Electronic Dealing Book
Keep your Motor Car Traders Act compliance register digital, accurate, and audit-ready with automatic acquisition and disposal entries.
The problem
Every licensed motor car trader in Victoria is required to maintain a dealing book — a register of all vehicle acquisitions and disposals. Traditionally kept in paper ledgers or spreadsheets, dealing books are time-consuming to update and error-prone.
Missing entries, illegible handwriting, or lost records can result in compliance violations during Consumer Affairs Victoria inspections, which can occur without advance notice.
Victorian requirements
Under the Motor Car Traders Act 1986, licensed dealers must maintain a dealing book that records:
- Date of acquisition and seller details (name, address)
- Date of disposal and buyer details (name, address)
- Vehicle identification (registration, VIN, make, model)
- Purchase and sale prices
According to Consumer Affairs Victoria, dealing book records must be kept for at least six years after the last entry. CAV inspectors can request to view the dealing book at any time.
How Friday solves it
Friday maintains your dealing book automatically as you enter vehicle and transaction details into the system. Every vehicle acquisition creates an entry with seller details. When you complete a sale and add buyer details, the disposal side is automatically recorded.
How it works
- 1
Register a vehicle
When you add a vehicle to Friday (via Register Vehicle or PDF import), the acquisition side is automatically logged with the seller's name, address, purchase date, and price.
- 2
Complete the sale
When you add buyer details and mark a vehicle as sold, Friday updates the disposal side with the buyer's name, address, sale date, and sale price.
- 3
View your dealing book
Open the Dealing Book page to see all transactions in one place. Filter by Open (not yet sold) or Closed (completed sales). Search by registration, VIN, or customer name.
- 4
Export for audits
When CAV requests to inspect your dealing book, export it as a spreadsheet or print the full register directly from Friday.
Pro tip
Never delete a vehicle that has been sold. Use the Complete Sale action instead — this closes the deal in the dealing book while keeping the record for compliance.
Example dealing book entry
DEALING BOOK ENTRY (SAMPLE)
ACQUISITION
Date: 12 Jan 2025
Seller: John Sample
Address: 5 Test St, Springvale VIC
Vehicle: 2020 MAZDA CX-5
Rego: SAMPLE2
VIN: SAMPLE987654321VIN
Price: $22,000
DISPOSAL
Date: 28 Jan 2025
Buyer: Mary Example
Address: 20 Demo Ave, Noble Park VIC
Sale Price: $24,500
RWC: SAMPLE-RWC-001
Transfer lodged: 30 Jan 2025
This is a sample only.
Ready to digitize your dealing book?
Keep your Motor Car Traders Act compliance register up to date automatically. Create a Friday account to get started.