Austin, Texas — IAS has announced the addition of Black Book electronic trade-in valuation to the sales and desking tool within the sales and F&I software application SmartMenu. Since trade-in valuation is a key function of an effective desking tool, IAS has added another nationally recognized partner, Black Book.

Dealers can use the SmartMenu Trade-in Valuation Wizard to submit the trade-in VIN, mileage, and vehicle options to the Black Book valuation portal. Within seconds they are shown the market value of the vehicle. And unlike typical online valuation services, the direct relationship between SmartMenu and Black Book gives the user a complete breakdown of the vehicle value, including any mileage and installed option adjustments. This market value is also displayed to the customer on the printed desking menu.

With the desking tool, desk managers and salespeople can generate "sales" menus in a format that clearly and fairly displays up to nineteen different finance, cash, or lease vehicle purchase options. The menu clearly outlines the purchase price of the vehicle as well as the valuation of any trade-in vehicle. The desking tool is an enhancement to one of the first electronic F&I menu systems in the automobile industry — SmartMenu.

While electronic and paper F&I menus are designed to sell F&I products, the desking menu is designed to maximize front-end dollars.