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Trade-ins

Taking a customer's gun in part-exchange at the register. The cashier runs this from the POS screen while the sale is still open.

Before you start

  • Trade-ins through this dialog are private-party purchases only. A gun coming from a dealer or a distributor goes through Receive Goods.
  • You need a stock role to submit the dialog.
  • Select the POS customer first if you intend to apply the trade as credit. The cart refuses lines without a customer, and the dialog checks before it records anything.
  • Have the seller's photo ID in hand. Their name and address as printed on it are required.

Steps

  1. On the POS screen, click Trade-in. The dialog is titled Trade-in (Individual).
  2. Under Seller (Customer), confirm the Customer. It is prefilled from the POS customer, and picking one fills in the name and address below.
  3. Check First Name, Middle Name, Last Name and Suffix against the ID. First and last name are required.
  4. Under Address (as on ID), fill in Street Address, City, State and ZIP. All four are required. State is the two-letter code.
  5. Under Identification, pick the ID Type (Driver License, State ID, Passport, Military ID, Other) and type the ID Number.
  6. Under Firearm, use the Item search to pick or create the model SKU this gun files under. The search covers your own items and the distributor catalog, and lets you create a new one such as Glock19 USED.
  7. Fill in Serial Number, Manufacturer, Model, Caliber, Firearm Type and Condition Grade. All are required. Importer is optional and applies to imported guns only.
  8. Under Pricing, enter the Acquisition Cost ($). This is the credit or cash the seller is getting. Retail Price ($) is optional and can be set later.
  9. Decide on Apply as credit to this sale, which is ticked by default. See below.
  10. Click Submit Trade-in.

Apply as credit, or buy for cash

Apply as credit to this sale ticked is the ordinary counter case. The allowance comes off this ticket, reducing both the total and the tax base.

  • A locked negative Trade-in Credit line for the acquisition cost is added to the live cart.
  • The bound-book acquisition is parked as a draft. Nothing is booked, no stock is received and nothing reaches FastBound yet.
  • The gun books when the sale completes. Submitting the POS Invoice creates the bound-book entry, receives the stock and pushes to FastBound.

Untick the box for a pure cash buy with no sale on this ticket. The acquisition is booked immediately, because the store paid and took the gun. The message after submitting reminds you to record the cash paid to the seller.

Running the dialog again for a serial that already has a pending draft refreshes that draft with the new cost and seller details. It does not create a second record.

Federal recordkeeping

If the dialog reports Credit Line Not Added, do not complete the checkout. The trade-in was recorded but the credit is missing, so the buyer would be charged full price and the gun would never book. Reopen the item cart and run Trade-in again for the same serial. It reuses the pending record.

What the system does

For a cash buy, or for a credit trade once the sale submits:

  1. Creates or reuses an Item. If you picked a model SKU the gun files under it. If you did not, a used-firearm item is minted for this gun.
  2. Creates a submitted FFL Acquisition with source type Trade-in, carrying the seller's name, address, ID type and ID number.
  3. Receives the gun into stock as a Material Receipt at the acquisition cost, creating the Serial No record.
  4. Pushes the acquisition to FastBound.

The condition grade you entered lands on the gun so the Firearms In Stock report and the web listing describe it correctly. Barrel length, finish and year made are not on this dialog. Add them afterwards on the gun's own record.

The next-business-day deadline

A draft acquisition is a gun the store has taken possession of that is not yet in the bound book. Under 27 CFR 478.125(e) the entry is due by the close of the next business day after taking possession, so the system watches for drafts that have been sitting.

An hourly job looks for draft acquisitions dated before today whose source type is Trade-in, Individual, Estate or Pawn, and emails a reminder titled:

[POS Alert] N trade-in draft(s) not yet in the bound book

The body names each draft, its serial and its seller, and states the three ways out:

Bound-book entries are due by the close of the NEXT business day after taking possession (27 CFR 478.125(e)). For each draft below: complete the checkout, or submit the acquisition directly if the store keeps the gun, or delete the draft if the customer took it back.

The reminder is sent at most twice a day. It goes to the addresses in FFL Settings under Alert Recipients, or to every System Manager when that field is empty. This job runs whether or not FastBound is switched on, because the obligation is the store's, not the integration's.

An abandoned cart is the usual cause. The customer changed their mind, the cashier moved on, and the draft stayed behind.

Taking a trade-in through Receive Goods

Use Receive Goods with Acquisition Source set to Individual when the purchase is not tied to a sale at the counter. It suits a few guns bought at once, an estate purchase, or any private-party buy where nobody is standing at the register. It collects the same seller identity and address, adds an optional Seller ID Document upload, and books immediately.

The choice affects the source type recorded in the bound book. The POS dialog writes Trade-in. Receive Goods writes Individual.

Troubleshooting

Message you see What it means Fix
Select the POS customer (the buyer) before applying a trade-in credit. No customer on the cart. Pick the customer on the POS screen, then reopen the dialog.
Credit Line Not Added The gun was recorded but the credit did not reach the cart. Do not check out. Reopen the item cart and run Trade-in again for the same serial.
Missing required fields: ... Something required is blank. Fill in the named fields.
Seller address is incomplete — missing: ... Part of the address is blank. All four address fields are required.
Seller address state must be the 2-letter code The state was typed in full. Use TX, not Texas.
Seller address ZIP '<value>' is not a valid ZIP code. The ZIP is malformed. Five digits, or five plus four.
A reminder email about drafts not in the bound book A trade-in was started and never finished. Complete the sale, submit the acquisition if the store kept the gun, or delete the draft if the customer took it back.