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Payments

Payment Processing. Take customer payments directly inside CARF.

Collect deposits, service payments, parts payments, licensing fees, deal balances, and other supported customer payments without sending your team into another system.

CARF keeps each payment connected to the customer and the transaction it belongs to — and is designed to carry that financial activity directly into CARF Accounting.

PaymentsFree Connection
Connect PaymentsExplore Documents & Payments

The capability

What Payment Processing does

Payment Processing lets your dealership collect customer payments directly from the CARF workflow where the transaction is already being managed.

Instead of taking a payment in one system and later trying to match it back to a deal, invoice, repair order, or customer record, CARF keeps the payment tied to its original transaction.

The result is a cleaner payment history and less manual reconciliation for dealership staff.

Across the dealership

Take payments wherever your dealership needs them

Payment Processing is not limited to vehicle sales. Use the same CARF payment workflow across supported dealership transactions.

Vehicle Sales

  • Vehicle deposits.
  • Deal balances.
  • Customer down payments where supported.
  • Licensing and registration-related charges.
  • Other supported deal payments.

Parts

  • Parts counter payments.
  • Customer parts orders.
  • Parts invoices.
  • Deposits on ordered parts.

Service

  • Service invoices.
  • Repair-order payments.
  • Customer-approved work.
  • Service deposits where required.

Other Dealership Payments

  • Customer invoices.
  • Supported fees.
  • Other approved dealership transactions managed through CARF.

The payment knows what it belongs to

Every payment stays with the transaction

CARF does not treat a payment as an isolated transaction. When a customer pays, the payment can remain connected to the CARF record that created it.

  1. Customer
  2. Deal / service / parts / licensing
  3. Payment request
  4. Customer payment
  5. Payment record
  6. Original CARF transaction
Vehicle depositTied to the deal.
Service paymentTied to the repair order or invoice.
Parts paymentTied to the parts transaction.
Licensing paymentTied to the appropriate deal or customer record.

Business benefits

Why dealers use it

Collect payments without creating another reconciliation problem for your dealership.

  • Take customer payments directly from CARF.
  • Collect vehicle deposits.
  • Collect Parts & Service payments.
  • Collect licensing-related payments.
  • Collect balances and other supported dealership charges.
  • Keep the payment connected to the correct customer.
  • Keep the payment connected to the correct deal, invoice, or work order.
  • Reduce manual matching between payment records and dealership transactions.
  • Give staff a clearer payment history.
  • Reduce duplicate entry between payment processing and accounting.
  • Prepare payment activity to flow directly into CARF Accounting.
  • Enable the connection at no additional CARF charge.

How it works

Simple for the dealership. Connected behind the scenes.

  1. Choose the transactionOpen the customer, deal, invoice, repair order, parts transaction, or other supported CARF record.
  2. Request or take paymentEnter the supported payment amount and create the payment request through CARF.
  3. Customer paysThe payment is securely processed through the dealership’s connected payment provider.
  4. CARF records the resultThe payment status remains connected to the original customer and transaction.
  5. Accounting receives the financial contextAs CARF Accounting becomes available, the payment can carry the transaction information forward without requiring the dealership to rebuild the entry.

CARF uses the connected payment processor to securely process the transaction while CARF keeps the dealership workflow and transaction record connected.

Funds settle to the dealership according to the payment provider’s configured settlement process. CARF does not take ownership of the dealership’s funds.

Accounting Connection — Coming Soon

From payment to accounting

The payment workflow is being designed as part of the same CARF financial ecosystem. Because CARF already knows who paid, how much they paid, what the payment was for, and which customer and transaction created it, that context can carry into CARF Accounting instead of being re-entered manually.

  1. Customer transaction
  2. Payment
  3. CARF payment record
  4. CARF Accounting
  5. Reconciliation / financial record

One payment workflow

Connected across CDI

Payment Processing can work wherever a supported CARF transaction needs to collect money.

Sales & DealsParts & ServiceDocuments & PaymentsCustomer RecordsDealer Website where supportedAccounting DepartmentComing Soon

The goal is one payment workflow across the dealership instead of separate payment tools for sales, service, parts, and accounting.

Connection Pricing

No CARF connection fee

Free Connection

CARF does not charge an additional fee to enable Payment Processing.

Standard transaction and payment-provider fees may apply based on the dealership’s connected payment-processing account.

Connect Payments

See payments connected to the dealership workflow

See how CARF can collect customer payments for deals, Parts & Service, licensing, and other supported transactions while keeping each payment connected to the record it belongs to.

Connect PaymentsExplore Documents & Payments