eContracting Audit: 5 Steps to Check if You're eContracting or Just Digitized

When every step of your contracting process is electronic, it can feel like you've been doing eContracting for years.

But has your RV dealership fully embraced it?

In this article, we'll discuss what eContracting really looks like and how you'll benefit from implementing it in your dealership.

Going Digital Versus eContracting

Upgrading to digital tools often happens incrementally. Maybe you’ve moved your credit app online, introduced eSignatures, or started using a lender portal. Individually, these are great improvements.

But there are still gaps in the process. Sales and F&I teams might find themselves jumping between platforms to complete a single deal. They enter information into one system just to re-enter it in another system later. Deal structures don’t carry over. Documents live in different systems. This “swivel chair” experience — switching between screens, tabs, and logins — slows everything down and increases the risk of errors.

We often hear dealerships label this collective process of digital steps “eContracting.” However, eContracting should be a seamless, end-to-end process that allows you to complete a deal in one system from start to finish.

True eContracting is about connecting your tools to create a fully integrated workflow that allows each step of the deal to flow naturally into the next, with no manual handoffs or duplicated effort.

Where Dealerships Get Stuck

To see where gaps exist, break the deal lifecycle into key stages:

• Credit Applications: Do your customers enter data once during the sale, or do your employees have to rekey it later?
• Deal Structuring: Can you manage all deal information in one place, or do you have to rebuild it across systems?
• Buyer Validation: Can you run identity and credit checks within the deal seamlessly, or do they require separate tools?
• Signing: Can you generate, sign, and submit documents in one workflow, or do you have to search, export, print, scan, and mail through different processes?
• Funding and Tracking: Do you have real-time funding visibility, or are you chasing updates across portals, emails, and phone calls?

If your team is toggling between systems at any of these stages, you’re not fully eContracting. Those gaps in your workflow add up quickly:

• More Errors: Manual entry leads to inconsistencies and missing information
• Slower Deals: Extra steps delay funding and approvals
• Lost Productivity: Teams spend time managing systems instead of serving customers
• Poor Customer Experience: Repeated requests and delays erode trust

RVs are high-value sales, so friction in the process may encourage buyers to look elsewhere. But whether your dealership has already adopted digital processes or is looking to streamline deals, eContracting is well within your reach!

Moving Toward a Connected Process

eContracting brings continuity to your sales and F&I procedures. The process looks like this:

1. You submit the credit application to the lender and receive their decision

2. You submit the finalized deal to the lender to be validated

3. The lender verifies the deal information and validates the contract

4. You prepare all the required forms for eSigning

5. You and your buyer eSign forms as needed

6. A signed authoritative copy of contract is vaulted securely

7. You finalize the funding packet and send it electronically to the lender

8. The lender sends the final approval, books the contract, and funds your dealership

For your team, eContracting means working in a single platform instead of swiveling between tools. Your team can complete deals faster with fewer errors and operating costs. As a result, your dealership sees stronger margins, and your customers experience a smoother, more transparent buying experience.

Fully Embracing eContracting

Even if you’ve digitized various steps in the deal process, you can optimize your workflows by fully adopting eContracting — eliminating inefficient handoffs and unnecessary rework.