that Vendor record and add a Product and Service (Finance Company) to it — see How to Setup Vendor Products and Services or Video - How to Setup Products and Services of a Vendor.
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If your Blackpurl account uses Accounting Integration, you need to assign a Control Account for Lien Payout Clearing in your accounting setup. This is a clearing General Ledger (GL) account that Blackpurl posts lien payout amounts to.
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You may need to create a new Chart of Accounts General Ledger entry in your accounting package for the Lien Payout Clearing account. If you create a new Chart of Accounts entry, sync your Chart of Accounts in Blackpurl before the new account will be available to select in the Lien Payout Clearing field.
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The Lien Payout Clearing account serves as a true clearing account — it should always return to a zero balance. Here is how it works:

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When the dealership is ready to pay the finance company, a Vendor Invoice for the lien payout amount will already exist in your accounting package. Allocate your payment against that Vendor Invoice to clear the balance.
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