Many times a simple piece of paper makes a good enough bill of sale for most purposes but if you forget to put anything important down on the paper, it can come back to haunt you at a later date.  A proper bill of sale has to have certain information on it to make it look right and in some states to make it legal. While you could sit there and write every one of them out by hand and double check to make sure that you have all the information on them it would be much easier if you had a standard form that made the whole process much faster.

You can of course go out and by a pad of pre-printed forms that will do most of the work for you, but if you want to look like a professional business, your forms should look like they were custom made for just your business.  You can sit down in front of your computer and design your own form but unless you have a lot of time on your hands and the right software you are better off letting someone else do it for you.

The ultimate solution would be a bill of sale template that was custom tailored to your business. At the top you could have your business logo and all the pertinent information. Below that you would have spaces for the rest of the information that are easily filled out right on your computer.  You can then save a copy for your records and print one out for each customer. Not only does this look more professional, it helps your bookkeeper settle up at the end of the week and keep an eye on your inventory at the same time.

The term odometer fraud refers to the practice of rolling back the odometer of the vehicle so that it appears to have covered less miles than what it really is. This is done to obtain a higher price for the vehicle resale. It is estimated that more than half a million cars are sold each year in the U.S. with odometer readings that are false.

A very common scenario is as follows. A vehicle purchase is a private car and bill of sale is not used. The new owner back the odometer and then re-sells the car for a higher price than you bought for. Later he discovered the fraud and all previous owners of the vehicle are challenged to discover at what time the crime occurred.

The easiest way to record the odometer reading at the time of sale is the use of a car sale. Otherwise, the original owner, even if you know what the odometer reading at the time of sale, will have a difficult time proving that was the case.

It is highly recommended that any person who offers his car for sale private car must use a form of bill of sale with the following details. You must have both names of the buyer and seller. You must have all year, make and model vehicle for sale. Must include the price at which the vehicle was sold. You must enter the odometer reading and VIN. Finally must be dated and signed by both parties.

To avoid any problems and to protect themselves from participating in the odometer fraud, always a complete bill of sale form when you plan to sell your private vehicle.